By Hazel Gandhi
News agency PTI falsely attributed a quote to former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to claim that he recently praised Vice President and Chairman of Rajya Sabha Jagdeep Dhankar through a post on X (formerly Twitter) for his courteous behaviour.
BOOM found that the post on X was made by an account impersonating Gogoi and the former CJI confirmed that he had not issued such a statement.
A video showing Trinamool Congress' now suspended MP Kalyan Banerjee mimicking Dhankar, during the opposition's protest outside Parliament went viral on social media, where Rahul Gandhi is also seen filming Banerjee. Dhankar, while reacting to the video, said that the mockery was ridiculous, shameful, and unacceptable.
The fake quote, while criticising Congress workers, praised Dhankar and read, "Despite being governor, he (Dhankar) is bowing while interacting with Mamata Banerjee. Because it is his value and he is courteous. Congress leaders make fun of his courteousness."
News agency PTI first carried the quote on December 27 and retracted it later while issuing an apology.
The Times of India, Deccan Herald, and The Week published the story as well while attributing it to PTI. As of writing this article, the story is still available on their websites and has not been taken down. All the reports stated that Ranjan Gogoi made the statement through his X account. Click here, here, and here for archives.
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FACT CHECK
BOOM reached out to Ranjan Gogoi who clarified that he made no such comments while adding that he did not have any social media accounts.
We first ran a search for the statement on Gogoi's social media but could not find any verified handle that belonged to him.
BOOM then reached out to Gogoi who said, "The news item circulated by PTI involving me, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the MP Sri Kalyan Banerjee is false. I am not on the social media and do not have a Twitter account. Any tweet in the above matter attributed to me is false and misleading."
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