In a bid to stabilise the state’s population growth rate, the Assam Cabinet decided to bar people with more than two children from having government jobs in the state after January 1, 2021. The two-child norm was already implemented in the state for Panchayati Raj and Municipal body elections, and now the same has been extended to state government jobs. While reporting this decision, NDTV anchor Sonal Mehrotra Kapoor chose to lie profusely and spread fake news in order to discredit the Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbanand Sonowal.
NDTV Anchor Sonal Mehrotra Kapoor, while reporting the news of the two-child norm for government jobs in Assam claimed that while people with more than two children will not be eligible to get a government job in Assam, the Assam Chief Minister, Sarbnand Sonowal himself has 6 children.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpAcsMSZQ9Q]
In a rather theatric manner, Sonal Mehrotra Kapoor tells her viewers that “The interesting bit in this is that the Chief Minister himself has 6 kids, but he has decided to finally implement this two-child policy”.
This video was also shared by NDTV on micro-blogging website Twitter but now seems to have been deleted by NDTV.
Read: As ISRO loses contact with Vikram Lander, NDTV journalist arrogantly yells at the scientist
The truth, however, could not be far from this. Assam Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal does not have 6 children. In fact, the Chief Minister of Assam is not married and leads a single life.
The anchor who blatantly lied on NDTV is not indulging in spreading such canards for the first time.
In 2018, NDTV published and shared news on their social channels with the headline, “Assam BJP Lawmaker’s Nephew Not On Citizen’s List, Says “It Happens.” The story carried a photograph of BJP MP Bijoya Chakravarty and Jaydip Phukan, who is a resident of Guwahati. Jaydip had taken to Twitter to assert that his name indeed does appear on the NRC list and he is not the nephew of the BJP MP.
Jaydip also wrote an official mail to NDTV, asking them to immediately retract his image from the irrelevant news published by them. He also tried to contact Sonal Mehrotra Kapoor, the writer of that particular article, to make the necessary corrections, but she was unavailable, said Jaydip.
