Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Claim
The New York Times published an article praising India and its elections.
Fact
Viral article is actually a comment by a reader, posted under a New York Times article, dated April 14, 2009.
A purported New York Times article, praising India and its elections, has gone viral on social media, amid the third phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections taking place across 93 seats in 12 states and union territories on May 7 (Tuesday).
The “article” was shared by the former Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, Kiran Bedi, on Twitter, hailing the “view from the outside” on the Indian elections.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact Check
Newschecker first ran a keyword search using phrases from the alleged article, which did not lead us to any such write-up published in the New York Times, raising our doubts.
We noticed that the writer of the article was claimed to be V Mitchell from New York, following which we ran a relevant keyword search for select phrases that led us to this New York Times report, dated April 14, 2009, headlined, “As Elections Near, Tightrope Awaits in India”, where the author, Somini Sengupta, writes about the then upcoming elections in the “world’s biggest exercise in democracy”.
The viral column was not part of the NYT article, however, we came across this comment by a reader, V Mitchell, dated April 15, 2009.
A comparison confirms that it is the same comment that is being claimed as an article that appeared in the New York Times on the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
Conclusion
A reader’s comment under a NYT article from 2009 is being falsely shared as a report published by the news organisation.
Result: False
Source
The New York Times report, April 15, 2009
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
