The first day of a new week and a section of Indian media decided to peddle a freshly baked fake news story, which was then hysterically shared on by the country’s liberals without any verification, and soon gave rise to a political slugfest in which the Modi government soon found itself getting accused of not knowing what Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose looked like. No less than the President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind found himself amidst a massive storm of liberal creation, which has now proven to be a great grand dud, leaving Lutyens media and the country’s liberals with nothing but eggs on their faces.
It all began with a tweet by the President’s official handle, where he shared some pictures on Saturday paying respects to legendary freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. However, in the eyes of some the portrait which India’s President was paying respects to was not of Netaji, but of actor Prosenjit Chatterjee, who played Netaji in a Bengali film that dealt with his mysterious death titled Gumnaami, directed by Srijit Mukherjee. After a substantial period of time, though, netizens realised that the portrait was most definitely of Netaji himself, and not of any actor as liberals were alleging.
President Kovind unveils the portrait of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at Rashtrapati Bhavan to commemorate his 125th birth anniversary celebrations. pic.twitter.com/Y3BnylwA8X
— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) January 23, 2021
https://twitter.com/ItsShubhangi/status/1353645436859510785?s=20
The Government insists that the Netaji portrait in the @rashtrapatibhvn is an original portrait and not from a movie. Tweet deleted. An official clarification likely to be made soon. This is the pic from the movie👇 pic.twitter.com/XbJ7jrvWn8
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) January 25, 2021
A lot of folks (including me, though I have deleted my snarky tweet) have some egg on their faces today. https://t.co/RIemu5msW4
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) January 25, 2021
Liberals and left-leaning journalists, except for only Shiv Aroor of India Today perhaps, took to moral supremacism of sorts as they lectured the President of India about the appearances of Netaji Bose and how he, by paying tributes to an actor had, in fact, embarrassed the country. Sagarika Ghose said that the country cannot have a “fake Netaji up on the hallowed walls of Rashtrapati Bhawan”, while her husband, Rajdeep Sardesai contemplated about why the President’s office could not find a real portrait of Netaji. All gem-like commentaries regarding the fiasco can be found in the tweet attached below. Mahua Moitra said that after donating Rs. 5 lakhs towards the construction of Ram Mandir, the President was now unveiling fake Netaji portraits.
Look At the Audacity with which #LutyenGang paddles Fake News. Their Pathological Hatred for @narendramodi has blinded them so much that they see a Bengali Actor in Bose's Original Portrait. Morons. pic.twitter.com/QChJPUmLfi
— Dr. Manish Kumar (@DrManishKumar1) January 25, 2021
However, as time passed, many realised that they, in their endeavour to teach the President of India about how he should learn the art of paying tributes from liberals, had made a grand fool out of themselves. As matters stand now, almost all moral grandstanders have realised that they were wrong, which is why they have now taken to deleting their tweets. As expected, apologies were not seen being issued by the know-alls.
Clearly we need more images and statues of Netaji.
There is a petition at change.org for installing a statue near India Gate