NEW DELHI: English news channel Times Now faces backlash for referring Kerala, the South Indian state, Pakistan.
While covering the arrival of BJP President Amit Shah’s visit at Kochi airport, the channel has stirred a controversy by calling the state ‘Thundery Pakistan’.
Hordes of Malayalis and Keralites have not taken the headline kindly and in a matter of a few hours have turned the channel #Times Cow, #ApologiseTimesCow and #boycottTimesNow shot up the charts of trending hashtags.
So modia is now labelling non bjp states as d enemy??this is d hindi hindu rashtra agenda being followed by times now?? #ApologiseTimesCow
— Andolanjeevi সাইলীনা/Saileena/سیلینا/ਸੈਲੀਨਾ (@saileenas) June 2, 2017
A state which is the best performer in Human Development Index in India is addressed as Pakistan by @TimesNow #ApologiseTimesCow
— Riya Mukherjee ریا مکھرجی (@riyalovezu) June 2, 2017
Seriously Kerala govt should direct digital operators to take down Times Now. Hit them where it hurts. #apologisetimescow
— N.S. Madhavan (@NSMlive) June 2, 2017
How SHAMELESSLY @TimesNow refers to the Indian state of Kerala as 'Pakistan', for opposing the BJP Govt. Next what @vineetjaintimes? pic.twitter.com/9AAREQ5uco
— Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) June 3, 2017
If you think that @timesnow using Pakistan instead of Kerala was a typo, you have no idea about the evil nature of the channel #TimesCow
— Hypocrisy Watch (منافقت پر نظر) (@bigotry_watch) June 3, 2017
#TimesNow .. Sorry #TimesCow…
This might be your culture of expressing gratitude to ur corp-house and modiji…
But mind its #kerala pic.twitter.com/A4RyIXXEEC— aadhi_adarsh (@aadhii_adarsh) June 3, 2017
#TimesCow #beefban #kerala well thank you @TimesNow for supporting us hope you will stand with us for #planetcow pic.twitter.com/UO9Lc8qTDL
— Sreehari m r (@sreeharimr83) June 3, 2017
Following the thunder-struck post and troll against the channel, Times Now on Saturday morning issued an apology for its mistake saying “the word Pakistan was inadvertently typed.”
The corrigendum said:
“Times Now regrets an inadvertent error reported on the channel on June 2, 2017, regarding Amit Shah’s visit to Kerala. Instead of Kerala, the word Pakistan was inadvertently typed. Times Now once again regrets the error which may have hurt sentiments.”
