NEW DELHI: A day after fake photo of former President Pranab Mukherjee attended an RSS event in Nagpur saluting in the RSS style with a black RSS cap flooded the social media on Friday, it has emerged that the culprit behind doctoring his photo was being followed by PM Modi.
According to a report by India Today which launched an investigation into the photo-shopped image the man responsible for morphing the image of Mukherjee was one Mihir Jha, who is in his ‘Bio’ section mentions “Proud to be followed by PM @narendramodi”.
The’viral test’ report of India Today said that it was Jha, who had first requested his friends @Athiest_Krishna on Twitter, who were experts in photoshopping images, to see if the former president’s image could be doctored to make him look like he was wearing an RSS cap.
This is what @MihirKJha wrote: ”Bhai @Athiest_Krishna, can u put one black cap over his head and change hand gestures? Asking for a friend from Congress IT Cell.”
Speaking to India Today, the man confessed to his involvement in manipulating ex-President’s image calling it a ‘pure entertainment.’
The 82-year-old Congress veteran on Thursday addressed the RSS cadre had stood in an attention position during recitation of Sangha Prarthana as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members around him, including its chief Mohan Bhagwat, stood with one hand folded horizontally at the chest level.
Mukherjee’s daughter and Congress leader Sharmistha Mukherjee expressed anguish at the morphing of the photo, saying they had feared as much and shared the real picture showing Mukherjee standing upright along with the fake one.
“See, this is exactly what I was fearing and warned my father about. Not even few hours have passed, but BJP/RSS dirty tricks department is at work in full swing,” Sharmistha lashed out on Twitter as she shared the two pictures.
See, this is exactly what I was fearing & warned my father about. Not even few hours have passed, but BJP/RSS dirty tricks dept is at work in full swing! https://t.co/dII3nBSxb6
— Sharmistha Mukherjee (@Sharmistha_GK) June 7, 2018
However, the RSS hit back saying “some divisive political forces” that did not want Mukherjee at the RSS event were behind the morphed photo.
“Some divisive political forces have posted a morphed photo of Pranab Mukherjee…,” RSS Sahsarkaryavah Manmohan Vaidya said in a statement.