The Hyderabad’s “Deccan Chronicle” English daily has interesting way of bringing its April 1st edition every year.
Marking the All Fools Day on April 1, the Deccan Chronicle prominently publishes a fake news, professionally presented to believe.
The newspaper carried a banner story stating that Naidu has decided to merge his TDP with the Bharatiya Janata Party as the party has lost relevance in Andhra Pradesh politics and has little chance of being resurrected.
It went on to say that Naidu had struck a deal with a reluctant BJP in this regard and the formalities would be completed soon. As part of the bargain, the TDP chief would move to the Central politics and become a minister in the Modi cabinet.
The report has quoted TDP leaders claiming that “the future looked bleak for them in the party and that they did not see any other option left.”
At the end of the story which was continued in the second page, it was clearly mentioned that it could be an April Fool joke.
The TDP leaders were obviously embarrassed with the news report, as they failed to notice the last line, referring it as a prank on All Fools Day. TDP Andhra unit president K Atchan Naidu lashed out the daily, stating that it was a bad journalism.
“Responsible newspapers accountable to the society cannot fool the people with such fake reports. This is nothing but violation of journalistic values. TDP was born for safeguarding the self-respect of Telugus and the DC should understand its historical significance,” Atchan said.
“Only a fool uses news to celebrate April Fools. Taking advantage of the day to peddle fake news, @oratorgreat sunk journalistic ethics to a new low & disappointed readers. Having revealed his own "merger" with his masters today, the joke's on him! Hope they reward him,” the TDP tweeted.
Interestingly, BJP's Andhra Pradesh co-in-charge Sunil Deodhar shared a picture of the story published and asked if it was an April Fool joke.
But, the tradition in DC is that the paper carries such fake news on every April 1, for the past several years and it is justified given the historical importance of the day.