Even as cyclone Dana spared Bengal from any large-scale destruction, a meme made and shared against its backdrop raised a political storm in the state.
The meme shows an AI-generated caricatured photo of Kolkata mayor and Trinamool Congress leader Firhad Hakim in a skullcap and beard holding what appears to be a bottle of alcohol. In the background, there is a building resembling a mosque. The image also shows stormy weather and men, some sporting skullcaps, running helter-skelter.
This meme was shared on Facebook by an account carrying the name and photo of Minakshi Mukherjee. Mukherjee is the West Bengal state secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and youth leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). It contained a caption in Bengali that said, “A 90 ml storm passed over. Could not even understand.”
Neither the post nor the Facebook account from which it was posted is accessible at the moment. Either they have been deleted, or their viewership has been restricted.
Trinamool Leaders, Social Media Users Go Up in Arms
As soon as the image went viral, leaders of the ruling party in Bengal severely criticized it and slammed Mukherjee for insulting and hurting religious sentiments. They also pointed out the decline in the CPI(M)’s ideological principles.
Trinamool leader and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh (@KunalGhoshAgain) tweeted a screenshot of the Facebook post and wrote in Bengali, “Shame on you Minakshi. Trinamool leader Firhad Hakim can be a political enemy of CPM. But distorting his image by using beard, bottle, photos of Muslims and mosques is insulting, despicable and a reflection of poor taste. The post should be deleted immediately and you should apologize for it. Such distortions come only if you can;t compete politically. Insulting a religion in such provocative manner is grossly incorrect. However, when it is the CPM, such mentality is only to be expected.”
ছিঃ মীনাক্ষী।
তৃণমূল নেতা ফিরহাদ হাকিম সিপিএমের রাজনৈতিক শত্রু হতে পারেন। কিন্তু তার ছবি বিকৃত করতে গিয়ে দাড়ি, বোতল, মুসলিম সমাজ, মসজিদের ছবি এনে অসম্মান, কুরুচির এই প্রতিফলন ধিক্কারযোগ্য।
এই পোস্ট অবিলম্বে ডিলিট করে ক্ষমা চাওয়া উচিত। রাজনীতিতে পেরে না উঠলেই এমন বিকৃতি আসে।… pic.twitter.com/J8GIb6THlF— Kunal Ghosh (@KunalGhoshAgain) October 26, 2024
He also shared the same on his official Facebook page.
On Facebook, Arup Chakraborty, another spokesperson of the Trinamool, shared a screenshot of the alleged post by Mukherjee and slammed her for the same.
মীনাক্ষী মুখার্জী, সিপিআইএমের যুব সংগঠনের রাজ্যের নেত্রী। রাজনৈতিক প্রতিপক্ষ তৃণমূল কংগ্রেসের বিরুদ্ধে বলবেন সেটা…
Posted by Arup Chakraborty on Friday 25 October 2024
Bengal BJP leader Tarunjyoti Tiwari (@tjt4002) tweeted the same screenshot and wrote, “It’s fine that Meenakshi Mukherjee, a leader of the INDI alliance, posted this. If someone from the BJP had posted it, they would have been labeled as communal.” (archive)
ধর্ম নিরপেক্ষ INDI ALLIAMCE নেত্রী মীনাক্ষী মুখার্জি এটা পোস্ট করেছেন বলে ঠিক আছে।।
বিজেপির কেউ পোস্ট করলে তাকে সাম্প্রদায়িক বলে দাগিয়ে দেওয়া হতো। pic.twitter.com/gFycpMcqpU— Tarunjyoti Tewari (@tjt4002) October 26, 2024
Several other social media slammed Minakshi Mukherjee for the post. X user Rimita (@BombagorerRani), who aligns herself with the Trinamool, asked who had given Mukherjee the right to insult someone’s religion.”
Some media outlets, too, reported that CPI(M) leader Minakshi Mukherjee had shared a distasteful post targeting Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim.
A complaint was lodged against Minakshi Mukherjee at Chetla police station in Kolkata, Etv Bharat reported.
The Photo was not Shared from DYFI Leader Minakshi Mukherjee’s Facebook Page
Soon after the image had gone viral, Mukherjee took to X and shared the following:
“IMPORTANT: My personal Facebook account: Minakshi Mukherjee (https://www.facebook.com/minakshi.mukherjee.108/) and Facebook page: Minakshi Mukherjee-Official (https://www.facebook.com/minakshimukerjee) and an X (Twitter) account (Minakshi Mukherjee
@MinakshiMukher8). Apart from these, I have no Facebok account, Facebook page or Twitter account. There might be other pages or accounts on social media that use my name and photo. I have no role in running these accounts or posting from them. I am not aware of them.”
গুরুত্বপূর্ণ……… pic.twitter.com/p68FqTTCSk
— Minakshi Mukherjee (@MinakshiMukher8) October 26, 2024
This was also posted on her official Facebook page.
Mukherjee also tweeted that a complaint had been lodged by the CPI(M) regarding this. In her email to the officer-in-charge of cyber police station at Lalbazar, Kolkata, she said that her name and photo were being used to create fake accounts and then false and politically motivated posts were being shared from them to defame her and her political party. The subject line of the email says, ”
ফেসবুকে ভুয়ো অ্যাকাউন্ট বানিয়ে মিথ্যা, অসত্য, রাজনৈতিক উদ্দেশ্যপ্রণোদিত প্রচার ও কুৎসা। অভিযোগ ও FIR pic.twitter.com/z8RUK1xDVE
— Minakshi Mukherjee (@MinakshiMukher8) October 26, 2024
The same was also posted on her official Facebook page.
The Indian Express, The Telegraph and others reported that Mukherjee had lodged a police complaint against fake Facebook accounts using her name and photo.
Mukherjee Flagged the Issue in the Past
In our investigation, we found that Mukherjee had flagged the issue in the past as well. In a Facebook post on May 7, 2021, Mukherjee had mentioned the links to her two Facebook accounts and Twitter handle, and clarified that she had no other social media presence. She had also pointed out that her name and photo were being used on other accounts.
I another post dated October 14, 2024, she made the same point again from her official page.
The readers should note that the screenshots of Mukherjee’s personal and official pages show her names written in English, whereas the viral image shows the account name written in Bengali. At present, too, both the pages show names in English. Since Facebook does not allow change of name more than once in 60 days, it is not possible that the name in either of these two pages was changed twice within last few days, i.e., it was first changed into Bengali, and then changed back to English.
Besides, the page transparency section of the Minakshi Mukherjee – Official page does not show any name change.
Alt News Spoke to Minakshi Mukherjee
Speaking to Alt News, Mukherjee said, “There are only three social media accounts that are handled by me. No other accounts belong to me. Even before this fiasco, I have publicly shared the links acknowledging my social media presence.”
On being asked about the proceedings of her FIR, she said, “Till now there are no updates”. She added, “If there was an FIR against me, and if there is a doubt on whether I shared the controversial image, police would have taken action… but nothing has happened so far. It surely suggests that I am not behind the post.”
“All of this is a politically motivated move to defame me and my party,” she said.
Ankita Mahalanobish is an intern at Alt News.
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