Whom does Mysore pak belong to: Karnataka or Tamil Nadu? Did Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman grant Mysore pak GI tag to Tamil Nadu?
CLAIM
On Sunday, 15 September, Anand Ranganathan, consulting editor and columnist at Swarajya magazine tweeted that the Geographical Indicator (GI) tag of Mysore pak has been granted to Tamil Nadu. “Pleased to receive this token of appreciation, on behalf of the one-man-committee for granting of the Mysorepak GI tag to Tamilnadu. (sic)” he wrote.
Several Kannada media outlets including News18 Kannada, TV9 Kannada and Dighvijay News reported the claim made by Ranganathan.
Dighvijay News called Nirmala Sitharaman “two-faced.” Sitharaman’s home state is Tamil Nadu and she was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.
WHAT’S THE TRUTH?
Ranganathan was just being sarcastic when he wrote that Mysore pak GI tag has been granted to Tamil Nadu. He urged the regional channels to stop airing such ‘news.’
Further, Member of Parliament for Bengaluru South Lok Sabha Constituency Tejasvi Surya, in reply to Ranganathan’s tweet, said that he had spoken to the concerned TV channel.
MEDIA MISREPORTED IN 2017 AS WELL
This is not the first time that media outlets have fallen for fake information related to Mysore Pak’s GI tag.
In 2015, Ranganathan had tweeted an image of purported speech of Lord Macaulay with the comment: “ As always, authentic documents come to the rescue. Here it is - confirmation that Mysorepak is a Tamilian invention.”
In 2017, media outlets reported that Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were allegedly fighting over the legacy of Mysore pak.
Quoting information from alleged Macaulay’s speech, The Times of India carried out a story with the headline: ‘Mysore Pak is ours: Karnataka and Tamil Nadu fight it out.’ India Today and Marathi daily Loksatta also reported with a similar narrative.
But how credible is the image shared by Ranganathan?
Ranganathan had earlier told The Quint that he took a viral fake quote of Macaulay which was on him proposing to replace India’s culture. Ranganathan replaced the fake quote with his imaginary story, with lord crinckleybottom featuring in it.
The Times of India had later removed the story and mentioned that it was incorrect.
The Quint had earlier too debunked the claims made in the image. The image mentions that Lord Macaulay was in the British Parliament on 2 February 1835, but he was actually in Calcutta on the specified day. Macaulay’s ‘Minute on Education’ address dated 2 February 1835 further verifies that he had not addressed the British Parliament on that day.
Further, the content of the image is entirely different from his ‘Minute on Education’ address. Also, spelling errors like ‘selfesteem’ are unusual for a literary stalwart like Macaulay.
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