TMC courts controversy by posting morphed pic of Rajnath Singh

Kolkata, Apr 23: The Trinamool Congress today courted a controversy by allegedly posting a morphed picture of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh offering sweets to CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat, with the BJP planning to lodge a police complaint against TMC leadership and party's national spokesperson Derek O' Brien.

The matter came into light after the TMC in its website, following a press conference of Derek O Brien, posted two videos and six pictures in the evening.

"I had conducted a press conference today and had shown two videos one of Rahul Gandhi, where he is seen criticizing the Left on one hand in Kerala and calling for an alliance with the Left in Bengal.

"Later on along with these two videos, six pictures were posted on our party website, out of which one had shown Rajnath Singh offering sweets to Prakash Karat. This picture was there on our website for quite some time. But as soon as we came to know that the picture is morphed, we removed it. The matter should end there," Brien told PTI.

When asked from where did the TMC get the picture, Brien said, "We got the picture from the internet. How come would we know that the picture is morphed? We did not morph the picture. It was there in the internet. They are making a mountain out of a mole."

BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh said the incident shows the frustration of TMC out of the fear of losing.

"The incident shows the frustration of TMC out of the fear of losing. How could they use the morphed picture of Union Home Minister of India. This shows their mindset. This is a very serious matter. We have decided to lodge a police complaint regarding this matter," Singh said.

A TMC statement later on said, "Two videos & 6 pics were shown at our press conference. We removed one pic immediately when our research team learnt it was photoshopped."

PTI