On July 1, something unexpected happened.
Zee News had broadcast a video of Rahul Gandhi purportedly defending those accused of murdering a tailor in Udaipur. Except this wasn’t true – Gandhi had actually been talking about students who had vandalised his party office in Kerala’s Wayanad. BJP leader Rajyavardhan Rathore tweeted Zee’s clip at around 10.45 pm; multiple others from his party shared it with gusto.