Rahul Gandhi fan page posts fake news of Modi among most corrupt Prime Ministers - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
12th May 2018 / 4:03 pm / Last updated: 11th July 2018
A post that has been widely shared on Facebook claims that according to research by BBC News Hub, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ranks 7th among the most corrupt Prime Ministers in the world.
Posted by I Support Rahul Gandhi on Sunday, May 6, 2018
“Shri Narendra Modi is the 7th most corrupted Prime Minister in the world 2018!! A research by BBC News Hub says Modi is using supreme powers to develop his own businesses as he had made billions during his Govt & he used country resources to grow his own assets!!” says the above post which was uploaded on May 6, 2018 by the Facebook page I Support Rahul Gandhi. This is an unofficial fan page of the Congress President and it has close to 100,000 followers. The above image also carries the logo of Truth of India which is a popular page with over 370,000 followers.
The logo of Truth of India was also present on a photograph in which it was claimed that PM Modi had garlanded the bust of Nathuram Godse, assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. Alt News had busted this claim in a report which can be read here.
The list of most corrupt Prime Ministers was published on www.bbcnewshub.com on November 23, 2017.
BBC News Hub which is mentioned in the post is not in any way related to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It has probably been used to lend credibility to this ‘news’ which is absolutely bogus. The website www.bbcnewshub.com is a dubious looking news website that has no connection to BBC and basically functions as an impostor website. The article says:
The 14th current Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi is known as most corrupt leader of Hindustan and one of the most corrupt prime ministers in world, he took the office in 2014 while he has served as Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014, as well as Modi is the Member of Parliament for Varanasi, the member of Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party Narendra Modi is using the supreme powers for to develop his own businesses as he had made billions during his government and according to media reports he used the country resources to grow his own assets.
The above text is replete with grammatical errors. The poor drafting clearly suggests that this is not the work of BBC News. Also, the claim that Narendra Modi has used his ‘supreme powers for to develop his own businesses as he had made billions during his government is negated by disclosure of PM Modi’s assets that was made by the PMO in September 2017. According to this disclosure, the Prime Minister’s total wealth is estimated at just over Rs. 2 crore. Moreover, there are no media reports to suggest that Modi has ‘used the country resources to grow his own assets’.
In March 2018, Alt News had reported how a list of ‘most corrupt Prime Ministers’ was circulating on social media, according to which PM Modi ranked the 2nd most corrupt Prime Minister in the world. That list which was published by a website www.foxnewspoint.com was fake.
According to another list which was circulating in 2017, Narendra Modi ranked 7th among the most corrupt politicians in the world.
Yet another list called PM Modi’s family the second most corrupt political family in the world. Here, the Prime Minister’s name has been spelled ‘Narindar Modi’. Interestingly, NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s family is ranked 4th on this list.
It may be noted here that these lists have been published variously on all the three websites that have been mentioned- www.foxnewspoint.com, www.bbcnewspoint.com and www.bbcnewshub.com. The name of Fox News and BBC News is used for these lists which helps fool gullible social media users into believing them to be true. In yet another instance, the BBC logo was used in two identical looking lists. One of these lists claimed that BJP was the most corrupt political party in the world while the other list claimed the opposite, ranking Congress as the 4th most corrupt political party in the world.
Lists like these routinely appear on social media and are targeted at political parties and politicians, particularly during election season. With Karnataka voting on May 12, it is not surprising that such a list has surfaced.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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