At a rally on Tuesday, 23 April, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray brought an entire family on the stage, revealing that their photo had been used by the BJP to further their propaganda without the family’s knowledge.
Addressing a huge rally in Maharashtra, Thackeray invited the family on stage before asking the crowd to look at a large screen, which displayed the screenshot of a BJP Facebook page.
The page in question was a post by a Facebook page called ‘Modi For New India’. The post was a photo of a family, with a photo of PM Modi alongside, captioned, “To provide a better life to poor is not just a slogan for Modi ji but it’s a mission. The Congress can only give the slogan of remove poverty, but it can’t do anything tangible.”
The photo also claimed, “7.5 crore people were brought out of poverty in the last three years.” The post implies that the family was one of the beneficiaries of a poverty reduction scheme during Modi’s tenure.
Thackeray revealed that the family had no idea that their photo, which the leader said they had posted on Facebook, had been picked up and used by the BJP's IT cell to push the success of their poverty reduction scheme.
“Why don’t you check for yourself? Look at the family on stage and look at the photo next to that of Modi’s. These people had no clue that they are featured in this BJP ad,” he said, addressing the crowd.
Thackeray was appreciated on social media for his revelation, with many patting him on the back for revealing one of the BJP’s ‘lies’.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)