Self-proclaimed activist Yogendra Yadav has been caught again peddling fake news on social media after he indulged in a disinformation campaign against the Modi government on Tuesday by claiming that the government has quietly increased allowances given to the elected Member of Parliament amidst the coronavirus crisis.
Taking to Twitter, multi-talented Yogendra Yadav lamented that the Modi government, which according to him was supposed to provide free train travel to the migrant workers, had quietly increased the constituency allowance to each MP to Rs 49,000.
The Modi government is providing free train travel to migrant workers, but Yadav, for some reason, refuses to acknowledge.
Citing a government order, he insinuated that the Modi government has increasing allowance given to lawmakers at a time when the country was battling a recession due to the Chinese coronavirus.
Fact check
However, in reality, the claims made by Yogendra Yadav is just an outright lie.
According to reports, the Members of Parliament – who had taken a 30 per cent cut in their salary recently, will now also have to forfeit a total of Rs 21,000 per month from their constituency allowance and office allowance.
The cut of 21,000 is besides the cut in the monthly salary which was made recently. From Rs 1 lakh per month to Rs 70,000.
“Notwithstanding anything contained in the rule 2, a member shall be entitled to receive the constituency allowance under section 8 of the salary, Allowances and pension of members of Parliament Act, 1954 (30 of 1954), at the rate of rupees forty nine thousand per mensem for the period from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021,” the government said in a notification.
The new orders have decreased the allowance given to the MPs to Rs 49,000 and have not been increased as claimed by Yogendra Yadav.
Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla accepted the recommendations of Joint Committee and the cut has become effective from April 1, the official order said.
Shocking, despite getting caught spreading fake news, Yogendra Yadav has neither apologised for peddling misinformation nor deleted his tweet.
Yogendra Yadav continues to lie
Yogendra Yadav has been often found resorting to spreading fake propaganda to stay relevant in the public sphere. Recently, he had taken to Twitter to hail lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan equating him to a “Satyagrahi”, for apologising to Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev through a tweet.
Making a virtue out of lying Prashant Bhushan, apologising, the ultra-Left-wing activist Yogendra Yadav said, “This is what distinguishes a satyagrahi (truth seeker) from a troll. As soon as he finds a factual error, @pbhushan1 offers an apology. His scruples have earned him the respect he enjoys. Can we expect the same from all those celebrating his apology?”
It is pertinent to note that controversial left-wing activist Prashant Bhushan has been caught several times peddling blatant fake news on social media.