No, a former Indian cricketer turned politician did not say in a tweet Pakistan was his second home

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on November 30, 2018 at 18:00
  • 2 min read
  • By AFP India

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Posts being widely shared on social media and some news websites internationally are claiming an Indian politician said in a tweet that Pakistan was his “second home”, citing a Twitter account purporting to represent him. That account does not belong to the politician and there is no record of him making any such comments on his verified account.

The tweet originated on the Twitter handle @Navjot_S_Si, which purported to represent Navjot Singh Sidhu, the former Indian cricketer turned politician. The account did not belong to Sidhu and the account was disabled after the fake tweet on November 24, 2018.

But AFP made archived versions of his account and the tweet beforehand.

Here is a snapshot of the false tweet from the false account.

Screenshot of misleading tweet

The fake post was retweeted thousands of times, including by Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain.

Below is a screenshot of the retweet by Fawad Hussain from Sidhu’s fake account. The retweet was deleted after the account was taken down.

The false tweet was also copied and shared on Facebook, including on this account.

Some web portals also presented it as real news, such as here.

Sidhu has a Twitter account with over 430,000 followers. His account is verified by Twitter. It displays his bio as a Cabinet minister, former MP or member of parliament, cricketer and commentator.

There are no records on his verified account of him making such as statement.

A quick analysis of the imposter Twitter account revealed it was not genuine.

The imposter Twitter account, did not mention his bio, and was created on October 24, 2018. It had 6,000 followers compared with 430,000 for the verified one.

Below is a screenshot of the imposter Twitter account that AFP took from its archived version:

Previous tweets on the imposter Twitter account showed purported comments from Sidhu that were so outlandish they could be seen as parody.

Some such comments included “Pakistan for him is like the Holy cities of Mecca & Medina” and “Imran Khan is love."

Navjot Singh Sidhu visited Pakistan on November 27, 2018 to attend a ceremony of Kartarpur Corridor, India's National Herald reported.

The corridor aims to aid the passage of Sikh pilgrims from India to worship Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, a holy place for Sikhs located in Pakistan.

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