Yashwant Sinha is back in the news. The former finance and external affairs minister, who served as a senior leader of the BJP, has turned increasingly critical of the central government—and over the weekend, he formally joined the Trinamool Congress weeks before the election in West Bengal.
On his decision to join TMC ahead of the assembly elections in West Bengal, the former Union minister said, “The tipping point was the attack on Mamata Ji in Nandigram. It was the moment of decision to join the TMC and support Mamata Ji.” “The country is facing an unprecedented situation today. The strength of democracy lies in the strength of the institutions of democracy. All these institutions including the judiciary have become weak now,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
He added that the BJP under the leadership of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee believed in consensus but “today’s government believes in crushing and conquering,” according to ANI. “Akalis and the BJD have left the BJP. Today, who is standing with BJP?” he asked.
Following this, on social media, a screenshot of an apparent tweet by the 83-year-old politician has gone viral. The “tweet” in the form of a rhyme says India has deteriorated since BJP came to power.
Several Facebook users have posted the alleged screenshot of the tweet from the handle “@YashwantSinhaa”. The Hindi text translates to, “Love can spoil a son, and gifts can spoil women. A servant can be spoiled by greed, and friendships ruined by betrayal, farmers by demonetisation and businessmen by GST. Voting for BJP has damaged India. This has been issued in public interest. Thank you.”
Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the screenshot is morphed. Neither has Sinha tweeted any such rhyme nor does the apparent Twitter handle belong to him.
It was found that the official Twitter handle of Yashwant Sinha is “@YashwantSinha.” In fact, there is no existence of the Twitter handle “@Yashwant Sinhaa”. With the help of “Advanced Twitter Search”, we could not find that Sinha ever tweeted the same content.
A comparison between a genuine tweet from Sinha’s verified handle and the viral image reveals glaring differences between the two in terms of font and the blue tick.
The viral rhyme which was tweeted, has been available on social media for several years and used many a time with modifications.
Hence, it is confirmed that though Sinha has tweeted critically against the Modi government on several occasions, the viral post has been falsely attributed to him.
