Controversial publication, ‘The Quint’ on Friday sunk to a new low after it decided to publish a report which declared that Kulbushan Jadhav was an Indian spy.
Quint in its report claimed that, it was basing its assertion, as per highly placed ‘RAW sources’. In order to further this theory, the author even decided to Pakistan’s propaganda as gospel truth, without paying heed to Indian agencies who have vehemently denied such conspiracy theories by Pakistan. We had rebutted their fantasy story point by point yesterday and detailed why they should be ashamed of themselves.
This ‘charade’ of a news report, not only meant that India’s position regarding this matter was seriously undermined, it also opened up the possibly of Pakistan using this news report as evidence to pass judgements against Jadhav, thereby severely endangering his life.
People were both aghast and bewildered at the irresponsible ‘journalism’ of Quint:
So the repeat offender Quint has done it again. This is journalism jihad. What they have done is a cognizable crime under official secrets act. @HMOIndia
— Ashu? (@muglikar_) January 5, 2018
I am frankly a little taken aback by the enormity of The Quint’s treachery.
— Nupur (@UnSubtleDesi) January 5, 2018
It is really sad that Govt. wont take any action against Quint for committing such a big treason against the country. Now Pakistani will use this piece to prove that Kulbhushan Yadav was RAW Agent ??? pic.twitter.com/0pbEhD0bkZ
— Dhaval Patel (@dhaval241086) January 5, 2018
After such a momentous backlash (even though the damage might already be done), the Quint has now decided to ‘retract’ its story, by claiming that they are now ‘rechecking’ some of the information mentioned in the article:
This raises the question as to why did the Quint, not recheck or double check the story, which quite clearly might have had such far reaching ramifications, when it comes to an innocent citizen’s life. Why did the Quint only decide to fact check its story after a major publish backlash? Was there some ulterior motive behind it putting up the story in the first place?
As evidently clear, people weren’t going to let Quint off the hook anyways:
If a story like this has to be retracted and if facts mentioned in it turn out to be incorrect, surely it would be grounds to fire the reporter, no @TheQuint ? Journalists should be able to question everything but facts must be correct – that’s the least. https://t.co/82fL0Jt2Iu
— HindolSengupta (@HindolSengupta) January 6, 2018
Quint has retracted the story and are checking it now? What are they checking? If we say Kulbhushan is indeed a spy, will Pakistan take it as clinching proof of his guilt? Yeah, they will!
— Gappistan Radio (@GappistanRadio) January 6, 2018
I think The Quint shouldn’t just recheck the Kulbhushan Jadhav story but it’s purpose and called it Quits !! pic.twitter.com/gyJ8ltaTk6
— Yo Yo Funny Singh (@moronhumor) January 6, 2018
People weren’t going to stop at that and decided to block Quint on social media platforms and used #BlockQuint, which became one of India’s top trends:
Life is better after I blocked the anti-national, unscrupulous, lying @TheQuint. Make it a movement. #BlockQuint pic.twitter.com/1L12Pg91M5
— Shefali Vaidya (@ShefVaidya) January 6, 2018
Friends block @TheQuint and send screenshot with hashtag #blockQuint … let’s make it a Movement #BlockQuint
— अंकित जैन (@indiantweeter) January 6, 2018
You won’t be affected by Indians blocking you, if you have your target audience in Pakistan. #BlockQuint pic.twitter.com/zNqEJGcNZg
— Smoking Skills (@SmokingSkills_) January 6, 2018
A few might have felt that the Quint had already shown its ‘true colours’ when it decided to carry out a ‘sting operation’ which resulted in the death of an Indian Army jawan. The journalist who had carried out this “sting operation”, was later booked for abatement of suicide.
The ‘publication’ had also generated a controversy after it had decided to give space to an author, who had once wished for the assassination of PM Modi.
