In an embarrassment for the BJP, Twitter has labelled a tweet by the head of its IT operations, Amit Malviya, as "manipulated media".
On November 28, Amit Malviya had posted the controversial tweet to counter a post by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Rahul had tweeted a photograph by PTI that showed a policeman wielding his baton against an elderly farmer during the ongoing protests in Delhi.
In his tweet, Malviya uploaded a video that appeared to suggest the elderly farmer was not hit. Malviya wrote, "Rahul Gandhi must be the most discredited opposition leader India has seen in a long long time."
However, fact-checking sites such as Alt News and Boom Live countered Malviya. Alt News analysed footage of the incident. "A longer version of the video shows two cops swinging their batons at the farmer one after the other. Malviya’s video shows only the second cop whose baton missed the farmer," Alt News stated in a post on December 1.
Boom Live tracked down the elderly farmer featured in the video, who was identified as Sukhdev Singh. "My arms have turned black and blue where the lathi hit me and there are bruises on my back too. They can say I have not been hit but I am right here if they want to come and see my injuries," Sukhdev Singh told Boom Live in an article published on December 1.
