Himanta Biswa Sarma talked about Quran Vs Bharat. Press Trust of India spun it into Gita Vs Bharat

Press Trust of India (PTI) has had a long illustrious history of fudging news stories to pertain to a set agenda of its masters. Adding another hall of shame moment to its extensive list of spinning narratives, BJP’s heavyweight leader in Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday schooled the news wire agency for its pre-meditated approach of omitting verbatim statements and inserting its agenda driving sensational statements.

In a yet-to-be-aired interview, Himanta Biswa Sarma was asked, if there was a conflict, what would he pick between Bharat and Quran. Naturally, Sarma picked Bharat by quoting a shloka from Ramayan ‘Janani Janmabhumishcha Swargadapi Gariyasi’ meaning ‘Friends, riches and grains are highly honored in this world. (But) mother and motherland are superior even to heaven’. However, PTI put out a tweet where it changed the question and pitted the holy Geeta against Bharat, while altogether omitting the mention of the Quran.

Himanta took to Twitter and corrected PTI for its mistake. However, up until the publication of this article, the tweet still had not been removed.

“PTI must put this tweet in proper context. My question was if there is a conflict between Quran and Bharat which side so-called secular people will stand? For me it is ‘Janani Janmabhumishcha Swargadapi Gariyasi’. Watch my full interview tomorrow” tweeted the BJP Minister.

Reported extensively by TFI in the past, PTI has come under the scanner on numerous occasions for its partisan reporting. During the peak of the Galwan valley clash with PLA soldiers near the LAC in Eastern Ladakh, the national broadcaster Prasar Bharati had accused PTI of publishing an interview of the Chinese ambassador. The interview was deliberately done in a way that painted India in a bad light. The Chinese state media used the interview heavily to target India by blaming it for the standoff.

Prasar Bharati quickly took cognizance of the issue and threatened PTI to cancel its annual subscription. Prasar Bharati officials said that such anti-national news coverage makes it difficult to continue the relationship with the agency that the two have shared for decades.

It was not the first time that PTI had crossed the line. Journalist Swati Goel Sharma has time and again exposed the love of PTI for anti-national news and inaccurate reportage.

Read more: “Detrimental to national interest,” PTI has outlived its utility, and it needs to disbanded

Moreover, PTI’s board has no public representative meaning there is no clear accountability about the way the organization operates. All Board Members are from private media organizations. When the government wanted to appoint a political nominee to succeed PTI’s then editor-in-chief and CEO M.K Razdan in 2016, the board of directors of PTI unilaterally shut down the proposal.

Himanta Biswa Sarma is one of the tall leaders of the BJP, for he has single-handedly revived BJP’s fortunes in the North-eastern region of the country. By deliberately changing the statements of Sarma, PTI might have done a self-goal and brought negative spotlight on itself.