Former diplomat K C Singh spread fake news about Prince Philip and the Queen Saturday night.
On being corrected by the journalists, he said he was being targeted for opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Prince Philip passed away Friday at the age of 99.
Singh shared a picture of Prince and the Queen on Twitter. Both can be seen giggling in the photo.
He wrote, “My son sent this. It’s his favourite pic of Duke. Here he’s playing a prank on HM the Queen by disguising himself as a palace guard. She was hugely amused on discovering it.”
India Today journalist and defence expert Shiv Aroor pointed out that the Duke was not disguising as a Palace guard but was in his full ceremonial uniform as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards.
And the reason for them giggling in the photo was an attack by a swarm of bees.
The famous picture was clicked in 2003 by photographer Chris Young.
This irked Singh. He tweeted back to Aroor, “Thank you for correcting my tweet. I’m not a soldier. Wish you would show similar enthusiasm in fact-checking gov’s military claims like airing airforce video on #Rafale as French story broke about Commissions to middlemen. Maybe my calling that out was bothering you.”
Aroor also referred to Singh’s Twitter bio where he has mentioned “Former Diplomat and Strategic Affairs Expert”. Aroor added he expected a strategic affairs expert to know this.
Before leaving the matter, Aroor sent Singh the link of the BBC story where the photo was used and the story behind the photo described.
Singh tweeted the link writing, “When the Queen was snapped ‘giggling’ at Prince Philip https://bbc.com/news/in-pictures-56242398…. Thanks for correcting my tweet. Here’s the story. Queen found it funny as bees were swarming & guards, including Duke, didn’t know whether to stand at post or seek shelter.”
Another defence journalist Man Aman Singh Chhina tweeted, “Sir “guards, including Duke”, is also incorrect because the Duke was not a Guard. He was the Colonel of the Grenadier Guards. Very different in military parlance.
