Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT Cell used an altered image of an Indian Muslim citizen to allege that Pakistanis were supporting the anti-CEC protests in the United Kingdom alongside influencer Dhruv Rathee.
An image of Saddam Hussein, a native of Gujarat, holding a Pakistani flag made rounds on social media, amplified by the right-wing ecosystem.
BJP Delhi shared the picture on its Instagram account along with other images generated using artificial intelligence (AI). The caption read, “Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal gathered some people by calling their gang to defame India in London.. see who came in support.”
The protests in question were the demonstration held outside the Mahatma Gandhi statue in London’s Parliament Square on October 17, which Dhruv Rathee also attended.
Hussein, who currently resides in the UK, uploaded a video clarifying his Indian citizenship status. “Hello friends, mera naam hai Saddam Hussein aur mera Instagram pe account ka naam hai ‘saddyjordan‘ (Hello friends, my name is Saddam Hussein and my Instagram account name is ‘saddyjordan’),” he said in the clip.
He said he saw several protesters had surrounded Dhruv Rathee. “I made a small video on it and uploaded it on Twitter. That video became quite viral,” he said.
Following the virality of the video, Hussein said the Delhi BJP IT Cell account edited a five-year-old photo of him in which he was originally holding a phone and replaced it with a Pakistani flag.
“What the Delhi BJP IT Cell account did was edit a five-year-old photo of mine and place a Pakistani flag in my hand, whereas in the original photo, I am holding an iPhone,” he said.
“This is how these people defamed me and falsely claimed I am a Pakistani.”
Dhruv Rathee hit back at the fake claims in a reply to the popular husband-wife content creators Abhi and Niyu, who shared the edited images of Hussein. “Charanvandana couple spreading fake news once again. Do you get orders from BJP directly to defame Indian citizens like this?” he wrote on X.
The London protest came amid nationwide agitations against the Election Commission and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls across the country that saw mass voter deletion.
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Source: The Siasat Daily
