As we enter the 5th day of the government’s ambitious
demonetization drive, the dust looks far from settled. People are flocking to
banks and ATMs to get that wad of acceptable cash. While largely people are
calm and accepting the inconvenience as a part of their sacrifice for the
greater good of the nation, there are some who want the scheme to fail at all
cost.
Baseless rumours are being spread to create panic among the
citizens. The culprits can be anyone; political parties with vested interests,
power brokers in the media, your neighbours who sold their ancestral property
for 60:40 cash, or maybe a stupid friend who believes everything he receives as
WhatsApp forward.
In such a scenario, it’s important to separate the wheat
from the chaff and also to identify poisonous weeds in your backyard. So we
list down 10 things that you or someone you know might have believed as true,
but which are rumours or plain lies:
1. Transporters are going on strike, so you must stock up
essential goods in your household
You might have received the following information on
WhatsApp or seen it on Facebook or Twitter. It says that the transporters have
decided to go on a strike starting tomorrow, due to which things like groceries
or FMCG goods won’t be able to reach markets.
Truth is that no such strike has been announced. The same
has been debunked by the Ministry of Road transport and highways.
2. Fake currency of
new denomination already in the market
A story going around says that a vegetable seller claimed he
was duped with a fake Rs 2000 note. This spread panic that the new currency was
not secured enough. It turned out that he was fooled by a coloured xerox of the
note. The headline of the new report was misleading that led to the rumour of a
counterfeit currency being involved.
3. New 2000 rupees note has a nano chip
While on one had you have rumours about the currency already
being faked, there is a flip side to this rumour that claims that the note is
super secure, loaded with a nano chip that can be tracked. Zee News even aired
a report about it. No, there is no chip.
4. Shopping mall in Delhi looted as people didn’t have cash
to buy goods
There are some reports about shops being looted in some
parts of the countries because people didn’t have ready cash to buy things. A
viral video clip shows people in Delhi looting a mall. People are sharing the
clip claiming the looting happened due to demonetisation troubles.
But that is far from the truth. The mall in question was a
self-catering mall where card holding members take along the stocks they need.
Yes, there was disorder due to some miscreants, but it was not looting. Delhi
police too clarified it on Twitter.
5. Salt is selling at high prices all across the country
This one is perhaps the most rampant rumour, even NDTV
reported about the rumour in such a way that it helped spread the rumour. In
short, some wise men decided to spread the word that there’s a huge crisis of
salt in the country which led to further rumours about its price per Kg
increasing to Rs 400. It led to some panic buying, but salt was not being sold
at any exorbitant rates in the country.
Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Nirmala
Sitharaman herself had to step in to curb the rumours.
6. 200% penalty will
be imposed on cash that will be deposited in banks
Various numbers are doing the round claiming people will
have to pay high tax on bank deposits above 2.5 lakh rupees. From 95% tax on
the deposited amount to whopping 200% on the deposit amounts. This OpIndia
report debunks the rumour and is also a great insight about how the taxes will
be levied.
7. BJP leaders and their relatives already had 2000 rupee
notes
This rumour has been spread by activists of the Aam Aadmi
Party and the Congress party. This OpIndia report exposes the lies spread by
Congress IT cell where picture of a bank employee was circulated as picture of
a BJP leader’s daughter, while this report debunks another such claim made by
AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal.
8. Violence outside banks and ATMs due to long queues of
people withdrawing cash
News agency PTI put out a tweet claiming the Delhi police
got a staggering 4.5 thousand calls about violence outside banks and ATMs. It
should be noted that reports or information by PTI is carried as it is by news
organisations and any error, rumour, or lie will be repeated thousand times.
And this claim by the PTI turned out to be hugely
exaggerated and misleading. Delhi police indeed received many calls but not
related to violence outside banks or ATMs.
9. Many deaths due to inconvenience and unavailability of
ready cash
While there indeed has been an unfortunate death, it has now
come to light that some other deaths are being deliberately linked to
demonetisation by some in the media. For example, relatives of a person who
unfortunately died, have themselves clarified that the death had got nothing to
do with demonetisation.
Man died due to demonetisation - fake news
How media is using tragedies to invent controversies.
Similarly, another such unfortunate death reported by media
and linked to demonetisation is turning out to be a case of accident or suicide
due to personal issues.
10. Pictures of humongous queues at banks or crowds
protesting against demonetisation
While there is no denying the fact that there are queues
outside banks and ATMs, many miscreants are spreading photos from different
times and places claiming they were pictures of queues and chaos while
withdrawing money. People belonging to political parties are even using old
pictures of some other protests to claim that citizens are protesting against
the demonetisation drive.
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