The Congress took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday over the alleged thrashing of a journalist in Uttar Pradesh by police, asking what about "sabka saath, sabka vikas , sabka vishwas".
Two personnel of the Government Railway Police (GRP) were suspended for allegedly thrashing a television journalist after an argument with him when he was covering the derailment of a goods train in Shamli, officials said Wednesday.
Reacting to the alleged thrashing of the journalist, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said, "Journalist Amit Sharma abused then thrashed by railway cops and finally urinated in his mouth for covering the train derailment at Shamli (UP). Enforcers of the law are its biggest violators!
"What about: Sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas!"
Modi, in a speech after securing a massive mandate in the Lok Sabha polls, had said, "Our mantra should be 'sabka saath, sabka vikas and sabka vishwas' (with all, for everybody's development and having everyone's trust)."
"What sort of barbarianism is this? Beating up a journalist black and blue and urinating in his mouth. These officials should be terminated and jailed," Congress leader and party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi tweeted.
In a purported video of the incident which went viral on social media late Tuesday night, the accused GRP personnel, dressed in plain clothes, can be seen repeatedly slapping and punching Sharma. Subsequently, the GRP personnel detained him.
Sharma later released a video in which he said, "GRP and railway officials were at the spot when I had gone for the coverage. The GRP personnel along with other cops beat me up. The mobile phone, which I used for shooting the news clip, was hit and is missing. They also hurled abuses at me."
Sharma added, "I was put in a lockup. They forced me to take off my clothes, and then they urinated on me.
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