They do have not the minimum knowledge in journalism and academic qualification to understand that writing a story plot for thousands of hours is different from investigative journalism. Fiction is completely opposite to journalism. However, this group is regularly carrying out information terrorism in name of investigative journalism. Netra News gang has written a fiction recently centring on the construction of a potential LPG terminal in the country. They have also tried to portray the activities as investigative journalism to ordinary people. But those mischievous attempts by David Bergman and Tasneem Khalil have gone in vain because of the mainstream media. Let’s briefly try to understand the main fact.
Since Netra News has already become known as a rumour factory to the civil society group, Tasneem Khalil this time has come up with a fancy trick to make the new rumours credible to people. He posted a dramatic status day after publishing a docu-fiction as a news item titled ‘They are the people of the State Minister’ on the 10th. There he wrote the cinematic dialogues to establish it as news. Let’s take a look at it, then we will unveil the mystery.
Now, let’s keep an eye on the actual events. David Bergman, the unemployed son-in-law of Dr Kamal and ambitious husband of barrister Sara Hossain, and Tasneem Khalil, the son of a well-known Jamaat family in Sylhet, spread rumours about various issues by distorting information for serving different vested quarters. These cyber terrorists have made a lot of money by doing these things. They tried to create hype with gossiping content in those places where media literacy among the people is very minimal. This time, their new target is one of the most successful sectors of the country’s development – the power and energy sector. When the government is trying to break the monopoly of LPG traders, Tasneem Khalil and Bergman took to the field on their behalf.
Spreading rumours, the Netra News gang is claiming that the Bangladesh government is constructing an LPG terminal at Maheshkhali. The state minister is giving the work of that project to his relatives. As a result, people’s money is being looted. But the fact is that the construction of the LPG terminal is still in the planning stage. The government has no financial involvement with this yet. No agreement has yet been reached with any specific consortium. There was not even an initial feasibility study. In a recent report published in Business Standard, they also said that they have confirmed this after receiving detailed evidence. And for this reason, they withdrew their partial news published a few months ago. But Netra News has made the utmost mischievous attempt to spread a rumour about this incident. The newspaper has also strongly protested against this heinous act of Netra News.
What more should be known is that a consortium has proposed the construction of this terminal. If this proposed LPG terminal is built, the price of a 12kg gas cylinder will be reduced by at least Tk 300. Then ordinary people will be able to buy gas at affordable prices as it will be possible for the government to supply 10 to 12 lakh tons of LPG in the market. As a result, the monopoly syndicate of the traders will no longer be active. The traders have not been following the price fixed by the government. They are charging the consumers arbitrary prices. But if the LPG supply increases in the market, they cannot continue this monopoly. So they set out to stop the process of setting up this terminal. That is why this quarter is trying to create confusion by accusing the government of fictitious corruption. And, the Khalil-Bergman clique is working as their paid agent.
This gang has started spreading rumours about the proposed LPG terminal in the same way as the BNP-Jamaat spread rumours of corruption to thwart the Padma Bridge project.
