A pastor administrates rites during the funeral of a Covid-19 Coronavirus victim at a cemetery in Pune on September 7, 2020. India overtook Brazil on September 7 as the country with the second highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases (AFP / Indranil Mukherjee)

Wrong dead poet? Top Indian politician's condolence tweet has been doctored

This article is more than one year old.
Published on September 9, 2020 at 10:45
2 min read
By AFP India

A screenshot shared thousands of times on Twitter and Facebook shows a purported tweet by a top Indian politician offering condolences over the death of a poet -- who is still alive. But the image has been digitally manipulated to replace the name of Urdu poet Rahat Indori, who died in August 2020, with a different Urdu poet, Munawwar Rana, who is still alive.

The image of the purported tweet from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was shared on Facebook here on August 11, 2020.

Screenshot of misleading Facebook post

The purported Hindi tweet translates to English as: “I was deeply pained to know the demise of renowned poet Munawwar Rana. The country has lost a great person today. May his soul rest in peace and the god provide courage to bear the pain.

The Facebook post’s Hindi caption reads: “Kejriwal has sent renowned poet Munavvar Rana to heaven instead of Rahat Indori.

Rahat Indori was a renowned Urdu poet who died on August 11, 2020, after suffering a heart attack while undergoing treatment for Covid-19.

The purported image of the tweet was also shared alongside similar claims on Facebook here, here, here and here; and on Twitter here, here, here and here.

However, the claim is false.

The purported screenshot has been doctored. In his original tweet here, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accurately offered condolences to Indori on August 11, 2020.

“I was deeply pained to know the demise of renowned poet Rahat Indori,” the tweet reads in Hindi.

मशहूर शायर राहत इंदौरी साहब के निधन की खबर जानकर बेहद दुख हुआ। आज देश ने एक महान शख़्सियत को खो दिया। ईश्वर उनकी आत्मा को शांति दें और परिवार को इस दुख को सहने की शक्ति दें।
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 11, 2020

The digitally inserted name Munavvar Rana, who is another living Urdu poet, is also a different font than the original tweet.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the original tweet (L) and the doctored image of the fake tweet (R) with the different font noted in red:

Image comparing screenshot

Moreover, Kejriwal tweeted his original condolences at 6:00pm, just minutes after Indori's death was announced on his verified Twitter account here at 5:52pm.

“Rahat Sahab passed away from cardiac arrest at 5 PM today. Please pray for his salvation,” the Hindi tweet reads in English.

The purported screenshot of the fake tweet, however, has a time stamp of 4:30pm, nearly an hour and a half before the public announcement of Indori's death.

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Wrong dead poet? Top Indian politician's condolence tweet has been doctored

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