Shashi Tharoor caught making fake news

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who has a dynamic presence on social media, on Thursday committed a grave faux pas, spreading fake news. His tweet on former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, factually incorrect and containing serious misinformation, received a backlash from netizens.

In the tweet, he expressed condolence on the “demise of veteran BJP leader Sumitra Mahajan”, which is factually incorrect and apparently, the Congress leader failed to verify facts before tweeting.

Though he quickly deleted the tweet, Hindustan Times had by then made it into a news item and wrote a quick story on Sumitra Mahajan.

Later, Shashi Tharoor deleted his tweet and shared the below

I am relieved if that is so. I received this from what I thought was a reliable source: “पूर्व लोकसभा अध्यक्ष श्रीमती सुमित्रा महाजन जी हमारे बीच नहीं रहीं.
ईश्वर दिवंगत आत्मा को अपने श्रीचरणों में स्थान दें.🙏” Happy to retract & appalled that anyone would make up such news. https://t.co/3c8pDGaBRv

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) April 22, 2021

Realising that they have based their story on a wrong tweet, Hindustan Times also withdrew its story and expressed regret for sharing fake news.

Story on former Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s death has been withdrawn.

We regret the publishing of this news. https://t.co/chiV27C2KA pic.twitter.com/BQY5A1b96U

— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) April 22, 2021