Sumitra Mahajan is 'hale and hearty'; Shashi Tharoor retracts his tweet
Former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has passed away and expressed his condolences to the family....
By Satya Priya BN Published on 23 April 2021 6:19 AM GMT
A tweet by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on April 22 created ripples in the media. He claimed that former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has passed away and expressed his condolences to the family.
"Saddened to learn of the passing of former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. I remember many positive interactions with her, including when she and the late Sushma Swaraj asked me to lead a parliamentary delegation to BRICS in Moscow. My condolences to her family and Prayers. Om Shanti!" he said.
After this tweet, the same news was carried out by many other users, several mainstream news media websites.
Fact Check:
The news about the demise of Sumitra Mahajan is FALSE.
The tweet by Shashi Tharoor was retracted after the clarification of several users that Sumitra Mahajan is 'Hale and Healthy'. In his retraction tweet, he mentioned "I am relieved if that is so. I received this from what I thought was a reliable source: "पूर्व लोकसभा अध्यक्ष श्रीमती सुमित्रा महाजन जी हमारे बीच नहीं रहीं. ईश्वर दिवंगत आत्मा को अपने श्रीचरणों में स्थान दें." Happy to retract & appalled that anyone would make up such news when notified that Sumitra Mahajan is fine at Bombay Hospital, Indore.
According to a report by Indiatvnews.com, rumors regarding the death of senior BJP leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan started doing the rounds on social media platforms, prompting Congress leader Shashi Tharoor to tweet his condolences.
Tharoor, however, retracted his statement soon after BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya and others pointed out that the news about the demise of Mahajan was fake and that she was hale and hearty.
According to Outlookindia.com, reacting to the tweet of the Congress MP, Mahajan said: "My niece refuted Mr. Tharoor on Twitter but what was the urgency in announcing without confirmation?"
She also pulled up news channels for telecasting reports without cross-checking with the administration.
Earlier BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya had clarified that Mahajan is "absolutely fine". "Tai ekdum swasth hai. Bhagwan unhe lambi umar de (She is absolutely fine. May God bless her with a long life)."
Here are other reports.
After the news of her being fine, several media removed the story and published the clarification.
Hence, the news about Sumitra Mahajan's demise is FALSE.
