Indian politician mourning father in photo, not jailed ex-party member shot dead live on TV
- Published on March 14, 2024 at 09:42
- 4 min read
- By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India
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"At the grave of Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf, who were killed in an encounter, his son and daughter-in-law Akhilesh and Dimple Yadav," reads a Hindi-language Facebook post from March 5, 2024.
Gunmen shot dead former Indian politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf live on TV in April 2023 as they were being taken in handcuffs to hospital by police.
Atiq, an ex-member of parliament for the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) convicted of kidnapping and accused of murder, was answering reporters' questions when he and Ashraf were shot at close range.
The brothers were deeply involved in India's criminal underworld.
The photo shows SP leader Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav, an MP for the party, paying their respects by a grave.
"There is no dearth of traitors among Hindus," the Facebook post adds -- an apparent jibe at the Yadavs, who are Hindu, for purportedly mourning the Muslim brothers.
India is a majority Hindu country and anti-Muslim sentiment has surged since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took office in 2014.
The photo was shared in similar posts here, here and here days before the expected announcement of general elections in which Yadav's SP will join an opposition alliance hoping to unseat Modi, who will seek a third team.
Nearly a billion people are eligible to cast ballots in the elections, likely to be held in April-May. Polling dates were likely to be announced in mid-March, according to local media reports.
Father's grave
A reverse image search on Google found the photo posted on Yadav's X account on November 14, 2022 -- months before the Ahmed brothers' death (archived link).
"In the Mainpuri by-election, it's Neta ji's socialist beliefs that have been nominated as SP candidate," the Hindi-language post says in part.
'Neta ji' (leader) was the popular nickname of Mulayam Singh Yadav -- Akhilesh Yadav's father, who died aged 82 in October 2022 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo shared in false posts (left) and the photo posted on X by Akhilesh Yadav (right):
A framed photograph of the late politician -- an SP patriarch who served as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh -- is seen in one of the photos in Akhilesh's post.
मैनपुरी उपचुनाव में सपा के प्रत्याशी के रूप में दरअसल नेताजी की समाजवादी आस्थाओं का ही नामांकन हो रहा है। जिस प्रकार दलगत राजनीति से ऊपर उठकर सभी दलों के लोगों और जनमानस ने सैफई आकर नेताजी को श्रद्धांजलि दी है, उसका सच्चा परिणाम ये होगा कि सपा प्रत्याशी की ऐतिहासिक जीत होगी। pic.twitter.com/25Q4FFKSe4
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) November 14, 2022
Following Mulayam Singh Yadav's death, his daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav successfully contested his seat in the city of Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh (archived link).
She posted the same photo on November 14, 2022. She said it showed her and her husband seeking Mulayam's blessing for her to run in the by-election (archived link).
"With respectful tribute to Netaji, we are dedicating today's nomination to his principles and values. Netaji's blessings have always been with all of us, will always be there," she wrote in Hindi.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party spokesman Manoj Singh Kaka refuted claims the photo was related to the Ahmed brothers' killing.
"The picture is being shared with false claims. Akhilesh Yadav and Dimple Yadav had gone to their father's burial site at Saifai to seek blessings before the Mainpuri by-election," he told AFP on March 8, 2024.
Atiq and Ashraf Ahmed were buried in a graveyard in Prayagraj, around 370 kilometres (230 miles) from Saifai, where Mulayam Singh Yadav was cremated (archived link).
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