To what extent someone can go to deny facts after biting the dust with failed claims? Well, if the intent is to spread propaganda, ‘the sky is the limit’. Similar is the case with the ultra-leftist propaganda website ‘The Wire’.
The recent assembly election results in Maharashtra have been shocking to many, in fact for everyone in the left-liberal and Congressi ecosystem, but it has gone entirely indigestible for the ultra-left and anti-Modi lobby like The Wire, who were sure that MVA would win.
In the pursuit to somehow find something that can raise questions on the election results, The Wire’s “research scholars” came up with “their data analysis” to cast the Election Commission of India in bad light and frame it as an extended arm of the ruling Union dispensation. Now, as per their “analytical-cum-critical piece”, The Wire alleged that there was a mismatch in votes polled and votes counted.
According to The Wire’s article, which has now been updated for obvious reasons, it had claimed 6,40,88,195 votes were polled in 288 assemblies, and 6,45,92,508 votes were counted.
Thumping their chest, the portal did subtraction and came to the conclusion that 5,04,313 additional votes were counted by the EC.
However, their attack turned out to be a damp squib and the factually incorrect article piece was called out by the Election Commission for the same. Apart from pointing out the factual inaccuracies in The Wire’s article piece, the poll body labeled it as misleading, inaccurate, and mischievously published in haste.
५,०४,३१३ अतिरिक्त मते असल्याच्या तसेच आष्टी (२३१) आणि उस्मानाबाद (२४२) या दोन विधानसभा मतदारसंघांमध्ये मतांच्या संख्येत तफावत असल्याच्या The Wire या वृ्त्तपत्रात आलेल्या वृत्ताबाबत@SpokespersonECI @ECISVEEP @MahaDGIPR pic.twitter.com/qe1bkXjuUz
— ChiefElectoralOffice (@CEO_Maharashtra) November 26, 2024
The EC explained that ‘votes polled’ were EVM votes which did not include 5,38,225 postal votes. The poll body added that the comparison made by The Wire was based on different parameters, to say the least, they were comparing apple cider vinegar with apple juice. But haste, as EC pointed out, remains a driving force for propagandists, isn’t it?
The clown sena’s war on EVMs isn’t going well — The Wire screamed “vote count mismatch” clueless that 5,04,313 votes are postal ballots. 😂 pic.twitter.com/e04JuOkIBo
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) November 27, 2024
The EC further gave Maths classes to The Wire. It added 6,40,88,195 votes polled in EVM (which The Wire claims to be the overall votes polled) to 5,38,225 votes which results in 6,46,26,420 votes, which is more than the number of votes counted (6,45,92,508 votes).
The poll body also clarified the technicalities and logistical challenges as to why a few percentage of votes were counted less.
Once the EC called out their “factual inaccuracy”, the Founder of The Wire, Siddarth Varadarajan too hurriedly deleted his post.
Why did you delete this @svaradarajan? What stops the Govt from taking action against this fake news peddling US citizen who is a repeat offender? @HMOIndia @ECISVEEP pic.twitter.com/um6uwun2cg
— Darshan Pathak (@darshanpathak) November 26, 2024
Ultimately, the EC busted the fake narrative that The Wire tried to build by alleging that votes were counted more. But as the famous proverb says, “By the time, truth starts pulling its socks, falsehoods would have already traced a full circle of the globe,” the repeated fake news peddled by ultra-leftist portals like The Wire calls for the readers to introspect that it is not necessary that every time some institution will come to bust their narratives in time. There have been hundreds of such malicious pieces that have been published in the past and have spewed venom by spreading fake news with The Tek Fog story being the ultimate clincher in the Fake News factory of The Wire.
Also Read: The business model of Siddhart Varadarajan’s ‘The Wire’
Undoubtedly, portals like The Wire and their ilks were sure that MVA would emerge victorious in the Maharashtra polls and the results would become a stepping stone for coalition success besides MVA’s win would also have given them fuel to peddle more anti-Modi propaganda saying that the Lok Sabha momentum in favour of the I.N.D.I. alliance was still alive. But the results in Haryana and Maharashtra left them with no recourse. So now they seem pissed off to face the fact that they can’t raise questions unnecessarily and will have to work hard for another propaganda piece, one that will not be a dead giveaway.
