The Times Now TV channel has often faced flak for being too soft on the Centre’s Narendra Modi government since the BJP secured an overwhelming majority in the 2014 parliamentary polls. The channel became a target of incessant trolling on Saturday once again after India defeated Australia in the first One Day International by six wickets in Hyderabad. This is because the channel’s news flash read, “@PMOIndia beats Australia by 6 wickets in the 1st ODI.”
@PMOIndia is the official Twitter handle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Faced with incessant trolling, the channel deleted the embarrassing tweet, but it took them a good five minutes to realise their gaffe.
Meanwhile Twitter users have continued to poke fun at the channel.
Fastest finger first still playing out.. now #PMO beats #Australia after beating #Pakistan ?#AUSvsIND @TimesNow pic.twitter.com/eO6k0zArXJ
— Ravi Baliga (@ravirb99) March 2, 2019
@PMOIndia now playing cricket kya? What did I miss? Times Cow, kindly enlighten pic.twitter.com/iiwmdAWCeN
— Devlina Ganguly (@DevlinaGanguly) March 2, 2019
Yaar theek hai. Pmo acha aadmi hai. But yaar woh kab cricket khelne chala gaya? ??
— Just another voice (@Justavoice001) March 2, 2019
PMO India beats Aus…..Itni ghai kyo beyy? @TimesNow pic.twitter.com/mH637iW96U
— Punam NaMo Fan (@PuneBjp4) March 2, 2019
Interestingly, PM Modi had appeared on Times Now’s rival channel India Today in their conclave minutes before the Times Group channel committed this gaffe.
India had defeated Australia by six wickets on Saturday and took the 1-0 lead against the visitors in the 5-match series.
Batting first Australia had scored 236 for the loss of seven wickets in their quota of 50 overs. Thanks to a 141-run partnership between Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav that the Virat Kohli-led Indian team surpassed the target for the loss of just four wickets with eight balls to spare.