At a time when the farmers of the country are embracing the agricultural reforms of the Narendra Modi government, the Congress party and its leaders have been spreading blatant lies and misinformation on social media to score political goals.
Ever since the Modi government passed trhee bills in the Parliament to reform country’s farm sector, the Congress party has been posting old images of farmers to peddle misinformation that the farmers in the country were upset against the Modi government.
The Congress party shared a post on Twitter to claim that the new laws passed by the Parliament wiped out not only farmers’ future but also rural India’s chances for prosperous future. The post was accompanied by a photograph of a group of women sitting in anguish.
However, the photograph shared by the Congress party is from the time when the Congress-led UPA government was in power. The image shared by the Congress party is from a 2012 The Economist report titled “A tale of two villages”.
In another tweet, the Congress party posted a video that mocked Prime Minister Modi over the alleged non-implementation of promises by the Modi government.
The Congress party had posted a video to criticize the Modi government, in which it had included an image of devotees crossing the polluted waters of the Ganga river.
However, the image shared by the Congress party featuring a polluted Ganga river is captured at Sangam in Allahabad on April 14, 2013. In fact, the Congress party has scored a self-goal by depicting the state of the Ganga river during the rule of UPA government.
Similarly, in another tweet, the Congress party had shared another image dated 2014 to portray that the farmers were in distress in the country.
Here is the image of the distressed farmer shared by the Congress party that dates back to 2014.
Priyanka Gandhi shares UPA-era images to target Modi government
The Gandhi-scion Priyanka Gandhi, continuing the act of putting misinformation on social media, posted a tweet to criticise the farm reforms that are being implemented by the Narendra Modi government. The tweet was accompanied by a photograph of a farmer in distress.
However, the photograph shared by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is at least seven years old. The image shared by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra of a farmer in distress was published by Amar Ujala back in 2013 itself during the UPA government.
The photograph used by Vadra can also be found on Flickr, posted by a user named ‘sujataschool’ on 6 August 2011. The image is captioned, “A farmer looking at the seedlings at a field. The cultivation work in the district hampered due to scarcity of water”.
With Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sharing an image that was captured during the UPA-era, the Gandhi-scion indirectly criticised her own party for the depriving condition of Indian farmers.
Congress, a repeat offender
The Congress party has a history of posting such old and morphed images, especially images captured during the UPA-era, to target the Modi government.
At a time when the country was the middle of a pandemic, the Congress party had also indulged in spreading blatant lies and misinformation on social media to score political goals.
Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala had earlier shared an image from Nepal as that of India to play politics over the misery of the poor. The Congress leader had posted the image of a woman, carrying a toddler on her back on Twitter. Surjewala’s tweet was accompanied by a politically motivated caption that read, “New India ka Saach!“
Earlier, the Dalit Congress had taken to social media to share an old image of a Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh to attack the central government for its alleged inefficiency of handling of the migrant workers’ issue. Sharing the image through the official Twitter handle, Dalit Congress had said that Modi govt should envisage the helplessness to the faces of these people and do something to help them.
In another incident, targetting Prime Minister Modi, the Congress party had shared an old image of Narendra Modi from a few years ago to make a misleading claim during the pandemic. The Congress party used a photograph of Prime Minister Modi in which measurements were being taken for his statue at the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.
The scene depicted in the photograph is from 2016 but the Congress party attempted to portray that it was captured in recent times when the country is suffering a grave crisis in the wake of the economic crisis unleashed by the coronavirus.
