Fake news peddler and Islamist propagandist of Alt News, Mohammed Zubair has been trying hard to figure out the Electoral Bonds (EB) data released by the SBI and manufacture some excess from it to pin down the BJP and Modi government.
After sharing a false figure of the electoral bonds donation received by the BJP, the co-founder of Alt News has now assumed and is insinuating that one of the prominent bond purchasers named Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital based in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad is linked to the Modi government.
“Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital based in UP’s Ghaziabad bought bonds worth Rs 162 crore. The healthcare company is run by Upasana Arora and Prem Narayan Arora,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital based in UP’s Ghaziabad bought bonds worth Rs 162 crore. The healthcare company is run by Upasana Arora and Prem Narayan Arora. https://t.co/95PhEqpRKz pic.twitter.com/yHqrHOn5s5
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) March 14, 2024
To insinuate a BJP link, he shared images of the X profiles of Upasana Arora and Prem Narayan Arora and images with Union Ministers.
But basic research, which Zubair has conveniently skipped, exposes the sinister attempt by the “fact-checker” and his ilk to blow out of proportion the EB data to falsely implicate the Modi government.
Here’s what Zubair won’t tell you
What Zubair decided not to mention is that there are two hospitals by this name in different regions of the country.
One is 300-bed Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Kaushambi, Ghaziabad whose Chairman is Dr. PN Arora, who is also a member of CII, Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisation (CAHO), Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI) and Quality Council of India.
The Director of Ghaziabad’s Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital is Upasana Arora, who is also the Chairperson of Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) Healthcare sector, Co-chairperson of ASSOCHAM Healthcare, and NABH Assessor.
A cursory check through their X profile will tell you that both Upasana Arora and Dr PN Arora are actively engaged with the government about their work in the healthcare sector.
Zubair has used their images with Union Ministers from events as optics to further his insinuation in the caption that their relation is quid pro quo. Now, here’s the catch.
The second Yashoda hospital chain is in Hyderabad, Telangana. While its website shows its name as Yashoda Hospitals, it has been identified by several media reports as Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital.
A report by the Times of India has clearly mentioned that “one of Hyderabad’s top corporate hospitals, Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital has contributed Rs 162 crore to the bonds, making them the second highest contributors in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh combined”.
Another report by The Indian Express names Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital “Hyderabad” as one of the top buyers of the bond at Rs 162 crore. However, it later goes on to mention that “it could not be ascertained whether the buyer was Hyderabad-based hospital or the one based in Ghaziabad as both share the same name.”
Despite the unconfirmed reports about which one of the two Yashoda Hospitals has purchased the electoral bonds, Mohammed Zubair peddled the fake news that the bonds were purchased by the UP-based hospital whose director and chairman are engaged with the government over healthcare.
Moreover, as per the media reports, the probability that the Hyderabad-based hospital has purchased the bond appears higher vis-a-vis the large donations received by the BRS.
Hyderabad-based Yashoda Hospitals is reportedly managed by relatives of former Telangana Chief Minister and BRS Chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR). The hospital is owned by Goruganti brothers and G Surender Rao is the managing director.
In April 2023, the then-Telangana Congress President Revanth Reddy accused former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s relatives of obtaining land worth hundreds of crores at “dirt cheap” prices.
He accused KCR of “favouring” his relatives, including Gorukanti Devender Rao, Kalvakuntla Jagannatha Rao, Gorukanti Ravender Rao, who reportedly joined as directors of Alexandria Healthcity Hyderabad Pvt. Ltd.
Revanth Reddy accused KCR of giving 14,278 square yards, or 3 acres, of land to Yashoda Healthcare Services Pvt Ltd at 37,611 per square yard against the market value of 80,000 per square yard.
He said, “Through this Yashoda sale deed, there was another loss of Rs 300 crore to the state exchequer.”
In August 2015, KCR felicitated the Goruganti brothers who donated their properties worth over Rs 1 crore in Rampur and Medipally villages in the district to the Grama Jyothi programme.
BRS is amongst the top receivers of electoral bonds
The biggest beneficiaries of the electoral bonds are the regional parties as against the gains made by the BJP despite being the national ruling party and the ruling party in several states.
BRS stood 4th in terms of parties receiving electoral bonds contributions with Rs 1,214.7 crore from April 2019 to January 2024. Notably, it appears from the EB data that the BRS did receive donations during the same time that Yashoda Hospitals purchased the bonds.
Although it is not yet clear which of the Yashoda Hospitals has purchased the Rs 162 crore bonds, the odds are stacked against Yashoda Hospitals, Hyderabad going by the above information.
Mohammed Zubair has once again played the easy and convenient game of half-baked optics to slip in his insinuations amongst his circle of propagandists both at home and abroad. The facts, clear or unclear, don’t matter enough for them to be researched.
