Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday (20 December) accused TMC MP Saket Gokhale of spreading a false, mischievous piece of fake news. Rajya Sabha member Gokhale is a known faker news peddler, and this time he shared a fictious conversation with minister Goyal on X (Twitter).
The Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution, and Textiles, tweeted that spreading fake news has become “the standard operating manual of the Congress led Ghamandia Gatbandhan.” He added that the falsehood by Gokhale comes after an “unprecedented insult of the Hon’ble Vice President of India by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Trinamool leader Kalyan Banerjee.”
Once again, a false, mischievous piece of fake news by Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale that is now the standard operating manual of the Congress led Ghamandia Gatbandhan. It comes soon after an unprecedented insult of the Hon’ble Vice President of India by Congress leader…
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) December 20, 2023
Goyal wrote, “Hardly surprising that Saket Gokhale is spreading vicious lies with obvious malafide intent. Such brazen falsehoods show the depths to which frustrated Congress and Trinamool can stoop.”
Piyush Goyal’s tweet came after Saket Gokhale claimed that he had a talk with the minister regarding the suspension of 141 opposition MPs in the parliament for unruly behaviour. Gokhale claimed he asked Goyal why rest of opposition MPs are not suspended.
Gokhale tweeted, “I asked @PiyushGoyal why the small bunch of us remaining INDIA MPs weren’t being suspended in the Rajya Sabha despite protesting in the well. Because 46 of our INDIA colleagues got instantly suspended for the same thing a day earlier.” The TMC MP then claimed that Goyal said, “Because if there’s zero Opposition MPs left, it looks bad for us.”
Saket Gokhale further claimed that the minister said, “Don’t worry, you’ll all be suspended before @AmitShah ji comes to Rajya Sabha to table the criminal law Bills”.
It is evident that a minister will not say such a thing. Now Piyush Goyal has confirmed that he didn’t say what Gokhale is alleging, and has accused Gokhale of spreading fake news.
Saket Gokhale was notorious for spreading fake news when he was an ‘RTI activist’. That has not changed after he joined Trinamool Congress and was elected to the Rajya Sabha. In August he made false claim that govt was buying 50 bulletproof Audi cars costing over Rs 400 crore for the G20 Summit, and he was fact-checked by PIB.
Before that he made misleading claims about newly introduced 20% TCS on credit cards, despite clarification by the finance minister. This claim was also fact-checked by PIB. In December last year, he cited fake RTI reply and a fake Gujarati news report to claim that PM Modi’s visit to Gujarat’s Morbi cost Rs 30 crore. Saket Gokhale was arrested by Gujarat Police last year for this fake claim.
