Amidst the escalating tension after the Pulwama attack and India barely recovering from it, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers came up with a startling idea. According to reports, the TMC IT cell and social media brigade is working overtime to translate and disseminate anti-India reports and lies peddled by international media and specifically Pakistani media. Mamata Banerjee’s party is doing so, as it will help them in substantiating anti-India propaganda.
Recently, Mamata Banerjee had openly questioned the accounts of Indian forces regarding the airstrikes. “From the very beginning, we have been hearing on national television channels that 300-350 persons have died in the air strike. We want to know how many people actually died. Did anyone die at all? Where were the bombs dropped? Were the bombs dropped at the right place?” uttered Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna.
Citing the reports of international publications and news agency as source, the Chief Minister said that she had read reports “no such incidents took place”. “The bombs fell in some other place and missed the target. Some of them are saying that only one person died,” she added quoting the reports of the publication.
After Mamata’s statement, TMC cadre seems to be working on steroids and burning the mid-night oil to peddle the vague propaganda or narrative, if one might call it so, of international media. “We have already circulated the reports in Bengali in social media space. Our teams are also translating these articles in Odiya, Assamese, Hindi and some other regional languages as well,” said a senior TMC leader in charge of TMC’s cyber cell.
Moreover, Mamata Banerjee is always the first one to level charges against the Modi government on each and every issue. However, she is not the only one from TMC to make a vague comment on the BJP government. Following Mamata’s footstep, TMC MP Derek O’Brien too tweeted, “Twenty years from now when people ask my generation of politicians ‘what were you doing when most in the TV media were dishing out irresponsible tripe’ what would I say: we tweeted about it ? No. We can’t let this happen. Mamata Banerjee is asking the direct questions. We must too.”
Lashing out against the TMC’s ‘anti-national’ comment, BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijaywargiya said, “Mamata Banerjee is making irresponsible and anti-national comments. Three top officials of our armed forces presented the truth on Thursday. With these kinds of comments, she is helping Pakistan. She is not believing our forces, our media, but trusting the foreign media and Pakistan government. These statements hit the morale of our soldiers. This is unpardonable”.
The propaganda peddling of Mamata and TMC is nothing but an act of desperation and she is doing so to stay politically relevant. The BJP has emerged as the biggest challenger to TMC as it has started getting all the ground support in West Bengal and looks set to retain power in the centre in the upcoming general elections.