A graphic attributing a fake quote on protesting farmers to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra is being shared on social media.
Patra took to Twitter to debunk the fake image himself after it was tweeted by filmmaker Avinash Das.
Patra tweeted that no such press conference was held by the BJP and that the image was tweeted to ‘further vested interests and cause disharmony in the country.’
The graphic showing the logo of Hindi news channel ABP News has been poorly photoshopped and includes Hindi text that roughly translates as, ‘Those who are forcefully trying to enter Delhi are not farmers but are (gaddars) traitors’.
The fake image was shared by a Facebook page KTSK Comedy on 3 October.
On magnifying the image, it is clear that the picture has been manipulated by adding text.
While the topic band at the top says ‘BJP’s press conference LIVE’ it has a picture of Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
The highly pixelated portions behind the Hindi text shows that the photo has been manipulated.
Thousands of farmers, who have been marching since 23 September, were stopped from entering the National Capital on Tuesday, resulting in violent clashes with the police at Ghazipur near the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border.
Police fired tear gas shells and water cannons as protesters tried to break barricades and enter the capital.
The protests are part of the “Kisan Kranti Padyatra” to demand loan waivers, subsidised electricity and fuel and pension for farmers over the age of 60.
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) called off the protest after authorities allowed farmers to proceed to Rajghat post-midnight.
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(This article was originally published on BOOM and has been republished on The Quint with due permission.)
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