Fact Check: Flag Hoist Fails Are Not a Big Deal. So, Why Did DD Delete Its Tweet?

Amit Shah’s awkward mishap with the national flag on Independence Day was broadcast live and tweeted by Doordarshan. It is interesting to note that even though the BJP didn’t consider it necessary to delete the tweet, the public broadcaster felt the need for self-censorship.

“Tch, tch, tch…disaster”, a voice can be heard reacting spontaneously. The flag hoisting ceremony at the BJP Headquarters to mark India’s 72nd Independence Day did not quite go as per plan. As soon as the BJP president Amit Shah pulled the string, the national flag came crashing to the ground. Though Shah ultimately managed to hoist the flag, the embarrassing moment was not only broadcast live but also tweeted by Doordarshan. The clip is viral on social media and has been shared by opposition parties to mock Shah and the BJP. For critics of BJP, it was poetic justice that this embarrassing incident should happen to the president of a party that flaunts its nationalist credentials and whose supporters spend their time on social media outraging about real and imaginary insults to the national flag and national anthem.

This awkward mishap could happen to anyone. But interestingly, Doordarshan’s tweets with video clips of the incident have gone missing. Yes, India’s public broadcaster, Doordarshan has decided to cover up Amit Shah’s flag blooper and deleted two tweets.

The deleted tweets carried a video of the incident along with the text, “BJP President @AmitShah unfurls the national flag at party headquarters in Delhi.” A. Surya Prakash, Chairman, Prasar Bharati and Shashi Shekhar, CEO Prasar Bharti were tagged in the tweets.

One of the deleted tweets was also quote-tweeted by multiple people. The quotes still exist but the tweets are deleted as evident from the screenshots below.

The URLs of the deleted tweets are:

https://twitter.com/DDNewsLive/status/1029591249815318528

https://twitter.com/DDNewsLive/status/1029594032375296000

The flag hoisting was also tweeted live by the BJP. It is interesting to note that even though the BJP didn’t consider it necessary to delete the tweet, Doordarshan felt a need for self-censorship. The tweet and the video were still available on the BJP site at the time of writing the article.

This is not the first time that an Indian media house has tried to cover up the faux pas of a BJP leader. Recently, when PM Modi slipped up and claimed that 600 crore voters voted for BJP, multiple media houses including ANI, Economic Times and Aaj Tak deleted their tweets.

Doordarshan should know that deleting a tweet will not erase it from social media. This self-censorship by Doordarshan raises questions about why the public broadcaster felt the need to erase the BJP president’s embarrassing moment from public memory. It is also a futile exercise as the video clip is viral and already seen by whoever Doordarshan wants to hide it from.

This article originally appeared on Alt News. You can read the original article here.