Punjab farmer at Singhu sends notice to BJP for using his image in ad promoting farm laws
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New Delhi: A Punjab farmer protesting at Delhi’s Singhu border has sent a legal notice to the BJP, alleging that his photograph was used without his consent in an advertisement promoting the new farm laws.
Harpreet Singh, 36, a resident of Hoshiarpur, sent the notice Tuesday evening after spotting his photograph on the ad Monday. Singh has claimed that the BJP has now deleted the ad.
“A friend informed me Monday that my photograph has been used by the BJP for an ad that they had uploaded on the Punjab BJP’s Facebook page. The photo is from a shoot that I did for abstract art work in 2014 and was available on my Instagram and Facebook pages,” Singh, also an actor and filmmaker, told ThePrint Wednesday.
Singh said that while his photos have been used by the BJP and others for ads on other issues before, this time they used it at the wrong time and without his consent.
“They used the photograph without my consent in a bid to show that Punjab’s farmers are happy with the three laws by showing a happy farmer in the ad. But the truth is that Punjab’s farmers are not happy with the laws and are protesting,” said Singh.
The ad showed a smiling Singh alongside a message with the hashtags #MSPHaiAurRahega and #ModiWithFarmers. The ad in Punjabi read: “Crops are being bought at MSP this season. This season’s rice is being bought at MSP, 77,957.83 crore rice has been bought on MSP, of which 49 per cent was from Punjab. Some forces are misleading the farmers (sic).”
Punjab BJP ‘unaware’ of the matter
In his legal notice to the BJP, Singh has said due to the wrong and non-consensual usage of his photograph in support of the farm laws, he has “suffered huge defamation in the eyes of the farmers and others, which has resulted in mental harassment”.
“My client has been protesting against the laws both in Punjab and now at Singhu border, and the ad uses his photograph and shows that he’s supporting the laws. We sent the legal notice to the (BJP) high command Tuesday evening,” Hakam Singh, Harpreet’s lawyer, told ThePrint.
Singh, who has been protesting at Singhu for two weeks, said that while the ad has now been taken down, the damage has already been done.
“They have taken down the ad and are using a different ad since yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. But the whole country has already seen the ad and people have taken screenshots and it has been widely shared as well. The ad tries to show that we are being misled, and farmers are actually happy with the laws, but this is not true as we are protesting and are not happy with the laws,” Singh said.
The Punjab BJP, meanwhile, denied any knowledge of the incident.
“I am not aware of the details of the matter. Since the matter has been raised, I will enquire into it if such an incident has happened at all,” Ashwani Kumar Sharma, Punjab BJP chief, told ThePrint.
Thousands of farmers have been protesting against the centre’s three farm laws for over three weeks at Delhi’s borders. Farmers have claimed that the laws allow corporatisation of agriculture and fear that they will not get a fair price for their produce.
Farmers have demanded a total repeal of the laws along with a new law on MSP. The stalemate continues despite five rounds of talks between the Centre and the protesting farmer groups in which the government has agreed to make amendments, but not repeal the laws.
Courtesy: theprint.in
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
