Ahead of the Bihar elections, the Congress party has weaponised fake news and misinformation to target the NDA government. With no counter political narrative in sight for the Mahagathbandhan against the mighty BJP, the Congress has resorted to distorting facts, hoping that it could attract the voters from the BJP camp.
On Wednesday, BJP National President JP Nadda addressed a public gathering in Motihari in Bihar. During his 30-minute long speech, JP Nadda highlighted the package sanctioned by the Modi government during the span of the last 5 years. However, in a bid to target the BJP on its promises made to the people of Bihar, Congress Youth President Srinivas BV prematurely jumped the gun.
Congress Youth President targets BJP with fake news
He retweeted a tweet by the official handle of the BJP, which highlighted just a small part of JP Nadda’s speech. The BJP had tweeted, “5 years ago, PM Narendra Modi had promised that a total of 1,25,000 crores would be spent in the State of Bihar. At that time, (RJD supremo) Lalu Yadav had dubbed it as an election gimmick. In the past 5 years, PM Modi had sent ₹3,904 crores for farmers, ₹1000 crores for education and ₹600 crores for health.”
Under the impression that this was the only expenditure done by the Modi government in Bihar, Srinivas B V tried to implicate that the BJP did not spend even a quarter of the funds that it had originally promised to people. He claimed, “Looks like as per the mathematics taught at (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) sakhas, 3904 cr + 1000 cr+ 600 cr = 1, 25,000 crores.” The Congress Youth President added, “The minister is as foolish as the king (PM Modi).”
What is the truth?
While JP Nadda had listed the complete breakdown of the Bihar package, as sanctioned by the Union government, the Congress Youth President chose to target him and the BJP using only a small part of the speech. In the subsequent tweet posted by the BJP, it pointed out the other expenses incurred by the Modi government for the welfare of Bihar.
The tweet read, “₹16,130 crores for electricity, ₹13,820 crores for road construction, ₹54,173 crores for highways, ₹2,700 crores for airports, ₹21,476 crores for petroleum and gas and ₹1400 for 22 places (please check this).” The BJP’s Twitter handle listed every detail of the Bihar package that was provided by the Modi government in multiple tweets due to character limination on Twitter. On adding the amount spent on health, education, agriculture, petroleum, electricity, road and highway construction etc, the total expenditure stands close to ₹1,25,000 crores.
बिजली के लिए 16,130 करोड़ रुपये,
— BJP (@BJP4India) October 21, 2020
सड़कों के लिए 13,820 करोड़ रुपये,
हाइवे पर 54,713 करोड़,
एयरपोर्ट के लिए 2,700 करोड़ रुपये,
पेट्रोलियम और गैस लाइन के लिए 21, 476 करोड़ रुपये और
अमृत की 22 जगहों के लिए 1,400 करोड़ रुपये दिए हैं: श्री @JPNadda pic.twitter.com/ajLSujAPUK
However, Congress Youth President tried to take a dig at RSS shakhas by falsely assuming the expenditure on health, education and farmers as the total package sanctioned by the Modi government. Although he claimed that the BJP lacks understanding of Mathematics, it is clear that Srinivas B V definitely has lack of basic comprehension skills.
