Digvijaya Singh tweets fake picture about Bhopal flyover, apologizes
What's the story
On Monday, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh apologized for tweeting a picture of a damaged bridge of Bhopal and questioning the Bharatiya Janata Party, when in reality the structure belonged to Pakistan Alt News revealed the photo was of a damaged broken pillar in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Singh tweeted he got the image from one of his friends and expressed regret for not cross-checking.
Twitter Post
Here's what Digvijaya Singh tweeted
यह है सुभाष नगर रेल्वे फाटक भोपाल पर बन रहे रेल्वे ओवर ब्रिज का एक पोल,जिसमें आ गई दरारे/क्रैक इसकी गुणवत्ता पर सवाल उठाती हैं,अभी तो पुल भी नही बना ।एक भाजपा नेता के मार्ग दर्शन निर्माण में हो रहा है ,फिर यह सब क्यों और कैसे ? वाराणसी की दुर्घटना यहॉं भी ना हो जाये। pic.twitter.com/oycXREebp0
— digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) June 10, 2018
Quote
After Singh's comments, BJP dares him to prove cracks
Saying Madhya Pradesh didn't develop when Singh was the Chief Minister, BJP state spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal reportedly told, "If you have courage, then visit the site and point out the cracks or tender immediate apology."
History of image
Image of damaged flyover doing social media rounds since 2016
Sharing the image, Singh warned of a Varanasi-like-incident where a flyover collapse reportedly killed 18, last month. Interestingly, this particular image has been doing rounds of social media since 2016. A Twitter user claimed this was the flyover on ISB, Hyderabad route while in 2018, some users said the flyover existed in Zikarpur, Chandigarh. Whereas the truth is, it belongs to Pakistan, Alt News reported.
The reality
Later, the truth behind pillar was finally revealed
Telangana Urban Development Minister K.T Rama Rao in a tweet dated August 3, 2016, clarified the damaged flyover belonged to Pakistan. Back then, a journalist from Pakistan had flagged the concern and media outlets there spoke about the faulty design. Now, all we can hope is that the image doesn't surface on social media again.