'Reeks of malice and misinformation': Shiv Sena calls out Rahul Kanwal for misreporting
This report was first published in www.newslaundry.com and has been posted here without any alterations or editing. To read the original report, CLICK HERE
Last night, the Shiv Sena accused India Today's Rahul Kanwal of "cooking up a lie" during his coverage of the assembly election results. Kanwal had said that "Sena goons" had threatened Serum Institute of India head Adar Poonawalla and demanded vaccines.
Today in the @IndiaToday election coverage, their anchor, @rahulkanwal cooked up a lie to accuse the ShivSena of threatening Adar Poonawalla. This baseless piece of journalism is nothing but an attempt to malign the party. Our letter to India Today Group pic.twitter.com/mlRTqnHAuy
— Shivsena Communication (@ShivsenaComms) May 2, 2021
Kanwal had confused the Shiv Sena with the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, a political party in Maharashtra headed by Raju Shetti who had reportedly released a video commenting on vaccines. Last month, Shetti had warned the centre to increase vaccine supplies to Maharashtra; if they didn't, he said, his party would stop vehicles transporting vaccines from Pune's Serum Institute to other states.
Kanwal admitted he had made a mistake on Twitter, saying that the "confusion and inconvenience caused is regretted".
Yesterday while anchoring I had spoken about a video of a leader threatening Serum Institute. The video was issued by Raju Shetty who is leader of Swabhimani Shektari Sanghatana (SSS) and not a leader of the Shiv Sena (SS). The confusion and inconvenience caused is regretted.
— Rahul Kanwal (@rahulkanwal) May 3, 2021
The Shiv Sena had issued a letter addressed to the India Today group's Aroon Purie, demanding an apology from Kanwal to be aired on television.
Calling Kanwal's comments "absolutely untrue and defamatory", the letter said: "...to attach another party president's video to the Shiv Sena and to deliberately defame us through misinformation speaks volumes of the political bias of the anchor. It reeks of malice and misinformation campaign, maybe to divert the national debate on an important day of election result and as the country rages through Covid-19."
Courtesy: www.newslaundry.com
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Rishabh Pant's troubles continue as Punjab Kings push LSG towards exit door
Dharamsala, May 4 (PTI): Rishabh Pant lost the grip on his bat and the match simultaneously as Punjab Kings rode on heroics from the two 'Singhs' -- Prabhsimran and Arshdeep -- to literally push Lucknow Super Giants to the brink of elimination with a 37-run win in an IPL match here on Sunday.
It was Prabhsimran's 48-ball 91 that formed the cornerstone of Punjab Kings' unassailable 236 for 5 and any hopes of a remarkable chase was nipped in the bud by Arshdeep's (3/16 in 4 overs) now familiar Powerplay spell which summarily destroyed the opposition top-order.
This time, he got the three top run getters -- Mitchell Marsh (0), Aiden Markram (13) and the ever-dangerous Nicholas Pooran (6) -- to swing the match decisively in Punjab's favour. Ayush Badoni's (74 off 40 balls) effort was a good one albeit it came for a losing cause.
LSG were finally restricted to 199 for 7 in 20 overs and even if they win their last three games and get to 16 points from 14 games, their net run-rate can make things difficult for them.
Punjab Kings are now placed second with 15 points from 11 games and one more win could possibly clinch a place in top four for them.
But what is becoming an eyesore is LSG's Rs 27 crore worth skipper Pant's inexplicable approach which has fetched him a dismal 128 runs in 11 innings at a sub-100 strike-rate (99.22).
On the day, he scored 18 off 17 balls and that he is completely out of sync was evident in the manner he tried to throw the proverbial kitchen sink at an Azmatullah Omarzai delivery. There was no control in his shot as the bat took off on parabolic curve towards square leg and the ball went towards deep point.
Pant's misery was a testimony of LSG's wretched campaign that was lost at the auction table when the owner decided to go with a sub-standard bowling attack based on a half-fit talented pacer Mayank Yadav.
Mayank has already lost at least 10-15 yards of pace post rehabilitation under the watch of Nitin Patel at the National Cricket Academy.
On Sunday, he went for 60 runs off four overs with half a dozen of sixes struck off his bowling.
The pint-sized Prabhsimran packed a mean punch in his strokes as he blasted his way to a 48-ball 91 with the help of six fours and seven sixes.
The Punjab keeper-batter should have got his second IPL hundred but an ambitious switch hit off Digvesh Rathi saw him head back to the pavilion, nine runs short of what would have been a deserving milestone.
Towards the end, Shashank Singh scored 33 off 15 balls to take PBKS to what looked like an unassailable total. There were 16 sixes hit by Pujab Kings with 13 coming off pacers.
Prabhsimran was initially a passive partner as it was Australian Jos Inglis who launched the first attack with a hat-trick of sixes off Mayank Yadav, whose speed has decreased by at least 15 kmph post his intense rehab under Nitin Patel at the BCCI's erstwhile National Cricket Academy to recover from back injury.
However, once Inglis was dismissed, Prabhsimran, along with skipper Shreyas Iyer (45 off 25 balls), took control of the game. They were only helped by some atrocious fielding from Avesh Khan, who would probably go down as the worst fielder in the 18-year history of IPL.
Adding insult to injury, Prabhsimran took the tall MP fast bowler to the cleaners as he was pulled over mid-wicket for back-to-back maximums. Khan went for 57 in four overs and if around 15 runs due to his misfielding is added, he caused the maximum damage for his team.
The duo of Prabhsimran and Iyer added 78 runs in 7.5 overs before Rathi, LSG's best bowler on view, became the first spinner in the current season to account for Punjab Kings skipper's wicket.
But Prabhsimran continued like a man possessed and LSG bowlers were guilty of feeding to his strengths throughout the innings.
