A couple of hours ago, All India Radio (AIR) tweeted this picture, wishing Indian rower Dattu Bhokanal ahead of the men’s single sculls quarterfinals at the Rio Olympics.
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Something wasn’t quite right about this greeting, though. This is Bhokanal, the 24-year-old Armyman. See the man in all the pictures? Now go back to the picture in the picture posted by AIR. Spot the difference.
In case you are wondering, the other rower is Bajrang Lal Takhar, a 35-year-old who like Bhokanal is also in the Army. At the 2006 and 2010 Asian Games, Takhar became the first Indian to win an individual silver and gold medal, respectively, in rowing — coincidentally, his event was single sculls, the same as Bhokanal.
To be fair, AIR is not the first organisation to mix up Bhokanal and Takhar. New Indian Express has done it, as has India Today — again and again, crediting the image to DD News in case of the former and Press Trust of India in case of the latter. In fact, a quick Google image search for ‘Dattu rower’ throws up the incorrectly captioned photo as one of the top results.
Guess who else got fooled? Why, who else but Salman Khan, India’s Rio 2016 goodwill ambassador!
FYI, Bhokanal has finished fourth in his quarterfinal, missing out on a medal.
(h/t: Anamika Nandekar for pointing it out on Twitter)
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