Leftist propaganda website Scroll.in falsely quoted BJP President Amit Shah as saying in his speech today at Kannur, Kerala that the BJP will dissolve the Left government in the state if it arrests more devotees.
Shah had actually warned the state government that if it does not stop its atrocities against devotees, then the karyakartas of the BJP will uproot the party in the state. Shah, in his speech, accused the Left government in Kerala of using the Supreme Court verdict to inflict atrocities on the devotees of Lord Ayyappa. He also asserted that the Courts should give directives which can be implemented and not which infringes upon the faith of a community.
https://twitter.com/iAnkurSingh/status/1056154033986011136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The Scroll has since then apologized for spreading agenda driven Fake News.
https://twitter.com/scroll_in/status/1056150663179198466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
But it wasn’t before peddlers of Fake News had caught on the lie to spread their own malicious agenda against the NDA government.
Even co-founder of Altnews.in, which is a ‘fact-checking’ website was caught furthering this lie.
https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1056134412310601729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Then there were other journalists who jumped in without doing basic due diligence.
https://twitter.com/waglenikhil/status/1056139131267547136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/bainjal/status/1056138419578044417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/abhisar_sharma/status/1056130021771878400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/HartoshSinghBal/status/1056138088983027714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Some even questioned the basis on which the BJP could dissolve the Left government in Kerala without caring to verify whether the party president had said any such thing at all.
https://twitter.com/rupasubramanya/status/1056125856169578496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The initial tweet spreading fake news has been deleted by scroll and the apology has been tweeted. But it appears that none of those who spread the fake news has bothered to retweet the apology. It reveals how fake news has become such a menace and why journalists and ‘fact checkers’ have lost so much credibility. The lie is tweeted and shared but the apology is conveniently ignored by an agenda driven coterie.