NDTV’s Ravish Kumar who often peddles fake news and has frequent meltdowns against Prime Minister Modi, the government and anyone who refuses to toe his agenda took to Facebook on PM Modi’s birthday to lie through his teeth yet again. The veteran propagandist alleged that after the IT raids against Dainik Bhaskar, the paper had been tamed and to please PM Modi, ended up publishing a full-page ad wishing him on his birthday.
Ravish Kumar in his Facebook post wrote that after the IT raids, the Agrawal seniors are keeping their eye on Prime Minister Modi. He alleged, that after the raids, their reverence for PM Modi had increased so much that instead of writing ‘Pradhanmantri’ in the ad, they ended up writing ‘Prashanmantri Shri’.
Ravish Kumar, as we all know, has a complicated relationship with the truth and every time he wants to denigrate the Prime Minister, he concocts another lie. This time too, Ravish did not hesitate from peddling lies to further his agenda.
The ad itself, as can be seen from the image shared by Ravish Kumar himself, was not an ad given by the government or published unilaterally by the paper. It was, in fact, an ad that was paid for by some supports of the Prime Minister. Below the image of PM Modi, one can see the names of those who wanted to wish the PM on his 71st birthday by way of this ad in the Dainik Bhaskar paper.
Further, Ravish Kumar is also patently wrong when he claims that Dainik Bhaskar printed the ad and replaced “Pradhanmantri’ with ‘Pradhanmantri Shri’ because their reverence for PM Modi increased after the IT raids.
As a newsman, Ravish Kumar should be aware that newspapers publish ads exactly how the people paying for the ad want it. Therefore, Dainik Bhaskar, that was paid by the individuals who were getting this ad publish, did not make any changes to the ad and published it as it is.
The Bureau Chief of Dainik Bhaskar also responded on the post of Ravish Kumar confirming this.
Rohit, the Bureau Chief of Dainik Bhaskar responded to the post by Ravish Kumar saying that an ad is published just as it is received by the newspaper and that the paper should not be questioned for the words chosen by those who want to get an ad published in the paper.
There was a larger point, however, that Ravish Kumar was trying to make with his misleading post. He was trying to say that Income Tax raids are conducted by the Modi govt to muzzle the free press and shut down dissenting voices. He further wanted to insinuate that after the IT raids, Dainik Bhaskar, who was being critical of the Prime Minister, had now started singing his praises.
We have often seen how the Left cabal cries vendetta and muzzling of freedom of the press every time legitimate action is taken against the media organisations. In Dainik Bhaskar’s case, the Income Tax Department revealed that it had found evidence of profits being siphoned off from listed companies and fictitious transactions of Rs 2,200 crore during the raids on the offices at Dainik Bhaskar group. Similarly, documents relating to unpaid taxes on Rs 700 crore of income over six years, violations of stock market rules have been found in searches at the Dainik Bhaskar Group.
The Income Tax Department said that during the search, they found that the DB group was operating several companies in the names of their employees, which have been used for booking bogus expenses and routing of funds. During the search, several of the employees, whose names were used as shareholders and directors, admitted that they were not aware of such companies and had given their Aadhaar card and digital signature to the employer in good faith.
“Some were found to be relatives, who had willingly and knowingly signed the papers but had no knowledge or control of the business activities of the companies, in which they were supposed to be directors and shareholders,” the statement said.
The IT department had further said,
“The real estate entity of the group operating a Mall had been sanctioned a term loan of Rs 597 crore from a nationalised Bank. Out of this, an amount of Rs.408 crore has been diverted to a sister concern as a loan at a low-interest rate of 1%. While the real estate company has been claiming expenses of interest from its taxable profit, it has been diverted for personal investments of the holding company,” the Income Tax Department said in a statement.
The Dainik Bhaskar Group, which operates more than 100 companies, did barter deals for advertisement revenues through its media channel, in which it received immovable properties in lieu of actual payments, the department said. The IT department has found evidence indicating cash receipts in respect of the subsequent sale of such properties.
With such extensive evidence of illegal transactions and financial impropriety, to allege that the raids were conducted to “tame” the media company editorial is simply propaganda and a lie that is being furthered to target the Modi government.
