Bengal Minister shares fake post on Manmohan Singh, withdraws later

Kolkata, April 6

Controversy has erupted within the Trinamool Congress, after the party secretary general and the state commerce & industries minister Partha Chatterjee shared in social media a fake post relating to former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

Soon after the post was detected as fake, Chatterjee withdrew it from his Facebook wall.

The controversy started after Chatterjee, late Monday evening, shared in social media a fake post relating to the death of the former prime Minister. Since then the Trinamool Congress secretary and the party spokesman launched scathing attacks against Chatterjee without naming the latter. At around 1 a.m. on Wednesday, Ghosh made a counter post on his Facebook wall on this issue.

"In 2012, when I was sworn in as a Rajya Sabha member, I had a photograph with Dr Manmohan Singh. When I retired in 2018, I clicked with him, when he was on the opposition bench. I have also seen him as a former journalist. I developed deep-rooted respect for him from what I came to know about him. I condemn the action of those who circulated fake news about his death on Tuesday. I also condemn those who acted irresponsibly who shared the same fake news and circulated it more among people. I wish Dr Manmohan Singh good health," Ghosh wrote in his Facebook post.

West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, too has ridiculed Partha Chatterjee for sharing the post. According to state Congress leaders, Chatterjee has probably "lost his mental balance" because of the ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enquiry on employment irregularities in West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) which happened during his tenure as the state education minister.

Chatterjee, so far, has refrained from making any comment on this issue.

Dr Manmohan Singh, 88, suffered from Covid-19 infection last year. Recently, he was also admitted in the hospital because of heart ailments.