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Digital India could create a problem for Swacch Bharat

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Digital India could create a problem for Swacch Bharat

As the Swachh Bharat mission completes its first year, an important aspect seems to have escaped the mission’s radar: E-waste, short for electronic waste. As technology advances and replacements are brought in, where do the old devices land up? Do the owners keep it? Maybe they sell it or donate it? Or they might junk it. The last one presents the problem called e-waste that looms large.

To understand how junking an electronic device poses a problem, a few stats may help. According to the site dosomething.org  although e-waste constitutes only 2% of the total waste in the USA, it accounts for 70% of its toxic waste! And that is just one side of the story. According to the STEP Initiative, globally up to 6 million tonnes of e-waste are unaccounted for i.e there is no record of how and where their disposal was effected!

Now consider India’s problem. In particular, two initiatives by the Central and State Governments have a strong link to the problem. One is the Digital India initiative of the Government of India. Second, is the distribution of – initially – television sets and more recently laptops to students by the Government of Tamil Nadu. Such practices are going on in other states as well. Schemes like the Digital India would not only require substantial infrastructure to network the country but also devices for people to benefit from it. The downstream problem of disposal of these devices (mobile phones, laptops, tablets etc.) once technology overtakes their capabilities is one that requires immediate and urgent thought if the country has to tackle the problem with any degree of effectiveness.

Let us examine, for example, mobile phones. The headline of this news article in Business Insider says, for the first time in 20 years, sales of mobile phones registered a drop. This was for the first quarter of 2015 compared against final quarter of 2014 – 53 million as against 62 million. Mind boggling numbers to say the least and if these numbers continue, around 200 million mobile phones may be sold in one year! With this in mind, let us turn our attention to another fact from dosomething.org. It says, by recycling 1 million cell phones approximately 16000 kg of copper, 350 kg of silver, 34 kg of gold and 15 kg of palladium can be recovered. Those numbers multiplied by 200 if all the cell phones sold in India in just one year are recycled. And that is just cell phones!

At this point, it is important to address an argument that may come to mind. One might say, the assumption that all of the 200 million phones are going to be junked is absurd and Indians have long had the habit of handing their phones down to others they know. This is true of course. However, can we deny that by now, most people have phones and we are increasingly becoming a society that refuses to accept hand me downs. With the spending power of the population increasing, the number of people wishing to change to the newest and greatest offering from any given manufacturer on a yearly basis is also increasing. Consequently, in a few years time even the people accepting hand me downs will have replacements available on their hands and the junk will start to grow. Exponentially at that!

The important question therefore is – is the country ready? One conversation between a customer and a shop representative of a leading multi brand retail chain dealing in mobile phones went along these lines:

Customer: I wish to change the battery of this phone please.

Representative: Sure, will cost you Rs.1000.

Customer: Ok, go ahead and change. What can I do with the old battery? Can I leave it with you?

Representative: You can if you want.

Customer:  What are you going to do with it?

Representative: Throw it in the dust bin.

Customer: What! You are not supposed to do so. In fact the manufacturer has indicated that it should not be thrown in a dust bin. [points out the sign]

Representative: What else can be done?

Customer: You can send it back to the manufacturer along with other similar products. They can then recycle it.

Representative: [stares at the customer in bewilderment for few seconds and then finally] We cannot do all that.

Customer: In that case, I will retain the battery with me till I am able to dispose it properly [settles the bill and walks out]

The above conversation was a personal experience of the writer. And, the battery continues to remain in his house. The important conclusion from the conversation was, the representative while adept at explaining the features of any given mobile phone in the shop was blissfully unaware of the e-waste problem. And that is where the problem needs to be addressed.

Unfortunately, in India, we have a habit of expecting the Government of the day to tackle problems like these. Sure, in a way the Government is responsible too. It can impose penalties on erring companies. Maybe the Prime Minister can allocate some time in his Maan-Ki-Baat to spread awareness of the problem.

However, why should companies not proactively lead the way in tackling the growing e-waste problem? Why give the space for a problem to crop up in the first place? Is it too much to ask 1 in 1000 advertisements to focus on recycling which could easily be a part of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policy. Why not have their exclusive dealerships as drop off points of e-waste generated by customers? And why is not possible for multi brand retail firms to include in their policy – mandatory sensitization of their employees on the importance of recycling? Can they not also use their stores as drop off points for e-waste and co-ordinate with manufacturers to ensure recycling of used products?

Do these companies care? Do they realize that by doing business in the country they are also ethically responsible for giving back to the society that gave them the space? The questions are endless but it is high time that, for the good of the country, we begin answering at least the basic ones.

–@prathapkrishnan

Post-Script:

As this article was being written, the writer found out that the Dept of Information Technology, India has started an “Awareness Programme on Environmental Hazards of Electronic Waste under ‘Digital India Initiative’”. Sincerest hopes that it takes off.

Modi’s clothing subjected to another hit-job by Indian media

OpIndia Staff
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Modi’s clothing subjected to another hit-job by Indian media

For some reason, some sections of the media, and some politicians have developed a weird fetish of discussing Prime Minister Modi’s clothes. The first instance of this was seen when Modi wore the rather garish monogrammed suit. Sure it deserved some attention, but fashionistas on Twitter went ahead to cook up estimated costs of the suit from absolute thin air. As per twitter intelligentsia, the cost was then estimated to be Rs 10 lakhs odd, and as per Rahul Gandhi’s unquestionable memory and mathematical skills, just last week, the cost escalated to Rs 15 lakhs. Of course we had discussed earlier how both these figures are pure lies.

Ordinarily we would not be giving attention to such purile topics, but we have to so, to call out yet another media lie. In a post from September, titled “You are what you wear: Modi changes clothes four times in a day“, Hindustan Times chose to devote an article to Modi’s clothes during his US trip. As the title suggests, they claimed Modi changed clothes 4 times on a single day. According to HT, these are the four events which took placec on one day, and these are his four sets of clothes:

UntitleSDd

No only did HT choose to focus on something only Rahul Gandhi focuses on, the article itself showed how poor the background work was. Unfortunately for HT and fortunately for us, Vikas Swarup, Official Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, India was live tweeting Modi’s entire USA visit with pictures. And the facts just don’t support HT’s claim that Modi changed clothes four times in a day!

All the above events are from San Jose, so it would be sufficient only to focus on that leg of Modi’s US trip to expose HT’s shoddy reporting. Just from his tweets, we can rebuild Modi’s itinerary (all pics from Official MEA handle):

IST 27 September 2015 4.01 am (local time 26 September 3.31 pm): Modi arrives at Tesla Motors

IST 27 September 2015 5.46 am (local time 26 September 5.16 pm): Modi meets Tim cook

IST 27 September 2015 8.01 am  (local time 26 September 7.31 pm): Modi at Digital India Dinner

IST 27 September 2015 9.56 pm (local time 27 September 9.26 am): Modi arrives at Facebook Townhall

IST 27 September 2015 11.43 pm (local time 27 September 11.13 am): Modi at Google headquarters

IST 28 September 2015 5.25 am (local time 27 September 4.55 pm): Modi meets founder of Khan Academy

IST 28 September 2015 7.12 am  (local time 27 September 6.42 pm): Modi arrives at SAP center

From the above, it is clear that contrary to HT’s claims, Modi was at Tesla Motors and Digital India meet on Day 1, and was at Facebook Townhall and SAP centre on Day 2. From this and the pics it is clear that Modi in fact changed his clothes only twice per day and 4 times if you add both the days, but for some reason HT chose to claim that all these events were on the same day. Yes we reiterate this is a very idiotic point to be discussing but it must be discussed only to call out Hindustan Times’ poor reporting

Another interesting trend though is, not only does Media misreport on Modi’s clothes, Rahul Gandhi too uses that a spring-board and leaps into his imaginary land. In the case of the monogrammed suit, Media came up with an arbitrary figure of Rs 10 lakhs, and Rahul Gandhi promptly distorted it to Rs 15 lacs. In this case too, HT wrongly claimed that Modi changed clothes 4 times in a day, and Rahul Gandhi in Bihar claims that Modi changed clothes 16 times while in USA. Is this a coincidence? On two occasions media misreports and Rahul Gandhi repeats it ad nauseum making it an urban legend.

Whatever the motives behind such malicious news reports, media should attack Modi on valid points, instead of focussing on trivial issues such as this. This will also be helpful to us, and we can stop focussing on such trashy articles by MSM.

P.S. Thanks to this twitter user for the tip-off

Dear Media, attack the PM for the right reasons

India Speaks
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Dear Media, attack the PM for the right reasons

My favourite Nasreddin Hodja story goes like this:

One late evening Nasreddin was seen outside his home upset about something. Just then a young man comes along and sees the Mullah’s distress.

“Mullah, please tell me: What is wrong?”

“Ah, my friend, I seem to have lost my keys. Would you help me search them? I know I had them when I left the tea house.”

So, he helps Nasreddin with the search for the keys. For quite a while the man is searching here and there but no keys are to be found. He looks over to Nasreddin and finds him searching only a small area around a street lamp.

“Mullah, why are you only searching there?”

“Why would I search where there is no light?”

Some segments of our English language media are today behaving like Mullah Nasreddin. After staying silent during the 10 years of UPA plunder and exposes like Radia-gate, the chief protagonists of these segments are desperately trying to regain credibility. But they refuse to venture into the darkness where they lost their halo and instead have limited themselves to searching under the warm, familiar light of upholding the ‘values of a secular India’. Hence it isn’t surprising that instead of rebuilding their image, they have become the byword for incompetence, bias & unintentional comedy.

Let us assume for a moment that it is acceptable for journalists to be so ideologically rooted that reporting the truth becomes secondary to propagating a pre-determined agenda. Even with this overtly generous assumption, one is hard-pressed to appreciate the botched attempts by our English media elites to hurt their enemy number one – Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The media’s coverage of isolated and unrelated events has been so comically hysterical, boringly repetitive and depressingly fact-free that instead of the events, it is the media’s obvious bias which has now become the perpetual story.  Even Don Quixote met with more success while battling the windmills compared to our star journalists’ attempts at creating a picture of a new fascist India under Modi.

The recent tragedy in Dadri was yet another symptom of the absence of any semblance of law in a state (mis)ruled by the Mulayam Singh Yadav family. However the media, which continues to remind us on a daily basis that Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2002, pretended as if Akhilesh Yadav doesn’t even exist. Instead it made the incident all about ‘growing intolerance’ in India and then stretching it a step further, transformed it into a debate about beef consumption. It was odd because the facts of the case were still being established.

Mohammad Akhlaq’s death was widely discussed by pretentious media divas in their comfortable studios while accompanied by a free flow of insincere tears. The images reeked of exploitation as we all know that Akhlaq’s family members will never be inquired of ever again. They have served their purpose and the attention-seeking vultures will fly off to devour cadavers in other unfortunate tragedies. We know that because it isn’t the first time our media divas have used tragedies as crutches to further their agenda.

We remember how the Vyapam victims were discussed before they were dropped like hot potatoes as it began to emerge how Congress honchos were deeply embroiled in the scam. We remember how Lalit Modi hogged the headlines before the accusations started reaching Sonia Gandhi’s doorsteps. We remember how the raped nun from Bengal was the country’s biggest tragedy before facts emerged to show that the attacks was carried out by illegal Bangladeshis & not by non-existent local Hindutva forces.

A prime example of the media’s idiocy & intellectual laziness is its comical penchant of exclaiming how this is not the India they ‘grew up in’ while at the same time supporting the consumption of beef in the provinces they disparagingly term as the cow-belt. They need to stop pretending to know India because they obviously don’t understand something as fundamental as the importance of the cow in rural India.  They also need to stop saying that India is changing for the worse because that betrays their ignorance of India’s violent history.

In their umpteenth lethargic attempt to paint the Modi Government as the epitome of intolerance, they have converted a case of murder into an informal referendum on the importance of the cow in a deeply religious and Hindu society. Instead of damaging the Prime Minister’s image, they gifted him and his party an issue which they can use to break down the bewildering caste arithmetic of Bihar and romp to an electoral victory which previously seemed difficult. No wonder the paragons of secularism like Laloo Yadav and Digvijay Singh are now tying themselves up in knots while trying to out-do each other on who loves cows more. If this is how the media is planning to take down Modi, the PM’s amused silence is not surprising. Such bungling by the media gives credence to the theory that the media’s incompetent hounding of the Prime Minister is second only to Rahul Gandhi’s stand-up comedy when it comes to factors which has helped cement Modi’s grip on power in India.

The Indian upper middle class- the main consumer of the English language media, may be a distracted, self-centered lot but its members are not lobotomized. When the media hollers only about ‘Hindu fascism’ in the same day when Christian bishops shut down the staging of plays, the obvious prejudice is not lost on the people. When media stars proudly tweet about eating beef, they should remember that the memory of them rationalizing Charlie Hebdo murders as somewhat justified are still fresh in the minds of their followers.

In their frantic efforts to tarnish the Prime Minister, these journalists have ended up being unambiguously anti-Hindu & in multiple issues, anti-India.  The media has been so intensely hysterical while propagating falsehoods & half-truths that their hypocrisy has seared into the psyche of their viewers. The biggest tragedy resulting from such reckless behavior is that is when genuine hate crimes against minorities occur, and they do, Indians will struggle to differentiate them from the fake stories which the media has been thrusting into their faces. Thanks to its lazy, exploitative and cynical ‘journalism’, the media has not only manipulated victims of tragedies, it has also condemned the stories of future victims to being viewed with suspicion.

Inspite of the above, allow me to float a controversial idea by saying that it is important we encourage the media to continue to attack the PM. It is important because as citizens we want the government to be on its toes and not get complacent. But to improve the current state of affairs, we should help the media to understand how it should do its job. I would like to share some unsolicited advice with these insidious segments of India’s English language media.

Dear stars of the English media. Please stop embarrassing yourself. Instead of rushing to some inconsequential Sadhvi for lazy headlines, please work hard to build your case against the prime minister. That will only be possible when you stop pursuing this communal bogey and instead attack the gaps in the PM’s development and governance agenda.

Deride Arun Jaitley for failing to even manage the deadlines for IT returns.

Grill Suresh Prabhu about the multiple train accidents.

Ask Radhamohan Singh how he has responded to farmer suicides.

Follow up with Sushma Swaraj about how India is keeping the multiple promises the PM made to foreign countries.

Verify the statistics being put out by Nitin Gadkari & Piyush Goyal.

Question JP Nadda about what he has done to battle the dengue outbreak.

These stories hold the real potential to dent the Prime Ministers halo. But this also means you have to work hard, research and meet people outside your studios and away from your cameras. And in the end you will have to draw logically coherent conclusions. These are things which you may not be used to doing but if you really hate the Prime Minister from the bottom of your heart, this is the only way. Anything else you do will only increase the PM’s bench strength in the Rajya Sabha.

With Sahitya Akademi award controversy, Nayantara Sahgal exposes another case of selective outrage

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With Sahitya Akademi award controversy, Nayantara Sahgal exposes another case of selective outrage

She is a recipient of the Sinclair Prize for Fiction, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. She is a prolific writer who has penned down nine novels and eight works of non-fiction. Her work – with mild shades of feminism – challenges the way Indian society treats its women. Recently, Nayantara Sahgal was seen making headlines for returning her Sahitya Akademi award. Most of the headlines read, “Nehru’s niece returns the Sahitya Akademi Award”. Discourses were quickly created to highlight “Nehru’s niece” as the keyword.

Well, Nayantara is an erudite writer with a strong sense of judgement; at least I believe this. She took her cousin Indira Gandhi head-on during the Emergency Era. Not only that, she even resigned from the Sahitya Akademi advisory board of English. Indira didn’t leave her; she reciprocated (as did many during Emergency) with an amplified ire. Indira cancelled Sahgal’s posting to Italy as India’s Ambassador.  It is another thing that when Nayantara revisited her famous 1982 book in 2012, she portrayed her cousin Indira with dignity.

Just two years before Sahgal got her Akademi award, the country’s soil was stained with the blood of Sikhs. 1984 genocide of Sikhs by Congress affiliated goons had left the country traumatised. However, unlike her recent decision, Nayantara didn’t refuse from accepting the Akademi award.

Surprisingly, today she talks of justice. To quote her verbatim

Justice drags its feet. The Prime Minister remains silent about this reign of terror. We must assume he dare not alienate evil-doers who support his ideology. It is a matter of sorrow that the Sahitya Akademi remains silent.

The episode forced me to think about the hypocrisy of writers in different political setups. Why did she accept the honour when her nephew Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India roared, “When a big tree falls, the earth shakes”(when asked about the 1984 riots)? Didn’t it violate the ethics of the esteemed Mrs. Nayantara Sahgal to accept the award from the same government? (Rajiv Gandhi was the PM when she was conferred the Sahitya Akademi Award). Wasn’t Rajiv’s statement equivalent to State’s approval of the riots? If she calls Dadri Incident Modi’s silence of “reign of terror”, would she also call Rajiv’s statement “an approval of the Riots”?

Sahgal shares her roots with Kashmiri Pandits. In 90s, when Islamists forced Kashmiri Pandits to leave the valley. The Kashmiri Pandits were exposed to violent crimes like rapes, murders and other atrocities. I wonder, why didn’t that move Sahgal enough to protest or break her silence or return her Akademi Award? Was that bloodshed in Kashmir not an attack on the Idea of India? Sahgal could have stood in solidarity with the Kashmiri Pandits to take up their cause; She could have returned her award and sent out a loud message that the secular fabric of the country is under stress.

There has been enough attack on Freedom of Expression/Freedom of Speech in India. It was a good time for the writers to stand united and return their respective awards when Satanic Verses was banned in India. Can anything offend a writer more than a piece of literature being banned?

Sadly, when asked by a journalist, “Why didn’t you return the award during previous attacks/riots?”, she insensitively replied, “This is a different case, now we have a Hindutva Government”.

This makes me very very uncomfortable. Does she mean that she is fine when people are killed, literary works are banned, and rationalists are attacked under the rule of the Congress government, especially with her family members at the helm?

I know that a lot of liberals will accuse me of whataboutery (that’s their defence when someone points out to their double standards), but this isn’t whataboutery, this is stating the obvious.

This isn’t about principles; this is more about who is in power. And if this is what it is about, it is indeed a great fall from intellect to petty politics.

I would like to end this article with a quote by an unknown author:

Many of us believe that wrongs aren’t wrong if it’s done by nice people like ourselves.

Smriti Irani takes to Twitter to call out Media spin

OpIndia Staff
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Smriti Irani takes to Twitter to call out Media spin

It was a normal morning for The Hindu yesterday. They posted a story which was titled “German to be taught in central schools again after holds talks”. The story said:

“Students in Kendriya Vidyalaya schools (KVs) will be able to opt for German as an additional foreign language, in conformity with the National Education Policy, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development announced on Monday, after signing a joint declaration of intent with Germany……The Human Resource Development Ministry’s earlier decision to discontinue the teaching of German in KVs had escalated into a diplomatic row, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel raising the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in Brisbane last year”

In short what the story said: Kendriya Vidyalayas would now be able to opt for German as addition foreign language, after India signed a joint declaration of intent with Germany, in contrast to HRD Ministry’s earlier decision to discontinue German in Kendriya Vidyalayas.

Even shorter version of this story would be: HRD Ministry does a U Turn on teaching German

And thats what Deputy Resident Editor at The Hindu, Suhasini Haider spun it as:


This got Smriti Irani’s goat and she responded to this allegation swiftly, putting all the facts out:


Lost for words, Haider chose to not respond to the factual counterpoints but instead tweeted this:


So what were the facts of this matter? In November 2014, the Board of Governors of the Kendriya Vidyalaya took the following decision of German in KVs (relevant portion from the minutes of the meeting) :

1

From this it is clear that German was only removed from the third language slot and transferred to foreign language slot as an additional subject. Comically, besides other media outlets, The Hindu itself had reported this exact fact in November 2014. The opening paragraph of the report itself stated:

The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan (KVS), which runs 500 Central Schools across the country, has decided to offer German as a “foreign language” instead of third language.

This same report explained the rationale behind it. The three-language policy did not permit any foreign languages to be taught as third language. Hence, to comply with this policy, German was removed as a third language and introduced as a foreign language. So in effect, German as a language was never removed, so the question of making a U-Turn never arose. And as the Minister explained, the recent Joint Declaration of Intent signed with Germany, allowed Indian languages to be taught in Germany and formalised the already existing framework to teach German in KVs as an additional foreign subject.

So where did this U-Turn come from ? Even The Hindu’s own report from November 2014 would help clarify that there was no U-Turn now.

And that should have been the end of that misreporting. But no, there was more. In a desperate bid to salvage something out of this, Malini Parthasarathy, The Hindu’s editor, chose to spin this response from Smriti Irani in the weirdest possible manner:


And for this, Malini P was trolled till the cows came home.




  Not only by general twitter users, but even by Smriti Irani:

 

All we would like to say is, Malini P, get well soon!

Indian Media is the new fringe?

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Indian Media is the new fringe?

My client and I were watching news on television where they were showing Kashmiri youth shouting anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans. Some were also holding ISIS flags. My client had a question in mind “If 70% Kashmiris participated in the electoral process, why is the media giving so much disproportionate importance to these handful of miscreants?”

This was a very legitimate question but I had no logical answer except ‘If the media goes away, such demonstrations would also stop”

It then reminded me of the famous “church attacks” in Delhi which put the entire “Idea of India” in danger. Day in day out our media showed the reports of “church attacks” without waiting for investigation to be completed and facts be established, maybe because investigations would have spoilt their agenda of promoting a certain fringe. It turned out that most of these so-called ‘church attacks’ were nothing but a result of petty crimes and drunken assaults.

And what happens when our media broadcasts such unconfirmed, sensitive and often biased reports on national television? In my opinion, it increases animosity between the two communities because the minority community will feel threatened and aggravated and the majority will feel victimised.

Take the case of the news story involving one Misbah quadri, a young Muslim who claimed that she was denied a flat in a society because of her religion. Yes, such discrimination, especially in case of getting a place to stay happens a lot, but not just with Muslims. There are so many stories of bachelors, divorcee women, students of specific colleges or streams, and even people of other religions and communities being discriminated against when they search for a place to stay.

Yet, Media ran stories 24×7, sensationalising this story of Misbah Qadri, without any sort of verification. A few media outlets did try to trace the truth but the damage was done by then. And a few months ago, when the cops finally blew the lid and found no evidence to support her claim (in fact they found Muslim families living in the same building), the media failed to apologise to the Indian public whom they had taken for a ride.

The implications of this sort of sensationalism and untruthful reporting are too vast to even imagine. This creates a further divide between the two communities.

Dadri mob lynching. An old Muslim man was killed by a mob because of rumours that he had eaten beef. What the media did was something no sensible human will ever do. They went to rabid extremists like Sadhvi Prachi and Azam Khan for their views. If they wanted their viewers to maintain peace they could have shown how Akhlaq’s Hindu neighbours tried to help and saved his family but could not save his life. Reporting communal statements by leaders is quite different from deliberately approaching known trouble-makers and demanding sound bites which would further stoke communal passions.

Another instance of ‘religious intolerance’ was when the ban on sale of meat was increased from 2 days to 4 days during the Jain festival of Paryushan (forgiveness). Media kept on sensationalising the issue. Many People started looking at Jains as if they are extremists forcing their religion on others, which was what led to my outburst back then.

But, the news of Ganesh pandals giving space to Muslims so that they can offer namaz, or a Hindu temple giving space to a Muslim couple so that the woman can deliver her child are what the real “Idea of India” is made of and will remain so even if the media tries to project majority persecuting minority.

There are divisive elements in every community, who have waited for long to get their voices heard and mainstream media is knowingly or unknowingly becoming a platform for the Owaisis and the Sadhvi Prachis. They don’t speak for me or many others but the media still projects their opinion as the view of their respective community.

– written by Ankit Jain aka @indiantweeter

Top Lies spread by Indian Media in September 2015

Gaurav
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Top Lies spread by Indian Media in September 2015

Big Lies:

1. 29 September 2015: The Hindu – PM got the GDP figure wrong

We had a separate story on this issue. The PM while in US had mentioned that India was now a economy with $8 trillion GDP. On PPP basis, which is the preferred method of comparing GDP figures internationally, this figure is the same as the figure issued by IMF in their “World Economic Outlook” report for 2015. The Hindu first showed the nominal GDP which is around $ 2 Trillion (in 2014). But they did not mention here that the corresponding value in PPP terms is $ 7.4 Trillion as per World Bank’s data. Then they claimed that the “latest” available data (from 2011) showed GDP on PPP basis at $ 5.7 Trillion. In doing so they ignored the above mentioned IMF projections for 2015 and also the World Bank report from 2014. Final argument used was that the $ 8 trillion figure was only “estimate” and not “data”, but fact is almost all economic data of such large scale is “estimated” because of size and complexity involved.

2. 10 September 2015: All Media – Meat Ban Narrative

Here media tried to portray a picture that BJP was now trying to impose its cultural agenda by announcing Meat bans during the Jain festival of Paryushan. An image was created that Maharashtra Government started it, and it was followed by other BJP states joining in. But a bit of research showed that such meat bans especially for Paryushan festival, existed in almost all states way before BJP came into power: In Maharashtra since 1964 (Congress rule), in Gujarat since 1960 (Congress rule) and in other states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, from  Congress rules too. Further in the specific case of Maharashtra, this meat ban was imposed by a few civic bodies and no fresh order went from the state Government. We had covered all the aspects of this massive hit-job here.

3. 20 September 2015: IndiaToday group – AAP govt bought onions at Rs 18/kg and sold to Delhiites at Rs 30/kg

We had a separate report on this where we had discussed threadbare how AAP was subjected to this hit-job. In what seems to be a gross misinterpretation of facts , India Today reported that AAP Govt bought onions at Rs 18/kg and sold to Delhiites at Rs 30/kg. This claim was made based on RTI replies. Firstly they did not release the so called RTI replies they saw. Secondly, from what was available in public domain from various sources, it was clear that in fact AAP had bought onions at Rs 32.86/Kg from SFAC and the Rs 18/kg was what SFAC had paid to buy the onions from Mandis.

4. 20 September 2015: India Today – Sonia Gandhi’s statement “Where was PM Modi when Congress was fighting Independence Struggle”

India Today live tweeted a Sonia Gandhi speech where they claimed she had said the above. This was obviously stupid since Modi was not even born at that time. Hence Sonia Gandhi was ridiculed for this. But as the video of the speech was uploaded it was clear that she had said the following and India Today had done a very bad paraphrasing job:

5. 21 September 2015: Factchecker.in – Contrary to Narendra Modi’s claim, Khadi Sales Have Not “Doubled”

A fine example of statistical jumla. In his Mann ki Baat address, Modi stated that last year, in October, he had appealed to people to buy more Khadi. He said that he is now happy to report that sales have doubled in the last one year. So, lets understand what Modi has said. He has said, ever since he made the appeal, sales have doubled, which would naturally mean sales have doubled from October 2014 to September 2015, which is the month of his latest Mann k baat. So to verify this claim, one would obviously need data of Khadi sales from October 2013 to September 2014 & October 2014 to September 2015. What factchecker rather cleverly did was instead of analysing this period, they picked up data financial year wise i.e. from April 2014 to March 2015! When one realises this, the entire premise of this “fact check” whatever be the result, falls flat. In fact, if one goes by data produced here, growth in khadi sales “rocketed to a 17.55% growth in sales from October 2014 to March 2015, which is an almost 3 fold increase when compared to the previous corresponding period“. Irrespective of whether this data is correct, factchecker.in has got the story completely wrong.

6 September 2015: India Today – “Govt considering covert ops to take down Dawood,” says Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

India Today, and interviewer Rahul Kanwal, claimed that Rathore told him that “Govt wasUntitled considering covert ops to take down Dawood”.  This became a big topic of outrage since a minister was openly admitting to covert ops. But no such statement was found when the interview was played. This becomes even more important because India Today had clearly put Rathore’s words in quotes, meaning he had to say the exact thing, bu he did not even come close. Here is a full transcript of the relevant portion. We are still awaiting Rahul Kanwal’s reply to show the exact place where Rathore said those exact words.

7. 1st September 2015: Indian Expresss – Dog hanged in Kerala to mark death anniversary of RSS functionary

A casual reading of the above line would suggest that RSS had hanged a dog to mark the death anniversary of its functionary. The phrase “to mark an ocassion” is usually used  in context of celebrating an event, hence the headline gives this impression. Many people believed it was indeed the RSS who did this. But facts are different. The dog (rather 3 dogs) were killed and hanged by “unknown people” on the death anniversary of an RSS leader. This functionary was killed allegedly by CPM goons, and the dogs were hanged at the exact spot where the functionary had been killed, exactly one year ago. We had reported that Social Media posts indicated that the killing of the dogs could also have been the handiwork of CPM goons. In such a case, the Indian Express headline was grossly misleading.

8. 17 September 2015: India Today – Majid & AR cannot make a movie that is inflammatory and would hurt sentiments of a particular community – Shabana Azmi. 

Call it constraints of 140 characters, extremely poor paraphrasing or deliberate spin. India Today made a complete hotch-potch of Shabana Azmis’ views  which led to a lot of misinterpretation and outrage. First, see what India Today reported her as saying, as per the screenshot attached. From her statement, it would seem to anyone that Azmi felt that such a film cannot be made if it hurts a community’s sentiments. For this alleged statement she was ridiculed by all and sundry. But when one saw the video in the tweet, one could see she said something totally different:

I have not watched the movie but I can only surmise that it is hardly likely that people of the integrity of A R Rahman and Majid Majidi would make a film that is inflammatory or would hurt the sentiments of a particular community.

Azmi had in fact said the believed they could never make a film which would be inflammatory. But India Today completely twisted her argument. This has become a habit for India Today, of twisting statements of celebrities, after Salim Khan’s last month  and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore as above.

9. 2nd September 2015: NDTV – Scholar MM Kalburgi’s Murder: No Sketches, No Questioning, Preoccupied Cops

Above story was written by Sreenivasan Jain and was published on 2nd September at 2.45pm and update at 3.04pm IST again. One of the claims made by Jain was that the cops had not released the sketches of the assailants.  As at 3.04pm, Jain & NDTV stuck to this claim. Within 2 hours Commissioner of Police Hubli-Dharwad tweeted sketches of the assailants. So was the police forced to act, that too so swiftly, because of Jain’s stellar journalism? Was the tweet by the commissioner the first instance of releasing the sketches? Or were they released offline before this? We do not know. But even upto 6.48 pm, NDTV continued to splash the same news on TV that sketches have not been released. From this it was clear that even assuming the sketches were actually released at 5pm, NDTV did no correct their reporting until almost 2 hours after the incident. Later, NDTV changed the entire report and deleted the part where they said sketches were not released.

10. 2 September 2015: Scroll.in – Marathas collected Zakat only from Muslims.

In a motivated post solely meant to whitewash Aurangzeb’s tyrannical legacy, a point was made that much like the Jizya tax which Aurangzeb levied solely on non-Muslims, the Marathas had a tax called Zakat which was meant only for Muslims. This claim was rebutted by multiple people on social media. Exhibit 1: an extract from the book “Administrative Systems of the Marathas” by Surendra Nath Sen” which clearly says Zakat was collected from all traders irrespective of religion and that it had lost its original meaning of “religious tax”. Exhibit 2: an extract from the book “Advanced Study in the History of Modern India” which again says something similar. Exhibit 3: A research paper titled “A Historical Study of The Economic Policy of Marathas: Trade and Tax” which reiterates above facts. Even the source of original article did not say that Zakat was collected only from Muslims.

11. 4 September 2015: The Hindustan Times (Ram Guha’s column) – No roads named after Shivaji, Maharana Pratap, Ranjit Singh in New Delhi. 

India’s “pre-eminent historian” Ram Guha, wrote an entire piece based on why there are no roads named after the above historical figures in Delhi, and justified the same giving various reasons. Fact is there were three roads amed after these exact same luminaries in New Delhi all along. Eventually after many “alert readers” pointed this out, Hindutsan Tims corrected the story. Ram Guha also admitted his folly on twitter, but amusingly maintained that “his larger point remains”

12. 14th September 2015: Rediff.com- Arun Shourie slams Narendra Modi Government

In another example of digital illiteracy of Indian media, Rediff believed that an unverified twitter handle called “@ArunSFan” with barely 2286 followers, was the real handle of former Finance Minister Arun Shourie. This inspite of the fact that the handle clearly mentions in its bio that it is run by “Fans of Arun Shourie” and is a “Parody account”. This handle made some tweets critical of Modi and Rediff was prompt to pounce on them. Later they realised their gaffe.

 

Miscellaneous Lies:

 

1. 2 September 2015: Bloomberg – Nitin Gadkari: Will add 1.5 lakh km to national highways over the next 3 months

Another case of grossly poor reporting. Gadkari had said the Government will add 50000 km of National Highways by year-end, thus taking the total to 1.5 lakh km. But Bloomberg misreported it and said that 1.5 lakh kms would be added.

2. 4 September 2015: The Hindu – Greenpeace India’s registration cancelled

This erroneous report in The Hindu calimed “Five months after it suspended its licence to receive foreign donations, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) cancelled the registration of Greenpeace India on Wednesday.” In the following paragraphs it elaborated that this was only a cancellation of FCRA license. This fact was well reported by media and also as per Greenpeace’s own statement too, it was clear that only the FCRA license was cancelled and not “Greenpeace India’s registration”

3. 10 September 2015: Multiple Media houses – Gurgaon police chief on “special” leave. 

There were multiple news reports like the above which said Gurgaon police chief was going/sent on “special” leave, which the department claimed was “routine”. The aim was to cast aspersions on the absence of the officer in light of the news of the heinous rape case involving a Saudi Diplomat which broke around 9th September. Objecting to such innuendo filled news items, Gurgaon Police department released the leave application and sacntion letters. The letters clearly showed that the leave was applied for on 3rd September, and also granted then, which was much before the rape case came into news. Eventually the officer cut his leave short and resumed investigations.

4. 11 September 2015 –  NDTV: Rakesh Maria investigated the 7/11 blasts. 

In a story which was later edited by NDTV, it was claimed that  Rakesh Maria had investigated the 7/11 blasts which rocked Mumbai. A lawyer who had worked on the case tweeted that this was incorrect after which NDTV changed the story.

5. 7th September 2015: The Hindu – IAS officer bypassed Home secretary and directly went to Home Minister.

In an article focussing on some other bureaucrat, The Hindu made a passing statement that another bureaucrat Anant Kumar Singh, bypassed the home secretary and took a file relating to a transfer, directly to the Home Minister. This charge was rebutted by Singh. He wrote a letter to The Hindu denying the allegations. He clearly mentioned that he scrupulously followed all procedures, never bypassed the Home Secretary and did not violate any such rule in his tenure. The Hindu carried this letter as a “Clarification from ex-Additional Secretary” in one of the inner pages and did not rebut any of his counter-claims

 

6. 15th September 2015: The Indian Express – Gen V K Singh’s statement at Vishwa Hindi Sammelan

This report appearing under “Delhi Confidential” which is essentially a gossip column claimed that a publisher close to Gen V K Singh could not secure a seat at the Vishwa Hindi Sammelan, because of the Sangh Parivar’s control over the invitee list. Immediately, the report continued to report that later V K Singh “angered Hindi writers by commenting that they attended such gatherings to drink and eat”. The first part, that a publisher friend of V K Singh couldn’t get through was refuted by the General on twitter. He said he had no “favourite publisher” and that the Sammelan was not for publishers. The indirect claim out forth by Indian Express that as a result of this, Singh had an outburst and the the outburst itself, that the writers had come only for only to drink and eat, also seem to be wrong. From this audio clip, it is clear that Singh had in fact said, some people may feel that earlier they would come eat, drink and go, but this time nothing of that sort has happened. So rather than a jibe at the authors present, as presented by Indian Express, it was a jibe at previous such conferences.

7. 17th September 2015: Multiple Media houses: Balloons and greetings: Twitter celebrates PM Modi’s birthday

Indian media declared their technological ineptness once again when they declared that Twitter celebrated Modi’s birthday. A casual reading of these reports would suggest that Twitter added colourful balloons to Modi’s Twitter profile, Only because he was India’s PM, because all the reports seemed to suggest this is some extra-ordinary thing happening on twitter. Fact is, Twitter has added this feature for all users. Anyone who enters their birthdate in twitter, would get this new feature on their birthday. But if media houses had highlighted that this a very routine twitter feature available to all and sundry, then  they would have one lest listicle.

8. 17 September 2015: Times of India – Military Secretary asked to go on leave till retirement after allegedly receiving bribe

This news was tweeted from the Times of India handle. The original tweet is now deleted but the text of the tweet was this:

“Military Secretary Lt Gen Rajiv Bhalla has been asked to go on leave till retirement for allegedly receiving bribe from senior officer in Kolkata.”

The Army’s public information twitter handle quickly clarified that the Military Secretary would be rejoining on 18th September and is not going on “leave till retirement” as reported by Times of India. It also called the Times of India tweet “false and malicious”. A good 5 hours after this tweet, Times of India apologised for their mistake. They claimed it was “based on an input from our correspondent” and that they “erred by not verifying it with the Army”.

9. 18 September 2015: Multiple media outlets – Enforcement Directorate reopens National Herald case  which was closed in August

Last month we had shown you how media had reported that the ED had “closed” the National Herald case, when fact was it was never “opened”. The ED had then only temporarily refused to file a new case under PMLA due to technical reasons, and all existing National Herald cases were going on as usual. This month media reported that ED had “reopened” the file, which was “closed” in August. Since the case was never closed, it definitely cannot be reopened.

10. 19 September 2015: Outlook – Factual errors in article stating Gujarat cadre bureaucrats dominate Central Government bureaucracy.

In a series of tweets, senior journalist Ashok Malik plugged multiple holes in this outlook story. First he refers to a list of bureaucrats which Outlook claims consists of “Bureaucrats who have shifted base from Gujarat after Modi became prime minister 15 months ago”. Malik says many of those mentioned in the lists were already in Delhi, even before Modi came to power. He even names some such bureaucrats. Next he goes to the part of the story which says Sanjeev Kumar Singla an Indian Foreign Service officer, was from the Gujarat Cadre. Here Malik points out that Foreign services officers do not have a state cadre, hence the story is again erroneous. Malik also contests the story’s claim that 44 out of the 51 officials empanelled as additional secretaries, belonging to the Gujarat cadre. He says the actual number is 4 and they are from the 1985 batch. He further says that 44 officers in an IAS batch cannot belong to one state.

11. 21 September 2015: Unknown media outlet –  Raveena Tandon’s mother dead

A leading newspaper from Mumbai, in its popular entertainment supplement, apparently reported that Raveena Tandon’s mother had died. The story was eventually deleted hence it cannot be traced but Raveena trashed this story on twitter. She however did not name the media house. Even as Raveena was clearing the air, a bollywood news portal carried a report on the same and specified that the fake news was titled ‘Raveena Tandon Bereaved’

12. 24 September 2015: Indian Express – India sends 7 amendments to Nepal’s constitution

This report claimed that India had communicated 7 amendments to Nepal’s contstituion, to Nepal, via “official channels”. The MEA responded saying clearly that:

The article is incorrect. GOI has not handed over any list of specific Constitutional amendments or changes to the Government of Nepal. Without being prescriptive on specific clauses, and as already stated earlier, we continue to urge that issues on which there are differences should be resolved through dialogue in an atmosphere free from violence, and institutionalized in a manner that would enable broad-based ownership and acceptance.

Indian Express though stuck to their version claiming they had confirmed the same “from their sources”. Going by past claims of sources of Indian Express, one doesnt feel very confident about this story.

January 2015: 7 Lies

February 2015: 8 Lies

March 2015: 9 Lies

April 2015: 18 Lies

May 2015: 20 Lies

June 2015: 20 Lies

July 2015: 27 Lies

August 2015: 25 Lies

 

The Dadri death has killed a bit of hope in our minds too

Rahul Raj
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The Dadri death has killed a bit of hope in our minds too

I was pained and discomforted when I read the news, but I was not shocked. I didn’t jump off from my bed after reading that a man was dragged to death just for some allegations related to consumption of beef. To say that a communal lynching, like what happened in Dadri, is a new phenomenon in India – something unseen or unheard by us before – would be quite stupid and untrue. Apart from a long usual sigh and an urge to read headlines and arguments, I didn’t have much to react. I am a part of the zombified social structure in which people have become immune to such slaughters. We do ‘feel bad’ when a member of the only surviving homo sapien is brutally devoid of life, but our feelings fade away with another juicier stories.

One big reason for my coldness can be attributed to the rat-race which I am living – a hysterical game-show in which reactions and involvements in social discourses give no space to emotions. I haste to react with the insecurity that some other human may consume the space and span of my social existence. I react when I am infuriated, but somewhere in my heart, I realize the fact that my anger will subside with my office routine, household chores or a newer story; probably without yielding or finding any solution.

One other reason which directly or indirectly shaped the numbness in me is the cynicism to see someone who can act as an agent of change after a long-awaited and ebbing optimism. I am a part of the political structure in which – year after year – people are cajoled to believe that the new political alignment in the Center, in states, in municipalities, in panchayats, in the muhallas, in universities, will revive the lethargy and greed of existing systems, and then it continues – year after year – without yielding even quarter of what was promised.

I read the barbaric murder story of Mohammad Akhlaq. He didn’t murder or rape any human. He was not a part of any mob which lynched someone in the past. He was not someone who was forcing girls into prostitution. He was not even a local gunda who threatened local innocent people. He was beaten to pulp – by bricks, by stones, by sticks and probably by a sewing machine too.

When the news surfaced out, people dashed to validate the news – which, given the current state of Indian media – was not a bad idea. Very soon, the whole narrative digressed to whether he was thrashed for consuming beef or not and finally we returned to the square one of all the religious, social, political and economic arguments – ‘Is this the first time that we are seeing this?’ ‘Which political party should be held responsible?’ ‘Did we raise our voices when someone of the other religion was killed?’

As expected, Samajwadi Party has blamed it as a planned event; Arvind Kejrwial, for whatever reason, was eager to meet the victim’s family; Asaduddin Owaisi has already linked it with bhakts of the Sangh Parivar, who according to him, are attempting to convert India into a Hindu nation. However, as a BJP supporter, what disappointed me the most is the inept silence, stupidities and inaction of BJP. Union cultural minister Mahesh Sharma says that the lynching of Mohamad Akhlaq was an accident, it should not be given a “communal colour”, and at the same time, former BJP MLA from Dadri, Nawab Singh Nagar brags 

If cow slaughter and its consumption is proven, they (the victim and his family) are definitely at fault. There is a ban on slaughter of cows and this concerns the faith of Hindus. It is obvious that such an incident will lead to anger among people and there will be communal tension. If this was the case, the family is in the wrong. If they have consumed beef, they are also responsible. This is a village of Thakurs and they express their sentiments in a very strong way. If they have done this, they should have kept in mind what the reaction would be

Like always, spokespersons of BJP are clueless; like always, fan-base of BJP is digging stories to prove that BJP leaders were misquoted; like always, social media is comparing events in BJP and Congress ruled states; like always, I have pacified my anger in my office routine and daily chores.

One could ask who is at fault. The State Government for alleged mishandling by the police. The Central Government because as usual it is supposed to be responsible for communal incidents. Opposition parties for stoking communal tensions.

But not everywhere can one point fingers at the world. A short-sighted regressive decision to ban Porn cannot be deflected onto others. For appointing incompetent people like Gajendra Singh too, and the following handling of the issue, which was a trivial topic, no-one can be blamed either.

I believed in a party which could act, instead of sending some baboons who blabber rhetorics and question others. I believed in a cause which promised a new India, a new outlook towards life. After seeing inappropriate actions in some places and inaction in the other, my faith is slowly receding in what I once believed.

P.S. I am also not shocked by such incidents because such things keep happening, as today we saw a father killed his 4 yr old daughter because she broke the code of his religion which was to cover her head.

Sorry Rahul Gandhi, the various claims about your whereabouts don’t add up

Guest Author
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Sorry Rahul Gandhi, the various claims about your whereabouts don’t add up

For someone who is always thrust upon us by the media whenever he is at home, Rahul Gandhi becomes untraceable to the Indian media when he is abroad. Mind you this is the same media that managed to get Lalit Modi into their UK newsroom when he was wanted at least on paper by Indian officials. Oh let’s not forget how media also managed to get in touch with Dawood’s wife which even our Intelligence officials didn’t think of.

Unlike last time when Mr. Gandhi went AWOL for 56 or so days and media ran a circus on where he could be, relying on gossip, Social media photos, and basically whatever they heard through the grapevine, this time Rahul’s location was put to rest courtesy tweets from Rahul’s office and Milind Deora who was accompanying him. All news channels ran with tweets and that was the end of that.

Except that it was not. In fact we are not even sure what conference or seminar or private event was it that Rahul Gandhi attended.  Though we can confirm the photographs of Rahul Gandhi with Iceland president and David Miliband are real the verification of whether they all attended the conference is unclear.

But First onto the Conference attended by Rahul Gandhi

Congress had been insisting that Rahul Gandhi was going to Aspen ,Colorado  to attend “Weekend with Charlie Rose” conference. However this conference seems to shrouded in much mystery even to Aspen residents themselves. Two local Aspen News stories do mention a conference of the same name and it being a private event, but one of these reports borrows from an Indian report in Economic Times, which again talks reports the Congress’s official position here in India. An Indian American news organization however claims that their investigation reveals that the ‘Aspen Ideas Festival‘ which is the official name of the conference had long been over and chances of Rahul Gandhi attending any conference are slim.

Further adding to the mystery pot-boiler was the miscommunication or supposedly lack of communication between Congress workers in India and Overseas. According to Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC) President Juned Qazi (INOC) President Juned Qazi “Yes it can be said that Rahul Gandhi didn’t attend any such programme, though he was in Aspen. Weekend with Charlie Rose conference is over & I have no information that Rahul attended it. His name also wasn’t mentioned in the speakers’ list”. This apparent miscommunication can also be corroborated with version given by one  George Abraham, chairman of a faction of the Indian National Overseas Congress, and based in New York, in an interview to The American Bazaar who said that he had “not been notified” of any visit by Rahul Gandhi to the United States.

From the tweets by Rahul Gandhi’s office and Milind Deora it seemed as if the conference was not the one with Charlie Rose but the “New Media & International Affairs Conference in CO, USA”. In fact Mr. Deora’s tweet carried pictures of Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson and former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Now since this conference was an international one and attended by the President of a country as well as former diplomat of another country there was bound to have been some news about this conference. But surprise surprise there is no mention of any conference even in any of the local newspapers despite it being an international one. In fact there are no such media conferences on time of tweet of Rahul Gandhi or on the day even accounting for time difference between India and US.

Even one related with media tech is only scheduled to take place on 30/9/2015 as part of an expo which begins only on noon of the day of Mr. Gandhi’s attended conference.

So it seems that Rahul Gandhi may have attended an unknown conference in an unknown place since whatever has been provided as proof doesn’t seem to add up.

But there are other variables that are out of place and these are the persons in the photograph with Rahul Gandhi at this “conference”

First is David Miliband. He was present at UN Sustainable Goals Summit 2015 held between 25-27 September 2015 in New York as the president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee which runs relief operations in many countries. He spoke at UNICEF and  at UN Summit  in between 24 to 27 th and as per his own tweet he is to speak at the Social Good Summit which is held between 27-28 September in New York and he will also be testifying before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 29 September. Just to be clear, the Flight time between Aspen and New York is at least 6 hrs and between Denver and New York is at least 4 hrs. Both these places are in Colorado or CO. So factoring in the distance between New York and 2 places in Colorado and the fact that David Miliband’s schedule is packed with important summits and hearings it seems a bit strange that he had gone for a supposedly international conference without even tweeting about it.

Same is the case with  Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson. Last year when the President traveled to the US it was reported in an Icelandic news magazine about his attending various debates and conferences including one organized by Charlie Rose in Aspen.

Even other international conferences where the President attended had at least a website or some other media tool to announce the event. Yet somehow an “international” conference attended by President of a country , a diplomat of another country and by a former Minister and a Vice-President of a party of a 3rd country had no information that could be found to prove it had taken place.

The photographs are real but given that Miliband could not have been Colorado it may have been in New York. But since Iceland’s Prime Minister also spoke at the UN summit , it is highly unlikely that the Icelandic President would also be there for a conference in the same city in which case he would have been the one to speak at UN summit, but it cannot be ruled out. But if he was indeed in New York then Rahul Gandhi would have been spotted by  one of the many India media covering the summit. So Mr. Deora’s proof of Rahul Gandhi’s attendance at a Colorado conference during Mr. Gandhi’s trip to US doesn’t hold water.

So Rahul Gandhi may have attended an event that the Congress in India or in US are not sure of. What the conference was about also differs in tweets between Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Deora . Mr. Deora’s tweet raises more questions in particular about David Miliband having attended same conference. And we have a media that seems to have taken the 2 tweets as court judgement and doesn’t seem to pursue further. With no-one willing to dig deeper, the truth may never be crystal clear.

(The post originally appeared here)

-Venkat G

Untruths about Mahatma Gandhi floating on social media

OpIndia Staff
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Untruths about Mahatma Gandhi floating on social media

Social Media has recently turned into something of a watchdog for Mainstream Media. But there are times when Social Media falls prey to hoaxes. One common genre of hoaxes is fake photos/quotes of Mahatma Gandhi. Today on his birth anniversary, we attempt to debunk some of these myths. You may have seen some earlier, and also may have known that these are fake, but chances are, you might see them again today:

Fake pics:

1. Mahatma Gandhi Dancing 

Obviously this is not Gandhi dancing with some foreigner woman,  but it actually is an Australian actor who was dressed up as Gandhi. UntitledTwo give-aways in this pic are:

A. The man’s rather muscular arm

B. The man’s footwear is quite unlike Gandhi’s

(Source of images: 1, 2)

2. Nathuram Godse assassinating Mahatma Gandhi

The chances of someone capturing this exact moment are almost zero but still a pictures which claims to be of that event is found floating around. In fact it is from the movie titled “Nine Hours to Rama” in which German actor Horst Buccholz played the role of Godse.

2

3. Mahatma Gandhi rubbing nose with a foreigner woman

Photoshopped picture. The real photo is of Gandhi talking to Nehru. 3

 

Fake quotes:

1. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”

Catchy, makes sense, but not said by Mahatma Gandhi apparently, although it is always attributed to him. There is no recorded instance of Gandhi saying this, but a close variant first appears in a 1918 US trade union address by Nicholas Klein

2. Interviewer: “What do you think of Western Civilization?” Gandhi: “I think it would be a good idea.”

Again there is almost no evidence of Gandhi saying this. The earliest appearance of this quote was  good 20 years after his death, and that too only in the form of 2nd hand information. It was mentioned in The Seattle Times newspaper that the exchange was mentioned in a television documentary on a major U.S. network. And after that it has been recirculated multiple times but there is no real conclusive evidence of Gandhi having said it.

In conclusion, do always keep this Abraham Lincoln quote in mind:

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