Remember the shoddy and bizarre ‘research’ on fake news in India by BBC where they misinterpreted ‘Diwaliya kanoon’ as ‘law changed during Diwali’? Times Now had its own BBC moment today.

‘Lord Hanuman was Dalit who united India from east to west, north to south: UP CM Yogi Adityanath in Rajasthan’ screamed Times Now tweet. In the article, Times Now has embedded a video where Yogi Adityanath could be heard saying that to vote for Ram Kishan (BJP candidate in Alwar) should be ‘Bajrangi sankalp‘ (vow like Lord Hanuman).

From 00:17, Yogi Adityanath could be heard saying,

Bajrangbali humari bharatiya parampara mein ek aise lok devta hai, jo swayam parvasi hai, nirvasi hai… <pause> Dalit hai, vanchit hai, sab ko le kar ke, sabhi poore bharatiya samuday ko uttar se le ke dakshin tak, purab se pashchim tak, sab ko jodne ka kaarya bajrangbali karte hai. aur isiliye bajrangbali ka sankalp hona chahiye.

As can be heard above, Yogi Adityanath said, “In Indian tradition, Bajrangbali is loved by all, lives in a forest and has no place to call it home. The Dalits, the deprived, He (Lord Hanuman) takes them all, everyone in the Indian community, from the north to the south, from the east to the west, together. Bajrangbali has carried out the task of uniting everyone. Hence, (voting for BJP) should be a Bajrangi sankalp (vow). Unlike Times Now, which has misquoted Yogi Adityanath.

While Yogi did call Lord Hanuman as a god who lives in the forest, he did not call Him a Dalit. He, in fact, said that how Lord Hanuman does not discriminate his devotees and takes all strata of people along.

The media’s obsession with Dalit politics and using it to fan tension is not new. There have been several cases of atrocities on Dalits by Muslims which have been summarily ignored by the media because it doesn’t conform to the narrative of ‘Hindus oppressing Dalits’. It was not long ago that the media had concocted the story of a Dalit man being murdered for riding a horse, but it turned out to be false.

Times Now’s lack of comprehension skills in interpreting what Yogi Adityanath said is rather unfortunate.