'Swamy to JNU' showed Indian Twitter and the media at their worst

September 24, 2015 18:32

Academic appointments in India are rarely the subject of press or public attention. SK Sopory, the distinguished botanist about to retire as Vice-Chancellor as of Jawaharlal Nehru University is, like most of his predecessors, not well-known outside academia.

The news of his retirement, and the fact that the post of VC had been advertised on August 15, was not reported by any website or publication. Yet for much of Wednesday JNU VC featured prominently on the list of topics trending on Twitter in India.

This was down to a PTI report that claimed that Subramanian Swamy -- conomist, maverick politician, cult hero on the right -- had been sounded out for the job. The only newspaper that carried the report was DNA. The DNA story was picked up on Twitter, and quickly went viral. The PTI report was a travesty, either wholly false or at best a ludicrous misrepresentation of the facts.

The fact that it has gone viral reflects poorly both on Indian Twitter and on our press corps.

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