Swamy takes Times Group to the cleaners on spreading fake news

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy is known for his combative attitude and not letting anyone get away scot free after committing a wrong. The anti-corruption crusader has not only dragged those involved in financial misappropriation to the courts but has also been active in ensuring that anyone who tries to malign him, defame him or tries to spoil his reputation is also dragged to court and made to answer. This time around it was the Times group that committed a grave error and it must have got a lesson to remember at Swamy’s hands.

The entire controversy started with the ‘IndiaTimes’ publishing an article that claimed BJP politician and legal activist Subramanian Swamy has said that the Rafale deal was corrupt and that he will approach the court against the Modi government. It also quoted PTI and stated that Swamy was quoted by PTI as saying that no one buys these planes and that if India doesn’t buy them, the aviation company Dassault would wind up.

Later on, it was found that way back in 2015 Swamy had stated that he will go to the court against the Rafale deal. At that time, the deal in question was the one for 126 planes finalised by the previous UPA government. It was against this deal that Swamy had made adverse remarks and even announced of going to the court in order to get it scrapped. However, the deal was eventually cancelled by the Modi government and a new deal for 36 Rafale planes at a lower cost per plane was finalised by the Modi government. ‘IndiaTimes’ concocted the entire story and tried to mislead its readers by suggesting that Swamy was against the current Rafale deal. The claim, Swamy threatening to drag the Modi government to court has no basis and is merely a figment of imagination. This was clarified by Swamy himself.

As it turned out, the entire story about Swamy was false and fabricated and suspiciously so at a time when the Congress is trying its best to spread the lie of impropriety in the Rafale deal. To the horror and misery of the Times group, Swamy soon took cognisance of this fake story and tweeted clarifying that he had issued no such statement and making it clear that he intended to take legal action against such irresponsible and crass journalism. Given that, ‘IndiaToday’ had quoted PTI, Swamy tweeted that he will bring a defamation suit to the tune of Rs. 1 crore against PTI as well. However, sensing trouble PTI was quick to pull out of the controversy and made it clear in a tweet that it had not issued any story quoting Dr. Subramanian Swamy.

Times group also understood that it will face a tough time at the hands of Swamy and therefore was quick to delete the erroneous story and issue an apology for misquoting the seasoned politician. However, Swamy seemed to be in an unforgiving mood and rejected the apology. He also demanded that the reporter/ correspondent/ editor who is responsible for passing off a three year old statement about the previous Rafale deal as a statement on the current Rafale deal must be sacked by the Times group. Swamy had even made it clear that he was going to initiate legal action and also met his legal team in order to decide what action is to be taken.

However, much to the relief of the Times group, Swamy finally accepted the graceless apology on a cost benefit analysis given his busy schedule. This incident however, will give a lesson to every mainstream media outlet and drive them towards being cautious in future and not to indulge in publishing fabricated stories.