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Old Newsclip Of Army Aspirant Committing Suicide Revived Falsely Linking It To Agniveer Scheme
Writer: Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
India, 20 Jun 2022 11:02 AM GMT
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As the founding editor, Bharat had been heading the newsroom during the formation years of the organization and worked towards editorial policies, conceptualizing and designing campaign strategies and collaborations. He believes that through the use of digital media, one could engage the millennial's in rational conversations about pertinent social issues, provoking them to think and bring a behavioral change accordingly.
Creatives : Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
A Twitter user shared this image and wrote, "With this Agneepath Scheme, dreams of Lakhs of aspirants aiming to join Indian Army gets killed. #ModiMustResign #Agniveer." The Logical Indian Fact check team verified the viral claim.
A newspaper clipping of a suicide has been going viral on social media, with claims that it is recent and the person died by suicide due to the Apnipath scheme launched by the government.
The Union Defence Ministry's newly launched Agnipath scheme for army aspirants has triggered violent protests across 11 different states since June 14. Multiple train compartments and stations gave been burnt down, putting nearby stations at high alert with blockades, as a protest.
The newspaper clipping is of a young aspirant who died by suicide because he couldn't make it into the Indian Army. The headline of the newspaper reads, "बापू! इस जन्म में फौजी नहीं बन पाया, अगले जन्म में जरूर बनूंगा" which roughly translates to "Father! I couldn't become a soldier this birth, but I'll definitely become one in the next."
It is being shared with captions that link this to the Agnipath scheme, while also holding the current ruling government responsible for this incident. A Twitter user shared this image and wrote, "With this Agneepath Scheme, dreams of Lakhs of aspirants aiming to join Indian Army gets killed. #ModiMustResign #Agniveer"
A Facebook user shared this image and wrote a caption which reads in Hindi, "कौन है इस आत्महत्या का जिम्मेदार? क्या वही जो नोटबन्दी में हज़ारों की ज़िंदगी छीन ली? क्या वही जो कोरोना में आपदा को अवसर बताने वाला #श्मसान_का_गिद्ध 🦅 है। #AgnipathRecruitmentScheme."
[English Translation: Who is responsible for this suicide? Was he the one who took away thousands of lives in demonetisation? Is it the same who is the cremation vulture, who tells the disaster in Corona as an opportunity? #AgnipathRecruitmentSchem #Agniveer.]
It is widely shared on Twitter and Facebook with a similar claim. Click here, here and here to read.
Claim:
Viral image shows a youth committed suicide due to Apnipath scheme launched by the government.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian fact check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. The viral image is from April 2022.
During the initial investigation, we did a google reverse image search and found the same image shared by the RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav back in April 2022. The caption of the tweet reads in English, "Unemployment is the biggest and serious problem of this country. Crores of youth of the country are living their lives in depression, poverty, deprivation and stress. The government wants to avoid its failures and responsibilities by engaging the youth in non-essential issues like Hindu-Muslim, language-community etc. The youth is understanding their trick." It is to be noted that the controversy on recruitment through Angniveer scheme started from 14 June. It clearly means that the viral image is not related to the current protest.
On searching more, we found a newspaper clip is of Dainik Bhaskar, dated 29 April and place Hisar can be seen. Taking hint from it, we did an open keyword search and found the viral clip in a report of Dainik Bhaskar's Hisar edition. According to the report, a 23-year-old army aspirant committed suicide at a government school in a village of Bhiwani district of Haryana. He had appeared in three army recruitment drives and cleared the written, physical and medical examinations but could not make it to the final cut-off. He was hoping of his selection in the remaining attempts. However, the army did not conduct recruitment drives in the past three years and his son had crossed the age limit for eligibility.
According to the report of The Indian Express, the deceased was identified as Pawan. He hung himself from a tree at a playground where he used to run for the past several years, practising for the army recruitment.
Conclusion:
Though it is true that the viral image shows an army aspirant committing suicide, however, it is evident from our investigation that the viral image is available on the internet since April 2022 and it was falsely linked with the Angniveer scheme. Hence, the viral claim is misleading.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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