In a faux pas that will haunt the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for a long time to come, the party ended up tweeting an image of India Today journalist Abhro Banerjee in a video tribute to party workers killed during post-poll violence in West Bengal. BJP’s video misidentified Banerjee as Manik Moitro who was killed in Sitalkuchi.
A shocked Banerjee then tweeted the video, saying, “I am Abhro Banerjee, living and hale and hearty and around 1,300 km away from Sitalkuchi. BJP IT Cell is now claiming I am Manik Moitra and died in Sitalkuchi. Please don’t believe these fake posts and please don’t worry. I repeat: I am (still) alive”
I am Abhro Banerjee, living and hale and hearty and around 1,300 km away from Sitalkuchi. BJP IT Cell is now claiming I am Manik Moitra and died in Sitalkuchi. Please don’t believe these fake posts and please don’t worry. I repeat: I am (still) alivehttps://t.co/y4jKsfx8tI pic.twitter.com/P2cXJFP5KO
— Abhro Banerjee (@AbhroBanerjee1) May 6, 2021
To this the Kolkata Police responded saying, “Legal action is being taken.”
#FakeNewsAlert
Legal action is being taken. https://t.co/Bqegk6XOIB— Kolkata Police (@KolkataPolice) May 6, 2021
Subsequently, the party took down the video and issued a statement apologising for the error. But it was their explanation that sounded even more curious! BJP said, “The image of Mr Abhro Banerjee was erroneously included in the video while using an article by him as a source for the content.”
Statement regarding Mr. Banerjee’s tweet.
Source Links:https://t.co/4U3wEqZJX2https://t.co/opV5FHrZ1T https://t.co/BRP540aYgY pic.twitter.com/tKCw7rgQ3s
— BJP Bengal (@BJP4Bengal) May 6, 2021
This sounds not only ridiculous, but also like a hopeless attempt to come up with an excuse.
But this is not the first instance of the BJP sharing unverified information. Ever since the party lost by a huge margin in the assembly elections, its supporters are sharing content that has been found to be fake on social media.
The West Bengal Police have been routinely bringing to light such instances of fake news. Here are a few examples:
#FakeNewsAlert pic.twitter.com/v0mtSTxeuC
— West Bengal Police (@WBPolice) May 7, 2021
— West Bengal Police (@WBPolice) May 6, 2021
— West Bengal Police (@WBPolice) May 6, 2021
#FakeNewsAlert pic.twitter.com/gSAYkNPGb2
— West Bengal Police (@WBPolice) May 4, 2021
Circulating content that is hateful or capable of inciting violence just adds fuel to the fire, and is dangerous when post-poll violence is being reported from across the state, where victims belong to different political parties.
Related:
Battleground Bengal: Blame game, fake news aplenty amidst reports of post-poll violence
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