National Editor and Diplomatic Affairs Editor at The Hindu, Suhasini Haidar, was caught lying on Twitter about Minister of External Affairs Jaishankar’s address at the Raisina Dialogues organized by the Observers Research Foundation. She claimed on the social media platform Twitter that the MEA had said that all foreign policy achievements had begun in India only five years ago.
However, an individual on the platform, quickly rebutted that he too had heard MEA Jaishankar in full and asserted that the Minister had nowhere said such a thing. He told Haidar in his reply that her bias had taken over her professionalism.
I too heard him completely. No where he claimed “all” as is being twisted by you. He was only highlighting the FP achievements of his Govt during last 5 yrs, which he is entitled to. Sorry, in you, bias has taken over professionalism. @Geeta_Mohan @horror06
— Chakradhar Mahapatra (@cdmpatra) January 15, 2020
Suhasini Haidar, realizing that her lie had been caught, attempted to deflect the issue by pointing out that S. Jaishankar had been a minister in Narendra Modi’s cabinet only since June, 2019. Prior to that, he had been a foreign diplomat.
Fair point, but please consider that Dr. Jaishankar has been in this government since June 2019
He was a career diplomat before that, from 1977-2018.— Suhasini Haidar (@suhasinih) January 15, 2020
The implication of her remark was that the first term of the NDA government was not Jaishankar’s government. But Chakradhar Mahapatra again pointed out that the MEA was talking about his government and not himself.
Yes Mam, he was talking about “his” Govt, not himself, and that precedes June 2019.
— Chakradhar Mahapatra (@cdmpatra) January 15, 2020
This isn’t the first time Suhasini Haidar has spread lies about the current government or its ministers. In an article earlier this month, headlined “The new worry of depleting diplomatic capital”, she had spread several canards about foreign policy concerns for India. In the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370, she had spread misleading information about a Supreme Court order that permitted CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury to visit the erstwhile state.
