Social media is probably the fastest way karma works in the 21st century. Prashant Bhushan is the newest example to prove this point. Bhushan who always make it a point to bash the government with his tweets every time claims tweeted earlier today stating the difference in the setup charges of the high-speed train in between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
https://twitter.com/pbhushan1/status/914731508149116929
He tweeted a comparison of costs of the Mumbai Ahmedabad Bullet train setup cost with that of Thailand Bullet train setup charges and tried to point out a huge gap in the proportions of the cost. He used NDTV article as reference. The NDTV article has smartly not mentioned the distance covered in the first phase of the construction.
The fact is that the budget released for Bullet train project for China is only for the first phase of the project which only covers 256kms. Whereas, the distance between Ahmedabad – Mumbai line is 508kms.
Gujarat elections are coming? pic.twitter.com/yIroZEv0ws
— Udta Kabootar? (@sachya2002) October 2, 2017
After few Twitter users showed the actual facts. Bhushan seems to have found out his error in figuring out the facts and numbers correctly. He apologized on Twitter for his misleading tweet. The tweet is quoted here.
On further research, it seems that $5.5B may be for the 1st phase of this train track of only 256KM length. My apologies https://t.co/L5HZmYWhqE
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) October 2, 2017
But he has not deleted the previous tweet, which is still being retweeted by the propagandists ensuring that the fake news is spread as much as possible. At the point of writing this article, the tweet has received 1248 RTs whereas his apology tweet has received only 346 RTs.
And this looks like a coordinated attempt by a group of people to spread the misinformation regarding the bullet train project.
Earlier, AAP’s Arvind Jha had tweeted the same which is still not deleted.
Thai bullet train: 3000 km, $5.5 billion
Indian bullet train: 500 km, $ 17 billion
What's up India?? https://t.co/tQ3AdZEQUq
— Arvind Jha (@jalajboy) October 1, 2017
This tweet has been retweeted by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal who has a history of spreading fake information in the form of RTs without verifying the facts.
The others including Prashant Bhushan joined the bandwagon to spread the fake news which was later reproduced on many Facebook pages.
जिसने गरीबी देखी हो वो 50 रु फालतू खर्च होने पर पछताता है
पर साहब देश का 1600 करोड़ डॉलर नुकसान कर भी जश्न मना रहे https://t.co/LvkX9nO2u3— Jarnail Singh (@JarnailSinghAAP) October 1, 2017
Just 300% more. Why? https://t.co/q4LEUfgOgO
— Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) October 2, 2017
Thailand: 300 km Bangkok-China Bullet Train for 5.5 billion US$
India: 500 km Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train for 17 billion US$
Go figure…— Sanjiv Bhatt (IPS) (@sanjivbhatt) September 27, 2017
