‘It’s Fake news,’ Indian Army rips into NDTV for claiming that China detained Indian soldiers

Over the years, NDTV has proven to be a habitual offender as it has often found itself to be in cahoots with India’s adversaries. In yet another development that exposes NDTV, the media house ran a story which claimed that Indian Jawans were briefly detained and subsequently released by China in Ladakh according to its “sources”. Of course, NDTV didn’t care to confirm this story with the Indian Army who has hit out at the media outlet and asserted that it is nothing but fake news.

Only in India can media outlets like NDTV work against the country’s interests by repeatedly spreading fake news and escape completely scot-free and on the other hand cry about the lack of “media freedom”. Yesterday, NDTV stooped to a new low as it directly pandered to Chinese propaganda by running a fake news story.

In the article, headlined “Indian Jawans Briefly Detained By China In Ladakh Last Week: Sources”, the article claimed that an Indian patrol party of the army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) were detained by the People’s Liberation Army and later realised according to NDTV’s “sources”.

The article further claims that the Indian forces have briefed the PMO over the sequence of events with a senior bureaucrat was quoted by the outlet as saying, “The situation became very volatile last Wednesday when a scuffle between Indian jawans and the Chinese resulted in the detention of some of our jawans but later they were released.”

The bureaucrat further added that even the weapons of the ITBP jawans were snatched and later released after the jawans were let go by the Chinese forces.

Expectedly, NDTV relied on its “source” and didn’t care to confirm this story with the Indian Army. The Indian Army in a strongly worded statement hit out at NDTV as it said, “There has been no detention of Indian soldiers at the borders. We categorically deny this. It only hurts national interests when media outlets publish unsubstantiated news.”

Much has been written about how the Chinese Communist Party is attempting to buy good press across the world in the wake of the China-made pandemic so as to further the CCP’s propaganda. Hence, it is not far-fetched to say that NDTV’s hit job on the Indian Army could very well be a planted piece of fake news by the Chinese side to favour the Chinese narrative that India has been trespassing into Chinese territory.

The CCP’s official mouthpiece, Global Times is already working at a breakneck speed to weave this narrative. The mouthpiece recently claimed that China is taking appropriate measured against India’s move to “illegal construction of defence facilities” in the Galwan Valley which is claimed by China.

The mouthpiece wrote, “Since early May, India has been crossing the boundary line in the region and entering Chinese territory,” and it further added that India “attempted to unilaterally change the current border control situation”.

In the current backdrop of increasing border aggression and skirmishes between India and China, NDTV should refrain from playing into the hands of the Chinese, or any other adversaries of India. China is trying to bully India to not act against China at a time when India has gained control of the executive board of the World Health Organisation.

At such a delicate time, questions are being asked about NDTV’s intent and rightly so. Despite the denial by the Indian Army, NDTV is yet to take down the article or issue a clarification.