Daijiworld Media Network - Dubai
Dubai, Feb 12: In an embarassment to the mainstream Indian media, a video clip accompanied by a story which went viral claiming Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces had chanted 'Jai Siya Ram', is fake.
According to Gulf News, the video tweeted by leading Indian channels such as Times Now and Zee TV in the run-up to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UAE, claimed that Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed had chanted 'Jai Siya Ram' (a common Hindu prayerful greeting addressing the deity Ram) while addressing a Hindu spiritual programme conducted by the guru Morari Bapu in Abu Dhabi in September 2016.
However, the Shaikh did not attend the ceremony. The person in the video shown attending the ceremony is actually Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, a UAE-based columnist and commentator on Arab affairs.
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi
Within minutes of the tweets, the video went viral. However, what is more disturbing is that top Indian channels failed to recognise Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed, who was the chief guest at the Indian Republic Day celebrations in 2017.
Times Now tweeted the video at 3.45 pm Indian time on February 10, noting: "When the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince was invited on stage to share his views, he began his speech with ‘Jai Siya Ram’, sending the crowd into frenzy."
Even though scores of alert Twitterati immediately pointed out the glaring error to the channel, it retweeted the same video and text again at 12.05 am on February 11. However, Times Now later made the corrections.
Similar patterns played out across a host of other channels – from mainstream Zee News to more right-leaning India.com, postcard.news and several similar sites including the web portal of a Kannada daily - who seemed to revel in proliferating fake news based on unverified sources. Unsuspecting users shared the video, terming it as testimony to where India stands on the global map today.
The Gulf News termed the blunder as a 'carefully designed attempt by some groups to spread false propaganda and gain political mileage in India', and went on to lament that there were no adequate safeguards in India to prevent distorted half-truths from spreading. The report went on to warn, "Any attempt by any groups to demean Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed’s goodwill gesture or the UAE’s foundations of mutual respect and cultural co-existence for the sake of domestic political gains will not succeed – but could have a debilitating impact on the growing momentum of relations."
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