It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a … bullock cart? Twitter reliably had a fitting response to the doctored video posted by the Union Minister for Railways, Piyush Goyal, on Sunday, which showed a speeded-up video of the Vande Bharat Express in an attempt to claim success for Narendra Modi’s Make in India manufacturing campaign.
It’s a bird...It’s a plane...Watch India’s first semi-high speed train built under ‘Make in India’ initiative, Vande Bharat Express zooming past at lightening speed. pic.twitter.com/KbbaojAdjO
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) February 10, 2019
The video, which was also tweeted by Bharatiya Janata Party’s National General Secretary Ram Madhav and used as the basis for an article by the Republic TV news channel, has been debunked by AltNew.in. The website pointed out that “the video posted is not original, and has in fact been speeded up”. Here is a clip juxtaposing the original video with the Goyal-enhanced one.
If an editing sleight of hand can be used to make a train run at twice its speed, why not use it for the trusty bullock cart too?
Thanks to @PiyushGoyal jee , Even bullock cart speed risen up under Modi Government 😍🙏 pic.twitter.com/p9165FlBm7
— ☭ Comrade Dostam ☭ (@dostam_comrade) February 10, 2019
One Twitter user made a reference to a moment from a Tamil film featuring the comedy great Vadivelu as proof that Tamilians are always ahead of the curve.
It's a bird..It's a plane.. It's India's first semi high speed train. வாம்மா மின்னல். pic.twitter.com/MY2KBFrDva
— செந்தில் / Chenthil (@chenthil_nathan) February 10, 2019
The Japanese bullet train, which is getting an Indian version, also came up in conversation.
"India’s first semi-high speed train" claims Piyush Goyal, tweeting a video in 2x speed.
— Punster® (@Pun_Starr) February 10, 2019
Tomorrow, he'll tweet the same video in 4x speed & call it "India's first bullet train."
Goyal’s video was a reminder of the poor record of the Railways in preventing derailments and delays and maintaining basic hygiene and safety standards.
This is how Piyush Goyal has been working at double speed in order to develop Railways & 420 other ministries. (2019) pic.twitter.com/Zo4U0TK2fH
— History of India (@RealHistoryPic) February 10, 2019
Aur Aur Tez... Dream train of piyush Goyal ji ... ( under the leadership of Modiji) 😍 pic.twitter.com/Kv1GKVdVqy
— अमर اکبر Anthony 🕺 (@amarakhbaranth1) February 10, 2019
It's a bird train pic.twitter.com/yQEvEUu9xE
— Teji Singh (@singhtejis) February 10, 2019
Nobody has quoted the memorable line from the Tom Cruise-starrer Top Gun just yet: “I feel the need, the need for... speed.”
Massive respect for Piyush Goyal. He just made the Video 2X times faster and called it Semi-High Speed Train when he could have made it 6X times faster and called it Super High Speed Train https://t.co/z0KDsYTBJ1
— Joy (@Joydas) February 10, 2019
Soon, Goyal was being asked to speed up videos of other trains that he had posted. This post, of the snow-flecked ride to the hill station of Shimla, drew a request from one user: some passengers are late, sir, please post this at double speed.
Another user pulled the same gag when Goyal tweeted about a possible route to filling the budget deficit.
I got an idea sir. Take video of taxes being collected. Then speed video up 2X. You're welcome sir. https://t.co/o06rSgs79K
— PKR | প্রশান্ত | پرشانتو (@prasanto) February 11, 2019