Newspaper ‘The Arya­varth Express’ distributed illegally to passengers on board the Shatabdi Express

𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚 '𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐲𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬' 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐮- 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐢 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐝𝐢 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬

Bengaluru

'𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭' 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 :

A publication with right wing propaganda -‘The Arya­varth Express’ was distributed to passengers on board the Bengaluru­ Chen­nai Shatabdi Express.

The newspaper (‘The Arya­varth Express’) was put on every other seat.

This caused distress among passengers, which has snowballed into a controver­sy.

𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫, 𝐆𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐤𝐚 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢, 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 :

A passenger, Gopika Bashi, raised the issue in a Twitter post, questioning how the IRCTC had allowed it to be distributed in the first place.

“This morning I boarded the Bangalore­ Chennai Shatabdi Express only to be greeted by this blatantly propagandist pu­blication on every other seat - The Aryavarth Express. Had never even heard of it. How is allowing this???” she said in the tweet.

𝐃𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 :

Responding to the tweet, the Divisional Railway Man­ager of Chennai asked coun­terparts in Bengaluru to in­vestigate the matter.

The DRM has also said that the publication was not an auth­orised paper to be given to passengers, and tagged IRCTC on its official Twitter ID asking it to look into the matter and take necessary action to ensure that such in­cidents did not recur.

𝐈𝐑𝐂𝐓𝐂 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐞 :

Indian Railway Catering and Tou­rism Corporation (IRCTC) initiated an inquiry into the matter and said that action will be taken against those found respon­sible.

The IRCTC has admitted that the paper, ‘The Arya­varth Express’ was unauth­orised.

A South Western Railway (SWR) offi­cial said: “We are enquiring in the matter. This was done without authorisation. IRCTC has been advised to ensure vendors do not insert anything in the newspaper. This paper is not among the IRCTC ­approved publications”.

𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐈𝐑𝐂𝐓𝐂 𝐟𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐲 :

In a tweet later, IRCTC claimed that the newspaper in ques­tion was found inside the regular, approved newspap­ers as an insert.

”The new­spaper vendor has been strictly advised to avoid any such inserts in future. On­board monitoring staff will keep a strict vigil of the same. The licensee of the train has also been coun­selled,” IRCTC tweeted.

In a reply to the IRCTC tweet, Bakshi countered the claim made by the rail subsi­diary, saying ”it was not an insert – it was on my seat when I boarded.”

𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 :

The tweet invoked a res­ponse from political party leaders.

Member of Parlia­ment Karti P. Chidambaram in his message questioned the Railway Ministry “How does this paper get to be on the list of subscribed publi­cations?” he asked.

Congress MP B. Manick­am Tagore also questioned how such a newspaper found its way on board a train. ”Will Hon’ble Rail mi­nister order an inquiry into it? Whether it’s the proved policy of the @RailMinIndia to allow propaganda mate­rial in the Shatabdi express?

Will write and raise the issue in Loksabha. #IndiaAgains­tHate,” he tweeted.

#hatespeechcase #genocide #hatespeech #hindutvawadi #hindutvaunited #hindutvapolitcs #hindutva #propaganda #shatabdiexpress #indianrailways #indianrail #irctc #irctcshare #irctcagent #congressnews #congress #congressprotest #indiaagainstcommunalism