Lucknow confidential: Twitter Tackle

The Samajwadi Party found itself in a fix after it shared a news video on social media about an acid attack in Lucknow’s Kaiserbagh area on Saturday. Several senior party leaders and even the party’s official Twitter handle fell for the news item shared by a TV channel regarding an alleged acid attack on a young girl. The official handle of the party tweeted the video, and without naming the BJP, it said that a party which opposes a film made on acid attack survivors can’t protect daughters of the state. The reference was to several BJP spokespersons calling for a boycott of Deepika Padukone’s movie, ‘Chhapaak’, based on an acid attack victim, after the actress visited JNU to express solidarity with the students attacked by masked men on the campus. As the SP tweet on alleged acid attack started circulating, Lucknow police had to immediately issue a clarification with videos, saying that it was not an “acid attack” but a case of an accident. It seemed, many said, SP was in a hurry to attack the BJP.

New Selfie Point
The 25-foot-tall bronze statue of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Lok Bhawan, which was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month in Lucknow, has become the new tourist destination in the city after it was opened for the public this Sunday. Locals showed great enthusiasm to see the statue and several of them were spotted taking selfies with the statue. The state government has decided to throw open the statue for visitors every Sunday between 10 am and 5 pm. This is apparently for the first time that people have been given access to the Lok Bhawan premises.