MHA official Vishwajit Mukherjee’s message against Chinese firecrackers? Old fake message revived - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 13, 2020
A message is being shared widely on social media with a claim that Vishwajit Mukherjee (Senior Investigation Officer, Ministry of Home Affairs) has cautioned people not to use the Chinese firecrackers for Diwali celebrations as they are filled with harmful chemicals, intentionally by China to take revenge on India. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: A message from Vishwajit Mukherjee (Senior Investigation Officer, Ministry of Home Affairs) against the use of Chinese firecrackers.
Fact: The same message is being shared on social media at least since 2017. No such notice was found to be issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The same has been clarified by the Press Information of Bureau (PIB) that the MHA has not issued any such notice. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When searched on the internet about the message in the post, no such notice was found to be issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. It was found that the same message is being shared on social media at least since 2017.
Also, no information was found regarding the existence of such officer in the MHA. The Press Information Bureau (PIB) has tweeted that the MHA has not issued any such notice and the message is fake. FACTLY has also debunked the same message when it went viral last year in Telugu.
#WhatsApp पर गृह मंत्रालय के कथित अधिकारी के नाम से वायरल मैसेज में दावा किया गया है कि चीन भारत में अस्थमा फैलाने और नेत्र रोग विकार उत्पन्न करने के लिए विशेष प्रकार के पटाखे और सजावटी लाइट्स भेज रहा है।#PIBFactCheck: यह दावा फर्जी है। गृह मंत्रालय ने ऐसी कोई सूचना नहीं दी है। pic.twitter.com/6s1qLp8b31
Previously, some news agencies have published articles regarding the harmful effects of some chemicals used in the Chinese firecrackers. The news articles can be found here and here. Also, FACTLY has written an explainer on directions by Courts & Tribunals about bursting firecrackers during festivals & celebrations. It can be read here.
To sum it up, the message from Vishwajit Mukherjee (Senior Investigation Officer, Ministry of Home Affairs) against the use of Chinese firecrackers is fake. No such notice has been issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.