After six years of Modi being India’s Prime Minister, India’s far-left lobby has now taken to attacking well-established practices in order to attempt to malign him.
Shashi Tharoor today appeared unhappy at PM Modi sharing a picture of him being felicitated on Armed Forces Flag Day. “Why celebrate #ArmedForcesFlagDay w/ a pic of the PM being felicitated? On their day at least, could the focus be on the real heroes of the Armed Forces?” he grumbled on Twitter.
But as it turns out, the Prime Minister being felicitated by the armed forces on Armed Forces Flag day, and then sharing the picture, is a practice that goes back years. Manmohan Singh, the Congress Prime Minister who Tharoor can’t seem to stop praising, was similarly felicitated too. A picture from 2004 shows Manmohan Singh having a flag pinned on him on Armed Forces Flag Day. There was no Twitter back then, but the Prime Minister’s Office under Manmohan Singh had officially shared the picture too — it is available on the PMO Archives to this day.
Interestingly, Manmohan Singh had even shared a similar message as PM Modi on the occasion. “The Armed Forces Flag Day is a occasion to pay tribute to the courage and dedication of our soldiers and acknowledge with gratitude their valour and service to our country. I appeal to all my fellow citizens to contribute generously to the Armed Forces Flag Day fund,” the PMO had shared in 2012.
This year, PM Modi had tweeted: “Armed Forces Flag Day is a day to express gratitude to our armed forces and their families. India is proud of their heroic service and selfless sacrifice. Do contribute towards the welfare of our forces. This gesture will help so many of our brave personnel and their families.”
But Shashi Tharoor seemed to think it was fit to attack PM Modi for sharing the picture with a message to support the forces, when his own party leader in power had done the exact same thing when it power. Tharoor is a repeat offender in terms of spreading fake news to try to discredit the Modi government: in the past, he’s shared a photoshopped Times of India clipping which had said that Modi and Xi were going to “mate” 6 times in 24 hours, when the original headline had said they’d meet 6 times in 24 hours. He’s also falsely shared a photo which he claimed was the reception Nehru was receiving in the US in response to the Howdy Modi event, only to be told that the picture was from Russia. The Congress party is currently sliding into irrelevance — Rahul Gandhi has lost his family’s Amethi seat, it has a mere 52 seats in the Lok Sabha, and its losing election after election. And baseless charges like attacking the PM for sharing a picture aren’t exactly going to help its case going forward.
