NDTV deleted the video after it was widely shared but later reposted it after netizens started criticising the television channel.
Displaying its intolerance for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), NDTV deleted a video from its social media platform in which interviewees praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath profusely.
The video was a clip from the NDTV editor's programme Reality Check. NDTV Editor Sreenivasan Jain, on his election coverage in Uttar Pradesh, interviewed some people for his evening programme Reality Check. The interviewees praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ensuring people get free ration and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for ensuring good implementation of the schemes.
After the video was widely shared on social media platforms, NDTV deleted it from its social media feed. Netizens started criticising the television channel. Later, the video was reposted.
This is not the first time NDTV has been caught engaged in propaganda and unethical practices.
On January 4, NDTV Editor Vishnu Som had questioned why expired vaccines were administered to adolescents. NDTV had published a story in November last year about how the expiry dates of vaccines were extended.
The Covid-19 vaccination for adolescents in the age bracket 15-18 started on January 3. The Made-in-India vaccine, Covaxin, developed and manufactured by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, was cleared for adolescents.
Gulf News columnist Navanita Varadpande posted a tweet saying her son was administered an expired vaccine. When she confronted the medical staff, she was shown one letter declaring shelf-life of the vaccine has been extended.
NDTV Editor Vishnu Som, quoting Varadpande's tweet, asked Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on what basis it was done. He also declared the vaccines "expired".
In August last year, in his same programme, Reality Check, Sreenivasan Jain had said the earlier doses of Bharat Biotech's indigenous Covid vaccine, Covaxin, were of poor quality.
On August 2 last year, he had tweeted, "Breaking: the head of the Govt's vaccine advisory panel Dr NK Arora tells me initial batches of Covaxin were not of the right quality." He had tweeted this at 9:27 pm.
Dr NK Arora had discussed the quality check process of Covaxin in his programme's Reality Check. There was a social media protest about the fake news spread by Jain.
At 10:51 pm, Jain put out a clarification "As per Dr Arora, these doses from the initial batches with quality issues (manufactured at the Bangalore plant) were never sent out. The new batches have passed quality checks, he says."
He had added, "This was in response to questions on Covaxin falling short of targets. He said production was affected because of quality issues in initial batches, now remedied."
Dr NK Arora had very explicitly said on the show that he was discussing the initial quality check process at the Bharat Biotech plant in Bengaluru. But, Jain had tweeted it, saying there were quality issues with the initial doses of Covaxin.
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