Indian Twitter had a field day on over a video shared by a news channel, claiming that the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi reverberated in the Pakistan Assembly.
"Modi Modi" started to trend on Twitter for several hours on Thursday, with users mocking the Pakistan government and supporting the demand to free Balochistan, a province of the Islamic nation where Pakistani Army is allegedly involved in human rights violation.
The Claim
The video shared by India TV claimed that Opposition MPs raised slogans of "Modi Modi" to take on Prime Minister Imran Khan's government during a resolution to ban French goods. The video included a clip of the house proceedings, which the news channel said was of the time when the alleged slogans were raised. However, the slogan on PM Modi's name cannot be clearly heard.
To support his claim, the video another clip was played in which Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi can be heard saying, "it seems the soul of Indian PM Narendra Modi had entered the opposition MPs".
While the majority of Twitter users celebrated the movement and enjoyed what they termed as "a start of the breaking of Pakistan".
"Finally our Baluch (read Baloch) brothers show their respect to India and Modi Ji by chanting slogans of Modi-Modi in the parliament of Pakistan. This is the beginning of the breaking of na-Pakistan," a user wrote along with the video.
Some users, however, including some prominent journalists were quick to point out that the MPs of Pakistan Muslim League (N) and other opposition parties were raising slogans of "voting voting" and not "Modi Modi" to demand voting on the resolution to ban French goods in protest against Islamophobia and the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad published by Charlie Hebdo.
The truth
On close scrutiny of the original video of Pakistan's National Assembly proceedings, opposition MPs demand voting on the resolution which urged the government to ask Muslim countries to boycott French products in response to French President Emmanuel Macron's remarks about cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
In the original video, PML-N leader Khwaja Asif and other opposition MPs can be heard demanding to vote on the resolution. In response, the Speaker urges the members to remain calm, adding "voting and everything will happen; please have patience."
"This is not the way of conducting the vote. Please listen to what we have to say first," Foreign Minister Qureshi can be heard saying amid continuing demand of voting on the resolution.
An anguished Qureshi slams the opposition party, accusing it of providing a platform to activists of Balochistan. "Slogans of freedom of Balochistan were raised from the platform of these people. They should be ashamed of themselves," he said, adding that he thinks Narendra Modi's soul has entered the party. The claim, hence, turns out to be false. No slogans of PM Modi was raised during the debate on Monday.
On Monday, the Pakistan parliament passed the resolution urging the government to recall its envoy from Paris. However, Pakistan has no ambassador posted in Paris currently as its previous envoy Moin-ul-Haq left France three months ago when he was transferred and posted as ambassador to China, according to a report in Geo TV.
