On January 09, The official Twitter handle of Congress had posted a tweet claiming that the party will introduce free bus service for women. In the tweet posted in Hindi ahead of the state elections, the party promised that a Congress government bring free bus service for women to protect them from harassment. However, the party deleted the tweet after it was caught using a photograph from BJP-ruled Assam, masking signage on a bus that showed that it is from Assam.
In the tweet, the Congress party used a photograph of several pink coloured buses lined up, with three women taking a selfie in front of them. On the front-most bus, the party masked the branding on the windscreen of the bus, leaving a logo depicting a rhino in the middle. The picture was captioned, “Now women would not be victims of assault. The Congress would bring Free bus service for Women”. Under the hashtag #Ayegi_Congress, the handle tweeted “We will start Free Bus service for women. We will ensure Free, safe and easy Bus service for women.”
However, soon after the party posted the tweet, many alert Twitter users pointed out blurring of the title of the Bus in the picture with red. They pointed out that the original picture in the tweet was from Assam, where in January Last year, the Sarbanand Sonowal-led state govt had commenced a dedicated Pink Bus service for women and senior citizens in Guwahati. Under the ‘Bhraman Sarathi Scheme’ from Assam, the BJP had already achieved to do what Congress was promising – that too with a picture talking about the former’s achievements.
Twitter users were quick to find out this fallacy by the media management department of Congress. The picture in the tweet had blurred signage on the bus which said ‘Bhraman Sarathi’ in Assamese, the name of the service. The rhino symbol that was not masked is the familiar logo of Assam State Transport Corporation, which runs the buses.
Apparently, the Congress party wanted to use a picture of buses dedicated to women and found this photograph. The photo had originally appeared on an India.com report about the launch of The Pink bus service in Assam. But as it had proof that it is from BJP-ruled Assam, they decided to mask the proof. But that was not enough to fool the alert netizens.
The party had learnt that it was caught up in an embarrassing situation, and had no option left but to finally delete the tweet.
Congressi blurred name of Assam from Bus. They couldnt find a pic from Congress ruled states because they never fulfilled their promise and making fake promises in UP 😂😂@himantabiswa @myogiadityanath pic.twitter.com/QNfSpQlImW
— Facts (@BefittingFacts) January 9, 2022
It was already in early 2020 that then Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbanand Sonowal had flagged off 25 ‘Pink Buses’ in Guwahati in a bid to provide free transportation to the women and the elderly under a new scheme called ‘Bhraman Sarathi’. The buses, painted in pink, ply on several routes in Guwahati to provide fast, safe and easy mobility to women and senior citizens.
Just a day before this fiasco, Congress had made another gaffe where they ended up promoting Prime Minister Modi’s “Ujjwala scheme”.
Twitter user @BefittingFacts pointed out that the Congress had posted a tweet about fighting rising prices, but had ended up using an image that actually showcased how well PM Modi’s Ujjwala scheme, that provides cooking cylinders to women so they don’t have to cook food using coal.
Thank You for promoting PM Modi's Ujjwala Yojana ✌🏻😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/RcfbjDC2a9
— Facts (@BefittingFacts) January 9, 2022
Once it was pointed out to Congress, the party quickly deleted the tweet from their official Twitter handle.
In 2 days, Congress seems to have made two gaffes where they ended up promoting schemes by the Modi government while trying to show them down. Once they were called out on Twitter, both tweets were quietly deleted to avoid the embarrassment.
