The social media in-charge of the Indian National Congress (INC), Divya Spandana has once again stepped on a hot stone by tweeting a digitally altered image of Adolf Hitler and Narendra Modi that compares the two with each other.
What are your thoughts? pic.twitter.com/b8GcgKL2ih
— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) April 29, 2019
Image Intends To Compare Modi and Hitler
In the image, you can see Hitler pulling the ears of a small girl and on the other side, Modi is shown pulling the ears of a boy. The intention of this tweet made by the former MP is quite clear. It intends to compare the two leaders and attract attention towards the similarity between the two with the caption, “what are your thoughts?”
Prior to Divya Spandana, an IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhat shared it on Twitter but the caption was different and said, “Spot the difference.” As of now, Spandana’s post has received 5000 likes and more and have been retweeted more than 1000 times.
Spot the difference. pic.twitter.com/yI1fyIOdos
— Sanjiv Bhatt (IPS) (@sanjivbhatt) July 25, 2018
When the reverse image search was made on Google it showed that the image has been altered in photoshop. The original photograph shows hands of Hitler on the shoulders of the little girl whereas the digitally altered photograph shows him pulling the little girls’ ears.
The image of PM Modi is from a PTI news clicked when he visited Japan almost four years ago. On the other hand, the image of Hitler has been picked up from the series of photographs released in March 2017 titled “Hitler as you have never seen.”
Divya Spandana Accepts Mistake, Post Continues To Be Live
Spandana accepted that it was a mistake on her part and that she has already retweeted the fact-check. However, the apology does not seem really from the heart as the post is still active on Twitter.
Incidentally, it is not the first time that Divya Spandana has been caught sharing such unverified and altered information on social media channels. On April 17, she retweeted a print advertisement of a newspaper carrying a photoshopped image with the caption, “The honesty is laughable.” The photo shows images of BJP President Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and B.S.Yeddyurappa, the Chief Ministerial Candidate of BJP.
The honesty is laughable @BJP4Karnataka pic.twitter.com/o4jLRJr7tX
— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) April 17, 2018
She added a line,” For a Corruption State” to this image. At that time, too she accepted sharing the image knowing that it was fake and said that it was a sort of sarcasm.
Irresponsible Act By INC Social Media In-Charge Chief
Logically, speaking for a person who heads the promotion platform of one of the biggest political parties in the country propagating false information even in sarcasm is not acceptable.
Sharing or creating false or fake news can be never justified and it is everyone’s moral duty to verify the information prior to supporting or publishing it. That is why this tweet by Divya Spandana, especially in the midst of elections is nothing short of an irresponsible act.
