Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijaya Singh has landed in trouble for his tweet which later turned out to be a fake.
Singh had on April 12 tweeted, and later deleted, a picture showing a person hoisting a saffron flag atop an Islamic structure. While his tweet suggested that the picture was from the communal violence-hit Khargone in MP, the image turned out to be from Bihar.
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According to news reports, stones were allegedly pelted on a Ramnavami procession passing in front of a mosque in MP's Khargone on April 10 following which there was widespread violence in the district. Three police personnel were amongst those injured. News reports stated that 95 people have been arrested in connection with the violence so far.
In this backdrop, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on April 12, tweeted a picture of a crowd carrying saffron flags in front of an Islamic structure that resembles a mosque. One person can be seen standing on top of the structure hoisting a saffron flag on one of the minarets.
Singh's tweet in Hindi translates to 'Is it ok to hoist a flag at a religious place while flaunting swords and wooden sticks? Did Khargone administration give permission to the procession to march with weapons? Will houses of everyone who pelted stones be razed irrespective of their religion? Shivraj ji don't forget you have taken an oath to run an impartial government'.
(Hindi: क्या तलवार लाठी ले कर धार्मिक स्थल पर झंडा लगाना उचित है? क्या ख़रगोन प्रशासन ने हथियारों को ले कर जुलूस निकालने की इजाज़त दी थी? क्या जिन्होंने पत्थर फेंके चाहे जिस धर्म के हों सभी के घर पर बुलडोज़र चलेगा? शिवराज जी मत भूलिए आपने निष्पक्ष हो कर सरकार चलाने की शपथ ली है)
While Singh deleted his tweet, screenshots went viral in no time.
View the post here.
Other social media users used the same picture and video from the incident with similar claims. View posts here and here.
Fact Check
BOOM did a keyword search with Hindi words 'खरगोन मस्जिद पर भगवा झंडा' and found a video report on the verified Facebook page of Bolta Hindustan showing similar visuals.
The Hindi caption with the Facebook post translates to 'Terror in the name of Ram! Saffron flags atop the minaret of an eidgah at one place, on the doors of the mosque at another place. Is this the government of good administration'.
(Hindi: राम के नाम पर आतंक! कहीं मस्जिद के गेट पर भगवा झंडा, तो कहीं ईदगाह की गुंबद पर क्या यही है सुशासन की सरकार?)
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The subtitles of the video reads 'There is tension everywhere, Nitish is silent'. Taking cue, we did a keyword search with 'saffron flag on mosque in Bihar' and found several news reports carrying the same picture.
A report published in NDTV on April 12 states that the incident took place in Mohammadpur village of Muzzafarpur in Bihar during a Ramnavami procession. The mosque seen in the video is Dak Bangla masjid. The video of the incident was all over social media soon.
Later, on April 12 six persons were arrested in connection with allegedly hoisting the saffron flag atop a minaret of the mosque.
FIR Against Digvijaya Singh
A First Information Report was registered against the Congress leader for sharing the photo. According to a report published in The Quint, the FIR was registered on the basis of 'a complaint lodged by the BJP district (Bhopal) president Sumit Pachauri at a Bhopal police station' on April 12.
Singh, on the other hand, wrote a letter to Bhopal police commissioner demanding that an FIR be registered against MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan for allegedly posting an edited video of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in 2019.
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