The narrative of India facing an acute power crisis has been shattered. A fortnight after the rumor-spreading by the liberal media and opposition, even the last mile of India is still getting uninterrupted supply of electricity.
Rumoured coal crisis
The nation was shocked when in the first week of October 2021, major news portals suddenly started to report about the coal shortage in India. Some reported that Indian has only 4 days of coal left, while some doubled down on the shortage report and claimed that the availability of coal is enough to sustain only 2 days of power supply in the country. Additionally, private power companies started to send apocalypse messages to their consumers.
There was 2 days of coal left like what, 12 days ago? Bijli’s non-compliance with top journos is really offensive.
— Shubhangi Sharma (@ItsShubhangi) October 19, 2021
Meanwhile, the opposition in India decided to jump on the bandwagon and started furthering the misinformed narrative. Firstly, Delhi power minister Satyendra Jain warned residents of acute coal shortage, and then his supremo Mr Arvind Kejriwal wrote a politically motivated letter to Prime Minister Modi. Neighbouring Punjab’s chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi also claimed that three thermal power plants have been forced to shut down in Punjab.
Read more: Why Kejriwal is cooking up a false shortage of coal
Power minister had to quash the engineered narrative
Power minister R K Singh himself came forward and refuted all the media reports which claimed that India is on the verge of a blackout. Later, it was revealed that there was a supply chain disruption that had slowed down the delivery of coal to states from the centre. Also, the states owing huge sums of money to power distribution companies was a major reason why private companies were involved in rumour-mongering.
Read more: Coal Crisis: A fabricated scheme created by anti-India forces to shame India internationally
Falsity about India and the truth of China’s coal crisis were clubbed together by international media
As reported by TFI, the power crisis in China is so dire that the main cities like Shanghai and Beijing are still teetering from lack of electricity. Their Aluminium factories, Soyabean processing factories, and textile and various other manufacturing units were closed down. The government was forced to strictly ration the power distribution in the country and increase its capacities.
Read more: Just as China prepared to extract coal from its own mines, heavy rainfalls sealed them shut
The propaganda of the coal shortage in India in an attempt to bring India into the crisis league of China got international media attention. At a time when the whole world was facing a coal shortage, due to a more than 40 per cent increase in international coal prices, India and China were clubbed together to present a bad picture of India’s credentials as an investment destination.
Due to the power crisis in China, almost all investors are slowly leaving the country. Owing to its economic fundamentals, India has emerged as one of the most favourable investment destinations in the world. However, this negative PR by liberal media and opposition does not go down well with India.
