Fans of the Bhartiya Janata Party woke up to a rather unsettling news that ND Tiwari, a Congress sycophant and a man known more for his colourful stories than his administrative skills, has joined the BJP. Uttarakhand goes to elections along with the other 4 states in less than a month and ND Tiwari does have a lot of clout in the hill state.
But, as it turns out, the news of Congress Veteran ND Tiwari joining BJP was a media hitjob.
NDTV greeted us with an article titled Narayan Dutt Tiwari, 91, Is The BJP’s Latest Import From Congress; Package Deal Includes Son Rohit Shekhar.
Indian Express mentioned “Uttarakhand polls: Congress leader ND Tiwari, son Rohit Shekhar to join BJP today”
Election time is the time for exoduses and influxes. Navjot Singh Sidhu jumped the saffron fence and joined hands with Rahul Gandhi, a man whom he famously called unschooled and imbecile. The face of Congress resistance in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Rita Bahuguna Joshi read the writing on the wall and joined the saffron party. Politicians keep switching sides, “Dal-Badalna” is not exactly a rare phenomenon in Indian Polity, but the induction of a man who had invited sex-workers to the Raj Bhawan when he was a governor was an unpardonable sin in the eyes of BJP fans. And the ‘decision’ let many supporters of the party bitter and angry.
More than anyone else, the followers of the party must be heaving a sigh of relief. There were unconfirmed reports about Kumar Vishwas joining the BJP too, but Vishwas himself took to twitter to deny the claims.
Now NDTV has published another article wherein they have confirmed that Congress’s Narayan Dutt Tiwari has not Joined BJP, only his Son has. Indian (Financial) Express has clarified too that Tiwari’s son Rohit Shekhar has joined the BJP, not Tiwari himself.
The modus operandi of the mainstream media is similar as always. Publish unconfirmed reports about BJP, that wouldn’t go down well with the core supporters of the party. Wait for the supporters to erupt in rage. And dent the goodwill of the party in the process.
Media knows that the core supporter group of the BJP is a gullible lot and it can easily be fooled. And no TFI is taking no moral high course, we got fooled too and yes we erupted too. But in times of media hitjobs and unconfirmed reporting, what all of us need is a little patience. A little patience to reserve our resentment till the dust settles. We’ll try it, you try it too.