A day after Congress party and its ecosystem attacked BJP government in Haryana for the alleged removal of actor Parineeti Chopra as the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign’s state brand ambassador, the spokesperson for Women and Child Development Department of Haryana Government on Friday said that an MoU signed with the actor had ended in April 2017 itself.
Taking to social media after reports suggesting that BJP govt had sacked Parineeti Chopra for speaking against the government, the Haryana government on Saturday said those reports were “false, baseless and malicious”. The Haryana government further said that the MoU between the government and Parineeti Chopra was signed for 1 year till April 2017 and the agreement was never renewed again.
This means, Parineeti Chopra was not even the brand ambassador of Haryana’s Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign at a time when she stood behind violent protestors of Jamia Millia University, so there is no question of sacking her for that reason.
Spokesperson of Women&Child Development Dept of Haryana Govt: News of Parineeti Chopra being dropped(for tweeting against #CAA) as brand ambassador of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ is false, baseless and malicious.MOU was for 1 year,till April, 2017.Thereafter MOU was never renewed pic.twitter.com/jcRBsvrNXM
— ANI (@ANI) December 21, 2019
On Thursday, Congress party leader Randeep Singh Surjewala and many members of the “liberal-secular” media ecosystem had criticised the Haryana government for allegedly “sacking” Parineeti Chopra from her assignment of brand ambassador.
खट्टर साहब हरियाणा की बेटियां पढ़ी लिखी भी हैं, समझदार भी और अपने विचार व्यक्त करने का साहस रखने वाली भी।
उन्हें ब्रांड ऐम्बैसडर से हटा कर और बोखला कर आप उनकी आवाज़ नही दबा सकते।
और जजपा चुप क्यों है?
कितनों की आवाज दबाओगे और आखिर कब तक?https://t.co/Wah61i4Gue
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) December 19, 2019
After that, yesterday several media houses published the news that Parineeti Chopra has been dropped as the brand ambassador of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign by the Haryana government. Reporting a blatant lie that the Bollywood actress has been sacked, the media reports then went on to speculate whether it was done due to her tweet supporting the ant-CAA protests.
On 17th December, Parineeti Chopra had posted a tweet where she had criticised police action against Jamia Millia and AMU ‘students’ for protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act. She had tweeted, “If this is what’s gonna happen every time a citizen expresses their view, forget #CAB, we should pass a bill and not call our country a democracy anymore! Beating up innocent human beings for speaking their mind? BARBARIC.”
If this is what’s gonna happen everytime a citizen expresses their view, forget #CAB, we should pass a bill and not call our country a democracy anymore! Beating up innocent human beings for speaking their mind? BARBARIC.
— Parineeti Chopra (@ParineetiChopra) December 17, 2019
Indian Express, New Indian Express, Firstpost, News18, Zee News, The Print were among the media houses that carried the fake news and the insinuation connecting with her tweet.
The media reports claimed that Parineeti Chopra has been sacked by the Haryana government, but there is no official confirmation of the same. The reports quoted ‘reports’, and didn’t mention any source for the news. Some of the reports used an earlier quote by Haryana CM’s Advisor on Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign, Yogender Malik, as saying that “as per my information, Parineeti Chopra is no longer our brand ambassador”, as a source of the claim. This quote is not dated, and it says Parineeti is no longer the brand ambassador, it does not mean that she has been sacked recently.
He was clearly referring to the fact that her contract with the state government had expired, and that’s why she is no longer the brand ambassador, not because she was dropped or sacked. But the media reports chose to ignore that and went ahead with publishing a fake report.
Some of the reports have since been deleted from the websites by the respective media houses. The fake news was picked up by usual suspects from the left-liberal ecosystem and used it to attack the BJP government in the state.
