On Monday (16th September) morning, Saket Gokhale took to his X (formerly Twitter) account to spread fake news about the contract awarded to make Vande Bharat sleeper trains.
In his tweet, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP claimed that the cost of construction of these trains has been increased to 50%. He alleged a ‘quid pro quo corruption’ on the part of the Modi government.
“Modi Govt has revised the ₹58,000 crores contract for making Vande Bharat sleeper trains. A train that cost ₹290 crores earlier will now cost ₹436 crores. This is a train with ONLY AC coaches that (the) poor cannot afford,” Gokhale claimed.
“Who is benefiting from this 50% cost increase in Vande Bharat contract?” he brazened out. The TMC MP alleged that the initial contract was for making 200 Vande Bharat sleeper trains at a cost of ₹58000 crores.
He claimed that the number of trains has been decreased to 133 in the new contract and that the cost of making one train has increased to ₹436 crores from ₹290 crores.
However, the lies of Saket Gokhale were soon debunked by the Ministry of Railways, which highlighted a missing fact in his propaganda-laden tweet.
Please stop spreading misinformation and fake news.
— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) September 16, 2024
Cost per coach multiplied by number of coaches equals the cost of train.
In sleeper project, cost per coach is lower than all benchmarks because of the transparency in process.
We have increased the number of coaches from… https://t.co/tLUmUsGx5x
In the new contract, the number of Vande Bharat sleeper train coaches has been increased from 16 to 24. This was done keeping in mind the growing demand for train travel.
“Cost per coach multiplied by number of coaches equals the cost of the train. We have increased the number of coaches from 16 to 24 to make longer trains, keeping the total number of coaches in contract constant,” the Railways Ministry highlighted the missing context in Gokhale’s tweet.
The total number of train coaches as per the previous contract was 3200 (200 trains with each train having 60 coaches). Now, a total of 3192 coaches will be constructed (133 trains with 24 coaches).
Railways reduced total contract value by increasing train length
By doing so, the Ministry of Railways was able to significantly reduce the cost of the contract. “The total contract value has actually reduced because there are economies when train length is increased,” it clarified.
The Ministry also dismissed the contention that Vande Bharat sleeper trains are designed to serve ‘rich Indians. It pointed out, “We are making record number non AC coaches (12000) looking at the high demand for railway travel.”
But despite being exposed, the TMC MP went on a deranged rant on Twitter.
The wild conspiracy theories and fake claims of Saket Gokhale
Amidst the anti-CAA protests in January 2020, Gokhale had claimed that the Delhi Police permitted him to hold a rally and chant “Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalon ko.” The RTI activist did not exhibit any proof or approval letter from the Delhi police that could substantiate his claims.
He later made amends to his insidious claims and alleged that the police requested him to re-schedule his protest after February 8 that year in light of the Model Code of Conduct.
Without verifying the details of the case, left-wing propaganda site The Wire, and Congress mouthpiece National Herald published his claims to suggest that Delhi police found nothing objectionable with the slogans.
Forced by circumstances, the Delhi police took to Twitter to expose the lie being peddled by Gokhale.
While dubbing the claims as baseless and false, the DCP New Delhi said, “It is hereby clarified that no permission to hold a protest on 02.02.2020 has been given to Sh. Saket Gokhale. A copy of his request letter is being circulated in social media as permission, which is not the case.”
In June 2020, Saket Gokhale peddled wild conspiracy theories about a ‘ventilator scam’ after the first batch of ventilators procured using the PM CARES fund was made available to hospitals.
In a seven-part thread, Gokhale alleged that ₹750+ crore had gone ‘missing’ from the funds allotted for procuring ventilators under the PM CARES fund.
Soon, other Congress minions spread the same as gospel truth and claimed that there was a ‘ventilator scam’ underway.
All the fake claims were then debunked by the CMD of BEL (Bharat Electronic Limited), a professional Defence electronics company in India. In February 2021, BEL filed a ₹1 crore defamation suit against the RTI activist for spreading lies.
On August 14, 2020, the Wall Street Journal published a report alleging that a senior executive of the social media giant Facebook was allegedly favouring the ruling BJP government. Soon after, Ankhi Das, the public policy director of Facebook, came under attack by the Congress party and its trolls.
Saket Gokhale was one of those who insinuated that Ankhi Das had links with RSS-affiliated groups. He claimed that Ankhi Das had “attended sessions” of the World Organization of Students & Youth (WOSY), a youth group, which is led by her sister, Rashmi Das.
The TMC spokesman also said that WOSY’s office was located in the same building as an RSS outfit in Delhi.
In a hurry to target Ankhi Das, Gokhale went on to post an image of the WOSY event to claim that the public policy Director of Facebook was attending the event. However, the image was that of Ankhi Das’ twin sister Dr Rashmi Das.
In a statement, WOSY had threatened legal action against Gokhale for peddling misinformation. It added that Dr Rashmi Das’ association with WOSY was purely voluntary and aimed to spread the concept of ‘Vasudeva Kuttambakam’ among international students living in India.
In April 2021, he was caught peddling lies to defend the Maharashtra government’s harassment of Bruck Pharma director over Remdesivir supply. He later complained with Maharashtra Home Minister about how Leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis or the BJP, as private players, could obtain a crucial drug when its sale is allowed only to the state government.
