Former Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jawhar Sircar on Monday showed his true credentials when he posted a distasteful post with a morphed picture of Nita Ambani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, deviously claiming that the PM only lent ‘out-of-the-way’ courtesy to a few.
In the now-deleted post, Sircar posted a morphed photo where PM Modi could be seen gently bowing or doing a Namaste to Nita Ambani.
Sircar, in all his hatred for the current regime and the PM, tweeted, “Wish fellow parliamentarians and others in politics also received such courtesy and bonhomie — from their permanently-scowling PM. In a mature democracy, we would know the two-way relationship, favours, transactions. Some day, history will tell us,”
DeleteSircar pic.twitter.com/SkjcfY906A
— Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) June 7, 2021
However, turns out, the image was fake and in the original photo, it was Deepika Mondal, who runs an NGO named “Divya Jyoti Cultural Organisation and Welfare Society” and in front of whom, PM Modi was respectfully bowing.
The morphed image of Nita Ambani and PM Modi has been doing the rounds of the internet for years and even the picture with Deepika Mondal is sometimes misrepresented, as some opposition trolls claim that the lady in the image is Preeti Adani, wife of Gautam Adani.
Current Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar did not back down and sneered at his former colleague Sircar and said he was disgusted by his actions.
“Disgusting & shameful that a morphed image is being circulated in this manner. It is one thing to not like a person. But it is reprehensible that a former CEO of the Public Broadcaster and former Culture Secy is publicising fake images. We are truly embarrassed by these actions,” tweeted Shashi Shekhar.
Disgusting & shameful that a morphed image is being circulated in this manner. It is one thing to not like a person. But it is reprehensible that a former CEO of the Public Broadcaster and former Culture Secy is publicising fake images. We are truly embarrassed by these actions. https://t.co/gSkmHVHSKI
— Shashi Shekhar Vempati शशि शेखर (@shashidigital) June 7, 2021
Twitter which acts as a judge, jury and executioner in such cases if the government or particularly BJP workers post anything, did not even bother to put a ‘manipulated media’ tag on the photo. Until the time Sircar was forced to delete the photo, Twitter sat silently like a mute spectator. The urgency it had shown in dubbing Sambit Patra’s toolkit tweet as ‘manipulated media’ was nowhere to be seen in this particular instance.
Questioning Twitter’s such dubious standards, Union Minister Anurag Thakur questioned Twitter India if it will initiate action against Jawhar Sircar for peddling misleading information.
“UPA appointee fmr CEO Prasar Bharati has shared a morphed image of the Hon. Prime Minister. Will he apologise to the nation? Will Twitter India take action?” tweeted the Union Minister.
UPA appointee fmr CEO Prasar Bharati has shared a morphed image of the Hon. Prime Minister.
Will he apologise to the nation?
Will Twitter India take action?Factcheck: https://t.co/BENYYNrzQv https://t.co/XJOLMs9jmp
— Anurag Thakur (मोदी का परिवार) (@ianuragthakur) June 7, 2021
It was under Sircar’s rule that PM Modi’s 54-minute interview in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections was cut short to a 30-minute interview. After receiving the flak for chopping the interview, Sircar had unloaded the blame on then Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari for failing to grant the “operational autonomy”.
Bureaucrats and high-ranking government officials of the UPA era, who flourished under the rampant corruption and all-around lack of accountability still live in the utopian world of former years. With PM Modi not going anywhere for the foreseeable future, such elitist personalities tend to turn to personal attacks to establish the dominance of the left-liberal cabal. Jawhar Sircar did what his comrades do on a regular basis and thus it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Jawahar Sircar is a retired bureaucrat and his government pension should be stopped.