The Congress drew a stinging rebuke from the BJP today after posting by mistake an old video in its attempt to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in Jaipur on Saturday. The video, where protesters can be heard railing against Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, was from another event at least five months ago, fact-checking website Boom reported.
"Congress scores a self goal (as always) on Twitter. Claims a 5 month old video is from the prime minister's rally in Jaipur on Saturday," BJP's IT in-charge Amit Malviya tweeted today.
Congress's social media in-charge Divya Spandana was prompt in her retort.
Yes we did make that mistake. But the content is real. Will you acknowledge Amit? Be a man, you can :) https://t.co/EKGShG3vA9
- Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) July 8, 2018
On Saturday, the Congress and Ms Spandana had tweeted the video suggesting that PM Modi's rally, said to be the informal launch of the BJP's campaign for the Rajasthan assembly elections later this year, faced anger and discontent from people.
Many leaders and supporters of the party shared the video on social media as well to target the BJP. The Congress also alleged that they were being blocked by Facebook from uploading the video.
While PM Modi is gaining control of @facebook, he's losing control of his cadre. Open infighting on display at PM Modi's Jaipur rally. https://t.co/aedJDz6aN5
- Congress (@INCIndia) July 7, 2018
Once the error was pointed out, Ms Spandana offered an apology of sorts. "Apologies: apparently this video is from March and not yesterday...gosh Rajasthan BJP lost it that long back?? (sic)," she tweeted.
The Twitter spat comes in the middle of a debate on fake videos circulated on social media and instant messaging apps in India. Besides political polarisation, fake videos in recent weeks have been blamed for a growing number of mob attacks in the country.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
