Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray has been on a mission to expose the ‘lies’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his much-maligned IT Cell. On Tuesday, Thackeray held his first rally in Mumbai, where he ‘exposed’ the BJP’s agenda of morphing the photo of a family to claim the Modi government’s success on poverty reduction programme.
Addressing a huge rally in Marathi, Thackeray invited a family on stage before asking his audience to look at a large screen, where the screenshot of a BJP propaganda page was prominently displayed. The page in question was a Facebook page of ‘Modi For New India.’ Its caption read, “To provide a better life to poor is not just a slogan for Modi ji but it’s a mission. The Congress can only give the slogan of remove poverty, but it can’t do anything tangible.”
A caption was posted with a photo of Modi with a family consisting of seven members. The photo also claimed, “7.5 crore people were brought out of poverty in the last three years.” The photo posted by the ‘Modi For New India’ page implied that the family whose image was used in the Facebook post was one of the beneficiaries.
According to Thackeray, the BJP’s IT Cell had used their photo without their knowledge. He went to the extent of calling ‘that family’ on stage and said that the BJP’s IT Cell had used the personal photo that the family had shared on their Facebook page. According to Thackeray, the Laawaris BJP cadre had stolen that photo from the family’s Facebook account and used to promote its fake propaganda on its poverty reduction programme. He said that the lawaaris cadre of the BJP had no shame.
Addressing the crowd he said, “Why don’t you check for yourself? Look at the family on stage and look at the photo next to that of Modi’s. These people had no clue that they are featured in this BJP ad.”
Raj Thackeray brings an entire family on stage whose photos have been used by BJP to propagate their message of reducing poverty… that family had no clue their photo was being used…. v v embarrassing for the BJP.. crowd erupts.. https://t.co/MIREUWkaQC
— arun giri (@arungiri) April 23, 2019
Raj Thackeray’s latest act has earned him plenty of plaudits on social media. Journalist Nikhil Wagle wrote, “.@RajThackeray hits a sixer once again in his South Mumbai meeting. Presents a family on stage wrongly used in Modi’s advertisement. Public claps and cheers thunderously. I have not seen a political leader till now who exposes Modi so bluntly!”
Journalist Vijaylakshmi Nadar wrote, “Raj Thackeray brought on stage the family, whose Facebook family photo was used by the BJP IT cell, for a false “Narendra M with the poor” campaign, without their knowledge and permission and who don’t look “poor” by any standards ! What a sham this government is!”
Thackeray also played a clip of Modi’s interview given to a TV channel before the 2014 polls, when he claimed to bring back the black money stashed in foreign banks and return ‘5-10%’ of that money to taxpayers. Thackeray followed it up with another video clip of Amit Shah, who was seen confessing that Modi had made a false promise to win elections.
The MNS chief’s rallies across Maharashtra have become increasingly popular with Thackeray using the opportunity to embarrass Modi on his false claims on achievement in governance.
His party is not contesting the elections but Raj Thackeray has been holding campaign rallies across Maharashtra. His rallies have become a big hit because of the way he has been screening videos of Modi’s speeches delivered before and after the 2014 polls to establish how he fooled Indians.
