Dear Indian Express – an apology doesn’t cut it. Your advert looked like a plan to defame Yogi Government

National daily Indian Express is in the midst of controversy once again. The publication on Sunday (September 12) was forced to tender an apology after the marketing department of the newspaper committed a blunder whilst publishing the full front page advertisement of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Talking about how the ad had been removed from the digital editions of the newspaper, Indian Express apologised by tweeting, “A wrong image was inadvertently included in the cover collage of the advertorial on Uttar Pradesh produced by the marketing department of the newspaper. The error is deeply regretted and the image has been removed in all digital editions of the paper.”

Pictures of Kolkata’s Maa flyover used

The said ad was about how Yogi Adityanath had transformed UP since assuming the chair in 2017. The piece stated, “Uttar Pradesh, in 2021, is a vastly changed place”, whilst adding that the state had become India’s second richest in terms of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

However, a cluster of photos on the bottom left corner showed Kolkata’s Maa flyover and other buildings in its vicinity. Apart from that, the brown-glassed building shown next to the flyover is the JW Marriott hotel in Kolkata. One could also see the ITC Sonar hotel next to it. The two hotels are next to each other in the city and overlook the Maa flyover.

Textbook mistake or hit job?

A textbook mistake, such as this, could only have been made if an intern was leading the marketing department. It is the rudimentary step to double or triple check the data and photos when an ad brief comes from the government, and that too a powerful government like Uttar Pradesh. Hence it appears that it was an evident hit job from an insider who wanted to target Yogi Adityanath.

Damage already done

While Indian Express did issue an apology, the damage had already been done as Trinamool Congress (TMC) and other opposition party leaders, as well as a few propagandists, used it as an opportunity to target CM Yogi. Moreover, the apology might not have reached the intended audience, while the falsehood by the politicians was amplified manifolds.

Motormouth TMC leader Mahua Moitra took to Twitter to call out Yogi. She tweeted, “Thuggy Yogi in his UP ads with Kolkata’s MAA flyover, our JW Marriott & our iconic yellow taxis! Change your soul or at least your ad agency Gudduji! P.S. Looking forward to FIRs against me in Noida now :-)”

Mamata’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, also chimed in and inadvertently accepted that UP was, indeed, the strongest state.

“Transforming UP for @myogiadityanath means stealing images from infrastructure seen in Bengal under @MamataOfficial’s leadership and using them as his own! Looks like the ‘DOUBLE ENGINE MODEL’ has MISERABLY FAILED in BJP’s strongest state and now stands EXPOSED for all!” tweeted Banerjee.

Serial RTI activist Saket Gokhale, the newest recruit of TMC, didn’t waste a heartbeat to please his masters and tweeted, “Lol the image on the bottom left is from Kolkata – of the Maa Flyover. Zoom in & you can also see the iconic Kolkata yellow ambassador taxi on the flyover. “Transforming UP” means spending millions on newspaper ads around India & stealing pics of development in Kolkata?”

Self-proclaimed expert of everything under the sun, Dhruv Rathee thought taking Yogi Adityanath’s birth name would be a way to show his sarcasm. He tweeted with a smiley face emoji, “Front page ad of Ajay Singh Bisht Pictures of development stolen from West Bengal,”

While the newspaper committed a grievous faux pas, those trying to project Kolkata or West Bengal as a much-developed state than Uttar Pradesh should pipe down. Romanticizing poverty, dilapidated buildings and falling flyovers do not amount to development. Noida alone can give the entire Eastern state a run for its money. However, the Yogi Adityanath administration government shouldn’t allow Indian Express to go scot-free with an innocuous-looking apology letter. The truth behind the ad and who added the false images need to come out.