Twenty-four hours after former President Pranab Mukherjee visited the RSS headquarters in Nagpur for the organisation’s Tritya Varsha Varg event, a morphed photo of Mukherjee has sent the internet in a dizzy.
In the morphed photo, Mukherjee is seen wearing a cap and standing with folded hands like RSS cadre.
A report by India Today claims to have tracked down the man behind the morphed photo. The report says a man by the name of Mihir Jha tweeted to another user who goes by the handle @Atheist_Krishna requesting him to place a cap and change Pranab’s hand position on the original photo. Mihir, as the report says, claimed to have requested to morph the image on behalf of a friend from the Congress IT Cell. Another Twitter user, Abhi Jha, promptly photoshopped the image and tweeted it. With hundreds of followers on Twitter, it wasn’t long before the photoshopped image went viral.
What is interesting is that Mihir Jha, in his Twitter bio writes he is “proud to be followed by PM @narendramodi”. The India Today report claims that Abhi Jha is followed by BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya.
RSS Blames “Divisive Political Forces” for Morphed Photos
Reacting to the circulation of Mukherjee’s morphed photos, the RSS, earlier on 8 June, blamed "divisive political forces" for first trying to make former President Pranab Mukherjee "refrain" from attending its event, and then for posting a morphed photograph showing him in a position identified with the organisation.
"Some divisive political forces have posted a morphed photo of former President Dr Pranab Mukherjee standing in a prayer position with a folded hand during recitation of Sangha 'prarthana' (prayer) at yesterday's RSS function at Nagpur," the Hindutva organisation's joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya said in a statement.
Sharmistha Mukherjee Goes ‘I Told You So’
Pranab Mukherjee's daughter and Congress leader Sharmistha Mukherjee on Thursday, 7 June, said that her fears regarding the BJP’s "dirty tricks department" have come true.
This statement comes after widespread circulation morphed picture of the former president raising his hand in salutation like the RSS leaders and cadres.
Sharmistha Mukherjee was vehemently opposed to the former president’s visit to the RSS headquarters.
"See, this is exactly what I was fearing and warned my father about. Not even few hours have passed, but BJP/RSS dirty tricks department is at work in full swing!" she said, responding to a tweet showing a morphed picture of Pranab Mukherjee doing the salutation along with RSS leaders and cadres at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur.
Sharmistha Mukherjee had earlier said that her father was giving the BJP and the Sangh a handle to plant false stories.
Her outburst came soon after rumours of her joining the BJP cropped up ahead of Mukherjee's Nagpur visit.
She dismissed such "rumours" of her joining the BJP as "false", and alleged that they are the handiwork of BJP's "dirty tricks department.”
She said she would rather leave politics than quit the Congress.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)