Manish Sisodia’s Assets - A Headline that was economical with Truth

A lot of political uproar was created by a news item that suddenly appeared in the news that ED had confiscated assets that belong to Sisodia worth 45 crores.

The overjealous supporters of political parties were quick to share as if they hit a jackpot.

On close investigation, there appeared to be a catch. It was not about Manish Sisodia’s assets which are being referred to here. It says, “ED attaches assets worth Rs 52 cr of former deputy CM Manish Sisodia and others”. So the headline and contents are misleading and most people do not read the content. This is yellow journalism at its best.

On close examination of Manish Sisodia’s assets, it appears that ED has attached 11 Lakh approximately in Banks and two houses — one worth 5 lakh and another worth 65 lakh in Delhi belonging to Manish Sisodia.

So both combined together will not constitute even 2% of the alleged 45 crores being tagged to Manish. However, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. This proverb works well for both jealous supporters, Media that feeds misleading content, and agencies that pass selective information to generate perception.

On close examination, Sisodia’s assets appear to have been acquired long before the liquor policy was adopted and hence possibly there is no connection between the two.

The art of weaponizing wrong perceptions using media is always the strength of the losers. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see how this perception battle is leveraged and tailwinds are exploited by some.

Meanwhile, the fact remains — the content may be factually correct, but the intent behind the content and the way it was produced to play with the ignorance of unsuspecting readers is more amusing than amazing.