Dehradun: As furore over the brutal attack on a horse by Ganesh Joshi in Dehradun grew, the Bharatiya Janata Party legislator has denied attacking the animal.
The Uttarakhand politician went on to claim that he was not there at the march organised by his party and the horse was attacked by an unknown person.
BJP's Mussoorie MLA Ganesh Joshi has posted a video on Facebook to defend himself and blamed the media for spreading misinformation:
घोड़े को लाठी मारने वालो की असली खबर।
This video demonstrates the power of paid media and how gullible we are when it comes to believing things. This also shows how easy it is for the ruling party to manage the media and conveniently shift attention from relevant issues. Police officers rode on horses and chased the demonstrators. Normally this wouldn't be seen except in emergency situations, but then again the Uttarakhand police has proved how vulnerable it is in front of the dictatorial State government led by Shri. Harish Rawat Ji. Most media channels have been circulating the news that I hit a horse and injured it. Please watch this video to know the truth. I strongly condemn the action of the youth involved in this video for pulling on the horse, making the poor animal lose his balance and fall, thus injuring himself. I apologize on his behalf as this is against my personal and the party's principles. We belong to a party which is led by the likes of Maneka Gandhi and believe in treating animals like family. I urge you to take a moment to watch this video. I will continue to represent and fight for the interests of my constituents, humans and animals alike. These fabricated stories show the levels to which the State government of Uttarakhand will stoop to to grab public's attention.
Posted by Ganesh Joshi on Monday, 14 March 2016
A horse deployed as part of mounted police was injured during a protest march by BJP to the state Assembly on Tuesday with the ruling Congress alleging that it sustained injuries after being attacked by Ganesh Joshi, a charge denied by the opposition party. The incident happened during BJP's march against "corruption and poor law and order" to the state Assembly which was stopped at barricades put up by the Uttarakhand Police near Ripsana bridge, a few metres from the state Assembly premises.
Hours after the incident, two videos, one of them purportedly showing the horse's broken hind leg and the other showing the BJP legislator from Mussoorie attacking the horse with a lathi from the front, went viral sparking an allegation by Chief Minister Harish Rawat's media in-charge Surendra Kumar that the animal had "fallen a victim to Joshi's cruelty".
