The Trinamool Congress on Saturday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Tripura for using an image of a flyover in Kolkata for a slogan writing competition in the state.
“Is Tripura BJP claiming that these are their roads?” the Trinamool Congress asked in a tweet. “Are there no well-maintained roads in Tripura? Has Biplab Kumar Deb really NEGLECTED DEVELOPMENT to this extent? Ridiculous how BJP repeatedly steals from the Bengal model to showcase Mamata Banerjee’s developmental work as theirs!”
The poster, shared from the Twitter handle My Gov Tripura, sought entries from people to participate in the slogan writing competition on Motor Vehicle Driving Regulations.
The tweet included a photograph of Kolkata’s Sealdah flyover, PTI reported. It was later deleted.
Tripura Trinamool Congress convener Subal Bhowmik said using the image was a “shameful” act by the state government as West Bengal’s development was “rented” to showcase Chief Minister Biplab Deb’s success, reported The Indian Express.
Trinankur Bhattacharjee, the chief of Trinamool Chhatra Parishad’s West Bengal unit, said that using the picture was nothing but recognising West Bengal’s “success in development”.
The ruling BJP claimed that the criticism showed the negativity that the Opposition parties cultivate.
“The tweet was in regards to a national level competition to show a congested road irrespective of states,” said BJP’s chief spokesperson Subrata Chakraborty. “It was aimed at making people aware about congested roads. The BJP thinks the nation comprises all the states.”
The Tripura government officials also justified the poster, saying that the image was used for a pan-India competition that was not limited to the state.
“During designing of graphics, it was not considered wherefrom it was taken,” a senior official of the state’s Information Technology Department told The Indian Express. “Since it is All India-level competition, whatever we got we have used in the graphics.”
In September, the Uttar Pradesh government had faced backlash on social media for using what appeared to be a photo of a Kolkata flyover in one of its advertisements.
The advertisement, titled “Transforming Uttar Pradesh under Adityanath” and published in The Indian Express, had shown Chief Minister Adityanath towering over a collage of what was depicted as the state’s infrastructure projects.
Twitter users were quick to point out that the flyover shown in the advertisement was actually situated in West Bengal’s capital city. They also spotted one of Kolkata’s iconic yellow taxis on the road in the image.
Soon after, The Indian Express tweeted that the advertisement was produced by the newspaper’s own marketing department, and apologised for “inadvertently” using a “wrong image”.
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