A message is going rounds on the internet that America’s top spy agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has predicted a defeat for the NDA in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. The assessment is based on a survey conducted. It says the NDA will not cross 177 seats. Or, maybe, just 145 seats.
The message (“The BJP will loose seats and can’t make government in 2019 Lok Sabha polls)” which went viral has been published by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) with its official logo and its website name. The message also ended with an obscure statement, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is by far the most unreliable PM in the country ever.” However, India’s one of the popular news channels, India Today has found it to be a hoax.
It reported that the CIA did not publish any such above-mentioned survey. Also, the BBC doesn’t acknowledge the news. The grammatical mistake ‘loose’ in the headline, itself shows that this viral message is fake. BBC is known for its spotless and untarnished English language and such a blunder coming from them sounds frivolous.
Also, the URL mentioned in the message is genuine but, no such news or survey is shown on the main page of the website. No trace of the survey will be found even after searching with keywords.
When India Today contacted BBC for a confirmation, it says, “This fake survey on the Lok Sabha polls has been circulating on WhatsApp and Facebook, with messages claiming it to be from the BBC News. We’d like to make it absolutely clear that it is fake and does not come from the BBC. The BBC does not support pre-election surveys in India.”
