As Tharoor faults media, his Kerala Congress peddles fake news tarnishing Preity Zinta's image

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor may have accused “The Indian Express” of twisting his statements into clickbait headlines, but he is yet to speak a word on a fake news peddled by the social media handle of his own Kerala Congress unit.

While Tharoor’s case involves an inadvertent act of misrepresentation of words translated into English from Malayalam -- something he claims leaves his reputation unscathed -- the Kerala Congress X (formerly known as Twitter) handle has crossed all limits of decency and social media ethics and continues to be abrasive despite being caught red handed promoting fake news.

It so happened the next day “The Indian Express” published its story about Tharoor, the Kerala Congress X handle unleashed a vicious attack on Bollywood actress Preity Zinta, tarnishing her image.

What makes it worse? Even after tacitly acknowledging their mistake, the party has stubbornly refused to apologise.

On top of that, the Kerala Congress, instead of holding Sucheta Dalal accountable for having written and widely shared as the fake news about Zinta, surprisingly sought clarifications from the actor and not the writer of the story.

This is evidently nothing but sheer arrogance and exposes the tacit understanding between Sucheta Dalal and the Congress in going after the BJP government? Dalal was the only journalist in recent times to manage a podcast with Rahul Gandhi.

Good to know you're managing your own account, unlike other celebs who have handed theirs over to the notorious IT cell.

Thanks for the clarification, @realpreityzinta regarding your loan position. We are glad to accept mistakes if we have made any.

We shared the news as… https://t.co/4aouqLaWue

— Congress Kerala (@INCKerala) February 25, 2025

Even now the Kerala Congress hasn't deleted its original defamatory post on X.

She gave her social media accounts to BJP and got 18 Cr written off and the bank collapsed last week.

Depositors are on the streets for their money. pic.twitter.com/UnEMMUgslY

— Congress Kerala (@INCKerala) February 24, 2025

Tharoor, a vocal critic of media ethics, has surprisingly maintained a stoic silence on this condemnable act of his state unit.

The media-politician tug-of-war is an old game, often choreographed for mutual benefit, and there have been many instances in the past when such links had been exposed.

In this case, the Kerala Congress seems to have blatantly and deliberately peddled a fake news to defame an actor.

It’s not just a question of twisted words—it’s a deliberate assault on an individual’s dignity, followed by a refusal to make amends. A good example of duplicity cloaked in sanctimony.