CNN News18, Firstpost, Times Now, New Indian Express delete stories on Amit Shah

It’s a familiar pattern and we’ve seen it since 2014. Any story that makes Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah look not-so-good is likely to be pulled down before Shah even orders its removal. That done-to-death phrase on crawling when asked to bend is sort of apt here.

Last night, web sections of some mainstream media organisations put up a story on how a district cooperative bank with Shah as its director collected the highest amount of demonetised notes. The story was picked up from the news agency, Indo-Asian News Service, or IANS, and is based on a Right To Information (RTI) reply sought by Manoranjan S Roy, a Mumbai-based activist.

The report notes:

ADCB secured deposits of Rs 745.59 crore of the spiked notes — in just five days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the demonetisation announcement. All the district cooperative banks were banned from accepting deposits of the banned currency notes from the public after November 14, 2016, — five days after demonetisation — on fears that black money would be laundered through this route.

This story, which appeared in The New Indian Express, Firstpost, Times Now and CNN News18, has now been pulled down. While it’s still up on Economic Times’ website, the report makes no mention of Shah.

The IANS story mentions Shah in the headline as well as the copy. Websites like Quint, The Wire and Moneylife have retained Shah’s name in the headline as well as the copy. Last year, Times Group and DNA also pulled down a story on Shah’s affidavit.

Update: The New Indian Express has republished the story.