Twitter not convinced with ANI's 'Farmers' who hailed farm bills passed by Rajya Sabha
New Delhi: Amidst the political uproar surrounding the two agricultural bills passed by the Parliament on Sunday, news agency ANI found some farmers in various parts of the country who announced their support for the two bills.
In a story from Kanpur, ANI reported that farmers in the district welcomed the new agriculture reform bills.
"We welcome the farm bill but the central govt should think more about the farmers. They should exclude the role of middlemen & take steps to ensure that farmers don't commit suicide," farmers were quoted as saying by ANI.
The story was posted on Twitter by the news agency, but soon the reactions from other users made it evident that it had failed to convince people about its authenticity.
Twitterati who outrightly declared it propaganda and started finding fault in the story. Noted activist Darshan Mondkar took a dig at the story and wrote “I love the farms in Kanpur UP. I mean, look at the healthy farmers sitting in the beautiful lined trees. And check the lovely boundary wall and the iron grills over it. Then check the Gate in the background. Also notice how all these farmers have such identical looking fields. There is so much beauty in uniformity. If this is how the farms look in Kanpur..... I wonder how the rest of Uttar Pradesh looks. Disclaimer: UNESCO has declared ANI as the first News Agency in the world to take pictures of a bunch of "Ramu Kaka"s in the city garden and pass them as farmers. This is also a great contribution to Adityanath's dream of building the World's Best Film City in UP” he wrote in a Facebook post.
Here are other reactions from Twitter:
Dear @ANI, my 2 tweets thread ?
— Amit Tyagi (@hiambuj) September 21, 2020
1. All 4 "farmers" in this pic are sitting in a park, not farm.
2. Ashoka tree, Palm tree & other such plants/trees in the pics are NOT part of farming.
3. Farmer 1 & 3 wearing same brand new pink gamcha.
(1/2) https://t.co/40eegR8qQ1
These actors are farmers but the ones getting their bones broken are terrorists according to BJP's media arm ANI and propaganda face Runout respectively. https://t.co/g0F2ZJADgc
— Sangram Satpathy (@sangramsatpath9) September 21, 2020
ANI's farmers https://t.co/gnUquzBUG3 pic.twitter.com/hJvfkq3MAH
— JackBo ManHorse (@basedIITian) September 21, 2020
ANI meeting Farmers to discuss Farm Bills#BJPKilledDemocracy #AllNonsenseNautanki pic.twitter.com/Bbyd1JegZl
— Banglar Gorbo Mamata (@BengalBachao) September 21, 2020
Also what the gamcha that the "farmer" in pic 1 has around his shoulders is suspiciously brand new and similar to the one tied around the head on pic 3 ? https://t.co/SdOQIdavBm
— Suresh Mathew (@Suresh_Mathew_) September 21, 2020
ANI Went to a Park ( Look at the Gate ). Picked some “Farmers” who told them they welcome the Farm Bill and gave insights on excluding role of middlemen pic.twitter.com/YKhjeGomT2
— Joy (@Joydas) September 21, 2020
Amazing how all four farmers gave ANI the EXACT SAME quote. ?? https://t.co/brr0R12emE
— Kunal Purohit (@kunalpurohit) September 21, 2020
ANI's tweet would make it seem like these are farmers from different parts of Kanpur district. Actually, they're all sitting around the same tree.
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) September 21, 2020
And how does one ascribe the same quote to multiple people? https://t.co/eFwrO04W8L pic.twitter.com/v3eCzeUpIN
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Curbs on movement, assembly remain in force in Kashmir after protests against Khamenei's killing
Srinagar (PTI): Normal life in Kashmir was affected for the fifth consecutive day as partial restrictions on movement of people remained in force as a precautionary measure.
The restrictions were imposed on Monday after spontaneous protests broke out across Kashmir a day earlier against the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israel joint strikes.
Chief minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday held a meeting with civil society representatives and religious leaders as part of efforts to bring the situation back to normalcy.
ALSO READ: Protests against Khamenei's killing: Curbs remain in force in Kashmir
After the meeting, Abdullah appealed to people to maintain peace while expressing grief and anger in "mosques, shrines and Imambaras".
The government has shut educational institutions till Saturday, and reduced mobile internet speeds.
"Restrictions on the movement and assembly of the people continued in many parts of Kashmir on Thursday," the officials said.
A large number of police and paramilitary CRPF personnel were deployed across the city to prevent gatherings of protestors, the officials said.
They added that concertina wires and barricades were placed at important intersections leading into the city, while asserting that these were precautionary measures imposed to maintain law and order.
The iconic Ghanta Ghar in the city centre of Lal Chowk here continued to remain a no-go zone after the authorities sealed area with barricades erected all around it on late Sunday night.
The move to seal the Ghanta Ghar came after it witnessed massive protests on Sunday after Khamenei's assassination in the joint air strikes by the US and Israel.
This is the first time since August 2019 -- when Article 370 was revoked -- that protests on such a large scale have taken place in Kashmir.
