A Twitter user @AmiteshK01 posted a video on Tuesday, which he said showed “another gory murder in Kerala, by Commie/Jihadi goons of a lady supportive of BJP.”
The video shows a woman being dragged out of a car by some men. As she attempts to run away, she is ‘shot’, and falls to the ground. A man then begins talking loudly in Malayalam to the people who have surrounded the body. And for those who do not speak the language, only the word ‘RSS’, which is used repeatedly, is clearly discernible.
So when Amitesh Kumar tweeted the video with his caption, many people were outraged by it.
The truth behind the video, however, is far from what is being claimed. Not only was the murder not committed by ‘Leftist Muslims’, but it wasn’t even a real murder.
The video was actually a clip of a street play, performed by the Democratic Youth Federation of India in Kalikavu in Malappuram. The play was based on the murder of journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead by unknown persons on 5 September, outside her home in Bengaluru.
The play is actually a condemnation of the RSS. After the murder of the woman is enacted, the man, DYFI Kalikavu Area Secretary CT Sakkaria is shouting in Malayalam, “She spoke against the RSS. She raised her voice against RSS. She was also killed.”
Sakkaria then goes on to tell the spectators that the RSS are “traitors” and a “threat”. He also mentions MM Kalburgi and Govind Pansare, (other rationalist thinkers murdered by unknown persons), and alleges that the RSS was linked to their murders too.
“Silence is dangerous. This fascism, which has reached your kitchen, is dangerous,” the man says.
Many quickly took to Twitter to correct the false news being spread by Amitesh Kumar on the social media platform. Incidentally, Amitesh Kumar was only recently criticised roundly on Twitter for misreading the name of the newspaper Gauri Lankesh Patrike to claim that slain journalist Gauri is in reality a Christian.
This isn’t the first time that events or images have been used out of context to support an agenda. In July, BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma shared a photo from the 2002 Gujarat riots to create outrage regarding violence in West Bengal.
In early August, the IT cell of BJP had tried to pass off a Mumbai pothole as a road in Karnataka, to take potshots at the Congress government in the southern state.
(This article was first published on The News Minute and has been republished with permission.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)