News Tamil Nadu

Puthiya Thalaimurai ‘Journo’ Niranjan Peddles Misinfo About Himachal People’s Education, Netizens Slam And Debunk His Claim With Data

January 29, 2024
The Commune

The Puthiya Thalaimurai TV Channel (PTTV) news reporter Niranjan Kumar, who goes by the handle @niranjan2428 on social media platform X, has once again been found peddling fake news. In the post he wrote, ‘I have spent 2 days in Manali, Himachal Pradesh. I am talking to anyone who is available. Based on this, I say it again, we can’t see a state like ours where students are educated. No other government or families stress on education like ours does. Boys & girls, don’t listen to anyone. Study well, our state has facilities that are not available in any other state, keep reading and keep moving forward…’

Netizens immediately schooled him on the census data based on which Himachal Pradesh ranks higher than Tamil Nadu in literacy rate.

Another netizen pointed out that HP students outperformed TN students in basic reading, basic arithmetic and basic English in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 assessments.

Another netizen posted a 2016 newspaper report which says Tamil Nadu produces unemployable engineers, which showed the standard of education in the state.

Is Niranjan Right In His Claim?

Data shows that even Manali has a higher literacy rate compared to the state of Tamil Nadu. The literacy rate of Manali city is 82.91% compared to 80.09% of Tamil Nadu.

Speaking of ‘better facilities’ in the state, in the year 2022, the CM of Tamil Nadu sought donations from alumni, Tamil diaspora, local population and corporates to develop the government schools.

Apart from this, the Tamil Nadu government made a move in the previous budget to bring schools run by the HR&CE department under the school education department, sparking fears of using Hindu temple funds to run schools.

Even Govt. model school which are supposed to be setting a standard in infrastructure are in a deplorable situation in the state’s capital, which shows that the education system is slowly crumbling.

Past Instances Of Peddling Misinformation

This is not the first time that Niranjan and PTTV have spread fake news. He has been caught red-handed previously spreading fake news and a divisive agenda masquerading as ‘news’.

In December 2023, alleged journalist Niranjan attempted to incite caste-based hatred by emphasizing the name “Sagar Sharma,” one of the individuals involved in the recent Lok Sabha security breach. Kumar’s tweet, highlighting the surname Sharma as mostly associated with Brahmins, is seen as an effort to fuel caste tensions surrounding the incident.

In Feb 2023, when the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.50 percent to address retail inflation concerns. Puthiya Thalaimurai journalist Niranjan Kumar, in spreading misinformation, erroneously linked the rate hike to discouraging dreams of buying a house without considering the broader economic context and the purpose of such policy measures in managing inflation and economic cycles.

In January 2023, Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi spoke at an event in Chennai, where he said that the state has experienced “regressive politics” over the past 50 years and that Thamizhagam would be a more appropriate name than Tamil Nadu. This triggered some Dravidian Stockists in the Tamil media, who misrepresented the governor’s message and trended separatist tweets with the hashtag #தமிழ்நாடு in opposition to the governor, including alleged journalist Niranjan.

In March 2022, during the Russia-Ukraine war, Niranjan alleged that South Indian students were discriminated in the evacuation operation from Ukraine. The journalist based his claim on an unverified source, a parent of a student who had returned from Ukraine, and did not provide any credible evidence or corroboration for his allegation.

In February 2022, the alleged ‘journalist had peddled fake news against BJP candidate of Ward No. 134. Uma Anandan, saying that she had lost by securing just 8 votes while she emerged as a winner with 5635 votes.

In January 2022, he had peddled fake news that the Modi Government at the Centre had ‘rejected’ Tamil Nadu’s tableau for the Republic Day Parade for not having ‘prominent freedom fighters’ while the fact is that each year only limited number of tableaus from states are selected based on the recommendations of an expert committee appointed by the Ministry of Defence.

In January 2021, he was called out by the Office of Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for peddling fake news saying that the Minister had refused to meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami citing budget consultation work.

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