The culture ministry on Friday put up a video on Twitter to mark India’s 70th Independence Day but was soon left embarrassed after it was discovered that the video featured Pakistan’s JF-17 ‘Thunder’ fighter jets with the tricolour.
Egg on its face, the ministry was quick to pull back the video from social media but sadly it was too little too late.
Social media users were obviously quicker to bash the government for putting an animated sequence at the beginning of over one minute video that showed two JF-17’s brandishing the Indian flag.
The JF-17 was jointly developed by Pakistan and China and both the countries are promoting it to garner global supply orders for the jet. Pakistan intends to make it the main stay of its fighter fleet.
Confronted about the gaffe, a government source said it was an inadvertent mistake as the JF-17 looks similar to India’s Tejas light combat aircraft and it is difficult for an ordinary citizen to know the difference between the two types of aircraft.
However, realising the mistake, it was removed promptly, the source added.
Incidentally, Sri Lanka, which was in talks for the JF-17, has rejected the aircraft and is now eyeing Tejas.
Here is how Twitterati have reacted to the goof-up:
(With inputs from PTI)