Media falsely report that gangster Atiq’s vote saved UPA government in 2008
NewsMeter checked the Parliament record and found that Atiq had not voted in favour of the UPA.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 18 April 2023 10:24 AM GMT
(Source: PTI)
Hyderabad: Many media outlets and social media users are claiming that gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed’s vote saved the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government against the no-confidence motion brought by the Opposition in 2008.
The claim comes after Atiq and his brother Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by assailants posing as TV reporters. The incident happened while they were talking to the media while being escorted by the police for a court-mandated medical check-up in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj on 15 April.
News agency PTI and media outlets such as India Today, NDTV, Firstpost, and English Jagran made the claim citing a book “Baahubalis of Indian Politics: From Bullet to Ballot” as their source. They claimed that six criminal politicians, including Atiq, were brought from different jails to save the UPA government and India’s civil nuclear deal with the US.
(Source: PTI)
Fact Check
NewsMeter checked the Parliament record and found that Atiq had not voted in favour of the UPA.
We ran a keyword search and came across a PTI article from 2008 published by India Today titled “SP expels six MPs for voting against the government.”
It said Samajwadi Party had expelled its six MPs for defying the whip and cross-voting against the Congress-led UPA government during the confidence motion. The expelled MPs were Jai Prakash (Mohanlalganj), SP Singh Baghel (Jalesar), Raj Narain Budholia (Hamirpur), Afzal Ansari (Ghazipur), Ateeq Ahmed (Phulpur), and Munnawar Hussain (Muzaffarnagar).
A 2008 article in The Indian Express also reported that Ateeq Ahmed was one of the MPs expelled by the Samajwadi Party for voting against the Congress-led UPA government during the confidence motion.
Finally, we checked the records on the Digital Library of the Lok Sabha. A document titled “Further discussion on the motion of confidence in the Council of Minister moved by Dr. Manmohan Singh on the 21st July 2008” listed the name of those who voted for and against the motion.
(Source: Digital Library of the Lok Sabha)
On page number 112 of the document, we found Atiq Ahmed in the top 10 names of the MPs who had voted against the UPA government.
Hence, we conclude that the claim that a vote of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed had saved the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government in 2008 is false.
