Swami Agnivesh was slapped, kicked around and verbally abused in Jharkhand's Pakur town by a mob in Jharkhand's Pakur on Tuesday.
A day after social activist Swami Agnivesh was assaulted and verbally abused in Jharkhand's Pakur town, allegedly by members of BJP-affiliated outfits, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday took a jibe at the saffron party posting a "pop quiz" on Twitter.
In his post on micro-blogging website today, Rahul asked, "I use hatred and fear to maintain the hierarchy of power, who am I".
Agnivesh, a 79-year-old social activist known for his work against bonded labour, was slapped, kicked around and verbally abused in Jharkhand's Pakur town yesterday by a mob, which he said belonged to BJP-affiliated youth groups who accused him of speaking against Hindus.
Gandhi posted the 'pop quiz' on Twitter and tagged a video of the assault shown by a news channel.
"I bow to the most powerful in the line. A person's strength & power are all that are important to me. I use hatred & fear to maintain the hierarchy of power," he tweeted. "I seek out the weakest & crush them. I rank all living beings based on their usefulness to me. Who am I?"
Mr Gandhi had on Wednesday posted a tweet to state that the Congress stands with the persecuted and the "last person in the line" and seeks to erase "hatred and fear", breaking his silence on the controversy following a remark on the Congress being a "party for Muslims" attributed to him.
The Congress has denied the remark published recently in an Urdu daily as false and baseless.
With today's tweet, Rahul took a jibe at the BJP without even naming it.
Agnivesh was assaulted in Pakur as he came out after addressing a press conference, where he attacked the BJP government in the state, accusing it of "acquiring tribal land by displacing them and giving it to corporate".
He was in Pakur, about 350 km from the state capital Ranchi, to attend an event of the Akhil Bharatiya Adim Janjatiya Vikas Samiti, a body of tribals. Agnivesh was headed to Littipara to attend a function of the Pahariya tribe.
"As soon as I came out of the venue, BJYM (Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha) and ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) activists attacked me without any provocation. They alleged that I was speaking against Hindus," Agnivesh told PTI.
He was taken to the Pakur Sadar Hospital, where doctors took his X-ray following complaint of pain in the veins. He was seen nursing his injuries in the hospital.
Police said an FIR was lodged in connection with the assault under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including attempt to murder. The FIR has been registered against 100 persons, of them eight are named, police said.
In Ranchi, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das ordered a probe into the incident.
(With PTI inputs)
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