Yeddyurappa loyalist and Umesh Yadav’s son named BJP candidates in K’taka bye-poll

The bye-elections come at a time the BJP is attempting to usurp power from the coalition government.

Karnataka News: The BJP in Karnataka finalised their candidates for the May 19 Assembly bye-polls in two seats in north Karnataka after the Congress had already named their candidates on Saturday. The last date for filing nominations for these two seats is April 29. Counting of votes will be done on May 23, the same day the nationwide results of Lok Sabha elections will be declared.

In Kundgol, the BJP has gone with SI Chikkanagowdar, a key aide of BS Yeddyurappa in the hope of succeeding late sitting minister CS Shivalli who had won from the constituency two times successively. He will face Kusumavati, wife of former Municipal Administration Minister.

Shivalli, who was the former MLA of Kundgol, passed away in March 2019. The Congress is hoping to bank on the goodwill enjoyed by Shivalli in the region by fielding his wife Kusumavati.

Another seat which is going for bye-polls is Chincholi in Kalaburagi district after Congress MLA Umesh Jadhav resigned from his position and had contested the Lok Sabha elections against Congress heavyweight Mallikarjun Kharge as the BJP candidate.

The BJP has fielded Umesh’s son Avinash from the seat in the hope of adding their tally of 104 seats in the state Assembly. Avinash will face Subhas Rathod, the Congress candidate. Incidentally, Rathod was in the BJP until late March before joining the Congress. Both the Yadavs and Rathod belong to the same Lambani community who are influential in… continue reading full story

Did an EC flying squad fail to report a cash seizure in Andhra? Police register case

A man lodged a complaint that Rs 15 lakh were confiscated from him but there is no record of this particular seizure with the police.

Andhra Pradesh News: A case has been registered against members of a flying squad of the Election Commission in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district for allegedly failing to report the seizure of cash ahead of the Lok Sabha elections to the local police.

The complainant, Chandrashekar Reddy, has alleged that on April 7, days before the polling which took place on April 11, his vehicle was intercepted near G Pulla Reddy Engineering College near Kodumuru on the Kurnool-Nandyal main road.

Speaking to TNM, Kurnool Taluka Circle Inspector Chalapathi Rao said, “The complainant claimed that two people, including one in a police uniform, intercepted his vehicle near the college and confiscated the Rs 15 lakh that he was carrying.”

The complainant said that he was a native of Kurnool working in a private transport company in Coimbatore in Tamil Naidu and claimed to be heading there when the money was confiscated. Reddy claimed that the members of the flying squad seized the money from him as he did not have the relevant documents and told him that he could claim his money from the police later.

However, the squad allegedly failed to report the seizure of cash to the District Superintendent of Police or to the… continue reading full story

Porn Star’s Picture Falsely Shared As Samajwadi Party Candidate Azam Khan’s ‘Daughter’

The viral picture with the misleading post is that of a porn star. Azam Khan has two sons and no daughter.

Fake News India: An image of a porn star is being shared on Facebook with a false claim that she is Samajwadi Party candidate Azam Khan’s daughter, after the Uttar Pradesh politician’s offensive remark about Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Jaya Prada, recently.

The SP candidate does not have a daughter.

The photo of woman wearing a black silk robe is being shared with the caption which translates to, ‘this is Azam Khan’s daughter, someone tell us her colour’.

Translated from Hindi text – ये आजम खान की बेटी है, कोई इसका भी कलर बता दो

Click here for the archived version of the post

The caption is a reference to Khan’s derogatory “khaki underwear” jibe at Bollywood actress-turned-politician Jaya Prada, earlier this month. Both candidates are contesting from Rampur constituency in Uttar Pradesh. (Read more about it here)

Khan was subsequently barred from campaigning for 72 hours by the Election Commission of India for violating the Model Code of Conduct with his offensive statement. (Read about it here)

BJP-Linked Top Spenders Go Under The Radar After Exposé: FB Weekly Ad Report

BOOM investigated last week’s (14.04.2019 – 20.04.2019) ad archive report by Facebook and found some intriguing trends in the spending behaviour of major political pages.

Fake News: As more political parties turn to digital campaigning on Facebook in the midst of the ongoing elections, the top spending pages linked to the BJP are now spending meagre amounts to stay under the radar.

Last week’s ad report by Facebook revealed that while BJP’s official page remains the top spender of the week, pages run by BJP’s in-house shadowy consultancy firm the Association of Billion Minds have started sponsoring ads again followings two weeks of hiatus.

Until a few weeks ago, pages like ‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’, ‘Nation With NaMo’, ‘Modi11’ and ‘My First Vote For Modi’ – all run by ABM – were consistently at the top of the list of the weekly ad reports in terms of expenditure, and still remains the top spenders on Facebook since February, 2019, till date.

However, unlike past weekly expenditures running well beyond Rs. 50 lakh, a relatively meagre amount of less than Rs. 2 lakh was pumped into Facebook political marketing by ABM.

Why the sudden change?

On April 4, 2019, Huffington Post published an intensive investigative article on the opaque history behind the creation of ABM and its current under-the-radar operations on social media.

The article suddenly pushed the BJP affiliated consultancy firm into the spotlight, which was swiftly followed by a total curb in expenditure by all the ABM pages for two weeks in a row.

Viral Images Of The ‘Modi Express’ In London Are From 2015

In October 2015, ahead of the prime minister’s visit to London, the Indian diaspora had launched a special bus named Modi Express.

Fact Check India:A set of three images of double-decker buses in London covered with advertisements to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Britain has resurfaced on Facebook without any context that the images are not recent.

The post has been captioned as, “Welcome Modi Ji has been written even on all the city buses of London. This amount of respect and honour has not been given to any country’s prime minister yet.”

(#लंदन की सभी सिटी बसों पर भी #Welcome_Modi_Ji लिख दिया गया। इतना सम्मान आज तक किसी भी राष्ट्र के #प्रधानमंत्रीको नहीं मिला है।)

The advertisement features Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image and a text, “Welcome Modi Ji. We remember India’s contribution in WWI and WWII.”

The post received 44 likes and 178 shares at the time of writing this article. An archived version of the post can be seen here.

It is also going viral from other Facebook pages. See it here.

Does Narendra Modi Track Twinkle Khanna on Twitter?

Using a Twitter analysis tool and certain search keywords, BOOM found that Modi and Khanna do not follow each other on Twitter.

Fact Check News: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was interviewed by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar on Wednesday and while answering a question on whether he is active on social media, Modi replied saying that he tracks Kumar and his wife Twinkle Khanna’s Twitter accounts.

Using a Twitter analysis tool and certain keywords searches, BOOM found that Modi and Khanna do not follow each other on Twitter.

Khanna, a former actor is now a newspaper columnist and is perceived to be critical of the BJP government on social media. On April 1, 2018, she wrote a blog in The Times Of India where she took potshots against the ruling BJP government and its leaders though Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not mentioned. (Read about it here and here)

From the interview:

Akshay Kumar: In this age of social media, and I have seen that you are quite active on social media, but what questions people raise and what they talk, do you see on Twitter and Instagram, do you see all this Sir? (यह जो सोशल मीडिया का तो पूरा जमाना है, एंड मैंने देखा आप काफी एक्टिव रहते हो, लेकिन जो लोग आपको प्रश्न पूछते हैं या लोग आपसे बात करते हैं या खुद आप देखते हो ट्विटर या इंस्टाग्राम, ऐप सारी यह चीजें देखते हो सर?)

Narendra Modi: I keep tabs on social media to know what is happening in the world. I also keep an eye on your and Twinkle Khanna ji’s Twitter account. The way she vents her anger against me, your family life must be quite peaceful. She would take out all the anger against me. You must be at peace.

Artist’s Portrayal Of A Sex Slave In ISIS Captivity Goes Viral With False Narrative

The image of Nadia Bashar, a performing artist who was creating awareness on women’s rights, has been shared on social media with an anti-Muslim caption

Fact Check: A two-year-old photo of an artist’s portrayal of a Yazidi woman in Islamic State captivity as a sex slave, has gone viral on Facebook in India with a false and communal narrative.

The original photo was a recreation to raise awareness on the occasion of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2017.

The caption along with a photograph of a chained woman, dressed in a black, reads, ‘Only ten dollars is the price of this Yazidi woman (rate list is written on the drum). Value of looted items is very less. Imagine, if she was our sister or daughter…Hindus, if you don’t get it even now, a lot can go wrong…where do your daughters kidnapped from the districts of Bengal and Alwar disappear, nobody knows.’

The post can be viewed here and its archived version can be accessed here. The image has also gone viral on Facebook.

Fact Check

BOOM ran a reverse image search on the viral photo and found tweets from 2017 featuring the same image along with other photos that make it clear the picture is staged.

The tweet said the images were staged by Nadia Bashar for International Women’s Day to create awareness about the lives of Yazidi women held as sex slaves in ISIS captivity.

The Yazidis, a majority-Kurdish speaking tiny religious group, have suffered the worst of these war crimes. Islamic State militants have slaughtered, enslaved and raped thousands in northern Iraq since 2014, purging Yazidis whom they see as devil worshipers.

Were Congress candidates thrashed while campaigning for Lok Sabha Elections?

घटना पंजाब के अजनाला में दो वर्ष पहले घटी थी जब कथित तौर पर शिरोमणि अकाली दल के कुछ लोगो ने कांग्रेस के एक मोटरसाइकिल रैली पर हमला बोल दिया था|

Fake News Hindi: पंजाब कांग्रेस की मोटरसाइकिल रैली पर हमला करते हुए लोगो के एक समूह की पुरानी तस्वीर को एक बार फ़िर गलत सन्दर्भ में वायरल किया जा रहा है | पोस्ट के साथ लिखा गया कैप्शन इशारा करता है की जब कांग्रेस के नेता लोकसभा चुनाव की कैंपेनिंग करने निकले तो जनता से भारी विरोध का सामना करना पड़ा |

फ़ेसबुक पर फ़िलहाल इस तस्वीर के साथ ये कैप्शन शेयर किया जा रहा है: झूठे वादो के साथ पंजाब,मध्यप्रदेश,राजस्थान, छतीसगढ़ राज्यो की सत्ता मे आई काग्रेंस जब लोकसभा चुनावो के लिए वोट मांगने गए नेता तो जनता ने दौड़ा दौड़ा कर पीटा |

ये पोस्ट फ़िलहाल कई फ़ेसबुक पेजेज़ से वायरल हो रहा है |

फैक्ट चेक

जब बूम ने इस तस्वीर को फैक्ट चेक के सहारे जांचा तो पता चला की इसे 2016 में पब्लिश हुए एक न्यूज़ रिपोर्ट में इस्तेमाल किया गया था |

यह घटना अजनाला, पंजाब में सितम्बर 25 2016, से है | न्यूज़ रिपोर्ट्स के अनुसार कथित तौर पर शिरोमणि अकाली दल के कुछ युवकों ने कांग्रेस द्वारा निकाली गयी एक मोटरसाइकिल रैली पर धावा बोल दिया था |

डिस्ट्रिक्ट कांग्रेस समिति के प्रेजिडेंट गुरजीत सिंह औजला ने उस वक्त रूलिंग पार्टी (शिरोमणि अकाली दल) पर हमले का इलज़ाम लगाया था |

कांग्रेस के मोटरसाइकिल रैली पर वर्ष 2016 में हुए हमले पर रिपोर्ट्स आप यहां और यहां पढ़ सकते हैं |

Video of Uma Bharti calling PM Narendra Modi vinash purush shared as recent?

ये वर्षों पुराना वीडियो दरअसल तब का है जब भारती को भारतीय जनता पार्टी से निष्काषित कर दिया गया था|

Fake News India: भारतीय जनता पार्टी की नेत्री उमा भारती का एक काफ़ी पुराना वीडिया गलत सन्दर्भ में सोशल मीडिया पर फ़िर से शेयर किया जा रहा है |

वीडियो में भारती ने प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी की आलोचना करते हुए उन्हें ‘विकास पुरुष’ के बजाय ‘विनाश पुरुष’ बुलाया है |

सोशल मीडिया पर शेयर किए जा रहे वीडियो के साथ हिंदी में कैप्शन दिया गया है: इधर उमा भारती जी का बीजेपी ने झांसी से टिकट काट उधर उमा सच्चाई उगलने लगी |

आपको बता दें की रिपोर्ट्स के अनुसार भारती ने 2019 के लोकसभा चुनावों में नहीं लड़ने का फैसला किया है |

वीडियो को यहां देखा जा सकता है जबकि पोस्ट के अर्काइव्ड वर्शन तक यहां पहुंचा जा सकता है |

फैक्ट चेक

विधानसभा चुनाव के नतीजे घोषित होने से कुछ दिन पहले 17 अप्रैल 2014 को भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस पार्टी द्वारा ऐसी ही एक क्लिप जारी की गई थी |

जबकि कांग्रेस ने स्वीकार किया कि यह वीडियो बहुत पुराना था, यानी 2014 से भी नहीं है, पार्टी ने दावा किया कि वीडियो ने यह साबित किया है कि बीजेपी के भीतर कई नेता अपने तत्कालीन प्रधानमंत्री उम्मीदवार (मोदी) को एक तानाशाह के रूप में देखते हैं |

समाचार रिपोर्ट यहां देखा जा सकता है |

Was the same elderly woman pictured with different congress leaders?

जबकि वायरल पोस्ट्स में दावा किया गया है की अलग-अलग कांग्रेस नेताओ के साथ तस्वीरों में दिख रही महिला एक ही हैं, बूम ने पता लगाया की ये महिलाए अलग अलग हैं|

Fact Check Hindi: सोशल मीडिया पर इन दिनों एक पोस्ट वायरल है | पोस्ट में तीन तस्वीरों का एक कोलाज है जिनमें एक बुजुर्ग महिला को राजनेताओं के साथ दिखाया गया है | पोस्ट के साथ दावा किया जा रहा है कि तीनों तस्वीरों में अलग-अलग कांग्रेस नेताओं के साथ एक ही महिला है |

बूम ने पाया कि तस्वीरों में तीनों महिलाएं अलग-अलग हैं और कोलाज में दिखने वाले सभी लोग कांग्रेस के नहीं है, बल्कि एक नेता भारतीय जनता पार्टी का सदस्य है |

इस पोस्ट में तीन तस्वीरों का एक कोलाज है – पहली तस्वीर में कांग्रेस सांसद शशि थरूर एक महिला को गले लगा रहे हैं, दूसरी तस्वीर कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष राहुल गांधी की है जो एक बुजुर्ग महिला को गले लगा रहे हैं और ऑल्ट न्यूज के अनुसार तीसरी तस्वीर के सुरेंद्रन की है जो केरल में बीजेपी के महासचिव हैं |

यह कोलाज फ़ेसबुक और ट्वीटर पर एक कैप्शन के साथ वायरल है, जिसमें लिखा है, “ये अम्मा
कांग्रेस की रजिस्टर्ड दुखियारी है।”

यह पोस्ट फ़िलहाल कई फ़ेसबुक पेजों पर वायरल है |

पोस्ट देखने के लिए यहां क्लिक करें, और इसके आर्काइव्ड वर्शन तक इस लिंक से पहुंचे |