Anurag Thakur slammed Jack Dorsey's claim as a "blatant lie". (File)
Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Tuesday dismissed the claims of former Twitter CEO and founder Jack Dorsey that the Indian government had pressurised Twitter to block accounts covering the farmers' protests.
Slamming Dorsey's claim as a "blatant lie", Mr Thakur said "several foreign forces wake up when elections approach India."
Charging Dorsey on the allegations raised in 'Twitter Files', Mr Thakur said, "What was said, is a blatant lie. Jack Dorsey woke up after years of sleep and wants to cover up his misdeeds. When Twitter was bought by another person, it was revealed in 'Twitter Files' how was the platform being misused. Jack Dorsey has not been able to answer this to date because he was exposed."
Twitter Files is a series of tweets brought to light by Elon Musk when he took over as the Twitter boss to expose the misdeeds carried out on the popular microblogging site under Jack Dorsey's regime.
Speaking about the timing of the statement, since it was made just ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US, the Union Minister said, "Several foreign forces and their agents in India wake up when elections approach India. They were exposed earlier and will be exposed this time as well."
"Indian democracy is strong, the world gives hope to India and India lives up to this hope," he added, stressing that foreign forces will not succeed in creating unrest in India.
He also backed Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar who rejected Dorsey's claim terming it as "an outright lie" and "an attempt to brush out the very dubious period" of the social media company's history.
In an interview with YouTube channel 'Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar', on Monday, Dorsey - who stepped down from Twitter's board last year - alleged that the Indian government had put pressure on Twitter and said that it will shut down the company in India and raid the houses of its employees.
This led to a political storm in India with the government hitting back strongly at Dorsey's claim.
"...India is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers' protests, around particular journalists who were critical of the government and it manifested in ways such as we will shut Twitter down in India, India is a big marketplace for us. We would raid the homes of your employees, which they did and we will shut down your offices if you don't follow suit and this is India, a democratic country," Dorsey was heard saying in the interview.
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