Tathagata Roy, the Governor of Meghalaya, described fake news busting and fact checking website AltNews as “biased and motivated”, after the multi-platform digital site challenged veracity of his recent tweet regarding alleged attacks on Hindus in Pakistan.
On Wednesday, Mr. Roy posted a video on Twitter, where two women are seen being assaulted by two men. Mr Roy claimed that one of the women in the video, a Hindu, is “being picked up by Muslims in Pakistan in front of her mother and child.”
“However, stupid Hindus are opposing NRC (National Registration of Citizens). There are 55 Islamic States for 150 crore Muslims. 69 countries for 250 crore Christians and no country for 150 crore Hindus,” Mr. Roy tweeted in Bengali.
Alt News ‘debunked’ the video claiming it is an old one and got nothing to do with the Hindus in Pakistan.
“Alt News had earlier debunked the same video in December 2019 when it was shared with the claim that poor women were lifted in public eye and raped by men in Rajasthan. The video is at least two years old and is from Rajasthan’s Jodhpur district,” Alt News claimed. “One of the men in the video is the husband of the girl they try to abduct. The elderly woman is the mother of the girl.”
Quoting a newspaper report, Alt News also noted that it is a family dispute in Dhani village of Rajasthan and has nothing to do with the attack on the Hindus in Pakistan, as claimed by the Governor.
Mr. Roy however was irked by the Alt News’ argument and said that he “does not accept” the website’s claim.
“Some so-called fact-checking websites are traipsing all over social media. The ‘checking’ and the resultant dishing out of information that they do is false, biased and motivated. One might as well fact-check with ISI Rawalpindi,” he tweeted. In another tweet he said that he “does not accept” that the incident occurred “in Rajasthan and not in Pakistan.” He rather asked why everyone is so “upset.”
“For arguments sake, why people are so upset if it has occurred in Pakistan? [Is it because] Pakistan is criticized?” he tweeted in Bengali.
