New Delhi: A 13-week-old Instagram video has gone viral after netizens linked it to the recent blast near Delhi’s Red Fort, which killed at least twelve people. The reel, originally posted nearly three months ago, appears to hint at a “major incident” that would divert attention from the alleged “vote scam” controversy in the country.
The video shows a man in a formal suit sitting pensively, with the text overlay: “When you realise something big is gonna happen in the country to overshadow the vote scam!” The clip has now crossed over 2.1 million views, drawing renewed attention amid heightened political and public tension following the Red Fort explosion.
The “vote scam” debate resurfaced last week when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Election Commission (EC) of colluding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to manipulate results in the Haryana Assembly elections. Gandhi alleged a “centralised operation” created over 25 lakh fake voters through duplicate entries and altered photographs. The EC, however, dismissed these claims as “baseless.”
Soon after the blast, social media users began revisiting the old reel, with many suggesting it “predicted” a distraction from ongoing controversies. Comments on the video reflected both shock and suspicion. One user wrote, “The silence scares me. They are plotting something big. I pray for the innocents.” Another said, “The BJP senses the ground slipping under its feet and is desperate.”
Other comments under the resurfaced video mentioned past national events such as “Terrorist attack, Demonetization, CAA, NRC,” with one user warning, “Attack hone wala hai 😢.” Some had even speculated earlier that any such incident could carry religious or communal undertones.
After the Delhi blast, the reel flooded with fresh comments like “3-month-old reel trending again! Not a proud moment but one of sorrow. Stay strong Delhi ❤️🩹” “Ho gaya...🔥 Blast in Delhi.” “Yeah, the Red Fort bomb blast as a distraction to get protests away too.” “Whenever there’s a bottleneck for BJP, they have insane plans like this… even Delhi CM must’ve known.”
Referring to similar instances, one user drew parallels with the Pahalgam attack, claiming it too coincided with Muslim protests over the Waqf Amendment Act.
Summing up the public sentiment, another commenter wrote, “How can the public be fans of a party like it’s an IPL team? They’re public servants treating us like pawns while filling their pockets.” The same user alleged that agencies like the EC and EDI were being misused, urging citizens to “wake up before it’s too late.”
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Chandigarh (PTI): No nation can progress unless small shopkeepers and traders are protected and given ease of doing business, Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday.
Kejriwal made the remarks while addressing the maiden meeting of the Punjab State Traders Commission in Mohali, where he was accompanied by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
The former Delhi chief minister said that through the commission, local markets will be upgraded, and long-pending small issues of shopkeepers will be resolved.
He said the purpose of the commission is to make the tax system simpler, more transparent, and trader-friendly.
"Till now, in our country, traders and businessmen have been viewed with a very negative mindset. No matter which government or which party ruled, everyone treated traders as thieves," Kejriwal said.
"I pray that one day our government is formed at the Centre and we free you from GST. There is a kind of tax terrorism going on," he said.
Kejriwal termed the traders also a victim of politicians, who, he said, only remember them during elections and then, once in power, to extort money till the next election.
"I come from a trading family. I understand the pain and suffering of a trader. You may remember how, as children, we used to go to the village during summer holidays. My uncle there had a grocery shop at the bus stand. During summer vacations, many times I would manage the entire shop alone for days. I understand the pain of a shopkeeper," he said.
The AAP leader said the governments always talk about big investments everywhere. "But no one ever paid attention to the small shopkeeper running a grocery store, a clothing shop, a bread shop, a tile shop, or shops in small markets."
Attacking the rival parties in Punjab, he said that after their run was over, neither the Akali Dal nor the Congress would have dared to go among the public and seek honest feedback.
"After four years, they would face such abuse that I do not think the Congress government would have had the courage to pass around a microphone in a public gathering and say, speak whatever you want … If it had happened during the Akali Dal government, the microphone would not have returned," he said.
