MP polls: Viral video shows Congress candidate seeking blessing in slipper slaps
Ratlam, Nov 18: The Madhya Pradesh assembly polls may have concluded but elements tied to it continue to amuse citizens, particularly those on social media.
A video of the Congress candidate from Ratlam, Paras Saklecha, gladly taking slipper slaps doled out by a fakir is being widely shared on the internet.
Saklecha, who lost the elections in 2013 and 2018, visited the fakir on Thursday with a pair of new slippers to seek his blessing.
Saklecha could not be reached despite multiple attempts.
The video shows the fakir, who lives at a dargah on Mhow road, hitting the former legislator on the head and then cheeks.
As the elderly ascetic, affectionately called by locals as Abba', continues hitting Saklecha, the Congress leader requests him to stop saying "bas, bas, ho gaya (that is enough)", as per the video.
Many people visit the fakir, who smacks them with footwear, with the belief that it would bring good omen for them. While they offer him lungis and footwear, the ascetic accepts them from a few and throws away the rest.
After receiving blows, Saklecha was heard saying, "The fakir baba has warded off evil shadows if any upon me."
The Congress nominee has been pitted against BJP's Chetan Kashyap.
Saklecha won the Ratlam assembly constituency as an independent candidate in 2008, defeating the then home minister Himmat Kothari. However, he lost to Kashyap in the 2013 and 2018 polls.
While attempts to contact Saklecha and Kashyap did not succeed, their acquaintances said they might be resting after a hectic campaigning.
Assembly elections were held in Madhya Pradesh on Friday with a voter turnout of 76.22 per cent, the highest in the state's history. Votes will be counted on December 3.
‼️GEMS OF CONGRESS — Congress candidate Paras Saklecha got himself beaten with slippers by a fakir to win the election.#MadhyaPradeshElections | #CongRSS pic.twitter.com/EV9OGVdLNS
— Mister J. - مسٹر جے (@Angryman_J) November 17, 2023
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
