The Trinamool Congress party (TMC) has indulged in spreading fake news by sharing an edited video on Twitter to suggest that PM Modi and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath were greeted with anti-Modi and anti-Yogi slogans during the inauguration ceremony of the Kashi Viswanath Corridor on December 13, 2021.

Popular social media user Ankur Singh going by the handle @iAnkurSingh shared the badly edited video posted on the microblogging site by TMC leaders like- Riju Dutta, the spokesperson of the All India Trinamool Congress party and recently appointed TMC’s Rajya Sabha nominee Jawahar Sircar, along with the original video to call out the TMC leaders for indulging in such a petty behaviour to berate the BJP govt.

In the original video, one can see the crowd cheering as PM Modi and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath reached Varanasi for the inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath Dham Corridor. The fervent crowd can be seen waving their hands and taking pictures on their phones as Modi and Yogi walk towards the Kashi Vishwanath temple. However, the TMC leaders posted a clip where the original audio was removed and audio from some other event was added to it. The audio track with the crowd cheering PM Modi and Yogi Aditynath was edited and replaced by “Modi hai hai” and “Yogi chor hain” slogans, as can be seen in the clip shared by the TMC leaders.

TMC’s Rajya Sabha nominee Jawahar Sircar

While sharing the edited clip, TMC spokesperson Riju Dutta wrote: “Modi Hai Hai, Yogi Chor Hai” slogans were raised by the people of UP during MODI Ji’s #KashiParikrama, but unfortunately GODI Media won’t show this reality.

The bureaucrat turned Modi-hater troll Jawahar Sircar, whom Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee appointed as the member to the Rajya Sabha in July this year, was also quick to use the fake, heavily edited video to further his anti-Narendra Modi stance. He shared the fake video coupled with a Tweet that read: “Wow! Protests during Modi’s midnight Kashi Parikrama. Some guts. The Godi Media will not show this.”

The TMC leaders were, however, left red-faced after social media user Ankur Singh shared the original clip, where the crowd was actually seen cheering PM Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath. It’s appalling though that even after being called out, the TMC leaders have neither deleted their Tweets nor apologised for sharing the fake video.

On December 13, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated his dream project Shri Kashi Vishwanath Corridor. On an auspicious day, PM Modi started his address to the nation by bowing down to Baba Vishwanath, Mata Annapurna and Baba Kaal Bhairav, the Kotwal of Kashi Vishwanath. On the day, PM asked the people of the nation to take three vows- Swachchta, Srijan and Atmanirbharta.

PM Modi also felicitated workers, who have been part of the construction of the mega Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, by showering flower petals on them during the inauguration of the temple complex.

This sort of deplorable behaviour from trolls like Jawhar Sircar, however, no longer comes as a surprise for anyone. The TMC leader, has many times in the past, indulged in such petty acts to berate the Modi government. On June 7 this year, Jawhar Sircar shared a heavily edited image of Prime Minister Modi bending forward to greet Reliance Foundation chairperson Neeta Ambani, to insinuate that he goes out of his way to be polite to ‘his friends’. 

This was not all, when Twitter users fact-checked Jawhar Sircar’s fake claims and revealed that the original picture was that of PM Modi acknowledging social activist Deepika Mondal, Sircar went on to hide the replies to his tweet. However, after being heavily slammed, Sircar deleted his Tweet.

Continuing his shenanigans, Jawhar Sircar, a chronic Modi-hater, who was then the CEO of Prasar Bharti had removed inconvenient parts of PM candidate Modi’s interview during the 2014 elections to appease the Congress party. Following a public backlash, the then Prasar Bharti CEO Jawhar Sircar had acknowledged that chunks of the interview were edited out.

Update: Twitter marks Tweet as manipulated media

After OpIndia reported that the TMC leaders posted a doctored video, Twitter added the ‘manipulated media’ tag to the tweet posted by Jawahar Sircar.

Screenshot of Jawahar Sircar’s tweet with manipulated media tag

However, no such tag has been added to the tweet of Riju Dutta yet. Both the TMC leaders are yet to delete the posts, even after the manipulated media tag was added to Jawahar Sircar’s tweet.

References:

opindia.com - OpIndia Staff