News agency IANS tweeted a photo of Pankaja Munde, the BJP candidate from Maharastra’s Parli assembly seat, who was defeated in the recently-concluded assembly elections. The news agency’s tweet read, “#BJP’s heavyweight and #Maharashtra minister #PankajaMunde weeps inconsolably after her shock defeat in #Parli (Beed) seat by her estranged cousin, #NCP Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council #DhananjayMunde. Photo: IANS”. The tweet now stands deleted but an archived version can be accessed here.

SCREENSHOT OF A THREE-DAY-OLD BROADCAST

This photo is a screengrab taken from a TV9 Marathi broadcast from October 20, 2019. “Exclusive interview with Pankaja Munde before voting (translated)”, reads the title of YouTube video posted by the channel. One can see that the thumbnail of the YouTube video is the photo which was posted by IANS. Twitter user Riaz Ahmed had shared the video on Twitter.

OTHER MEDIA OUTLETS

NDTV also tweeted the image and later deleted the same.

In a separate report which was earlier titled“BJP’s Pankaja Munde Weeps Inconsolably After Shock Defeat”– the channel did refer to the fact that IANS deleted their tweet but failed to clarify about their own tweet and simultaneous changes in the report.

Lokmat News Hindi published an article based on IANS’s tweet titled, “पंकजा मुंडे नहीं सह पाईं हार का गम, फूट-फूटकर रो पड़ीं, तस्वीर वायरल (Pankaja Munde couldn’t bear the sorrow of her loss, inconsolably wept, photo viral -translated)”.

India Today managing-editor Kamlesh Singh also tweeted the photo with the message, “हमें अपनों ने लूटा ग़ैरों में कहां वज़न था जिसने हमको हराया हमारा कज़न ~Pankaja Munde, 24.10.2019”.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Youth Congress leader Kumar Raja took a jibe at Munde tweeting the same photo.

Neither IANS nor NDTV has issued a clarification for putting out a screengrab from an old broadcast as the image of BJP’s Pankaja Munde publically grieving on her recent electoral loss.

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About the Author

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.