Flood of falsity: AAP boasts Shiksha, BJP blames Sharaab for Sisodia arrest

Manish Sisodia, former Delhi deputy Chief Minister, who also held several portfolios like Education and Health, has been arrested and sent to CBI custody for his alleged role in “Delhi Liquor Scam” till March 4. His arrest has led to a misinformation match between Sisodia’s parent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party which is ruling at the Centre and that gave the CBI go-ahead for Sisodia’s arrest and subsequent investigation. AAP claimed that Sisodia’s track record as an excellent Education Minister has been behind his arrest, the BJP went a step ahead saying that former Sisodia opened “liquor shop” instead of opening schools.

Key concerns:
Even leading figures like Sanjay Singh, Rajya Sabha MP and AAP spokesperson, BJP’s senior leader Ravi Shankar Prasad and party’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya made grossly misleading claims about Sisodia’s connection with education and booze to portray him as victim and villain.

Misleading tweets and a viral trend:

A trend on“शिक्षा मंत्री” started on Twitter on Wednesday, i.e. 1^st March, 2023. The DFRAC spotted such claims and exposed the blatant misleading Twitter campaign run by AAP and BJP.

It was seen that more than 4,000 tweets were on this keyword, where strength of verified and non-verified users tweeting were 196 and 1500 respectively. The pie chart below depicts the proportion of users who have tweeted on the keyword.

Among nearly 200 verified users tweeting on the keyword of “शिक्षा मंत्री”, many of the accounts were of news media houses, @aajtak, @ZeeNews, @DainikBhaskar, @1stIndiaNews, etc. Moreover, @ArvindKejriwal, @AamAadmiParty, @BJP4Delhi, @BJP4India also tweeted on the topic.

Sanjay Singh (@SanjayAzadSln), a spokesperson for AAP, claims that the education-health models of Sisodia had become an eyesore for PM Narendra Modi, which led him to arrest the former.

Fact Check:

Manish Sisodia’s arrest has nothing to do with his post as an Education Minister. He and others face corruption allegations linked to a liquor sale policy in the national capital. The CBI contends that liquor companies were involved in framing of the 2021 liquor policy, for which kickbacks to the tune of ₹ 30 crore were paid by a liquor lobby it dubbed the “South Group”.

The policy would have led to a 12 per cent profit for them, of which 6 per cent was routed to public servants through middlemen, the agency claimed. The Enforcement Directorate has also launched an investigation, alleging laundering of the kickbacks. After the policy was scrapped, the BJP said the Delhi government went back to the old liquor policy to cover up the corruption.

It accused Mr Sisodia of providing undue benefits to liquor vend licensees in lieu of “kickbacks” and “commissions” allegedly used by the AAP in the Punjab Assembly elections in February that year, reported The Indian Express as quoted by NDTV’s website in its coverage.

Source: NDTV

Ravi Shankar Prasad is seen accusing Manish Sisodia of opening a liquor shop

Fact Check:

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had been sent to five-day custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the excise policy case. He was not named as an accused directly in the ED chargesheet. This attack by Prasad is exaggerated and misleading as clear information regarding Sisodia’s involvement is yet to be ascertained. A report on ABP website on february 2, gives all details of Sisodia not being named in ED chargesheet in the case. The report says, “The supplementary charge sheet submitted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has named Vijay Nair, Sharath Reddy, Binoy Babu, Abhishek Boinapalli, and Amit Arora. However, it did not name the deputy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia.”

A verified account in the name of Amit Malviya, BJP’s IT chell chief, declares CM Arvind Kejriwal as the main instigator of the scandal, and calls Sisodia merely to be the scapegoat.

Fact Check:

Arvind Kejriwal’s name has not been mentioned anywhere in the charge sheet regarding the liquor scam, and neither has the CBI accused him of any misconduct. Though, the ED has mentioned that he might have connived with the accused, as reported by the Times of India on February 2.

CONCLUSION:

Based on a quick fact-check of tweets made by senior AAP and BJP leaders, it is established that these politicians put no premium on truth and shamelessly made misleading claims, even going so far that they clubbed shiksha (education) and sharaab (liquor) together.