A call for lynching in Bengaluru after Jinnah’s picture spotted on a bus. And the truth is ..

“How many of you are campaigning against it and will Pledge to Lynch this Owner inside that Bus and Burn it?” This was the violent reaction of Abhishek Singh, a contributor at Postcard News, when he saw pictures of a bus on Bengaluru road with an image of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Did you ever wonder where lynch mobs come from? Here is a seemingly normal person casually calling for a pledge to lynch someone without finding out the truth. What is the truth behind the bus? Read on…

A bus with a picture on Jinnah? How would you react? When residents spotted a bus with the picture of Mohammad Ali Jinnah plying on Bengaluru roads, the reactions were varied. Some called up the travel company to check, others complained to the police. Some others took to social media to outrage and take pot shots at the non-BJP Karnataka government.

Neeraj Kamath, also former core committee at Namo Brigade, was the first to report the green “Democracy travels” bus with a picture of Mohammad Ali Jinnah on social media. The post was shared over a 1000 times and as expected it caused much outrage.

Bus With Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Photo In Bengaluru @CPBlr @narendramodi @HMOIndia @CMofKarnataka @KirenRijiju @PTI_News @republic @TimesNow pic.twitter.com/gAYPE8naEq

— Neeraj Kamath C (@kamathneeraj) July 13, 2017

It is normal to react on seeing the photograph but the right-wing fuelled the outrage. Here is the reaction of Prasanna Mudugabe, also a contributor to Postcard News.

It drove Abhishek Singh to give a call for lynching the bus owner.

This posts were later picked up by many right wing websites and Facebook pages including ‘Say “No” To Sold Media‘ and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Reality:

The picture of the bus is not fake. Yes, such a bus with the picture of Mohammad Ali Jinnah was spotted on the roads of Bengaluru. The bus was a prop for a Malayalam movie, Aabhaasam, that was being shot in the city. Here is the screenshot of the Facebook page of the movie.

When Alt News spoke to the crew, they confirmed the bus was used for shooting. They put a board saying so but forgot to do it on the day the pictures were clicked.

From what little we know of the movie from the IMDB page, the bus “Democracy travels” is an integral part of the movie script

Kamath, who was the first to post the picture of the bus, reported that the picture has been deleted. In a second Facebook post, he wrote, “Democracy travels” is free From Jinnah. The Owner has apologised & removed the photo & confirmed by sending this photo. He didn’t even know what they had done with the sus and who Jinnah Was. The Bus Was Hired By A Malayalam Movie Crew For Shooting.” He also called for the nationalists to be united against the anti-nationals.

As reported by Times of India, fearing backlash, the owner of the bus has removed the image.

Nationalist pride is fragile. Freeing a bus called, “Democracy travels” which was a movie prop, from Jinnah is a victory for them. The Postcard contributor who used the picture to malign the Karnataka government has not deleted his post even after learning that truth about the bus. Nor has the one who called for lynching the bus owner. The bus owner could be under a real threat from such a call. We hope Bengaluru police have taken note of it.