By Hazel Gandhi
A parody X (formerly Twitter) handle of news agency Asian News International (ANI) recently claimed that Sudhir Chaudhary, editor of Aaj Tak has resigned from the news channel. BOOM found that the claims are false
In a recent interview, Sudhir Chaudhary found himself in a heated discussion with Smriti Irani, BJP minister who holds the portfolios of Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs. Chaudhary began questioning Irani about the soaring prices of tomatoes and asked if the prices affected her household personally. Irani took an objection to this and responded by saying "What goes on in my house is not available for national consumption." When Chaudhary accused her of whataboutery, she said even she could "ask about his time in jail." Videos of this exchange began circulating on social media, and the fake claim about Chaudhary resigning is viral in this context.
BOOM had previously debunked a false claim made by another parody account on X purporting to be the handle of the Press Trust of India (PTI). Read here.
A parody handle of news agency ANI shared the news with the caption, "Senior Editor Sudhir Chaudhary resigned from Aajtak. He said Kicked by same foot the one you have been licking for years is hurts my self respect : Sources."
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
Users on Facebook are sharing this parody tweet as a real incident.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive. Click here and here for similar posts.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the news about Chaudhary's resignation is fake. Neither the channel nor Sudhir Chaudhary's personal social media handles have made any such announcements.
We looked at the tweet by the account purporting to be ANI, and found that its username was @Hii_Nitish. The verified handle of news agency ANI is @ANI. The bio of the fake ANI account also read "Parody". The differences in the accounts' date of joining and followers also make it clear that the tweet about Chaudhary was made by a parody account.
We also searched the social media handles of Aaj Tak and the personal handles of Sudhir Chaudhary, and did not find any announcement about the resignation.
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