Kolkata: Every passing day, the confrontation between the supporters of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) is taking a new direction. On Thursday, save Bengal from BJP was trend on Twitter. However, in the evening, communal TMC and later Mamata abandoned Kartik had also trend.
But, the political analysts found that more than TMC supporters it was the Bengalis, who ran the hashtag campaign, which ultimately was trending as the top three campaign on twitter on Thursday.The reason, simply being that TMC is yet to develop as huge a IT cell, which BJP across India boasts of.
“Soon after Baduria violence, BJP supporters ran the save Bengal hashtag, and now a related hashtag campaign is going against the BJP. This is an interesting development,” said a political analyst.
“It is now our responsibility to save our state, from divisive politics. I have requested my friends of Facebook and Twitter to join this campaign. The response is overwhelming,” responded a Twitterate, but did not want to be named.
But, how did #SaveBengalfromBJP trend on Twitter? One major reason seems to be the, third arresting in the fake news case. The arresting of the BJP IT cell secretary from Asansol for his alleged role in circulating fake images to instigate Baduria violence, is an important development.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Wednesdayarrested the secretary of BJP IT cell Tarun Sengupta from Asansol for allegedly posting ‘fake’ images and video on social media. He had posted a fake video of two Muslim IPS officers beating two devotees during Hanuman Jayanti in Bengal. A case under non-bailable sections of IPC was registered against Sengupta in Suri police station of Birbhum district.
Twitteratis were also angry on BJP MLA Raja Singh, who released a video and openly instigate violence in Bengal. He had called on Hindus to attack Muslims of Bengal.
Kolkata Police has also registered two non—bailable cases against BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, for sharing a photo of 2002 Gujarat riots in social media and claiming it to be an image captured during the communal tension at Baduria last week. Cases have been registered at the Gariahat and Regent Park police stations under five different sections of the Indian Penal Code. Both the police stations have received complaints from citizens.
Last week, the first arresting took place. Cyber Crime Cell of Kolkata arrested Bhabatosh Chatterjee from Sonarpur for posting a still photo of a Bhojpuri movie ‘Aurat Khilona Hai’ and passing it off as a photo depicting the plight of Hindu women in Baduria near Basirhat.
A judicial inquiry headed by retired High Court judge Soumitra Pal, has been set up to find out how the communal flare-up in Basirhat was instigated.The purpose of this inquiry is to identify those who instigated the violence by sharing fake news, movie stills or new clippings on social media. Some of the share media inputs were of international territories like Comilla in Bangladesh.
There were reports that on Thursday evening another person in connection with fake news propaganda has been arrested. This is the fourth arresting for hate mongering via social media in Bengal.
“Our investigation is on. We have requested civil society to inform us if they see anything fake on the social media and the response is encouraging,” said ADG CID Rajesh Kumar.
