Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s son and Karnataka cabinet minister Priyank Kharge has been having an elaborate meltdown on Twitter since his newly formed government is being called out for hiring notorious fact-checking portal ‘Alt News’ to run its ‘fact check unit.’
Since yesterday (July 26, Wednesday) the Congress dynast, who probably had been thinking in his mind that he deserves a pat on his back for roping in his ‘chief’ Zubair, known for dog-whistling and selectively fact-checking news items that suit his agenda, has not been able to control his anger and has gone entirely unhinged after social media users have attempted to hold up a mirror to him.
Interestingly, Priyank Kharge, the son of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge heads the same IT and biotechnology Departments, which are now entrusted to set up the ‘fact-checking unit’.
The entire fiasco began after reports emerged on July 25 that the Congress-led government in Karnataka is setting up a ‘fact check unit’ to combat ‘misinformation’ with the help of notorious fake news peddlers such as Alt News. “The government will open a separate fact-check unit. It will also take the help of fact-checking agencies like Alt News, Boom Live, E Din, Logical(ly), etc,” a report published by the Kannada newspaper Vijayvani on Monday (July 24) read.
While the Karnataka Congress MLA Priyank Kharge could not stop hyperbolising his party’s decision to seek help from dubious fact-checking portal ‘Alt News’ to fight misinformation, the state unit of BJP called him out for giving a platform to the so-called fact-checking website which furthers fake news, obfuscates the truth, concocts details to shield Islamists and sometimes, even creates fake news simply to fact check it later.
BJP Karnataka tweeted, “Troll Minister @PriyankKharge must be held accountable for Jihadi elements unleashing online lynch mobs against Hindu women for standing up for the rights of Hindu students in Udupi. It is the direct result of not only emboldening these extremist elements referring to them as ‘Chief’, but also backing them in all forms in the name of ‘fact-checking’. @INCKarnataka is funding outsiders & pliable media to threaten & intimidate Hindus for raising their voices against the anti-Hindu mindset of the Siddaramaiah govt.”
Troll Minister @PriyankKharge must be held accountable for Jihadi elements unleashing online lynch mobs against Hindu women for standing up for the rights of Hindu students in Udupi.
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) July 25, 2023
It is the direct result of not only emboldening these extremist elements referring to them as…
Notably, earlier in June this year, Congress MLA Priyank Kharge publicly displayed his camaraderie with Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair by referring to the latter as ‘chief.’
Will do Chief
— Priyank Kharge / ಪ್ರಿಯಾಂಕ್ ಖರ್ಗೆ (@PriyankKharge) June 16, 2023
Infuriated by the tweet posted by BJP Karnataka which reminded the Congress leader how his party was fostering a propaganda website which has spread lies, mislead its audience, whitewashed crimes and doxxed individuals, Priyank Kharge responded by threatening the state unit of BJP with a legal notice.
He continued on to blatantly accuse the BJP of utilising its employees to harass representatives of the opposing parties.
Dear @BJP4Karnataka, your tweet on me & my party is extremely malicious & sinister. You are accusing me of anti national activities. Looks like you did not take approval of higher ups before posting this & won’t be getting ₹2 for this tweet.
— Priyank Kharge / ಪ್ರಿಯಾಂಕ್ ಖರ್ಗೆ (@PriyankKharge) July 25, 2023
This is exactly the kind of news that… https://t.co/fVRuNWJ60e
BJP leader and Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya hit back at Kharge for threatening BJP’s state unit for merely stating facts. He tweeted, “Good to see you fact-check yourself as Troll Minister. But it’s disappointing to see you intimidate and threaten people for speaking on facts. State power is vested in you to discharge your duties as RDPR Minister. Why dont you try sticking to it? Your want to be the Law Minister, Home Minister, all at once is silly and laughable. We all saw how the last attempt to muzzle freedom of speech went in the courts. So be advised to cool it down a little.”
Good to see you fact check yourself as Troll Minister.
— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) July 26, 2023
But it’s disappointing to see you intimidate and threaten people for speaking on facts. State power is vested in you to discharge your duties as RDPR Minister. Why dont you try sticking to it? Your want to be the Law… https://t.co/Oib41jp4e9
Tejasvi Surya’s tweet asking the Congress leader to slow down with the trolling and his senseless accusations, further infuriated Priyank Kharge, making him lose his mind and go completely unhinged against the BJP leader, terming him a ‘bigot’ and a ‘liar.’
(Dear friends, no apologies for replying to this person @Tejasvi_Surya . These bigots & their lies need to be exposed each time. They think can get away with whatever malicious lies they spread.)
— Priyank Kharge / ಪ್ರಿಯಾಂಕ್ ಖರ್ಗೆ (@PriyankKharge) July 27, 2023
Hey child, a lesson for you.
“Finish what you start”.
Understand the meaning of… https://t.co/1hPImPhM9a
BJP leader Tejasvi Surya was, however, not the only one who had to bear with Priyank Kharge’s behaviour. In fact, BJP leader Amit Malviya also felt the wrath of the Congress president’s son. Responding to a tweet where Malviya also called out the Congress government in Karnataka for providing a platform to a dubious website like Alt News, Kharge went on to abuse and insult the politician by using derogatory and unparliamentary words like ‘chomu’ for him.
Chief Chomu, speaking out of turn is what you specialize in & that is what you have done even now.
— Priyank Kharge / ಪ್ರಿಯಾಂಕ್ ಖರ್ಗೆ (@PriyankKharge) July 26, 2023
Tell me, what gives you the authority to speak on this issue? Who authorized you? If you have the right to speak on any issue, so do I.
Unfortunately, common sense is not common.… https://t.co/PzzUeB9BwK
Alt News and its notorious history of spreading fake news
The ‘fact checking’ portal Alt News, run by Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair, has disseminated and amplified fake news on several instances. This is without accounting for the numerous lies peddled by the founders of the Alt News themselves.
For instance, on Sunday (July 23), Zubair shared a cropped video of Kanwariyas pelting stones in Bareilly to hide the fact that it was carried out in retaliation for an unproved attack by Islamists. By shrewdly avoiding the context of the video, he thus insinuated that it was somehow a ‘free-for-all’ case of stone pelting.
In June this year, he falsely suggested that YouTuber Akshat Shrivastava took money from the Union government to criticise the Congress party. Shrivastava later took to Twitter to lambast Zubair for his ‘half-baked research’ and ‘baseless allegations.’
His frequent lies have been fodder for Islamists both in India and abroad. On 14 June 2021, Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair took to Twitter to claim that an elderly Muslim man, Abdul Samad Saifi, in Ghaziabad, was assaulted and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
Despite the fact that all of Alt News’ shenanigans are on display, Kharge’s defensive response to the purported fact-check website is alarming and provides us with sufficient cause to wonder if there is more going on than meets the eye.
Moreover, going by his recent abusive tweets, it seems that Kharge is in direct competition with Congress spokeswoman Supriya Shrinate, who was until now, ranked at the top of the list of the several abusive spokespersons Congress has been bestowed with.
