Man who washed BJP MP Nishikant Dubey’s feet files case against journalists; reports

Nishikant Dubey, the Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Godda in Jharkhand, who recently defended the act of a party worker washing his feet and then drank the dirty water, has been accused by leading Opposition politician Tejashwi Yadav of filing a case against journalists and media houses that carried the video through his proxies.

A BJP worker identified as Pawan Kumar Sah, whose washing of Dubey’s feet and then drinking the muddy water triggered a controversy when Dubey proudly shared the photos of the feet-washing on his Facebook page, according to a UNI report, has filed a case in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Godda. The case has reportedly been filed against ten known media outlets and journalists and 1,000 unknown persons for making derogatory remarks against him and the MP on different social media platforms.

“Instead of apologising for his shameful conduct BJP MP Nishikant Dubey (getting his dirty feet washed by a poor man who then drank that water) is bullying and trying to intimidate people in the media and social media through cases through his proxies,” Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and former deputy chief minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav posted on Twitter.

Reacting to it angrily, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “So far the BJP was controlling media by controlling advertisers and through money. But now it seems it has decided to file police cases against media if it dares to question shameful acts of its MPs.”

Among the journalists and media houses who have been named in the four page complaint include Aroon Purie of India Today group, Rohini Singh, Pranoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy, promoters of NDTV group, Abhik Sarkar, vice chairman and editor emeritus of ABP Group, Rahul Joshi, managing editor News18, Sudhir Chaudhary, editor in chief Zee News, Sudhir Agarwal, editor in chief Dainik Bhaskar and Chandan Sharma, resident editor Dainik Jagran.

Surprisingly, in his complaint Sah has defended his act of washing the MP’s feet and drinking the dirty water, stating that “I’ve this freedom under my constitutional rights how I express my feelings, how I worship and how I welcome my guests. During the foundation laying ceremony of the bridge, the petitioner didn’t do anything that goes against the law.”

“However, the media persons have been presenting the incident after distorting the facts in such a way as if I have committed a crime. This is damaging social reputation of the petitioner publicly,” he has added in the complaint.

Earlier, on September 16, party worker Sah had washed the feet of Dubey and drank the water as many people in the gathering video-recorded it in their phones. Incidentally, Dubey too had proudly shared photos of the youth, washing his feet and then drinking the dirty water, on Facebook and later defended it too in several of his subsequent posts.

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