A war of words has erupted on Twitter between activist Ankur Singh and ABP journalist Abhinav Pandey after the latter called one of its own news channel’s report fake, in order to attack the central government’s PM CARES Fund. The controversy erupted after the ABP journalist took to the microblogging site to cast aspersions on PM Modi’s PM Cares Fund.
In response to the journalist’s tweet criticising the BJP government for establishing the PM Care Fund instead of the PM National Relief Fund, activist Ankur Singh used a series of tweets to educate the journalist. Ankur shared a snippet of a video uploaded by ABP news on its YouTube channel on May 27, 2020.
The controversy worsened after Abhinav Pandey, in order to castigate the Modi government and prove his skewed perception right, shamelessly went on to call his own news channels’ report fake.
आप @ABPNews को झूठा बता रहे हैं?
— Ankur (@iAnkurSingh) September 23, 2021
अपने चैनल का वीडियो देखिये, शायद समझ आ जायेगा।
और कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष को हटाया नहीं गया है, उनके अधिकार कम किये गए हैं। पूरा पढ़ा करो https://t.co/hApe07Xrlf pic.twitter.com/boQcvivaiY
The May 2020 ABP report, which summarised the difference between the PM Cares Funds and the PMNRF, clearly states that the President of the Congress party is still very much a member of the managing committee of the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF), a fact that the ABP journalist was vehemently refuting in his Tweets.
OpIndia has also written a detailed report about the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund, in which it is clearly mentioned that PMNRF has the PM, deputy PM, finance minister, Congress president and a representative of the Tata Trust and industry representative chosen by FICCI, as members of the trust whereas PM Cares have up to 13 eminent experts to undertake relief or assistance of any kind relating to a public health emergency including the creation and up-gradation of healthcare facilities. Most importantly, the eminent experts will be working pro bono.
Here, rather than gracefully accepting his mistake, Abhinav Pandey defended himself and blamed Ankur Singh for sharing a bogus video. According to Pandey, no fraudulent video can be passed off as genuine by affixing the news channel’s logo. The ABP news logo has changed, according to the journalist, and the sample of video shared by Ankur was not posted on his channel.
Then, before one could even realise, ABP News made the aforementioned video posted on its YouTube channel private. The archive version of the report by ABP News can, however, be viewed here.
After the ABP News journalist deleted his Tweet which called the channel’s report fake, activist Ankur Singh, once again, hit out at Pandey and ABP News for not issuing an apology.
Dear @ABPNews, a Congress dalal working as a journalist in your channel called your video fake, and accused me of lying.
— Ankur (@iAnkurSingh) September 23, 2021
After I gave link, he deleted the tweet and ran away.
Why no apology? Is Congress bhakti allowed in @ABPNews? pic.twitter.com/fv5MbPaiqs
The ABP News journalist, like many other Congress loyalists and trolls, had taken to Twitter to peddle the same lie surrounding the PM Care Fund and questioning the decision to set up a new body when there was already a relief fund in the form of the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF).
Pandey wrote that if in all disasters including floods, storms, money is given from PMNRF, then why not for Covid?
प्रधानमंत्री राहत कोष से राजीव गांधी फाउंडेशन को सबसे पहले नरसिम्हा राव की सरकार ने 100 करोड़ रुपए दिए थे और तब मीडिया ने सवालों की झड़ी लगा दी थी।क्योंकि वो सरासर गलत था।
— Abhinav Pandey (@Abhinav_Pan) September 23, 2021
अब भी सवाल है।बाढ़,तूफान समेत तमाम आपदाओं में PMNRF से पैसे दिए जाते हैं तो कोविड में क्यों नहीं ?
It becomes pertinent to note here that after the Coronavirus pandemic gripped the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set up the PM CARES Fund and invited people to contribute to the Fund. PM CARES Fund Trust was formed on 27th March this year to receive public donations to fight emergencies or distresses like the current Covid-19 pandemic. Prime Minister is the Chairman of this trust, and its members include Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister.
After the PM CARES fund was set up by the government, opposition parties and a section of left-liberal intellectuals had launched a campaign against it, alleging that the fund will be misused as it will not be audited by the CAG. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had demanded that the entire money collected in the fund should be transferred to the PM National Relief Fund.
