'Modi cannot imprison truth, Mevani's arrest undemocratic'

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday termed as "undemocratic" and "unconstitutional" the arrest of Gujarat legislator Jignesh Mevani over his tweets, with former party chief Rahul Gandhi saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot imprison the truth by trying to "crush" dissent.

Congress attacked BJP over Mevani's arrest by the Assam police and alleged that Prime Minister Modi was "scared" and running "helter-skelter" by such actions.

Mevani, an independent MLA from Gujarat who has pledged his support to the Congress, was arrested from Palanpur town in Gujarat on Wednesday night over a tweet and taken to Assam by air in the early hours, officials said.

Flaying the arrest of Mevani, Gandhi said it is an insult to the people who elected him as a public representative.

"Modi ji, you can try to crush dissent by abusing the state machinery. But you can never imprison the truth," Gandhi said on Twitter, using hashtag "#DaroMat" and "#SatyamevaJayate".

He tagged a report saying that Assam police has taken Mevani into custody over his tweets on Prime Minister. "The 'dictator' is now running scared. The self-anointed 'shehanshah' of the country is 'deeply prejudiced' as also is running helter-skelter.

"The arrest of our friend, colleague, Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani by police of Kokrajhar, Assam in Palanpur Gujarat, just for a single tweet asking the prime minster to appeal for communal amity and brotherhood in Gujarat reflects the deep-rooted prejudice, the scare, the fear among those sitting in the citadels of power in Delhi today," Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.

"Does the prime minister and the BJP think that they can browbeat Mevani and every voice of this country irrespective of political affiliation, rising for communal amity for brotherhood, for cohesion, for walking hand in hand together for progress of India," he asked.

Congress leader KC Venugopal also dubbed Mevani's arrest as unlawful and alleged authoritarianism by the BJP.

"The unlawful and unconstitutional arrest of Mevani at midnight by Assam Police is the latest proof of authoritarianism under BJP. Such an arrest of a people's representative not only betrays their fear of criticism but also attacks the foundations of our democracy," he said in a tweet.

According to a document shared by Assam police, an FIR has been lodged over a tweet by Mevani few days back. However, the tweet has been withheld by Twitter.