Licypriya Kangujam, an 11-year-old environmental activist from Manipur, has called out a tweet by a Samajwadi Party leader that identified her as a "foreign tourist".
The child activist had recently shared a photo from near the Taj Mahal to spread awareness on plastic pollution behind the iconic monument. In the photograph, she held a placard that read, "Behind the beauty of Taj Mahal is plastic pollution".
The post sparked criticism of authorities, with many targeting the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh.
Samajwadi Party leader Manish Jagan Agrawal tweeted in Hindi, “Foreign tourists are also forced to show mirror to BJP-ruled Yogi government. Yamuna ji is full of filth under the BJP government. This filth is a bad stain on the beauty of the Taj Mahal. It is very shameful for foreign tourists to show mirror to the government. This image of India and UP has been created by the BJP government.”
Calling out the error, the 11-year-old activist tweeted, “Hello Sir, I'm a proud Indian. I'm not a foreigner.”
Mr Agrawal also commented on Ms Kangujam's post, citing media coverage of the story. He wrote, “Please read the news” and attached several news story headlines.
Later, Mr Agrawal corrected his mistake through a tweet. Once again, he shared Ms Kangujam's photo at the Taj Mahal and wrote, “This picture was shown by a news channel yesterday, in which this daughter of India was described as a foreigner, due to wrong news of the channel, there was a mistake in understanding.”
He praised the child activist's efforts, saying, “This daughter of India's save environment campaign is appreciated and we all are with this daughter of India.” He added, “Whatever confusion happened was because of the news channel.”
However, Mr Agrawal's error drew flak on social media, with many users pointing out that he should have checked facts before tweeting.
Reacting to Ms Kangujam's post, some Twitter users extended a helping hand to solve the plastic pollution issue around the Taj Mahal.
One user wrote, “Dear Daughter, please call me when you plan to collect the litter which you have shown in the picture. I'll be there to help you and we together will make India clean.”
Licypriya Kangujam's later posted that her tweet had prompted a cleanliness drive at the site.
She also shared that the Agra Municipal Corporation had imposed fine of Rs 1 lakh on the authority responsible for keeping the area around Taj Mahal clear.
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