In what can be seen as hitting a new low for Jignesh Mevani, who was earlier caught spreading misinformation about the death of a labourer, shared a photoshopped image of a popular speaker and columnist Shefali Vaidya, who has often exposed left-wing and ‘liberal’ hypocrisy and on several occasions bullied and threatened.
Mevani shared an image where Vaidya was Photoshopped next to an image of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Art of Living’s Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and the image was juxtaposed next to an image from the film ‘Oh My God’ which takes on superstitions and fake self-styled godmen.
Acting like a lowly troll, Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani, who was associated with Aam Aadmi Party before breaking away and fighting elections last year, targeted a private citizen, Shefali Vaidya, just because their ideologies don’t match. Mevani got called out for his troll-like behaviour which bordered on target-bullying an individual.
https://twitter.com/amritabhinder/status/1001570535065632769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/pratyasharath/status/1001538881097887744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Some even asked Twitter to act as swiftly against harassment of right-wing women as it does for people with different political ideology.
https://twitter.com/pratyasharath/status/1001538881097887744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Nesenag/status/1001655337768779776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Eventually, Jignesh deleted the tweet, but he did not apologise to either of the people involved in the Photoshopped image for the harassment.
https://twitter.com/jigneshmevani80/status/1001777003140280322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
This is not the first time an elected representative has bullied a private individual. Earlier, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien had lowered the dignity of the house and defamed Twitter users by reading out propaganda material written by abusive troll masquerading as a journalist, Swati Chaturvedi, accusing them of giving criminal threats to other people while being followed by Prime Minister Modi.
While most of those who cry ‘harassment’ from ‘paid trolls’ on Twitter remained silent, some even encouraged Mevani since it has since received over 600 retweets and 2,200 likes. Mevani had contested as an independent candidate with the support of Congress in Gujarat elections held in December last year.