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“Scam for BJP, Donation for DMK”: TNM’s Double Standards Exposed By Netizens

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Following the Supreme Court ruling on 11 February 2024, the Election Commission of India (ECI) disclosed comprehensive details regarding the purchases of electoral bonds, including information on donors, donated amounts, and recipients. On 15 March 2024, this information was uploaded onto the ECI’s website. Consequently, a wave of commotion has erupted, with political parties pointing fingers at each other regarding who has benefited more, and netizens engaging in spirited exchanges, often mocking the parties and their supporters.

Against this backdrop, the initial release on 15 March 2024 revealed that BJP, ruling over 18 states, had received a total of ₹6986.5 crores. This stirred significant controversy, especially in Tamil Nadu, where news outlets and journalists, such as TNM, labelled it a scam. Then, on 17 March 2024, the second phase of disclosures highlighted the ruling DMK party in Tamil Nadu, which had received ₹656.5 crores over four years of governance in one state. Immediately the same journalists labeled it as donations. This portrayal has ignited additional curiosity and amusement among netizens on social media, leading them to begin criticizing news media and journalists.

Shabbir Ahmed, a journalist from The News Minute was very actively reporting about the “scam” ever since the publication of details on EC website. In fact, he went over and above to “expose” the so-called scam that was brought in 2018 under the Modi administration.

In another post, he sarcastically remarked that , “This is not corruption it seems”, accompanied by hashtags referencing Modi and electoral bond “scandals”.

In another post, he shared a video likening electoral bonds to widespread corruption on a grand scale, with the Supreme Court “warning” the BJP about it.

In another post, he mocked the BJP’s reaction to the Electoral bonds issue, suggesting that their stance boiled down to “More MPs mean more money, and fewer MPs mean less money” with laughter emojis, insinuating his intention to confuse the public. Essentially, he pointed out that the Modi government introduced a scheme that facilitated corruption, benefiting both the BJP and corporate entities through this unconstitutional initiative.

Even the main X handle of TNM disseminated the false information that Home Minister Amit Shah had cited inaccurate data to downplay the BJP’s involvement in electoral bonds. You can read about what HM Amit Shah had said about the electoral bonds here.

All this time, the alleged fact-checkers and various leftist news portals kept trying to link the largest purchaser of bonds, Lottery Martin’s Future Gaming to the BJP. However, when the second phase of electoral bond data was released by the Election Commission of India on 17 March 2024, it was noted that the ruling DMK party in Tamil Nadu amassed ₹656.5 crores in total. Shabbir Ahmed, who had been vehemently denouncing the electoral bond scheme as corrupt and a massive scam for the past two days, suddenly backtracked. Instead of referring to it as a scam, he shifted his language to describe it as donations and posted, “Biggest donor of #DMK is Lottery King Santiago Martin’s company Future Gaming & Hotel Services Pvt Ltd. Martin has donated more than ₹500 cr to DMK through #ElectoralBonds”

Netizens came across this and mocked Shabbir for his sudden shift in language especially after it came to light that the DMK had been Martin’s biggest beneficiary.

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