Culture ministry ad stars new Pak fighter

New Delhi: The culture ministry was embarrassed on Friday when social media users pointed out that one of its videos celebrating Independence Day featured Pakistan’s

Published on: Aug 13, 2016, 07:01:22 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar

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New Delhi: The culture ministry was embarrassed on Friday when social media users pointed out that one of its videos celebrating Independence Day featured Pakistan’s JF-17 Thunder combat jets in the opening segment.

The animated segment at the start of the 1.40-minute video showed two JF-17s, one on either side of a stylised symbol commemorating 70 years of the country’s independence and adorned with the Indian tricolour.

The video, which promoted an online application system for getting no-objection certificates for constructions from the National Monuments Authority, was posted on Twitter on Thursday. Eagle eyed social media users pointed out the jets in the video were Pakistani aircraft and it was removed from Twitter.

An official reaction from the culture ministry was awaited.

The JF-17 looks similar to India’s Tejas light combat aircraft. Both are single-engine jets but the Tejas does not have tailplanes while the JF-17’s air intakes are located further forward on the fuselage.

The JF-17 jet was jointly developed by Pakistan and China to replace ageing combat aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force. Pakistan has inducted about 50 JF-17s into its air force and ordered 50 more.

China and Pakistan have also pitched the JF-17 to countries such as Sri Lanka and Malaysia though the jet is yet to find any international buyers.

This is not the first time that authorities in India and Pakistan have mistakenly featured military hardware from the other country in promotional materials.

In March 2011, an advertisement issued by the Pakistan Navy for the Aman-11 multi-national exercise prominently featured images of Indian Navy warships.

The full-page advertisement, which appeared in several Pakistani newspapers, featured the Indian Navy’s Delhi, Godavari and Talwar-class warships.

In January 2010, an Indian government advertisement featured former Pakistan Air Force chief Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed alongside Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and cricketer Kapil Dev.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More

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