After falsifying the supreme sacrifice made by the 85-year-old RSS Swayamsevak Narayan Dhabadkar, Loksatta silently edited its farce ‘fact-check’ report based on an unverified Tweet.
Loksatta had run a ‘fact-check’ story discrediting the sacrifice of Dhabadkar and his family based on an unverified video which now stands deleted, uploaded by a Twitter handle named ‘rohanrtweets’. The report had claimed that the story of the sacrifice by the octogenarian is false and no such patient was admitted at the Indira Gandhi Hospital in Nagpur.
However, the fact is that Dhabadkar was admitted at Indira Gandhi Rugnalaya run by Nagpur Municipal Corporation, while Loksatta report was seemed to be based on people talking to Indira Gandhi Government Hospital run by the Maharashtra Government, where he was not admitted.
The report received a backlash on social media by users who were quick to flag the discrepancy and falsehood of the report. Loksatta’s English counterpart- the Indian Express itself negated the fact-check carried by the Marathi newspaper by confirming the sequence of events with the hospital authorities.
A video was uploaded by Asawaree Dhabadkar, Narayan Dhabhadkar’s daughter to set the record straight.
Loksatta then quietly edited its report and quickly added a statement by Anil Sambre, the Vidarbha region campaign chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to validate Dhabadkar’s sacrifice. The statement said, “The incident involving our senior RSS volunteer Narayanrao Dabhadkar is true. He begged the hospital to discharge him, give his bed to others, and be allowed to go home. However, Dabhadkar is being deliberately misrepresented on social media by some people.”
Loksatta had also quoted the original Tweet from where it had picked up the story. The Tweet now stands deleted with the user apologizing for spreading falsehood.
Here’s the sequence of his Tweets
The Twitter user ‘rohanrtweets’ confessed to Loksatta publishing an article based on his unverified video and requested them to update their story. His Tweet reads, “@LoksattaLive published one article on this story referring to my un-verified tweet. Which I have deleted now so that people will not mislead. I urge @LoksattaLive to update your story. I am deeply saddened for this incidence.”
Replugging Asawaree Dhabadkar, Narayan Dhabadkar’s daughter’s video narrating the actual incidence, he wrote, “Just saw video of Asavari madam, daughter of #NarayanDabhadkar kaka. She has stated all the facts and confirmed that this story is true. If any news is coming from family member, I believe it. Mr. Narayan Dabhadkar sacrificed all the medical facilities to for other person.”
“It takes immense strength to sacrifice all this in this hard time. In morning I saw one un-verified video believed it as true. But after watching this video from Asavari madam, I regret to share that video without knowing the truth. I can understand the pain Dabhadkar family,” he continued in another Tweet.
The user has tendered an unconditional apology for circulating fake and unverified video.
He also said that many people had shared another fake news that Narayan Dhabadkar’s death was being faked and that he is still alive. However, that is incorrect as Dhabadkar had indeed died, giving up medical facilities for someone else.
