Ever since the news of Virushka’s wedding crossed barriers to reach across shores, congratulatory messages, ‘deep-diving news articles’ and memes were all over the internet.
While the Twitterverse was full of congratulatory messages and memes, leading Assamese daily Asomiya Pratidin took one such meme for real and attributed the message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In an article, published on Page 18 of the daily newspaper on Wednesday, the news report said that Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma were congratulated by PM Modi. “From PM Narendra Modi to cricketers Shoaib Akhtar and Shahid Afridi (everyone congratulated the newly-wed.) PM Modi tweeted, ‘Congrats VirAnushka! Happy married life,” the report read.
“Soon after, Modi tweeted again, ‘Don’t forget to link your marriage certificate with Aadhaar before 31st December’,” the report added.
The newspaper forgot to check that the tweet – in fact a meme – was fake and was attributed to @NaMo. Ironically, the handle, which tweets in Japanese, identifies itself as, “I’m sorry, I’m not Prime Minister of India…”
Awww for Virushka, ouch for Asomiya Pratidin!
