New Delhi: In a broadcast aired on October 28, India TV claimed that slogans of ‘Modi-Modi’ were raised in the Pakistani parliament. India TV editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma said while anchoring the show, “Today I want to first show you some pictures of Pakistan’s parliament. And I want to narrate what happened in the Pakistani parliament. You will also be shocked. I was also shocked to hear that slogans of Narendra Modi were chanted there. At first, I thought how could this happen? Pakistan’s parliament and chants of Modi’s name, how can this happen? Who raised them and why? So I watched the video multiple times and confirmed with several people from Pakistan. And the truth came out that Narendra Modi was remembered in the parliament of Pakistan. Many slogans were chanted in his name… heard in Pakistan’s parliament, ‘The one who is a friend of Modi is a foe of Pakistan’.”

The following news tickers were flashed on the screen during the length of the show:

1. ‘Pakistan’s parliament fears Modi’s name’
2. ‘Amazing… ‘Modi-Modi’ echoed in Pakistan’s parliament’
3. ‘Pakistan is afraid of Modi, it chants ‘Modi Modi’
4. ‘Who teased Imran in the parliament in the name of Modi?

Deepak Chaurasia, consulting editor of News Nation, tweeted a part of the India TV broadcast and wrote, “Slogans of ‘Modi-Modi’ raised in Pakistan’s parliament.”

The claim was also promoted by leaders of the BJP — Dr Harshvardhan Singh, Arjun Singh, Sobha Karandlaje, Anil Sharma, Varun Puri, Ravinder Gupta, Sangeeta Kumari Singh, Indu Tiwari, and Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga are the prominent names among those making such claims. Apart from this, the Twitter handle of Jay Panda’s office also retweeted India TV’s video.

Times Now also carried a report stating, “Mega embarrassment for Pakistan and Imran Khan. Foreign Minister lashes out in anger” and later took it down. An archived link can be accessed here.

TV9 Bharatvarsh and OpIndia also claimed the same.

False report

We rummaged through videos of the National Assembly of Pakistan and found the viral portion in a 1:34-hour program uploaded by Pakistan’s ‘Public TV’. The video played by India TV pertains to a debate in the National Assembly held on October 26. India TV’s portrayal of the event was completely opposite to what really happened.

The channel first aired later parts of the video and the portion of the speech made towards the end was played in the beginning. The claim that slogans of PM Modi’s name were raised in Pakistani parliament are completely false.

The following slogans were aired by the channel:

1. ‘The one who is a friend of Modi is a foe of Pakistan’
2. Chants of ‘Modi Modi’

India TV attempted to show that a set of people who expressed support for PM Modi were called ‘traitors of Pakistan’ which caused them to sloganeer in favour of the Indian Prime Minister.

In reality, slogans of ‘voting voting’ were raised (mispresented as ‘Modi Modi’ by India TV) following which ‘the one who is a friend of Modi is a foe of Pakistani’ was said.

Public TV uploaded a video where the ‘friend-foe’ chant can be clearly heard 22 minutes onward. The part where ‘voting voting’ slogans were raised can be heard at 13:26 minutes.

In fact, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi wanted to pass a resolution against blasphemy in the parliament but some members of the opposition began shouting ‘voting-voting’. In the video, at 13:26 minutes, as soon as the speaker invites Qureshi to address the house, opposition members begin chanting ‘voting-voting’. India TV aired these slogans as ‘Modi-Modi’ and several other channels followed suit. That the slogans were related to ‘voting’ becomes even more clear when we hear the subsequent statements made by the speaker. “Voting… everything will happen… everything will happen. Have patience…” he says, following which Qureshi says at 13:45 minutes, “Voting does not happen in this manner”.

He then proceeds to discuss the killing of French teacher Samuel Paty by a Moscow-born teenager who was enraged that Paty displayed cartoons of Prophet Muhammad during a class on free speech. Qureshi condemns the teacher’s beheading and criticises the opposition for politicising the issue. He also says that the incident has sparked Islamaophia which is unfortunate.

The foreign minister blames the opposition for echoing ‘India’s views’ and getting influenced by Prime Minister Modi. Soon after, the slogans ‘the one who is a friend of Modi is a foe of Pakistan’ and ‘sellouts are traitors’ were raised.

India TV distorted the actual events in a manner that portrayed Pakistani politicians raising slogans favouring PM Modi. The truth was the complete opposite.

This article was originally published on Alt News.

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