“Chief Minister Vijay’s decision has shocked Tamil Nadu. He said that regardless of whether a rape victim is eight or 18, is Hindu or Muslim, or hails from Tamil Nadu or other states, the accused will be hanged or encountered.”
This short script is being repeated, more or less verbatim, in Hindi by various social media influencers.
Meanwhile, another set of influencers claimed that CM Vijay had announced that if a patient died in a private hospital, their entire bill would be waived. Again: same script, same modus operandi.
Sure, it’s actually not up to a CM to dictate punishment; that’s the judiciary’s business. In fact, a senior official from his office confirmed to India Today Fact Check that both claims are false.
But amid horrific incidents of gangrapes of minors in Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar, West Bengal’s Baruipur, and Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad, these videos project CM Vijay as a strongman leader who does what needs to be done — a lot like the characters he played in Tamil films.
Way back in 2004, Vijay played a kabaddi player in “Ghilli”, who rescues a woman from a gang leader. In 2019’s “Mersal”, he played a doctor fighting medical corruption. These are just two of scores of films like these.
Vijay, like many Tamil actors with political ambitions, has carefully cultivated the aura of a people’s champion through his roles. But unlike most recent actors-turned-politicians, he managed to actually leverage that image, becoming Tamil Nadu chief minister on his debut attempt!
ONE TEMPLATE, MANY VIDEOS
Several of these videos about Vijay waiving medical fees feature the same representational video of a hospital. Many even have the same graphic strip overlay, which reads, “Thalapathy Vijay ka bada naya faisla”.
Several influencers also used AI-generated thumbnails with clickbait Hindi slugs like, “Huge decision by Vijay Thalapathy: In my state, the rapists will either be hanged or killed in an encounter.”
RECIPE FOR ENGAGEMENT
Influencers from various states like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra have shared these videos, mostly in Hindi, tooting Vijay’s horn. This roster included Haryana’s Reetu Sharma, Bihar’s Chandan Creator, and Sohail Khan from Uttar Pradesh.
While some hedged their language a bit, others directly claimed that these are “orders” by CM Vijay. Influencers like Meena Yadav and Mr Nexa presented these fake statements as Vijay’s direct orders.
Many of these posts have thousands of views and shares. Upon analysing the comments, we found that many actually believed these claims. Some even questioned how Vijay could give such orders!
We contacted several of these influencers, asking them why they were spreading misinformation. At the time of publishing this story, none had responded.
It is difficult to call this a coordinated campaign without knowing who is pulling the strings. Many of these small-time influencers may just be riding the Vijay wave, trying to farm engagement. But if that’s the case, one question remains unanswered:
How did so many of them land on the exact same script for their videos?
(With inputs from Pramod Madhav)
– Ends
