Hyderabad: Amid the steady evacuation operation of Indian students stranded in war-torn Ukraine, an internal Twitter war seems to have erupted in India regarding the accreditations of missions conducted to bring Indian nationals back home.
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Senior Advisor Kanchan Gupta on Saturday claimed that "fake" news was being peddled in the matter. Referring to a tweet that thanked the Tamil Nadu government for the safe evacuation of a group of Indian students from Ukraine, Gupta accused the tweet-author, a journalist working with a national daily, of 'propagating fake news'.
"...'journalist' is brazenly propagating #FakeNews in fraught times. The buses were arranged by MEA and local mission at Government of India expense...", Gupta tweeted out, putting screenshots of both the original tweet, and a statement from Ministry of External Affairs informing that busses had been arranged for evacuation in both Kharkiv and Pisochin.
"...Govt of India has sent food & water to its nationals in Pisochyn, Kharkiv in Ukraine. More buses arranged by GoI will leave Pisochyn today with Indian nationals. The cost will be take care by Govt of India", Gupta further said in a subsequent tweet, tagging a senior editorial official of the concerned organisation.
"Well, this worked out. Govt of TN arranged transport to evacuate students free of cost from Pisochyn. Waiting to see other states follow suit", read the original tweet by the concerned media person, tagging three Tamil Nadu government officials, thanking them for their help. However, Gupta's claim was debunked shortly after, with the editor of the national daily soon narrating the series of events, which, if authentic, justified the media person's original tweet. ETV Bharat has not verified any of the points mentioned in the tweets in this story.
