One of the contenders for the seat of Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh from the Congress party, Kamal Nath, took to Twitter and accused the BJP dispensation in power of rampant corruption. He used a picture of a shoddily constructed road that’s falling apart to take potshots at Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s government.
मामा जी के राज में भ्रष्टाचारी रास्तों की लगी है झड़ी,
और वाॅशिंगटन से अच्छी मख़मली सड़क कर लो घड़ी।
भजपा के सामने भ्रष्टाचार के सारे रिकॉर्ड लजाते हैं ,
मामाजी जाते जाते तथाकथित विकास को घड़ी कर साथ लिए जाते हैं ।
बढ़िया है।#वक़्त_है_बदलाव_का pic.twitter.com/Qojc3igCyQ— Office Of Kamal Nath (@OfficeOfKNath) October 15, 2018
This was also retweeted by the Twitter handle of Madhya Pradesh Congress.
Unfortunately for the Congress leader, the picture does not depict any place in Madhya Pradesh or even in India but Bangladesh. The picture was shared on Twitter in June 2016 by user @RifatAlam007 who was quite disillusioned with his own government.
আহ! দেশটা সত্যিই সিঙ্গাপুর হয়ে গেলো!
পৃথিবীর সর্বপ্রথম ভাঁজ করা রাস্তা…..#Gay_Bangla#Gay_Bal#corruption pic.twitter.com/iUiXZuatw7— #FreeKhaledaZia (@RifatAlam007) June 24, 2016
Another report from an apparent Indonesian outlet in September 2016 claims that the folding road is from Indonesia. Madhu Kishwar had been slammed by then Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, for claiming that the image was from Bihar. Therefore, it’s quite clear that the image is either from Indonesia or Bangladesh but definitely not from anywhere in India.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was quick to bust the narrative the Congress leader was peddling. He said, “What can we say about our friends from the Congress party? First, Digvijay Singh brought a pool in Pakistan to Madhya Pradesh and now Kamal Nath has brought a Bangladeshi road to Madhya Pradesh.”
हमारे कांग्रेसी मित्रों का क्या कहना!
पहलें दिग्विजय जी पाकिस्तान के पुल को भोपाल ले आए, और अब कमलनाथ जी बांग्लादेश की सड़क को मध्यप्रदेश ले आए। https://t.co/8GKuRmUfE1
— ShivrajSingh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) October 15, 2018
Shivraj Singh Chouhan was referring to Digvijay Singh’s blooper in June when he claimed that the photo he had shared on Twitter showed a damaged overbridge from Subhash Nagar Railways Faatak in Bhopal. However, the damaged bridge almost certainly was from Pakistan and surely not from Madhya Pradesh as has been reported by us earlier. Digvijay Singh later issued an apology over the tweet.
The Congress party appears to have upped its ante with regards to spreading fake news. Only yesterday, senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi had posted a fake petrol bill on Twitter to instigate the public against the BJP. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan came out himself and chastised the Congress leader over the tweet. On a far more serious issue, Youth Congress had shared a fake image of ‘exodus’ of North Indians from Gujarat to target the BJP government in the state only days after Congress leaders had instigated the violence against migrants.
