H Raja is a considerably popular name in the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP. Among his claims to fame include his credential as a former MLA and being a national secretary of the saffron party.
Just like any other BJP leaders, Raja too has been actively pushing the RSS agenda in the southern most state of India. The party’s heavy electoral defeat in 2016 assembly elections hasn’t stopped the BJP leaders from aspiring to form their first ever government here in future.
But, Raja is facing condemnation for sharing a photoshopped quotes of the Google CEO, Sundar Pichai.
This was after a fake WhatsApp message attributed to Pichai went viral on social media platforms. In the first fake WhatsApp message, Pichai was alleged to have slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his priority on banning beef when the unemployment remained so high in the country. (See below)
Curiously, the author of this fake quote has spelt the surname of the India born Google CEO by adding an additional ‘t’ in Pichai.
In response, the BJP’s social media team in Tamil Nadu unit came up with another fake quotes being attributed to Pichai. Here too, the Google CEO had his surname wrongly spelt.
While in the first purported message, Pichai was reported to have slammed Modi, in the second message, posted in Tamil, he’s accused of having shifted his focus to a relatively nondescript Tamil politician, Naam Thamilar Party’s chief, Seeman.
The message (see above) read, “Seeman (Chief of Naam Thamilar Party) is a Tamilian then why is he only criticising Hindu religion and how come Urdu speaking Muslims and English speaking Christians become Tamils. The reason why I am putting out this message in Tamil is because Seeman is not a Tamilian. For some gains he is pretending to be a Tamilian. Dear Seeman, do not insult Tamils.”
Not only did Raja share this fake message, he also praised Pichai for ‘good slap on the face of Tamil pretender’ Seeman.
Raja faced instant condemnation for sharing fake quotes of Pichai, prompting him to delete the tweet.
SIR, Mr.H raja @HRajaBJP of BJP is misusing your name by his fake WhatsApp forward shares. Kindly give a statement about it. Thank you 🙂
— தமிழ்ப்பித்தன் (@manojsamuel0812) June 2, 2017
Who knows -Cow vigilante, Peacock, H raja fake forwards could be a well planned distraction plan. https://t.co/udsXPoAgs6
— அருண்/ Arun (@arunk158) June 1, 2017
https://twitter.com/007tamilan/status/870330309388025856
The BJP has come under severe criticism on more than one occasion for resorting to fake social media propaganda in order to polarise voters along the religious lines.
The BJP supporters had made desperate attempts last year when a murder of Infosys techie, Swathi, was made out to be a case of a love jihad. Swathi’s murderer had turned out to be one Ram Kumar, a jilted lover.
