PM Modi repeats Nirmala Sitharaman’s ‘fake news’

On Saturday it was the turn of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to legitimise an incorrect statement attributed to Congress President Rahul Gandhi. An Urdu daily owned by the owners of Dainik Jagran, a newspaper with a pronounced pro-BJP tilt, had quoted the Congress president as saying that Congress was a ‘Muslim Party’.

Despite denials by people present at the Congress President’s meeting with Muslim intellectuals, the Prime Minister not only repeated the statement on Saturday at Azamgarh in UP but took a swipe by asking Congress to clarify if it was the party of Muslim men or Muslim women too.

On Friday it was the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman who had caused consternation by quoting the incorrect statement, refuted among others by historian Syed Irfan Habib who was present at the Congress President’s meeting, by saying, “Congress party is playing a dangerous game, playing communal division, playing up the card of religion. It is frightening that it may lead to the kind of division and kind of communal disharmony that prevailed during the 1947 partition. Congress party shall be solely responsible if any disharmony plays out between now and the 2019 elections.”

On Saturday Congress leader and former union minister P Chidambaram sarcastically tweeted, “ The Defence Minister says there are 'plans to incite riots in the run-up to Lok Sabha election'. She should share her secret (?) information with the Home Minister.”

Sitharaman’s statement, like fake news, has acquired a life of its own. Lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan tweeted his concern by reacting, “Make no mistake. Sitharaman's statement inadvertently gives away BJP'S campaign strategy for 2019. There will be no talk of development, Acche Din, jobs, farmers, black money or corruption. It will be an out & out communal campaign, with every effort to stoke communal violence.”

Others also wondered if Sitharam had inadvertently disclosed BJP’s game plan. “Is this a warning loud and clear? BJP is planning worse and they are going to put it on Congress. Is it so? Tough times are ahead. All the sane people of this country must stand together and save the country from these maniacs.”