On Sunday (September 24), Trinamool Congress leader Kirti Azad courted controversy after he falsely claimed that BJP workers mistook Canara Bank for Canada and had been protesting outsides its premises.
In a tweet (archive), the 64-year-old politician wrote, “BJP Sanghis assumed Canara Bank to be Canada and held demonstrations in front of the bank’s building.” The tweet was accompanied by a picture of a group of people, standing outside Canara Bank with BJP flags in hand.
At the time of writing, the contentious tweet had more than 2000 likes and 500 retweets. The former cricketer-turned-politician sought to exploit the ongoing diplomatic tension between India and Canada to score political brownies.
The Truth behind the image
A quick ‘reverse Google image search’ of the image led us to a news report, published by Tamil daily ‘Maalai Malar’. The said report was published on August 30, 2020 i.e. 3 years ago.
At the very onset, it became clear that the picture shared by Kirti Azad had nothing to do with the ongoing diplomatic standoff between India and Canada.
The Maalai Malar report stated that BJP workers held demonstrations in Ooty against the city administration for removing a flagpole, which was installed to hoist the party flag. The municipality had alleged that no prior permission was sought from them by the BJP.
Thus, it clearly shows that the BJP workers were not protesting against Canada in any form or manner. It is also interesting to note that the original picture was photoshopped with another image of Canara Bank by Kirti Azad to lend credence to his dubious claims.
This is however not the first time that Kirti Azad has resorted to peddling fake news on social media. Earlier in February 2022, he falsely claimed that BJP leaders were being thrashed by the common people during the second phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh.
In reality, the video is not from Uttar Pradesh but from the State of West Bengal. The victim in the incident was BJP leader Anirban Ganguly, who informed that he was attacked by Trinamool Congress-sponsored Jihadis.
Hi Kirti, amusing to see that you,Bhagwat Jha Azad’s son,can’t distinguish between the hinterlands of #WestBengal & #UttarPradesh!This is clip of a jihadi attack engineered by TMC on me on Election Day, April 30 2021.Having become a FAMILY DOORMAT you have lost your rationality! https://t.co/qfkH1XGlV4
— Dr. Anirban Ganguly অনির্বাণ গঙ্গোপাধ্যায় (@anirbanganguly) February 12, 2022
In October 2022, Kirti Azad shared a fake quote attributed to RSS leader MS Golwalkar on Twitter, which claimed that he was willing to tolerate British subjugation but not a government in the nation that granted Muslims and Dalits equal status.
