BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former cricketer Harbhajan Singh is facing fresh criticism over a social media post highlighting the condition of a government school in Fatehgarh Sahib.
The controversy comes days after his earlier post showing two men allegedly in an intoxicated state was found to have been recorded in Rajasthan, not Punjab. Harbhajan had shared two videos on X showing the alleged poor condition of Government High School in Jalhan village of Fatehgarh Sahib, in one of the videos, an NGO activist visiting the school points towards the condition of the girls’ toilet.
The activist claimed that the toilet did not have a roof and that there was no adequate water facility, the activist further said that during hot weather, girl students were forced to limit their water intake during school hours because of the condition of the toilet.
While sharing the video, Harbhajan wrote, “Don’t speak truth otherwise you will also be labelled as paid troll” however, shortly after the post was shared, social media users and activists began questioning the authenticity and timing of the footage.
They claimed that the video was not recent and had actually been recorded in 2018 and the claim that the footage was old led to criticism of Harbhajan, with some social media users accusing him of sharing misleading content.
The latest row comes only days after Harbhajan was involved in another controversy over a video related to drug abuse.
Harbhajan had earlier shared a video showing two men who appeared to be in an intoxicated state and the video was circulated in the context of the drug situation in Punjab, however, Punjab Police later clarified that the video had been recorded in Ganganagar, Rajasthan, and had no connection with Punjab.
Following the police clarification, the video became a political issue in Punjab, Harbhajan defended his post, saying that the fact that the video was from Rajasthan did not mean that the drug menace did not exist in Punjab.
The latest school video has now brought renewed attention to Harbhajan’s social media activity and the two recent controversies have put Harbhajan’s social media posts under scrutiny, particularly over the source and timing of videos being shared.
