Outrage over video of Telangana Cong MLA holding onto girl in bus; he clarifies
A controversy has emerged in Telangana after a video of a Congress MLA holding a student's hand on a bus went viral. The MLA claims the interaction was innocent and accuses political opponents of misrepresenting the footage for malicious purposes.
Why it matters
The incident reflects the high-stakes nature of political optics and the rapid spread of potentially misleading content on social media in India.
HYDERABAD: A controversy sparked after a video went viral accusing Ibrahimpatnam MLA Malreddy Ranga Reddy of inappropriately holding on to a girl student on a moving bus of the Telangana state road transport corporation on Tuesday.The incident took place aboard a RTC bus as the Congress MLA, who boarded the bus, was speaking to the women passengers to assess the impact of the state’s flagship Mahalakshmi scheme as part of which women are allowed to travel free of cost in RTC buses in the state.The 70-year-old MLA, however, insisted that it is inappropriate to distort a friendly and affectionate interaction with young women who are like his daughters and that he had boarded the bus to assess the impact of the free bus travel scheme for women.During the trip, the Congress MLA engaged in conversation with women and held on to a girl student standing in the bus, who mentioned…
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