Hindu pride and India's 'Soft Power must not be based on and cannot be built upon lies and fakery. Hinduism is bigger and better than that. A thread.
@NDTV ran this story
It showed a tweet on the occasion of #Pongal (#Sankranti) by British Prime Minister @RishiSunak (see pic), and claimed that the PM hosted a meal for his staff that was served by men in #veshti on banana leaves in the traditional style.
The original source for the story in @ndtv appeared to be a tweet by the BJP Rajya Sabha MP, Sonal ManSingh.
She is a noted Odissi classical dancer. She tagged the Indian prime Minister and her Party's official handle. It uncertain who she meant by "UK PM Office and defence"
Not just NDTV but many other Indian news outlets ran similar stories. here's Money Control and India Today's
Shubhi Mishra.
Free Press Journal fell for it too. No body seemed to ask why Rishi Sunak did not himself appear in the video. They obligingly posted a file picture of Mr Sunak along side to create the illusion that it was his party
Indian and Indian origin Twitter users were delighted to be fooled
Until boom live pricked the balloon. With this story.
boomlive.in/fact-check/fac…
Reporter Hazel Gandhi told us that the video that had by now gone viral in desi websites and internet and whatsapp chats was part of an elaborate hoax. yes there was a pongal meal served on banana leaves but it was in Waterloo, in Ontario Canada in a community hall!!
Conclusions of the story: quite a few.
1. If the story is too good to be true it probably is
2. Thai Pongal is an important festival in the Hindu calendar. Our culture is our culture. We do not need the white man's valdiation of our culture.
3. Important people like @sonal_mansingh got taken in and in their haste to curry favour with Power tagged the Prime Minister.
4. More to the point several news outlets got carried away and did not do basic sense checks.
Now I fully expect some dumbfuck ass-hole to ask me: "So You bloody Urban naxal what is so wrong if @RishiSunak serves @10DowningStreet staff a #Pongal meal on a #bananaleaf? Um UMM?"
Answer: Nothing, except that it didn't happen.
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