Congress tweets PM’s photo with Asaram Bapu

New Delhi: Controversial godman Asaram Bapu, who was convicted in a rapes case on Wednesday, rubbed shoulders with the high and mighty of Indian politics. In their bid to woo Asaram, who had crores of followers, political heavyweights ranging from former Prime Ministers, chief ministers, top political leaders of every hue and colour made a beeline to pay their obeisance to this man.

During the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls, striking back at the BJP for its against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on the issue of meeting a tantrik, the JD(U) had dug out an old photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting Asaram Bapu. Mr Kumar was with the JD(U)-RJD-led grand alliance.

After the conviction, the Congress released a video of Mr Modi with the controversial preacher. The video shows that Mr Modi, during his tenure as Gujarat chief minister, shared dais with Asaram. The Twitter handle of Congress tweeted, “A man is known by the company he keeps.”

However, actor-director Farhan Akhtar took the twitter route to flay those who were posting old pictures of Asaram with politicians. According to him, it wasn’t a crime if someone was associated with Asaram before he was accused or found guilty.

“So, Asaram is a child rapist. And he has been found guilty. Good. But can people please stop sharing images of him with PM Modi. Patronising him before he was exposed to be a pervert is no crime. Let’s be fair and give him the benefit of doubt that he, like us, did not know,” tweeted Akhtar.