Kolkata: A post is being circulated by Facebook page – Paschim Bange BJP Chai (We want BJP in Bengal) since Monday. It has already been shared more than 11000 times on social media and has attracted over three hundred comments.
The post in question is a news about former Indian Cricket team captain, the prince of Bengal, Sourav Ganguly having joined the West Bengal Chapter of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The page has over 8300 followers.
The post written in Bengali, declared, “Former cricket captain Sourav Ganguly joins BJP and PM Narendra Modi’s sabka saath sabka vikas agenda, is joined by an honest, dedicated man who is loved by India. Today is a day of celebration ……let’s share the news”.
This is not the first time that a political party is trying to rope in Sourav or dada, as he is affectionately called in Bengal. In the past CPIM, TMC and BJP have tried their best to rope in the cricket icon of Bengal. However, till date, Sourav, who is currently serving Cricket Association of Bengal as its president, has always smartly turned down such offers, stating that he is not interested in joining politics.
BJP, who is trying to secure firm footings in Bengal, has been trying its best to rope in the veteran cricketer since 2013. In 2015 mainstream media went overboard with speculative stories about Sourav joining BJP. The speculative news were so many in number that the ace cricketer had to issue a public statement, to douse all the speculations of him joining the saffron brigade.
A similar attempt is now being made by spreading the fake news of dada having joined BJP. This attempt definitely is not the first time that BJP has tried to create opinions related to Bengal by spearheading a fake propaganda. Prominent BJP leaders like Babul Suprio and Paresh Rawal have been left red faced for having circulated fake news or images.
Perhaps, some understand the trend for spreading fake propagandas, for a good number of comments condemned the Page Admin for posting fake news. Mriganka Das, one of the members of the page, wrote, “Toder jonnoye BJPer naam kharap hochchey, Ki dorkar fake news dewaar? (It’s for people like you that BJP is earning a bad name. What was the need of posting this fake news?). While maximum followers were elated about Sourav joining the BJP, a few even pitched him as the next Chief Ministerial candidate. However, the most alert or proactive members of the group was Uparendra Nath Brahmachari, who calls himself a nationalist, but not a blind one. He posted a link on the thread that he had earlier, reported a similar post made by Pashchim Bange BJP Supporter (Supporters of BJP in West Bengal). The screen grab of his twitter handle shows him tagging both Sourav and Kolkata Police, thereby alerting both about the fake news circulation.
However, Sourav is yet to make any official comment regarding the same.
