On Thursday, Twitter was abuzz with speculation on Gujarat Samachar being “taken over” by the Adani Group.
For context, Gujarat Samachar is a leading daily in the state, and also one of its oldest. During the second wave of the pandemic, it had consistently questioned the government’s official statistics on deaths. The timing of the rumours is also interesting, since Gujarat’s assembly election is scheduled to take place later this year.
When most of the Media in our country is acting like BJP’s mouthpiece, Gujarat Samachar a newspaper known for its courageous journalism has been bought by Adani.
— Aditya Goswami (@AdityaGoswami_) April 14, 2022
With #GujaratElections just a few months away Adani is planning to take over many such media. https://t.co/Z4JudypEoA
Adani is all set to acquire Gujarat Samachar, probably the ONLY newspaper in Gujarat that has the courage to ask tough questions from the government.
— Achal Shah (@achalshah06) April 14, 2022
Every other Gujarati newspaper functions more like a mouthpiece of BJP!
#Gujarat's @gautam_adani all set for foray into media.His first big accqisition : #Gujarat's most powerful,big and till now a fearless paper owned by a Jain family. After the newspaper, he will focus on television channels. Plans to "buy media" all over India. #journalism
— Deepal.Trivedi #Vo! (@DeepalTrevedie) April 14, 2022
The clarification on the rumours, however, came from an unusual source – Parimal Nathwani, a Rajya Sabha member and also director of corporate affairs at Reliance Industries Limited.
Nathwani said he knows the newspaper management “well” and “they have no plans to sell newspaper to any corporate group, be it Adani or Reliance”.
Rumours are being spread about @gujaratsamachar being taken over by Adanis. I know Guj Samachar management well & they have no plans to sell newspaper to any corporate group, be it Adani or Reliance. But, I am surprised that such baseless messages are spreading unnecessarily. pic.twitter.com/DF10hE6KRu
— Parimal Nathwani (@mpparimal) April 14, 2022
Sadly for Nathwani, his “clarification” raised more questions than answers.
Let Adani and Guj Samachar deny. Who asked Reliance to deny? https://t.co/B5h3HcdvnN
— Jency Jacob (@jencyjac) April 14, 2022
A rumour about the Adani group & Gujarat Samachar.
— Urvish Kothari ~ उर्वीश कोठारी (@urvish2020) April 14, 2022
Clarification issued by the key man of Reliance.
What am I missing here? https://t.co/SDIBxIEsmR
Interesting that @mpparimal of @reliancegroup clarified it. https://t.co/z8IFW6EDH1
— Sheela Bhatt शीला भट्ट (@sheela2010) April 14, 2022
There are many rumours in social media through WhatsApp University!
— मानस पटेल (@ghodasara_manas) April 14, 2022
But why are you pick up this one only to clarify?
Why are you trying to be Underground spokesperson from Adani Ambani etc !
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