Vyapam Scam Whistleblower Anand Rai Has a Penchant For Fake News
He may have unearthed the Vyapam scam but his Twitter account is littered with fake news and provocative posts.
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Days after self-styled ‘godman’, Virendra Dev Dixit, of the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya, was accused of sexial exploitation of women and minors, a photo of Union Minister Smriti Irani seeking blessings of Dixit began to make the rounds.
The said picture was tweeted by Dr Anand Rai, a whistle-blower in the Vyapam Scam with a suggestive caption (Roughly translated, the tweet reads: Look at her too… An ideal minister of an ideal government, Smriti Irani, went to rapist Baba Virendra Dev Dixit’s ‘Modern Sex University’ ashram to take “Prasad” from him). Rai’s tweet has been re-tweeted over 2400 times.
Not only is Rai’s allegation highly insulting, it is also an outright lie. Even though BJP leaders have been photographed in the past with several self-styled godmen who have been on the wrong side of the law – like Asaram Bapu, Baba Ram Rahim and Radhey Maa – in this particular case it is not true.
The image was originally published in India Today as that of Irani’s meeting with a Rajasthan based astrologer, Pandit Nathulal Vyas in 2014.
Rai has not deleted his offensive tweet even after several Twitter users have pointed out his blatant lie to him.
This is not the first time that Rai has been called out for spreading fake news. Earlier, he had tweeted a photoshopped picture of Yogi Adityanath drinking cow urine. The tweet has now been deleted.
In June, he tweeted a picture of a terrorist killed by CRPF in J&K as that of a young son of a farmer from Mandsaur shot dead by the government.
Rai also claimed that convicted Dera chief, Baba Ram Rahim was airlifted in a helicopter owned by Gautam Adani. Despite Alt News having busted this piece of information, Rai is yet to delete it.
In August, Rai had announced the death of Dilip Kumar, which then quickly deleted, upon learning that it was fake news.
We see from the cross section of tweets above that while some like the one about Dilip Kumar could be a genuine mistake, others are not so innocent. Rai may have done stellar work in exposing Vyapam scam but he is harming his own credibility if he continues with such irresponsible online behaviour.
(This article has been published in an arrangement with Alt News.)
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