(This is Rajesh Jain’s response to The Indian Express story from 3 April titled, “Look who is busting fake news for 13 Ministers: site with Exam Warriors link,” about BlueKraft Digital Foundation’s alleged links to thetruepicture.in.)
(The author Rajesh Jain is a technology entrepreneur whose political venture – Niti Digital – was involved in Narendra Modi’s 2014 election campaign. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
Many of you may have seen the front page Indian Express story that mentions my name prominently in the story. I have written a strong rejoinder to the Indian Express. Have enclosed it below.
To:
The Editor
The Indian Express
Dear Sir,
This is with reference to the front page story in today’s (3 April) The Indian Express entitled “Look who is busting fake news for 13 Ministers: site with Exam Warriors link.” I wish to state the following.
I am no longer associated with Bluekraft. I resigned a few months ago. I have also resigned as part-time member of UIDAI and as Independent Director, NTPC. All these were done in October 2017 prior to me launching Nayi Disha (https://nayidisha.com), a political platform to make Indians prosperous.
To therefore bring my name into the story is wrong.
In addition, I was not even given a chance to respond by the journalist, Krishn Kaushik.
The story in print says: “Rajesh Jain did not respond to calls and a text message sent to his mobile phone.” Here are the facts about my lack of “response”.
The first contact made by the journalist, Krishn Kaushik, via phone was at 10:12 pm yesterday night. A signal message was then sent to me by Krish Kaushik at 10:21 pm. Since I was sleeping (I normally sleep by 9:30 pm since I wake up early), there was no way for me to respond to the messages late night.
I responded today early morning at 5:32 am to Krishn Kaushik stating: “Sorry could not answer when you called. I sleep early. I am not involved with Bluekraft anymore. Quit many months ago.”, followed at 5:35 am with, “A friend just sent me the link to the online article. I think you should edit it to reflect that I am not involved in the company.”
The way my response was sought is in complete violation of journalism ethics.
I hope that an errata stating the full facts about my association with Bluekraft and my lack of response is published in the print edition tomorrow as prominently and on the same page as the story was today.
~ Rajesh Jain
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