Whole nation sighed a breath of relief when on Thursday Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan informed about the release of IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.
Tensions between India and Pakistan reached high on Wednesday as the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar in a press bring on Wednesday afternoon, confirmed that an Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot has gone missing in action and has acknowledged that Pakistan has claimed that the pilot is in their captivity.
The captured IAF pilot is Abhinandan Varthaman, a MiG 21 Bison pilot. This comes after the conflict between Indian and Pakistan escalated on Wednesday after the Pakistan Air Force violated Indian airspace in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch and Nowshera sectors. While Indian officials said that a Pakistani Air Force F-16 fighter jet was shot down in Jammu, Pakistan has claimed to have shot down two IAF aircraft and arrested two pilots.
The whole scenario had the social media engaged in a constant check of what news shared on the internet is right and what is a made up fake story.
In one such latest incident, a verified user account goes by the name “Yuva Desh”, which in its bio says that It “is an Indian youth based platform to stand against hate politics and that they are “in between a storm and we seek calm”, shared a video. In the video, a lady can be heard speaking, request political leaders to not politicize the sacrifice of the soldiers. Though the lady says that she is the wife of Army officer and that one should imagine what Abhinandan’s family is going through, the Yuvadesh handle, shares the video with the tweet wrongly calling her “Abhinandan’s wife”.
अभिनंदन की पत्नी का संदेश कि सैनिकों के बलिदान पर बीजेपी न करे राजनीति। #Abhinanadan pic.twitter.com/1bA0628I9L
— Yuva Desh (@yuvadesh) February 28, 2019
BJP’ twitter shared their disgruntledness, they tweeted, “Just when you think Rahul Gandhi’s Congress can’t stoop lower, they breach their own record. Faking a video by the name of braveheart Abhinandan’s wife for political propaganda is beyond even shameful.”
Humble request.@BJP4India dont count your seats at the cost of soldiers sacrifice #MeraJawanSabseMajboot pic.twitter.com/v749N8ygBy
— Sirisha Rao (@SirishaRao12) February 28, 2019
“Hello everyone, I am the wife of an army officer. On behalf of the families of all the armed forces, I request my fellow Indians, especially the political leaders not to politicise the sacrifice of our soldiers. It takes so much to be a soldier and just imagine the kind of tension, the kind of pain the family of Abhinandan is going through right now. So please till the time the tension is eased at the border stop your political rallies and don’t you dare, I repeat, don’t you dare snatch away the credit of our soldiers. So please stop counting your tickets and stop doing your politics. You have enough times to play your politics but not at this time and not at the cost of our soldiers’ sacrifice. It is my humble request to all political leaders, especially the BJP political leaders”, Rao had said in the video.
In an interview to boomlive, Rao said “Yes, I uploaded the video on my Twitter handle. It was an appeal to political leaders to not politicise the issue of our soldiers at the border,” she said. Rao who is a volunteer with Aam Aadmi Party said her husband was a Colonel in the Army but did not wish to divulge further details.
She further said, “In the video I clearly say I am the wife of an army officer and as we all know Varthaman is a pilot with the air force so why is it that people are sharing the video claiming I am his wife?”
Clarification Clarification Clarification.
So, Apologies. She is not Abhinandan’s wife. She is the wife of some other army personnel as claimed by her. Although she is making some very relevant points that everyone in the country should be concerned about.— Yuva Desh (@yuvadesh) March 1, 2019
On Friday, Yuva Desh tweeted, “Clarification Clarification Clarification. So, Apologies. She is not Abhinandan’s wife. She is the wife of some other army personnel as claimed by her. Although she is making some very relevant points that everyone in the country should be concerned about.”
Air Force happy Abhinandan is back; pilot taken for medical check up
