India Today Group’s DailyO has fast earned a reputation as a safe haven for the publishing unsubstantiated ramblings. What is positioned as a vehicle to carry opinion pieces has become a platform to print completely fictional garbage. Last year we had the unintentionally hilarious piece by Rana Ayyub, in the backdrop of the rape of a Nun in Kolkata. This was at the height of the fake “Christians under Attack” narrative and Ace Detective Rana Ayyub deduced that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and his aides were responsible for the crime on the nun. Too bad for her, some Bangladeshi nationals were the real criminals. No wonder nobody touched her book on Gujarat with a barge pole.
Coming back to DailyO, another “journalist” recently published another news report recently, again targeting the RSS. Rabid abuser and journalist Swati Chaturvedi used DailyO’s platform to publish this on 22nd June 2016:
The post was called an “Exclusive” by DailyO and that probably was the only truthful part in its promotion: It was an “exclusive” because such yarns cannot be spun by all and sundry.
The post was as usual peppered with unflattering comments on RSS, but that is not the point here. The big “exclusive” here was the source-based claim that Leonardo DiCaprio, Sir David Attenborough and Richard Branson would be attending an RSS event:
…a gallery of celebrities are set to grace the event and usher in the new uber power and remote control of India. The stars include Sir Richard Branson, adding a virgin touch perhaps with an eye to growing his global empire, English broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough, and Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio who will reinforcing the virtues of a beef ban. I have been told that DiCaprio and Branson’s messages have already been received and are on song. DiCaprio is vegan and is expected to provide a touch of stardust to Bhagwat’s anti-beef message. (Perhaps the only thing the two men share in common.) Branson is also vegan and has announced plans to launch a vegan airline. This “cowspiracy” is what the RSS adores about both men and is likely to open doors for Virgin in India.
As usual, mainstream media lapped up this claim and reported it as gospel truth. Every single report in mainstream media was based solely on this “journalistic” report which for some reason was placed on the opinion’s portal of a news broadcasting behemoth. May be even the India Today group knows where to place the unavoidable unsubstantiated trash.
RSS on its part was late to react. Almost 2 weeks later, RSS and the organisers of the event HSS, quashed all such reports as “rumours”:
No Bollywood or Hollywood stars have been invited for the Mahashibir. The reports about some film stars attending the HSS event are not true. We don’t know where they (rumours) originated.
As expected, the Sanskriti Mahashibir (mega cultural camp) went on as planned from 29th to 31st July. There were numerous news reports which covered the event, but there was not a single news report which reported any of Swati Chaturvedi’s “exclusive” claims. There was no Di Caprio, no Branson, no Attenborough.
Even “DiCaprio and Branson’s messages” which had “already been received” found no mention. Naturally if such huge international stars had attended such a meet, every news portal worth their salt would have reported this news, but nothing of this sort happened. Neither did the Chaturvedi blow her own trumpet claiming that her “exclusive” was eventually found to be true. Either the stars were wearing invisibility cloaks, or the original “exclusive” was completely baseless.
All this begs one simple question: who were these sources who exclusively told utter lies to an upright yet abusive journalist Swati Chaturvedi? Did someone play a dirty trick on her? Or does she suffer from schizophrenia and other such mental disorders, which led her to cook up a completely imaginary story which has not even a iota of truth? In the first case, Chaturvedi must file a case of cheating on this source. In the second case, Chaturvedi must immediately retire from public life and seek medication for her problems, in which we wish her a speedy recovery. Until then, Chaturvedi will continue making herself and the media sites which giver her space, an object of lampooning and ridicule, if she continues to call her concocted flights of fantasies “reports”.
P.S.: If at all DailyO does want to continue their charity with her, maybe they should start a separate satire section for all of her posts. Get well soon Swati.
(Thanks to @shaitaankhopdi for the tip-off)
