NEW DELHI -- The Bharatiya Janata Party is not amused.
Raghav Chopra, a journalist with CNN-IBN, invited the wrath of the BJP after he tweeted a morphed image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi touching the feet of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
"Will someone tell me what's Modi ji doing in Saudi? Can't be what it looks like surely," Chopra said in the tweet, which he has now deleted.
The original photo has Modi touching the feet of the BJP's veteran leader L.K. Advani.
On Monday, the BJP filed a complaint against Chopra with the Delhi Police.
Modi recently traveled to Saudi Arabia as part of his three-nation trip during which he also attended the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C.
Earlier this week, Mahesh Girri, National Secretary of the BJP, urged "strict action" against Chopra.
"Outside India, PM represents the nation. By showing PM @narendramodi as bowing to the Saudi King, @AarSee has insulted India." Girri said on Twitter.
"Hatred overriding ethics," he tweeted.
Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister Of State for Information & Broadcasting, tweeted back: "Dear Shri @MaheishGirri Ji, I have instructed @MIB_India to review the violations."
Over the course of the past few years, BJP supporters and even the Modi government's IT cell has shared morphed images of Modi.
A black-and-white photo of Modi holding a broom was fake.
Modi's photo posted by Press Information Bureau, which showed him in a helicopter during an aerial survey of flood-hit Chennai, was also photoshopped.
When attacked by right-wing trolls, Chopra initially defended his post. But as the situation became increasingly grave, Chopra tweeted out an apology.
"I sincerely regret posting a morphed picture of the PM on my Facebook page. I should have also verified its authenticity before tweeting it," he said. "I apologise to everyone concerned for this unfortunate error on my part."
Since my TL has exploded here's a clarification: that pic was posted saying its NOT a genuine pic. Expected to get the original which I did
— Raghav Chopra (@AarSee) April 3, 2016
Priya bhakto "can't be what it looks like" means there's something fishy in the image. Unsurprisingly you lot can't understand basic English
— Raghav Chopra (@AarSee) April 3, 2016
CNN-IBN also tweeted out an apology following the backlash against Chopra's tweet.
The organisation was not aware of this unfortunate lapse of judgement. We apologise to everyone for this confusion & deeply regret the error
— CNN-IBN News (@ibnlive) April 4, 2016
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