New Delhi: Union home minister Amit Shah’s allegations of “bomb factories” existing in West Bengal, made during an interview, have turned out to be false. A Right to Information (RTI) application about the same by activist Saket Ghokale has exposed Shah’s claim.
Shah had said during an interview in October 2020 that there are bomb making factories in every district of West Bengal. Following this claim, Gokhale filed a 4-point RTI application to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), seeking the source of Shah’s comments.
On Tuesday, the activist put out a series of tweets about the questions he addressed in the RTI and what was the response he received.
Gokhale said he had asked for the list of bomb making factories in West Bengal to the MHA, and whether it had briefed Amit Shah about the same. He also sought to know whether Shah’s remarks were based on official records.
The home ministry then got back to him with a big no, claiming they do not have any such information on this.
The activist raised a question that if the home minister would openly go around spreading false information and “fake news” about internal security matters, then how could he “even be trusted”?
This is not the first time that Shah had to face the brunt of spreading false information. On Feb 13, Amit Shah in a speech made in the parliament about Jammu and Kashmir – had said that the government provides ₹13,000 per month as well as free ration to families of 44,000 Kashmiri Pandits who have relief cards.
This speech elicited a negative response from Kashmiri Pandit organizations, dubbing the alleged factual inaccuracies as ‘shameful’, and ‘opportunistic’.