Pak Media Misreads Sidhu’s Tweet on Indian Army, Spreads Fake News
Sidhu’s tweet read “Army is as sacred as the state”, which appears to have been misread by the channel as “scared.”
CLAIM
A Pakistani news channel Dunya News on Tuesday, 5 March, reported that Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu had launched a fresh attack on the Modi government, this time by saying that the "Indian Army was scared."
In a video, the anchor mentions that Sidhu, via a tweet, had said that the Indian Army was scared, thereby targeting the government.
Soon after the channel’s reportage, several people took to lash out at Sidhu over his purported comments.
TRUE OR FALSE?
This is false, Sidhu never did say anything of the sort. Since the channel mentioned that Sidhu had tweeted something to this effect, we checked the Congress leader's timeline for the said tweet.
The only tweet Sidhu had made on 5 March concerning the army was this:
Sidhu's tweet reads "Army is as sacred as the state", which appears to have been misread by the channel as "scared."
People on Twitter also pointed out the error in Dunya News' report.
Dunya News's misreporting was first called out by OpIndia, following which the channel appears to have deleted its tweet and the corresponding story on the site.
In fact, while the url of the now redacted story reads "Navjot-Singh-Sidhu-again-criticizes-Modi-govt-through-twitter", the video on the page is of Pakistani parliamentarians' opinion on the government's initiative to ban outfits.
(Not convinced of a story you came across on social media and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9910181818 and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)