The Congress party recently had a setback in Puducherry after five of its MLAs moved to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). One MLA from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) also joined the BJP.
In this context, an image of a clash between the police and the public is being spread with the allegation that a Congress MLA from Puducherry who joined BJP was attacked by Congress workers.
The caption on one such image posted on Twitter reads: ‘MLA of the Puducherry Congress who joined the BJP by the congressional workers. Heart broken. The text in the Malay language and the image also translate the same.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found the allegation along with the image misleading. The Puducherry BJP unit confirmed to us that none of the Congress MLAs who recently switched to BJP were attacked by other congressional workers. The image shared with the claim also comes from a 2018 protest that erupted during a public hearing for the expansion of Strides Shasun Limited, a pharmaceutical unit in Puducherry.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here, en here.
AFWA investigation
Although the MLAs of the Puducherry Congress joined BJP national headlines for the past two months we have not been able to get any credible news reports about these MLAs being attacked by other congressional workers.
After that, we contacted A Namassivayam, former PWD minister of Puducherry, and the first MLA to leave Congress and join the BJP in January 2021.
Namassivayam says: ‘I joined BJP after resigning from my MLA post. Neither I nor other lawmakers in Congress who have joined BJP have been attacked by anyone as alleged in these social media posts. No incident of this kind has been made known to us. ”
AFWA also reached out to Pratiksha Godara, senior superintendent of police (law and order), Puducherry, who confirmed that the viral claim was untrue, and that no such complaint had been registered in Puducherry yet.
No such political clash has been reported in Puducherry recently. We also did not receive any complaints from any of the political parties in this regard, ”Godara explained.
India Today’s Puducherry office also confirmed to AFWA that there was no attack on the Congress legislators who joined the BJP.
Image with the claim dates from 2018
We also did a reverse image search of the photo circulating along with the viral claim and found a version of the same image published in 2018. Tamil News Release.
According to this news item, the image of a demonstration that erupted in 2018 in Kalapet, Puducherry, during a public hearing for the expansion of Strides Shasun Limited, a pharmaceutical unit in Puducherry. The meeting, organized by the pollution committee chaired by the district collector, challenged local residents against the idea of an extension, referring to the area. However, there was another group that insisted on the expansion and said it would provide jobs.
Various news organizations reported this incident in 2018.
A video story by India Today about the Kalapet clash could be seen here.
Therefore, the viral claim that an MLA of the Puducherry Congress that joined BJP was handled by other congressmen is false. The image along with the claim comes from a clash in 2018 that erupted during a public hearing for the expansion of a pharmaceutical unit in Puducherry.
ClaimThe photo shows congressmen in Puducherry beating an MLA from Congress who recently joined the BJP. ClosureBJP Puducherry unit confirmed that none of the MLAs that switched to BJP were attacked. The image is also from 2018 of a collision that broke out during a public hearing for the expansion of a pharmaceutical unit in Puducherry.
JHOOTH BOLE KAUVA KAATE
The number of crows determines the intensity of the lie.
- 1 Crow: Half true
- 2 crows: mostly lies
- 3 crows: absolutely false
