'Modi Lies': After new word, Rahul promotes website that targets PM

On Wednesday, Gandhi tweeted 'Modilie' had entered the English dictionary

Modi Lies website Image from the 'Modi Lies' website

A day after he tweeted that the word 'Modilie' had entered the English dictionary, Congress president Rahul Gandhi took another swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday by sharing a link to a website called Modi Lies.

Rahul tweeted, “'Modilie' is a new word that’s become popular worldwide. Now there’s even a website that catalogues the best Modilies!”

While it is unclear when the Modi Lies website was launched, its Facebook page was created in October 2018. The Modi Lies Facebook page describes itself as “a repository of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lies and false claims, right from the time he assumed power in May 2014.”

The Modi Lies page has archives to chronicle allegedly misleading claims made by Modi since he assumed office in May 2014. The first entry is dated June 19, 2014 and is about Modi's maiden Lok Sabha speech, in which he claimed “slave mentality of 1,200 years is troubling us (India)”.

The Modi Lies website appears to use a common format for its entries. It starts by prefixing allegedly misleading statements by Modi with 'lie' and explaining it with the aid of an external article. For example, Modi's recent claim of using a digital camera in the 1980s has an entry—LIE: I used email to transmit a photograph in 1987-88—linked to a Firstpost article.

Not surprisingly, April and May were busy months for the Modi Lies website, with numerous entries from the prime minister's campaign utterances. Entries in May included Modi's claims on Sonia Gandhi and Rahul not apologising for the anti-Sikh riots and Rajiv Gandhi's use of the INS Viraat as a “taxi”.