#TheNewDistortTimes: Anurag Thakur accuses NYT of "fabricated anti-India stories"

Anurag lashes out at the top American daily for its coverage of "raids on newsrooms" and dubbed it as intolerance of Western media towards India's global rise as economic powerhouse.

New Delhi: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur rechristened the leading American daily 'The New York Times' and The New Distort Times, while accusing it of churning out "fabricated anti-India stories", on Thursday night.

In a tweet, Thakur hashtagged "#TheNewDistortTimes" and shared several pictures of the daily's coverage of "Indian development" on how Indians see it and how the Western media house reports it. He said it qualified to be termed as a "smear campaign" against India.

Criticising the top American daily for its coverage on the "so-called" raids on newsrooms, Anurag gave lessons on Indian laws; how it takes its course, regardless of whether it is being applied on anyone associated with the newsroom or not. He tweeted, "Unable to digest the global rise of India and its turning into an economic powerhouse, certain old world media houses have been running a systematic smear campaign against India."

"NYT, which has carved a niche for itself for writing fact-free and fabricated anti-India stories, shamelessly misused the podium of UNESCO to distort facts. Mr. A. G. Sulzberger from The New York Times, mentioned about the so-called raids on newsrooms. In India law takes it own course if someone does something wrong, newsroom or no newsroom."

"Mere claiming the status of newsroom does not grant immunity from unlawful deeds. How come any investigation, no matter the evidence, amounts to an attack on the press? Is it prudent to be a loose mouth and say journalists in India are treated as terrorists? For me, it has been difficult to differentiate whether it is New York Times or New Distort Times."

Thakur took exceptions to the US daily's coverage on few other Indian stories as well. The list of stories include the distribution of free cooking cylinders under the Centre's flagship 'Ujjwala' scheme, the country crossing the 220-crore vaccination milestone and the construction of 11.7 crore toilets across the country in 9 years by the Modi government.