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NEW DELHI: We are all well acquainted with an image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemingly showing the Indian leader surveying flooded Chennai. After the twitterati pointed out that the image was obviously tampered with, the PM’s Press Information Bureau quickly pulled it down, unable to save face regarding the goof up as the photoshopped image made its way to leading newspapers and TV channels the world over.
At the time of writing, the PIB -- still smarting under the photoshop goof up -- is being revamped and equipped with new technology in the form of laptops, smartphones and the like. In what may be a consolation for those in the PIB, photoshop fails seem to be commonplace when it comes to political elite. British PM Tony Blair, US President Barack Obama, Francisco Perez Trigueros from Spain's ruling Popular Party, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and of course every branch of North Korea’s government are all guilty as charged on the photoshop fail front.
Here are ten of the most epic political photoshop fails:
1. PM Modi and the Chennai floods
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way shall we? The PIB had to remove the photo and issue an apology of sorts after Twitter went viral with the doctored image. Clever social media users superimposed all sorts of other images in the window -- dinosaurs, superman, you name it.
2. This BJP election poster
How to get a crowd? Copy+paste, duh!
3. Obama is a Modi fan!
BJP MP CR Patil posted this photoshopped picture of Obama intently watching PM Modi giving a speech. Umm…
4. David Cameron’s Remembrance Sunday poppy
British PM David Cameron’s office had some explaining to do, after it was discovered that the leader’s Remembrance Day photo was a recycled, photoshopped image. The public felt that electronically adding a Remembrance Sunday poppy to an older images was 'unseemly and inappropriate' -- not to mention downright lazy!
5. Francisco Perez Trigueros, from Spain's ruling Popular Party, terrible terrible PS job
Spain’s Francisco Perez Trigueros needs to brush up on his photoshop skills. The obviously (and badly) doctored image was posted to Trigueros’ Facebook page, showing a Spanish Army battalion marching across Gibraltar’s runway beneath three fighter jets. The image also showed a Spanish flag flying over the British territory and an Osborne bull — the black silhouette that has become Spain’s unofficial national symbol — installed on the Rock. Gibraltar, for the record is disputed territory.
6. North Korea
This could be an article on its own. Here’s a very brief look at photoshop fails involving the North Korean government.
The suspect image shows identical hovercraft landing on a beach somewhere in North Korea. IDENTICAL.
The image shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his advisers standing outside a children's hospital in the capital Pyongyang. However, the shadows and lighting suggest they were superimposed onto the image. Just a day’s work in North Korea.
This 2008 image of Kim Jong-il, posing with the North Korean army, is known to be fake. In the photo, the shadow cast by his calves run in a different direction from that of the soldiers on either side of him, while a black line running along the strand on which the soldiers are position disappeared when it got to Kim. Details!
7. The Iranians
The original image, from 2008 shows three missiles streaking into the air while a fourth remains on the launcher during a test-firing in an undisclosed location in the Iranian desert. In the altered version of this image, published by Iranian Revolutionary Guards news website, Sepah News, the fourth missile seems to have been successfully launched!
8. Hosni in front
Gotta love the Egyptians. An image of Egyptians, US, Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders walking on the red carpet was doctored by Egypt's state-run newspaper, Al-Ahram, in 2010 to show Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in front -- leading the Middle East peace process.
9. Inclusive Toronto
So I’m all for inclusiveness and diversity, but officials in Toronto took it too far when the replaced the man in the original photo with a stock image of a smiling black man.
10. Assange endorses Modi (not)
BJP leader Priti Gandhi posted a fake quote attributed to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, saying that “America fears Modi because they know that he is incorruptible.” Not a photoshop fail per se, but too ridiculous to not include.
