With the Gandhi family training their guns at the Rafale deal between the Modi government and the French government, the deal has taken prominence in media headlines. Yesterday, a Times Group website ‘IndiaTimes’ published an article that claimed BJP politician and legal activist Subramanian Swamy has said that the Rafale deal was corrupt and that had threatened to go to court against the Modi government.
IndiaTimes quoted a PTI story with Swamy’s quote about how no one is buying the planes and that if India doesn’t buy these planes, the aviation company Dassault would wind up.
However, soon Subramanian Swamy tweeted clarifying that he had issued no such statement yesterday and that he was prepared to take legal action against such mischevious reporting.
Some India Times is quoting me that I said today the Rafaela’s deal is “corrupt” and that I will go to court against it. Rubbish. It is totally fake news probably put out by paid India Times
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) July 29, 2018
Soon thereafter, even PTI issued a statement saying that the agency has not issued any such story quoting Subramanian Swamy.
PTI has not issued any story quoting Dr Subramanian Swamy @Swamy39
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 29, 2018
After the clarifications and the threat of legal action issued by Subramanian Swamy, IndiaTimes updated their story with a disclaimer that the quote was actually issued by Swamy in the year 2015 and that “the story and the quote started circulating again yesterday”.
The story, however, didn’t end there. Swamy was still not backing down and insisted on suing the Times Group.
: I am initiating the legal process today to sue TOI today.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) July 30, 2018
When a Twitter user plugged the 2015 article, Subramanian Swamy responded with his reasons for issuing this statement back in 2015.
: Yes and then our Govt scrapped the 126 plane Rafael deal of TDK which was my demand. Later Parrikar began new negotiation for 36 planes.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) July 30, 2018
For the uninitiated, Swamy has a colourful list of names that he refers to some politicians with. TDK (tadakka) refers to Sonia Gandhi. He explained that he has protested back in 2015 because he wanted the Modi government to scrap the 126 plane Rafale deal signed by the Congress government which was corrupt. He says that after his protest, the Congress deal was scrapped by the Modi government and new negotiations for the 36 plane deal was started by the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
It turns out that the Modi government has indeed scrapped the deal signed by the Congress government and had renegotiated a new deal with India specific modifications and one where it is reported, the planes are much cheaper with additional features, as compared to the jets that the Congress government had decided to buy.
Soon, IndiaTimes tweeted apologising to Subramanian Swamy and said that they were pulling the story down.
We published a story carrying a quote of @Swamy39 on the Rafael Deal. The story was based on an agency copy from 2015. Since the quote has been denied by #SubramanianSwamy & The Agency, we are taking the story down.We apologise to @Swamy39 & our readers for this inadvertent error
— Indiatimes (@indiatimes) July 30, 2018
Swamy refused to accept the apology and asserted the Times Group must sack the reporter and Editor responsible for the gaffe.
: Times Group must sack the reporter/ correspondent/ editor responsible for lifting a 3 year old statement on another Rafael deal and pass it off as current on the present Rafael deal of three years later
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) July 30, 2018
Not willing to let the matter go, Swamy tweeted in the afternoon that he has called a meeting of his legal eagles in order to decide what further action can be taken against the Times Group.
I have called a meeting of my legal eagles today to decide further action against TOI group
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) July 30, 2018
It is however interesting how a media agency can attempt to pass off an old statement as a current one, without even giving its readers the context it was said in, thereby misleading their readers.
