News Tamil Nadu

DMK Govt’s “Fact-Checking Unit” Becomes Butt Of Jokes After Its “Fact-Check” On Khelo India Games Food Shortage Goes Wrong, Gets Called Out For Peddling Fake Narrative

January 24, 2024
The Commune

The Khelo India Youth Games for this year commenced on 19 January 2024 and is scheduled to continue until 31 January 2024. The event is being hosted in major cities of Tamil Nadu namely Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, and Trichy. This edition marks the sixth edition of the flagship event under the Khelo India initiative by the government of India, emphasizing the promotion of sports at the grassroots level, playing a crucial role in nurturing and recognizing emerging talents across the country.

As the participating cities and states geared up to showcase the skills of young talents at a national level, concerns arose during the event held in a few cities. Participants and coaches raised complaints about food shortages specifically in Madurai.

On 24 January 2024, the official X handle of the Tamil Nadu BJP based on news reports released a video alleging severe food shortages at the MGR Stadium in Madurai, stating that athletes were provided only a chapati and a half-boiled egg.

Participants began expressing concerns on 21 January 2024, citing a shortage of food at the venue. Athletes from different states voiced their disappointment, with some mentioning that breakfast consisted of only one chapati and a boiled egg. Allegedly, some participants had to make do with smaller portions due to the purported food shortage. Coaches and organizers echoed these concerns, highlighting subpar food arrangements and accommodation. Despite complaints, timely food service to athletes was reportedly not ensured.

Reports from TNIE indicated that the food arrangements were managed by a private contractor who had been strictly instructed to address the food shortage issue and ensure sufficient meals. Additional officials were assigned to monitor the arrangements at the venue, as stated by Collector Sangeetha after inspecting the situation. She assured that any problems related to food shortages would be resolved within a day.

MP Venkatesan emphasized that such allegations could tarnish the reputation of Tamil Nadu, and the district administration pledged to take necessary actions to address the concerns.

In response, the Tamil Nadu government’s official fact-check team jumped in and refuted these claims, tagging the Tamil Nadu BJP handle and labeling it as fake news. 

 

After the disclosure of multiple reports, internet users flooded the X platform to voice their discontent with the deplorable state of the administration and ridiculed the Tamil Nadu government’s official fact-checking team for allegedly concealing the truth and promoting a false narrative under the guise of fact-checking.

A different user cited a post by Elon Musk, the CEO of the X platform, in which he asserted, “The so-called fact-checkers are huge liars and incredibly biased”

Where Is Mission Director?

The MK Stalin-led DMK government recently formed a “Fact-Checking Unit” allegedly in violation of established norms. Many called it as an attempt to muzzle voices critical of the government in social media.

One Dravidianist porpagandist Iyan Karthikeyan, a former YouTuber who ran a self-styled “fact-checking” website called YouTurn has been appointed as the Mission Director of the so-called “Fact-Checking Unit” who draws a salary of 3 lakhs per month of taxpayer’s money.

Many on social media asked what is the “Mission Director” doing when the government fact-checking unit itself was peddling false information.

The BJP Tamil Nadu social media took a jibe saying “We request the Chief Minister @mkstalin to set up another fact check department to fact check this fact check department..!“

Previous Instances Of DMK Govt Agencies Peddling Misinformation

Recently, the Tamil Nadu Department of Information & Public Relations (DIPR) issued a statement in which it said that EVR (hailed as ‘Periyar’ by followers) visited Anna University on 16 July 1920 instead of 16 July 1970. Furthermore, another error was noted in the statement concerning EVR’s birthday, which is 17 September 1879, falling on a Wednesday. However in the statement, it was stated that computer-generated information indicated EVR’s birthday as a Saturday when the Dravidian ideologue had asked the IBM 1620 computer.

The DIPR release also said “At that time itself, Periyar predicted about today’s cell phones saying that in future everyone will have a communication device in their pocket.”. However, the quote about cell phones attributed to EVR was originally said by the famed scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla.

On 12 December 2023, the Chief Minister found himself retracting a post that he had made on his X handle, commending writer Rajasekaran Devibharathi for winning the Sahitya Akademi Award.

However, this “jubilation” was short-lived as it was soon revealed that the Sahitya Akademi had not yet announced any awards. The discrepancy led to the immediate deletion of the Chief Minister’s post.

In November 2023, when allegations of Aavin reducing fat content in the green packet milk surfaced, instead of proving that the milk contained a specific amount of fat as claimed or other details that pertained to the topic of discussion, the FCU’s Mission Director ended up fact-checking the “container” in which the sample was received.

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