Congress Politician Salman Nizami shared an image on Twitter which showed Republic TV reporting that the 21 Sikh Regiment has refused to fight for India. On closer inspection, the image has turned out to be fake.
The image can be concluded to fake on the basis of the ticker at the bottom of it. It shows information regarding TRP from 17 May-17 May 2017.
BARC India 1 mn+ (May 13-17) between 9 pm – 11 pm
Republic TV 61%
Times Now 24.7%
CNN News18 5.8%
India Today 4.1%
NDTV 4.6%
NewsX 0.6%— Republic (@republic) May 25, 2017
Moreover, the position of the text and the rest of the screen do not align. Furthermore, the insignia of the Sikh Regiment is shown as a background, which is illegal and no channel would actually do it. OpIndia.com reached out to Republic TV as well and they have confirmed that it is fake.
The following is the original picture that was photoshopped.
The photoshopped image, which is seditious in nature, was shared by numerous other people and appears to have been retweeted by propagandist Rohini Singh of The Wire as well. She seems to have un-retweeted it.
WHAT THE HELL???@rohini_sgh jst RTed it, giving legitimacy to it w/o verifying, as she usually does w anything tht is even remotely anti-national.
Res Sirs, @PMOIndia @HMOIndia @Ra_THORe, @adgpi THIS IS EXTREMELY GRAVE.
Cant be ignored. Sedition it is.https://t.co/lVcRU3Cjq1 pic.twitter.com/UkkvmS22hX
— Neta Ji (@AapGhumaKeLeLo_) March 6, 2019
Meanwhile, Pakistani Media has started reporting on the fake image believing it to be authentic.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxu-1zGmIe4]
OpIndia reached out to Republic TV and the channel confirmed that the image was photoshopped. Arnab Goswami said, “Pakistan has launched a propaganda campaign against Republic TV because we have exposed them completely. Pakistan propagandists in India are helping the ISI. The people of India should question these Pakistan propagandists and join hands with us to expose them”.
The image that was shared and is now being picked up by Pakistani media is clearly seditious in nature and is aimed at sowing discord within the Indian Armed Forces. It may even be a ploy by enemies of the nation to hurt our country. That a politician of the Congress party shared the fake image and journalists promoted it is extremely disconcerting.
It remains to be seen whether the Government takes any action against the people who have attempted to sow discord within the Indian Armed Forces.
