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Saturday, May 1, 2021

wrong tweets ~ famous people but wrong words & wrong news !! : Twitteratti

The twitter world is most active and interesting too ! – just a few minutes back – the official twitter handle of CSK : “ Chennai Super Kings - Mask  Podu – whistle podu” @ChennaiIPL   tweeted  this photo with caption:

Mask is our Valimai! Step out always with Face with medical mask & stay safe.

#WearAMask  #WhistlePodu #Yellove

 


Back in Sep 2014,  the Indo-British Heritage Trust organised a debate at the  inaugural event to mark the 400th anniversary of formal relations between India and Britain back in 1614.  The interesting conclusion in the historic debate that put the mighty empire on a mock trial at the Supreme Court in London,  was that the British Raj did more harm than good in the Indian subcontinent. The motion before the house was, "The Indian sub-continent benefited more than it lost from the experience of British Colonialism". The team against the motion, eloquently led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and including fellow authors William Dalrymple and Nick Robins, clinched a decisive victory. "No wonder the sun never set on the British Empire, even God couldn't trust the English in the dark," said Tharoor as part of his arguments which focused on the economic ruin of India at the hands of the East India Company.

Irrespective of party leaning, this man is to be admired for his language skills, though there are frequent fax-paus.  Former Under Secretary General- United Nations, turned politician, and author Dr Shashi Tharoor's official Twitter account is quite an interesting page. More than the subject matter, what interests people is his intriguing use of lesser known words; every few days, Dr Tharoor makes most Indians reach out for the dictionary and learn a new English word!

Sitaram Yechury is  leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), was has been its General Secretary since 2015.  He is a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and was the party's Parliamentary group leader. Have heard that his father Sarveswara Somayajula Yechury lived in Kakinada.  Tragedy struck on them as Ashish Yechury,  Sitaram Yechury’s 34-year-old son, died of Covid-19  after a two-week long battle with the infection. Breaking the news on Twitter at 7.59 am, around two hours after his son’s death, Yechury wrote, “It is with great sadness that I have to inform that I lost my elder son, Ashish Yechury to Covid-19 this morning. I want to thank all those who gave us hope and who treated him – doctors, nurses, frontline health workers, sanitation workers and innumerable others who stood by us.”

Leaders across party lines, including the Prime Minister as well as the President of India, put out messages on social media to express condolences after hearing of Ashish’s death… .. there was a glaring fax-paus.  Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, while expressing her condolence on Sitaram Yechury’s son’s demise, ended up with quite an embarrassing tweet. At first, she condoled  death of Sitaram Kesari’s son,   she tweeted her condolences to Sitaram Kesari and his family.  Then there was another tweet that started -  ‘Please tweet’ before her actual message that showed that the condolence message was copied-pasted from WhatsApp or other such tool. Few minutes later Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted correct condolence message to correct intended recipient on third attempt.

Sadly, there have been cases when wrong obituary messages have been put up.  Jayaprakash Narayan died in Patna, on 8 October 1979, three days before his 77th birthday. In March 1979, while he was in hospital, his death had been erroneously announced, causing a brief wave of national mourning, including the suspension of parliament and regular radio broadcasting, and the closure of schools and shops.  

On Friday, it was the turn of former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan (78) to announce that she is very much alive. Her 'clarification' came after Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and some media outlets Thursday night announced the demise of Mahajan. Tharoor and others deleted the tweets after BJP leaders pointed out that she was hale and hearty.

"What should I do? These people carried the news without any confirmation. They should have at least confirmed with the district administration in Indore," Mahajan is heard saying in an audio clip. "The Central government and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla should take note of this," the BJP veteran says in the clip. "This became all-India news. I started getting calls from my relatives in Mumbai. My brother's daughter responded to Tharoor's tweet asking who gave him this fake news." Mahajan also wondered why some Mumbai news channels, in particular, flashed the fake news of her demise. After deleting the tweet, Tharoor had said he was relieved that Mahajan is doing fine and said he banked on "a reliable source" in putting out his tweet. Mahajan was the Lok Sabha Speaker from 2014 to 2019. She earlier represented the Indore Lok Sabha constituency in Parliament for eight terms.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

23.4.2021


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