A few weeks ago, when Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar sworn in as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, respectively, many media houses spread the fake news that Pawar was given a clean chit in the irrigation scam. The Congress leaders, including Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, spread the fake news to malign the image of BJP and Fadnavis.
The news source for these politicians and media houses was Katta news, a Twitter handle run by Mumbai based ex-DNA newspaper journalist- Sudhir Suryawanshi.
Later it came out that Katta news has twisted and the 9 cases where “open enquiries” were closed were not even related to Ajit Pawar. ANI tweeted that cases closed were conditional and could be reopened.
Super exclusive breaking . Anti corruption bureau gives the clean chit to @AjitPawarSpeaks who was alleged involved in the Rs 70,000 Cr irrigation scam. The clean chit is given to today. This investigation file has been closed down today. #MahaPoliticalTwist #MaharashtraCrisis pic.twitter.com/LW5rDlwqIr
— KattaNews (@katta_news) November 25, 2019
Left-liberal media organizations like- The Wire, The Quint, and their journalists spread the fake news and recommended their followers to follow Katta news. Many mainstream media organizations also carried out the story which was found to be Fake.
I was surprised to see that @AltNews doing story on fake news peddler Katta News, then they proved me right! This article promotes fake news of Katta News which says “Ajit Pawar has been given clean chit”. They didnt fact check their fake story!
Real story-https://t.co/W6k348ioEs pic.twitter.com/XpFizkwdGW— Shash (@pokershash) November 27, 2019
A fake news checker named fact hunt carried out fact check and found that the news spread by Katta news was misleading. India Today, on November 25, reported that the Anti Corruption Bureau did not find evidence against Ajit Pawar in only nine out of 3000 cases that are being investigated as part of the Maharashtra Irrigation scam, and that this was no clean chit for the NCP leader.
However, many media organizations and the left-liberal cabal hounded the BJP and Fadnavis government after the enquiries in the 9 open cases was closed down. The Congress too jumped bandwagon to attack Fadnavis.
No wonder, as a matter of a 'quid pro quo' between BJP & Ajit Pawar, ACB has decided to close the case against Ajit Pawar in irrigation scam worth ₹72,000 Cr!
Sermons by BJP & by @Dev_Fadnavis on corruption were nothing but a JUMLA.#HorseTradingExpertBJPhttps://t.co/wzISWcdbeV— Maharashtra Congress (@INCMaharashtra) November 25, 2019
But, now the newly formed Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray has dropped all the cases against Ajit Pawar, and there is no outrage in media, or from the left-liberals.
In an affidavit filed on November 27, one day after Fadnavis resigned, and one day before the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP government came to power the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Maharashtra indeed gave a clean chit to Ajit Pawar in the 55,000 crore rupees irrigation scam.
“The Chairman of the VIDC/ Minister of WRD cannot be held responsible for the acts of executing agencies, as there is no legal duty on his part,” said Rashmi Nandedkar, ACB SP, Nagpur. Ajit Pawar, who was chairman of Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation and the Minister of Water Resources Department during the Congress-NCP alliance government in the state, when the scam happened.
The new affidavit, submitted a few weeks ago, is completely different from November 2018 affidavit, in which Ajit Pawar was also among held responsible for the scam. “This (the ACB affidavit) is very surprising. How can one affidavit already filed by ACB be contradicted by another affidavit? I totally oppose this and I am sure that the court will not accept this,” said former Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Anjali Damania, the activist who exposed the scam said “The entire affidavit is shameless cover up. It has sought to dispose of the petition and give a clean chit to the main accused even while investigations in as many as 202 tenders and completion of 20 FIRs is underway. Every irrigation cost hike has been cleared by Pawar himself by contravening existing norms.”
The Pawars are among the most tainted politicians of the country. They have been accused of having links with criminals, illegal use of state power, and corruption. “During their tenure as Ministers in the centre and state, the Pawars only looted thousands of crores of rupees through irrigation projects, infrastructure, realty sectors. They were now worried about all these scams,” said PM Modi during 2019 general election campaign. He also termed NCP as “Naturally Corrupt Party”.
Indian media is well known for sensationalising issues. To attract more eyeballs, media organisations exaggerate everything and make sensational headlines. The left-liberal media establishment collaborates with the opposition, mainly Congress which has nurtured and nourished it since the days of state monopoly over the media and spreads falsities to discredit the ruling party. The state monopoly over media ended in the last the few decades but the subservience of left-liberal media to Congress remains the same. The people in the media still pursue fear and rumour-mongering on the direction of their political masters. The disdain of Lutyens’ media towards the BJP government is very much visible from the reporting on corruption issue.
