The Uttar Pradesh Bypoll election results were a shock to the BJP, with the dominant party losing both of its parliamentary seats to the Samajwadi Party. It was not less than an embarrassment for the party members since they represented the seat for five consecutive years before. The election results saddened some parts while the others were pretty happy with the change. Columnist and novelist Shobha De were among the sarcastic ones. After the election result, she tweeted a certificate from UNESCO honouring Gorakhpur as the first smart city of India. It was obviously a fake but UNESCO themselves failed to realise it? They tweeted clarifying that they have not issued any such certificate. This gave a good laugh for the Twitteratis though. Uttar Pradesh Bypoll Results 2018: BJP Loses Gorakhpur & Phulpur to SP Backed by BSP
Following Shobha's tweet, few actually tagged UNESCO and asked for a confirmation if it was true. But the fact that UNESCO actually replied back to the sarcasm, proved to be a bigger joke. The certificate did look similar to what UNESCO would issue, causing confusion among the uninformed ones whether it was really true.
Take a look at Shobha De's tweet on Gorakhpur:
Smartest. pic.twitter.com/1ape4cC0a1
— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) March 15, 2018
And UNESCO actually replied!
@DeShobhaa Dear All, we would just like to inform you that this certificate is fake. There has not been such declaration at all from @UNESCO. Thank you for taking this into consideration. Best regards,
— UNESCO (@UNESCO) March 16, 2018
Well, Shobha De is not new to creating adverse reactions on Twitter. She has been embroiled in controversies for her views even before. The last time she offended Twitter was with her depicting irony at beloved actress Sridevi's funeral. The writer tweeted that it was ironic of holding the actress's funeral meet at 'Celebrations Sports Club.' Referring to the venue she made the tweets which were rather uncalled for. Soon, Twitter was enraged and she faced flak. But her Gorakhpur being smartest city got even the UNESCO's attention.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 17, 2018 10:21 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).