Narratives of change: Kolkata Police urge all 'to stand for truth'

Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Guddi (1971) had been a milestone in Hindi cinema for its plot. At the same time, the prayer song in the movie in which actor Jaya Bachchan as Guddi was found singing it with other students of her school had become immensely popular where they were made to learn through it to "stand for truth alone".

Now, the Kolkata Police has taken up the still to reach out to lakhs of people urging them "to stand for truth alone" instead of allowing circulation of fake news and rumours.

A tweet of the Kolkata Police has been liked by many and in it a still photograph from the movie has been posted. In the photograph, the carefree school girl Guddi is found standing beside her teacher and singing the prayer. A line from the entire prayer song "Jhooth se bache rahein sach ka dum bhare" has been quoted in the same tweet.

The message that the Kolkata Police has given in the same tweet is

"Each one counts. Each of your post/share/re-tweet/forward should stand for truth only".

This unique way taken up by the cops has been much appreciated by many as it would help to reach more and more people easily.

According to a senior officer of the Kolkata Police, the same prayer song begins with the line Humko Mann ki Shakti Dena… "and we too believe in our will power. So we expect that it will help us to make more people aware of the attempts being made to circulate fake news just to spread rumours with an intention to create tension. At the same time, people will check several times the genuineness of a message before forwarding or re-tweeting it as it could be a fake one and being purposely circulated to create a chaotic situation.

"Those posting objectionable matter on social networking sites are getting arrested. But at the same time creating awareness is a way out to keep the common people away of such nuisance. The task of creating awareness becomes easier if things are placed in a catchy way before the masses," the police officer said.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had been repeatedly saying that there are a section of people who are spreading rumours just to disturb the peace prevailing in the state. Even a still photograph from a Bhojpuri movie was posted on Facebook attributing it to an incident that happened in Bengal.