By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Yes, it is fact. Patna dailies today carried one-page Gujarat Government ad on ‘prosperity’ and ‘good living’ of Muslims in the land of Narendra Modi. But the photo that the ad carries to prove the point has just been lifted from Internet. The photo of Muslim girls learning computer is not from Gujarat, rather Azamgarh.
The full one-page ad that has published in various dailies here today, one day before Modi reaches Patna to attend the two-day BJP National Executive meet, has four pictures: one in which Modi shaking hands with skull-capped Muslims, another showing young Muslim girls in Hijab learning computer, another one showing Muslim children learning in a madrasa and one big photo of the ‘iron man.’ As evidence of Muslims’ progress in Gujarat, the ad carries these pictures wherein Muslim girls and children are shown learning. As the ad is about Muslims’ progress in Gujarat one can expect the pictures are also from the state. But here is the big lie.
Gujarat govt. ad published in Patna dailies on 10 June 2010
The picture of young Muslim girls learning computer is not from Gujarat. Neither the girls are Gujarati, nor was the picture shot in Gujarat. In fact, it is a picture of Azamgarh National Shibli College girls attending a computer class in the college campus. The picture was shot by this correspondent of TwoCircles.net during his visit to Azamgarh in November 2008. The picture was used in the November 24, 2008 TCN story titled “Muslim girls in Azamgarh getting higher education, giving tough fight to boys”
The title of the ad is: Muslims in Gujarat enjoy better education, employment opportunities, financial stability, health facilities, infrastructure. It says Muslims in the land of Modi are prosperous and enjoying better life. But this one lie could be enough to expose the lies of Gujarat Government about prosperity of Muslims in the state.
The ad has published in various dailies including Roznama Rashtriya Sahara and Pindar (Urdu), Hindustan (Hindi), Times of India and Hindustan Times (English). Here is another interesting point – a proof of disrespect towards Urdu language that is second official language in Bihar. While English dailies have carried the ad in English language and Hindi in Hindi language but Urdu dailies were not given Urdu version of the ad. Rather they were given the Hindi version of the ad which they ‘promptly’ carried.
This TCN photo was published in our story on 24 Nov. 2008