Yesterday many prominent people on social media shared the ‘news’ that India has given the contract for printing currency notes to China and Indian currency is being printed in the Chinese printing facilities. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had shared a Tweet by journalist Debasish R Chowdhury on Monday in which Chowdhury had shared an article from the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Chowdhury is an editor for the South China Morning Post.
The SCMP article claimed that ‘sources’ have asserted that the currency note printing facilities in China are working at full capacity. It had quoted a Chinese official saying that China has won the currency note production contract from many countries including India, Poland, Thailand, Bangladesh and Malaysia.
Soon, the claim was picked up by media outlets and many Congress members, including Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala. They claimed that the government is compromising with the national security and China printing Indian currency notes is a grave threat.
https://twitter.com/CNNnews18/status/1028869417801723904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The Aam Aadmi Party took the claim a step ahead and held a press conference claiming that since China is famous for making ‘duplicate’ products, the Chinese government will misuse the Indian note printing technology to print and flood international markets with counterfeit Indian notes. The fake notes, AAP leader Raghav Chadha claimed, will then be used for terror funding.
https://twitter.com/AAPDelhi/status/1028983963778465793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Soon, the claim was being widely shared on social and mainstream media. Many media outlets, politicians and journalists shared the claim.
Soon, Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, who busted the claim and clarified that such reports are totally baseless. He added that Indian notes are being and will be printed in India by the Indian government and RBI printing presses.
https://twitter.com/SecretaryDEA/status/1029052115459694592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
However, it is interesting to note that while Shashi Tharoor had shared multiple Tweets making the claim and that asked the RBI for clarification, he has ignored the clarification completely. He had not shared a single Tweet acknowledging the government’s clarification. Even journalist Debasish Chowdhury and Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala have not acknowledged the government’s reply. Aam Aadmi Party, which questioned the government repeatedly on the issue, has not responded to the clarification either.