:#TheNewDistortTimes": Anurag Thakur accuses NYT of "fabricated anti-India stories"

New Delhi [India], May 4 : Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur has hit out at leading American daily 'The New York Times', accusing it of churning out "fabricated anti-India stories".
In a tweet, Thakur termed NYT as "#TheNewDistortTimes" and tagged several pictures of the daily's coverage of "Indian development", which he said testified to a "smear campaign" against India.
Also lashing out at the top American daily of its coverage of the "so-called raids on newsrooms", the Union minister said in India, the law takes is course, regardless of whether it is being applied on anyone associated with the newsroom or not.
He tweeted, "Unable to digest the global rise of India and its turning into an economic powerhouse, certain old world media houses have been running a systematic smear campaign against India."
He added, "NYT, which has carved a niche for itself for writing fact-free and fabricated anti-India stories, shamelessly misused the podium of UNESCO to distort facts. Mr. A. G. Sulzberger from The New York Times, mentioned about the so-called raids on newsrooms. In India law takes it own course if someone does something wrong, newsroom or no newsroom."
"Mere claiming the status of newsroom does not grant immunity from unlawful deeds. How come any investigation, no matter the evidence, amounts to an attack on the press? Is it prudent to be a loose mouth and say journalists in India are treated as terrorists? For me, it has been difficult to differentiate whether it is New York Times or New Distort Times," he stated further.
Further, in his tweet, Thakur also took a dig at the US daily over its coverage of some India stories, including the distribution of free cooking cylinders under the Centre's flagship 'Ujjwala' scheme, the country crossing the 220-crore vaccination milestone and the construction of 11.7 crore toilets across the country in 9 years by the Modi government.