New Delhi, September 21, 2021 (PPI-OT):The Modi media member in India, Arnab Goswami, the Republic TV anchor known for his noisy and rabid presentation, once again made a fake claim based on information from his “intelligence sources” that Pakistani officials held a meeting at the fifth floor of a local hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan.
He made this statement while shouting at a Pakistani panellist Abdul Samad Yaqoob from Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on his show. “Pakistani ISI agents are staying there to fight in the Panjshir valley,” Goswami propagated.
Yaqoob debunked Goswami and said: “the hotel doesn’t even consist of the third floor and there are only two floors in that very hotel.” When confronted Goswami even claimed, “I can also maybe tell you what they ordered for dinner so don’t question my intelligence sources.”
The clip of the programme showing the conversation between the news anchor and Yaqoob went viral after it was put on Twitter by Alt News editor Mohammed Zubair who used a crying emoji with the words, “Arnab Goswami and his ‘intelligence sources’.” Following this many users made jokes and memes on Goswami’s claim.
After the clip went viral, netizens from Pakistan and India alike called out Goswami for making false claims, with the hashtags #ArnabGoswami and #ISIon5thFloor attracting thousands of tweets.
“Dear #ArnabGoswami this is Serena hotel Kabul I am still unable to find out fifth floor?” an Indian user tweeted, sharing a picture of the hotel’s facade which showed only two storeys. One user rotated a picture of the hotel and mused that Goswami was perhaps counting its floors vertically.
Journalist Sumaira Khan shared a picture of pigeons at the Serena Hotel, writing: “#ArnabGoswami might be mistaking these pigeons at Serena with ISI guys.” PTI spokesperson Yaqoob himself joined the fun by sharing the cover page of a novel titled ‘The Fifth Floor’. He captioned the picture: “Arnab’s Intelligence Source.”
An Indian blogger put it succinctly when he said: “No one does fake news with the confidence of Arnab Goswami – it’s just that he’s caught with his pants down this time.” Republic TV had earlier used a gaming video to make a fake claim that the channel has accessed video of Pakistani jets bombing Panjshir valley.
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