Not Me Or Anjan In Viral Photo: Former IAS Officer Alapan Bandyopadhyay

BOOM reached out to Alapan Bandyopadhyay who confirmed that the two boys seen in the photograph are not the Bandyopadhyay siblings.

Alapan Bandyopadhyay has become the face of tussle between Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee after the Centre, in a surprise move on May 28, sought for the former's services and asked him to report immediately as the chief minister's principal advisor. The move came days before the 1987-batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre was set to retire on May 31. Post this, the Union Home Ministry has served a show-cause notice to Bandyopadhyay under the Disaster Management Act for his absence from the Cyclone Yaas review meet chaired by PM Modi.

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The viral image shows a group of young boys help each other tie their dhotis, a tradition of Ramkrishna Mission educational institutes, as they pose for the camera.

The image is doing the rounds on Twitter and Facebook with a claim in Bangla, "This is a rare image. Two residential students of Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission. Person who is helping another wear a dhoti is the administrative head of Bengal Alapan Bandyopadhyay. And the other is journalist Anjan Bandyopadhyay, who recently passed away. Circa 1975."

(Original Texts in Bangla: এটি একটি দুর্লভ ছবি। নরেন্দ্রপুর রামকৃষ্ণ মিশনের আবাসিক ছাত্র দুজন। যে ধুতি পড়াচ্ছে, সে আজ বাংলার প্রশাসনিক প্রধান আলাপন বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়, আর যাকে পড়াচ্ছে সে সদ্য চলে যাওয়া সাংবাদিক অঞ্জন বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়, সাল 1975।)

Click here to see the tweet and here for an archived link.

The image has become recently viral on Facebook as well with the same narrative. Click here and here to see the posts and here for an archived link.