Indian politicians spread fake news on social media

Mangalore Today News Network

Sep 20, 2017: After a recent RJD rally held in Patna, titled ‘BJP baghao, desh bachao,’ which saw many leaders mark their presence, Laloo Prasad Yadav posted a picture on Twitter which showed a much larger gathering than the one posted by ANI, at the same point.  The media was quick to spot the difference and the RJD chief was pulled up for obviously photoshopping the image to look like more people attended the rally.

This is not the first time that an Indian politician has misinterpreted facts and faked photos to put their point across. We take a look at the instances when politicians have fallen for fake news and spread it without checking facts, or have misrepresented facts, figures, and used morphed photographs to showcase their deeds:

Nirmala Seetharaman: The former Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Nirmala Seetharaman who has just been appointed Minister of Defence, found herself in quite a muddle when she retweeted a quote supposedly from AR Rahman welcoming the beef ban. She undid her RT after it was pointed out that Rahman had never made such as observation.

Sambit Patra: The spokesperson of BJP, Sambit Patra, resorted to spreading news without checking its authenticity when he tweeted an article by the Times of Islamabad which had quoted data by NDTV to show how Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ was a flop.  NDTV was quick to react that the story was not theirs. While Patra has not issued any clarification, Times of Islamabad apologized for the misquote and attributed the quote correctly to the Indian Express.

Arvind Kejriwal: Attacking the Government on its demonetisation move, Delhi Chief Minister retweeted an image of a man in Santna, Madhya Pradesh who had allegedly hung himself in a bank because he could not withdraw money.   Kejriwal had written in Hindi, “Modiji, look at this. Have mercy on the public of this country. What enmity do you have with the people of this country?” The picture, however, turned out be an older one taken when a man, who was being chased by the police, hung himself in a bank. Kejriwal, however, did not delete his tweet or issue any clarification.

Home Ministry: In a chest thumping quote, the Home Ministry presented a picture of what it claimed to be the Indian border with the following headline –“If you see the work done by the Modi Government on the Indian border, you will be proud.” The picture showed a beautiful piece of land, with floodlights along, and the sea at the distance.  The news portal, Alt News, however, did some research, and it turns out that the picture is actually of Spanish-Moroccan border, which has a sea between them. The Home Ministry then ordered an internal investigation into the use of the picture.

Press information Bureau: During the Chennai floods in 2005, the Press Information Bureau posted a picture on its website of Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducting an aerial survey of the floods. While the survey did take place, the picture looked unreal because trees, houses, and water could be clearly seen from a window through which the PM is looking outside. When questions were raised on social media about its authenticity, the PIB removed the picture.

Babul Supriyo: In April 2017, the Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Babul Supriyo, tweeted a picture of what was supposedly the new bus station inaugurated in Rajkot.  The picture, however, was a 3D CAD representation, and not the completed bus station. When Supriyo was called out for his mistake, the Minister clarified the same on Twitter.

Manish Sisodia: When the CBSE, declared the results for Class 12 for the year 2017, the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi misinterpreted facts to issue a statement on Twitter that Government schools in Delhi had outperformed private schools by 9 percentage points, for the second time in a row. Many media houses also quoted Manish Sisodia.

While the fact that Delhi Government schools had outperformed private ones was true, Sisodia actually compared the pass percentage of Government schools in Delhi with private schools across the country. Hence, Sisodia calculated the All India private schools percentage which was 79.27, instead of Delhi alone, which was 84.3 percent, against 88.36 percent for government schools. With these results, Government schools in Delhi had a four percent lead than private schools, rather than the 9 percent that Sisodia had quoted.

Nupur Sharma: During the recent Bengal violence, caused by a blasphemous Facebook post,  BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma shared a picture which was taken during the 2002 Gujarat riots, while calling for protests to be held at Jantar Mantar. While the picture was called out for being wrongly used, many accused Sharma of inciting violence. Sharma then replaced the picture with a collage of battered vehicles.

Digvijaya Singh: Senior Congress lead, Digvijaya Singh, became the butt of Twitter jokes when he tweeted that ex-Congress MP Rajkumari Ratna Singh is the daughter of late Dinesh Singh who was a member of former PM Indira Gandhi’s and ‘Rahul Gandhi’s cabinet. Twitter, understandably had a field day trolling Singh, who later corrected it by saying it was “Rajeev Gandhi’s’ cabinet, but getting trolled again for the wrong spelling.

Courtesy: Yahoo.com