Newly-elected Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani on Friday furnished a new demand, this time to Facebook. In a Twitter post, Mevani asked Facebook to verify his official Facebook page he is an “MLA and social leader”. He further said that he needed it as people are spreading misleading information about him using fake profiles.
At the time of publishing this article, Jignesh Mevani’s Facebook page stood verified.
“Hello @facebook @fbnewsroom – I am MLA and Social leader from India.Hence I am requesting you guys that pls add verification badge on my official fb page-bcz people r spreading misleading info abt me by creating same name page (sic),” Mevani tweeted.
However, the twitterati while replying to his tweet gave Facebook multiple reasons why his account shouldn’t be verified.
Infamous for his controversy-ridden remarks and speeches, Mevani recently raked up a row when a video emerged of his speech. The video captured how just 12 hours before the Maharashtra violence erupted, Jignesh Mevani called for a ‘street war’ to resolve long-standing caste disputes.
Earlier, After student outfit Chhatra Bharati was denied permission to hold a seminar in Vile Parle on Thursday, it will now hold its conference online on January 10.
As part of the seminar, Dalit activist-legislator Jignesh Mewani and student leader Umar Khalid will give speeches, which will be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube.
The group said it wanted to show the authorities and politicians that they cannot muzzle freedom of expression.
“We were unfairly denied permission to hold the seminar, based on frivolous grounds. This online convention is a protest, meant to spread the message that such tactics will not deter students from voicing their opinion,” said Sagar Bhalerao, vice president, Chhatra Bharati.
The police had booked Mewani and Khalid for allegedly inciting violence in Bhima-Koregaon, which made national headlines and led to a Maharashtra bandh being organised on Wednesday in protest against the incident.
While Mewani, the face of Dalit politics in Gujarat, was elected to the state Assembly, Khalid is a well-known Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader and was arrested on sedition charges in February 2016.
Chhatra Bharati had organised its All India Students Summit a day after the Maharashtra bandh.
Unwilling to take a risk, the Mumbai police denied it permission to hold the event, detained the organisers and invoked section 144 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code to prevent people from assembling at the spot.
In response, Chhatra Bharati members staged a protest.
Bhalerao said they decided to hold an online summit keeping in mind the large number of student leaders who had come to the city from across India to attend the summit.
“Organising their stay in Mumbai again would be a logistical nightmare. An online seminar will ensure that they can address the audience at home. It also ensures that we will not be at the mercy of the police or have to seek their permission,” he added.
