(TEXT BELOW)
FOLLOW-UP
Viral Newspaper Clip of ‘German Times’ report on Punjab CM being deplaned turns to be a second hoax
Rashmi Talwar
AMRITSAR 20 Sep. 22—
Amidst a political storm caused by reports of alleged “de-boarding of Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann by a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt Germany to India”- a viral newspaper clip of German Times with the headline “Drunk Bhagwant Mann thrown out of Plane” written by Daniel Schutz, turned out to be a second hoax. The clip is actively being circulated on social media and reinforcing the truth in the tale, of the alleged drunkenness of CM leading to him being deplaned along with his protocol entourage, and causing a delay of 4-hours to the Delhi-bound Frankfurt flight.
The first hoax seems to be of a Blue-Tick-marked Journalist Aman Malik who carried a tweet this morning, purportedly from a passenger on the Lufthansa flight, what he claimed to be an eye-witness account. The language of the eyewitness on the tweet seemed to be that of a seasoned media person or a PR, similar to the language used by the first reports on this incident, carried by an online newspaper, that broke the story. The tweet was quickly deleted by the journalist, sensing it to be a hoax. The journalist is now carrying just a retweet of the report of the online paper, but the damage had been done. The tweet is going viral since afternoon today.
Meantime, amid allegations against Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for being deplaned from a flight in Germany for “being intoxicated”, Lufthansa Airlines, issued clarification regarding the 4-hour delay of its Delhi-Frankfurt flight.
“Lufthansa News”, in a statement, said that the Frankfurt to Delhi flight departed later than its scheduled time due to a delayed inbound flight and an aircraft change. In response to a user asking about the flight delay, Lufthansa News tweeted, “Our flight from Frankfurt to Delhi departed later than originally planned due to a delayed inbound flight and an aircraft change.” However, the airline is learned to have cited the privacy of passengers and denied any information on whether anyone was deplaned from the Lufthansa’s Delhi-bound flight from Frankfurt.
In another turn of events according to the Indiatoday report-“ The Ministry of Civil Aviation is purportedly going to probe allegations- “Whether Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was deplaned from a Delhi-bound flight at Frankfurt airport in Germany because he was “drunk”.
Civil Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is reported to have said, “This was international soil. We will have to make sure we verify the facts. It is up to Lufthansa to provide data. I’ll certainly, based on the request sent to me, look into it.”
The Opposition parties- Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Punjab Congress had gone all out and alleged that Mann was barred from the Lufthansa flight because of being in an inebriated state.
All hell broke loose on social networking sites when the former Punjab Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal posted on his Twitter handle about “CM Punjab Bhagwant Mann being deplaned in Frankfurt, Germany allegedly for being drunk”. The online news clipping which the former CM quoted was already viral; carrying it as a tweet on his own handle, the information added fuel to the fire.
00–00
NEWSLINE 