CHENNAI: An old photo shared by several prominent BJP functionaries with the claim it was taken during the recent floods in Chennai led to a war on social media between DMK and BJP supporters.
It was on Sunday evening that BJP state treasurer S R Sekhar posted a photo on his Twitter handle (@SRSekharBJP) with the caption: “Chennai became a swimming pool in a single day’s rain” during the rule of the Vidiyal Aatchi (nickname of the DMK government).
The photo showed a crowd waiting to receive potable water from a tanker lorry on a submerged road.
Soon, hundreds of DMK cadre stormed his handle and posted that the photo was from an article published on a news website on July 31, 2017, under the title: “Gujarat Floods: How the deluge crippled the state”. The cadre then went on to flay Sekhar saying it has been the practice of his party to spread fake news and misinformation among the public.
SKP Karuna, affiliated to the DMK, told TNIE that it (sharing of the photo) was an organised effort and they (the BJP) had benefited from spreading misinformation against their ideological opponents in the northeast, where they didn’t have any party structure once.
“The BJP functionaries didn’t remove the post even after it was proven it was fake news. Hence, it’s not fair politics,” he said.
DMK’s state propaganda secretary Sabapathi Mohan told TNIE it was ‘cheap’ politics pulled off by the BJP.
“They project themselves as the protectors of dharma in the country. I would like to ask them: Is spreading false news dharma?.”
Even after hundreds of DMK social media activists criticised the BJP state treasurer’s tweet, hundreds of BJP cadre retweeted and liked the post.