The Wuhan Coronavirus has created a havoc globally with over 3,00,000 cases and 12,948 deaths as of last evening. Amidst the global pandemic, India has taken strict measures to limit the country’s exposure by closing down its borders, International travel and even the Prime Minister calling for a voluntary Junta Curfew today on the 22nd of March 2020. Several states like Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are under partial lockdown. As the world tries to battle the pandemic, some politicians were busy indulging in spreading fake news to create panic. One such politician was Dinesh Trivedi of Mamata Banerjee ruled TMC.
On the 21st of March, a day before the citizens of India prepared to go into voluntary shut down for a day, Dinesh Trivedi shared an image that showed an over-crowded railway station. By sharing the picture, Dinesh Trivedi alleged that India’s preparation to tackle the Wuhan Coronavirus is not adequate.
Dinesh Trivedi tweeted, “oh God ,this is how we are going to combat corona virus ? If this breaks out in our villages then we are in for BIG BIG trouble. How stupid (sic)”
The photograph was of the Dadar railway station. Interestingly, even in the image shared by Dinesh Trivedi, a strip towards the lower end of the picture indicated that it was a stock image from Alamy.
When we went to Alamy, we found the exact picture that was tweeted by Dinesh Trivedi.
The image ID of the one shared by Dinesh Trivedi from was ETDCJP in the Alamy stock.
After it was pointed out, Dinesh Trivedi deleted his misleading tweet, and provided a bizarre explanation. He said that he had taken the picture from NDTV, thereby accusing that NDTV had shown a stock image in its news report. Later he posted screenshots of TV reports which showed large crowds at Railway stations in Mumbai and Pune yesterday.
Picture taken from NDTV
— citizenDineshTrivedi (@DinTri) March 21, 2020
Several people mocked him for trusting NDTV, which has a history of peddling lies.
Before deleting, the tweet had several retweets and likes and the misinformation which was spread, travelled far and wide before it was deleted. In fact, even journalist Pallavi Ghosh, who is known to be close to the Congress party had shared the tweet with exasperation.
While it is the job of a journalist to verify facts before spreading misinformation, especially at the time of crisis, nobody would accuse journalists like Pallavi Ghosh of being a responsible journalist.
As on 21st March 2020, 10:45 PM, there were 315 confirmed cases of the Wuhan Coronavirus in India. Of the 315 confirmed cases, 22 were cured and discharged and 4 patients had lost their lives. India had screened 14,90303 passengers at airports travelling from other affected countries.
