On Tuesday, Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala shared the image of a woman, carrying a toddler on her back on Twitter. In the picture, the poor woman is also seen carrying a heavy sack on the pillion seat of the bicycle.
Surjewala’s tweet was accompanied by a politically motivated caption that read, “New India ka Saach!“. The loose translation of the tweet goes as, “This is the truth of new India.” The Congress leader from Harayana wanted to suggest that the condition of people in the ‘New India’, the India that is not ruled by his party anymore, is miserable.
What is the Truth?
However, alert Netizens were quick to debunk the misleading claims of the Congress spokesperson. A Twitter handle (@NegiBijju) pointed out that the picture shared by Randeep Surjewala belonged to Nepal. Taking a dig at him, the Twitter user wrote, “Real news always ends badly for them (Congress).”
Sujemuhwala जी Picture from Nepal Sharing by Congress’ spokesperson you @rssurjewala
— अपारिचित 2.0 (@NegiBijju) May 19, 2020
Fake News because the real news always ends badly for them. pic.twitter.com/kQkTPWE1S6
Popular Twitter user Ankur Singh too pointed out that the image belonged to Nepalgunj city in Nepal. The picture was saved to Pinterest from a website, infonews.com. He tweeted, “New India mein Surjewala ka jhooth.” The loose translation goes as “These are the lies of Randeep Surjewala in New India.”
न्यू इंडिया में @rssurjewala का झूठ pic.twitter.com/j6yyeN2PNE
— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) May 19, 2020
Another Twitter user Akshay Singh wrote that the Congress spokesperson is trying to pass pictures from Nepal as that of India to spread fake propaganda. He also took a dig at Priyanka Vadra over the Bus scam.
After #PriyankaVadraBusGhotala new CYCLE Ghotala by @rssurjewala Ji using Pictures from Nepal to spread FAKE Propaganda in India. pic.twitter.com/4HRE40a201
— Akshay Singh (@Akshaysinghel) May 19, 2020
Randeep Surjewala spreads fake news during pandemic
This is not the first time when Randeep Surjewala has resorted to ‘poverty porn’ and fake news peddling in order to gain political mileage. Earlier, Surjewala shared a picture of a migrant worker trying to put a child on top of a truck that is bound for their hometown, to target PM Modi. A simple fact check revealed that the picture belonged to the Congress-ruled State of Chattisgarh.
Congress’ social media handles have been found spreading fake news earlier too. Dalit Congress had earlier shared an image of a Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh to claim negligence of the poor by the Modi government.
