BJP MLA Vijender Gupta tweets photoshopped image of Arvind Kejriwal's campaign poster - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
11th March 2019 / 1:33 pm / Last updated: 11th March 2019
AAP नेता केजरीवाल इतने बौखलाये हुये है कि झा** को वोट देने की अपील कर रहे है !” On March 9, BJP MLA Vijender Gupta tweeted an image of Aam Aadmi Party’s campaign poster suggesting that Arvind Kejriwal is ‘so panic-stricken’ that he even made an embarassing mistake in the poster. The attached image contained an abusive word which was highlighted by Gupta in his tweet.
AAP नेता केजरीवाल इतने बौखलाये हुये है कि झाटू को वोट देने की अपील कर रहे है ! pic.twitter.com/QcQ4ao7Llc
— Vijender Gupta (@Gupta_vijender) March 9, 2019
Delhi BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana also tweeted the same image taking a dig at the AAP chief by addressing him with the abusive word and asking if everyone knew what it meant.
एक बात बिलकुल ठीक कही @ArvindKejriwal जी आप झाटू ही हो ।
वो अलग बात है वोट नहीं मिलेगा आपको ।
वैसे मित्रों आप सब लोगों को झाटू का मतलब पता है ना ? केजरीवाल जी आपको भी ?? pic.twitter.com/WcIec1co30
— Harish Khurana (@HarishKhuranna) March 9, 2019
This image, circulating at least since March 5, has now gone viral on Twitter. Few others on Facebook have also shared the image in a similar manner mocking the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal for what appeared to be a spelling mistake in the poster.
Alt News found that the photograph viral on social media is photoshopped. On March 5, an individual user quote-tweeted, a tweet by @squintneon, who had posted the original picture of the same poster, sarcastically saying, “They misspelled ***”.
Sir… your plan is to defeat only & only Modi so its shouldn't matter who defeats it. you or congress
Requesting you not to contest elections in Delhi so that anti BJP Vote won't split. pic.twitter.com/b6CMlKtgUo
— Comrade Squinty (@squintneon) March 5, 2019
In the original poster, it was written, “झाड़ू (broom)”. Broom is an election symbol of the Aam Aadmi Party. Comparing the two images in the collage below, the difference between the photoshopped poster and the original poster with the same background can be clearly seen.
Twitter users also challenged Vijender Gupta with a zoomed in version of the image which made it clear that the image he’d posted was a morphed one.
Gupta uncle, aapne yeh photoshop khud kiya hai ya kisi BJP IT Cell ke worker ko kaam diya tha?
Matlab Jhuth failane mein bhi ek number ke kaamchor ho aap log 😂 pic.twitter.com/E5P7rhtIQW
— Dhruv Rathee (@dhruv_rathee) March 9, 2019
With elections around the corner, it is not unusual to see a spike in circulation of photoshopped images and doctored videos targeting political opponents. In this case, BJP leaders tweeted a photoshopped image with an abusive word added to an AAP campaign poster to ridicule Arvind Kejriwal.
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
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