Congress the Second-Most Corrupt Party? No, the List is Fake

The website that published the list is dubious and there is no evidence of any research behind the list.

The list on BBC News Hub declares Indian National Congress (INC) the second-most corrupt political party.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

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The “Top 10 List of Most Corrupt Political Party in the World 2018” is back doing the rounds again after former Infosys director Mohandas Pai and filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri shared it on their Twitter profiles.

Published on a website called BBC News Hub on 5 July 2018, the list declares Indian National Congress (INC) as the second most corrupt political party – only, this list is fake and has been debunked in the past.

While Agnihotri later deleted his tweet, Pai retained his post despite being told by Twitter users that the listicle lacked authenticity.

A screenshot of Vivek Agnihotri’s now deleted tweet.

There were others too who fell for this fake list and took the opportunity to lash out at the Congress.

A similar list with the same content was published by a lookalike website called ‘BBC News Point’ on 17 March 2017, which had listed INC fourth in the list of “most corrupt” political parties. The Quint had debunked the list since there were no evidence of any such research being carried out.

The website www.bbcnewshub.com is in no way related to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the name was chosen used to lend credibility. But not only is the website dubious, even its articles are shoddily written.

In May 2018, Alt News had reported on how a list of “most corrupt Prime Ministers in the World” by the fake news site BBC News Hub had ranked PM Narendra Modi on number 7.

Pai Defends Tweet, Deletes It Much Later

Even after social media users brought it to Mohandas Pai’s attention that the story tweeted by him was fake, he still went on to defend it.

He also asked BBC’s Trushar Barot to “officially deny” the tweet, when he tweeted asking Pai to take down his original tweet.

It was only later in the day that the former Infosys director deleted the tweet.

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