Many far-left wing and pro-Congress trolls took to social media to peddle misinformation regarding the stability of Indian Rupees against Bangladesh Taka in a bid to target the Modi government over its macroeconomic policies. Displaying their lack of understanding of macroeconomics, the left-wing trolls claimed that Indian Rupee had depreciated against Bangladeshi Taka.
Raju Parulekar, a far-left troll, sharing a screenshot of the comparison of the value of Indian Rupee with Bangladeshi Taka, insinuated that value of Ruppe has come down against Taka as the chart showed the Taka going up from 1.12 to 1.16 in around a month.
As per Parulekar, Indian Rupee had depreciated against Bangladesh Taka, for which he mocked the RSS and “Bhakts”.
Similarly, another troll claimed that it is the first time in history that Indian Rupee slipped down even against Bangladesh’s Taka. He also shared the same screenshot from Google, which seemingly showed Taka ‘going up’ against Rupee.
Sharing the same screenshot, another Congress-troll put out old screenshots of Prime Minister’s tweets to peddle misinformation about Indian Rupee losing out against Bangladesh Taka in the exchange rate. The Congress troll, without having any knowledge about exchange rates, went on to peddle misinformation saying that Bangladesh Taka is much stronger than Indian Rupee.
Similarly, another Twitter user claimed that Bangladeshi Taka has overtaken Indian Rupee for the first time. He went on to abuse PM Modi and rant about central vista project based on the presumption.
According to these trolls, as 1 Bangladeshi Taka = 1.15 Indian Rupees, it means Taka is stronger than Rupee. Also, as the graph shows Taka going up against Rupee, they are claiming it means Rupee has slipped against Rupee.
But that the reality is completely opposite, as they are misinterpreting the currency value comparison.
In reality, if 1 INR is equal to 1.15 BDT, it meant that the Indian currency is stronger than the Bangladeshi Taka as one has to shell out 1.15 Taka to buy 1 Indian Rupee. To put in simpler terms, if one buys any commodities worth Rs 100 Rupees, they will have to spend approximately 115 Bangladeshi Taka to buy the same item.
If we consider 1 USD=74 INR, it does not mean that the Indian currency is stronger than the USD. In fact, it means one has to spend 74 INR to acquire 1 USD, which shows that USD is a stronger currency than the Indian Rupee. Historically, the Indian currency has always been stronger than the Bangladeshi Taka. Currently, the exchange rate is hovering around 1 INR = 1.16 BDT.
Similarly, the value of Rupee has become stronger against Taka in last month as seen in the graph, it has not come down. The chart shows that 1 Rupee was equal to 1.14 BDT on 16th April, and it had reached 1.12 BDT on April 20, which is 1.16 BDT at present. This means, the Taka was actually stronger against Rupee a month ago, and its value has come down now. Because, now more Taka is needed to buy 1 Rupee.
Based on this flawed understanding of currency conversion, the ultra-left trolls put out fake news to infer that Indian Rupee was weakening against Bangladeshi Taka.
This is not the first time the data has been misread to claim Taka is stronger than Rupee. In 2019, NewsX had published a report making the same claims. Same claims had again appeared on social media in 2020.