BENGALURU: A Bengaluru advocate’s tweet with the image of a hoarding — eulogising the Uttar Pradesh government — on Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) Road on Monday sparked a war of words between him and an Uttar Pradesh IAS officer.
While IAS officer Shishir, tweeted it was ‘fake news’ and tagged UP cyber police, Shishira Rudrappa, co-founder of Bar and Bench portal, debunked the claim by posting videos of the hoarding.
On Tuesday morning, the hoarding on the roadside in the airport campus was removed. Posting a video of the same, the advocate tweeted: “Now the hoarding is being removed! Managed to capture a video!”
Shishira Rudrappa was heading to the airport when he noticed a hoarding with messages —“Uttar Pradesh No 1 in the country” and “Government jobs for 4 lakh youth” — and photos of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Posting an image, Shishira tweeted: “UP election campaign has begun in Karnataka.”
Within a few hours, Shishir, director, information and public relations, Uttar Pradesh government, tweeted back: “Be responsible. Don’t spread fake news please. No such advertisement given anywhere in the State of Karnataka. @dgpup @cyberpolice_up.” Joining in, UP cyber police tweeted: “Noted please. Appropriate legal action will be taken against this twitter handle.”
Lawyer Shishira countered, tweeting, “Mr Shishir ji, What fake news is this? I just put a picture of the hoarding you have put all over Bangalore Airport! Anyone can see this!” Soon, Shishira recorded a video with the help of his staff and shared it on social media. While all this was happening, Shishira was attacked online with several netizens claiming his post was false. Some Twitter handles contending to be ‘fact check’ pages said the image was not from Karnataka.
Shishira told TOI that he just posted what he saw and there was no other intention. Earlier on Monday, he also posted the image of the same hoarding in Delhi. “I landed in Delhi. Here is another picture. This is right outside Delhi airport,” he tweeted.
