New Delhi: Academician and women’s rights activist Madhu Purnima Kishwar Tuesday tweeted a video of men in skull caps indulging in violence, in a veiled reference to last week’s communal riots in the national capital.
In the caption accompanying the video, Kishwar wrote, “Thanks to camera equipped phones in every second hand and thanks to CCTVs all over the city, we now have means to know the anatomy of riots as they happen.”
https://twitter.com/madhukishwar/status/1234658582118846468?s=20
The tweet has so far received over 5,200 retweets and 7,500 likes.
Kishwar, chair professor in the Indian Council of Social Science Research who founded women’s journal Manushi in 1979, has over 2 million followers on Twitter.
At least 47 people have been reportedly killed in the Delhi riots that left over 200 injured.
Fact check
The video shared by Madhu Kishwar is not even from India. It shows events that occurred on 1 December 2018 in Bangladesh’s Gazipur.
The original video was taken during a clash between two factions of Islamic movement Tabligh Jamaat. It was posted on YouTube by a channel called ‘News Network’. The clip shared by Kishwar has been cropped from the same.
This isn’t the first time that this video has gone viral under false pretenses. In January 2019, it went viral on WhatsApp and was shared with the caption, “Whoever has problem in selecting Lotus in 2019, should be ready to choose future. You can see India’s future. Small trailer of Islamic terrorism in Bengal is presented. Do forward after watching do people remain informed.” This was a veiled advise to people to vote for the BJP.
Kishwar has been called out several times in the past for circulating fake news. In June 2019, she tweeted a photo, which falsely showed journalist Rana Ayyub calling to uphold human rights of child rapists.
In 2018, she tweeted news about the suspension of the police officer who killed militant commander Burhan Wani in Kashmir. The Jammu and Kashmir Police had responded at the time by saying it was shocked to read the concocted information that Kishwar was sharing.
In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer.
Not the first time, unfortunately. It is such a pity watching her degeneration from a fearless independent thinker to a brainless troll.