The Wire is a notorious portal whose trespasses against objectivity and neutrality need no description. One of its Founders, and currently an editor – Siddharth Varadarajan, who happens to be an American citizen, shared blatant fake news on 31st March, shamelessly so.
The Tablighi Jamaat congregation which happened over a prolonged period of time last month has now emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot, and the attendees are now being considered super spreaders of the dreaded Chinese virus. The entire nation has so far not coped with the fact that these people could be so callous and indifferent towards their responsibilities as citizens that they would go on to organize a Wahhabi congregation of over 8000 individuals in gross violation of all guidelines in place at that point of time.
Closet Islamists and the usual liberal sycophants have once again jumped in to absolve the Tablighi Jamaat of its criminal negligence and absolute disregard for the law. Among them is Siddharth Varadarajan, who tweeted the following:
On the day the Tablighi Jamaat event was held, Adityanath insisted a large Ram Navami fair planned for Ayodhya from March 25 to April 2 would proceed as usual and that ‘Lord Ram would protect devotees from the coronavirus”. https://t.co/rO09bSkHSe via @TheWire_in
— Siddharth (@svaradarajan) March 30, 2020
Varadarajan is seen monkey-balancing, and as a result, whitewashing the misdeeds of the Tablighi Jamaat by equating it to the Ram Navami festivities in Ayodhya, which by the way, were cancelled, because religion can never come over public health and security. Of course, the Yogi government was pumped up to celebrate Ram Navami this year in a manner never done before, since this is the first Navami after the historic Ram Janmbhoomi verdict. Yet, when it became amply clear that there was a grave threat to public health in the nation, Yogi did not miss a second in calling the plan off.
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While Varadarajan persists on reminding his passive followers that Yogi was planning a grand fair on Ram Navami, he does so with an aim to absolve the Tablighi Jamaat. What he forgets is that Yogi cancelled the event when he had to, something which cannot be said about the Tablighi Jamaat and Nizamuddin Markaz.
Since it is the editor of The Wire we are talking about, just one lie in a tweet is too substandard for them. Therefore, bearing true faith to his and his portal’s legacy, Varadarajan also attributed a fake quote to Yogi Adityanath. Only that he messed with the wrong person this time round.
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The American citizen in his tweet said that Adityanath insisted on a large Ram Navami fair at Ayodhya from March 25th to April 2nd and also quoted the UP CM as saying, “Lord Ram would protect devotees from the coronavirus”.
Twitterati were quick to expose Siddharth Varadarajan, and a journalist with Swarajya, Arush Tandon, exposed the man’s lies in a Twitter thread.
So I decided to check the full statement of Yogi Adityanath, where, as per Siddharth Varadarajan @svaradarajan, Yogi said that "Lord Ram would protect devotees from the coronavirus".
I took the quotes from his tweet (attached). For Varadarajan is a senior journalist. pic.twitter.com/JVRE0KGGN9
— Arush Tandon (@ArushTandon) April 1, 2020
The statement was never made by Yogi Adityanath. Instead, an infamous and expelled Mahant, by the name of Swami Paramhans is the person who made the comment. As a matter of fact, a March 18 article by the Wire attributes the same quote to Paramhans, who was excommunicated in 2019. It is clear that Varadarajan is contesting the facts mentioned in an article on his very own portal. So either Varadarajan is a very bad editor and doesn’t know his job, or he is an outright liar. I, for one, believe he is both.
UP Police has registered an FIR against Varadarajan for attributing a fake quote to the Uttar Pradesh CM. The portal put out the following statement, which does not come even close to an apology or an admission of error.
Statement by the Founding Editors of The Wire: pic.twitter.com/frw5oRxw18
— The Wire (@thewire_in) April 1, 2020
The man wasn’t done lying just yet. After news broke that an FIR had been registered against him in Faizabad, he put out another tweet, clarifying that the earlier attributed quote was not a comment made by Yogi Adityanath.
I should clarify that it was Acharya Paramhans, Hindutva stalwart and head of the official Ayodhya temple trust, who said Ram would protect devotees from coronavirus, and not Adityanath, though he allowed a public event on 25/3 in defiance of the lockdown and took part himself.
— Siddharth (@svaradarajan) April 1, 2020
However, he claims that it is a statement made by a ‘Hindutva stalwart’, and the head of the Ayodhya Ram Janmbhoomi Nyas, ‘Acharya Paramhans’. Only that this too, is a blatant lie. The chief of the Ram Janmbhoomi Trust is not Paramhans, but Swami Nritya Gopal Das.
As is clearly visible, the man is a compulsive liar who will go to any extent to pin the blame on Hindus for all the wrongs committed in this country. He will, meanwhile, also absolve the Tablighi Jamaat with equal vigour of its criminal negligence and flouting of the law.
