CLAIM
A tweet by one 'Digital Atheist' claiming that BJP's Bhopal candidate Pragya Singh Thakur said late Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar died of cancer "because he allowed the consumption of beef in Goa," has gone viral.
The tweet, which had close to 450 retweets at the time of writing this article, was based on a story by the website indiascoops.com.
The article claimed that Thakur had, in Madhya Pradesh's Sehore, hit out at Parrikar's "soft stance on the consumption and sale of beef in Goa" by stating that he died of cancer because he allowed the consumption of beef in Goa.
The article has since been shared by several on Twitter.
TRUE OR FALSE?
Well, prima facie, this claim appears to be false since there has been no media coverage of Thakur's statement, apart from the IndiaScoops article.
'NO TRUTH TO THE CLAIM'
Upon finding no news reports on Thakur's supposed statement, The Quint reached out to Dr Raghavendra Sharma, a BJP worker and a member of Thakur's campaign team.
Sharma refuted the claims made in the article, adding that he was with Thakur through her campaign in Sehore and she had made no such statement.
"There isn't an ounce of truth in this. I was with her the whole time in Sehore – she had said nothing of this sort," he said.
The Quint also reached out to a local news channel, SehoreLive 24, which covered Thakur's speech, who reiterated Sharma's statement.
"This isn't true. At this particular rally, she called Digvijay Singh a 'terrorist', but she hasn't said anything about Parrikar. This is completely untrue", said Vimal Rai, the director of the channel.
The channel also put up a video of Thakur’s speech, where she can only be heard making a statement regarding Digvijay Singh.
‘Digital Atheist’, who had first tweeted the link of the story, has since deleted his tweet, adding that the website he had cited was reputed “for spreading fake news”
THAKUR CALLS DIGVIJAY 'TERRORIST', COLLECTOR GIVES CLEAN CHIT
Meanwhile, Thakur raked yet another controversy after she called political opponent Digvijay Singh a 'terrorist'. Addressing a gathering on 25 April in Sehore, she said:
“Sixteen years ago, Uma didi emerged victorious in a battle against him. Now once again to end this terrorist, a sanyasi has had to rise.”Pragya Thakur
Following her speech, the Chief Electoral Officer asked the collector for a report on her remarks. In his repoirt, Collector Ganesh Shankar Mishra has reportedly said that Thakur's remarks were not in violation of the code of conduct.
Navbharat Times reported that the collector had noted Thakur had not taken any name in her statement and hence it could not be proven that she was referring to Singh as a terrorist.
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