Congress terms Palghar incident as 'inhumane'

According to the statement, General secretary of All India Congress Committee Mallikarjun Kharge chaired a meeting of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) on Wednesday night through video-conferencing from Mumbai.

President of MPCC Balasaheb Thorat, former Chief Minister and Public Works Minister Ashok Chavan, former Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Energy Minister Nitin Raut, former Maharashtra Congress President Manikrao Thackeray, MPs Rajiv Satav, Kumar Ketkar and MP Balu Dhanorkar, former minister Naseem Khan and other prominent leaders of the party attended the meeting.

The leaders said in the meeting, "We condemn the Palghar incident, where three persons, including two sadhus, were brutally killed. This is a very sad and inhumane act. Even though there is no religious hatred in the incident, a section of media and politicians are trying to give it a religious colour.

'This is extremely serious. At a time when the country is fighting against Coronavirus Pandemic, it is very unfortunate that a section of media, as well as politicians, are trying to create social unrest in the country, including in Maharashtra."

"It is clear that a section of media is continuously trying to spread racial and religious hatred in society. Arnab Goswami, a senior news anchor of Republic TV, has tried to create misogyny against women in the society. He made an outrageous remark against Congress president Sonia Gandhi on a live TV programme. This is completely unethical journalism and we publicly protest it.

We believe in brotherhood and cannot accept such animosity. This will be dangerous for the unity and integrity of the country. Therefore, we are jointly requesting Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to take action against Arnab Goswami and the Republic India news channel for disturbing the social environment," the statement added.