Asle Toje, the Deputy leader of the Nobel Prize Committee, is on the visit to India and is already making headlines in the country.
๐ ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ง๐ผ๐ท๐ฒ'๐ ๐พ๐๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐
On Thursday morning, several news agencies and websites carried Toje's quote, in which he reportedly said that Indiaโs Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the biggest contender for the Nobel Peace Prize.
These reports also claimed that Toje called PM Modi โmost reliable face of peace in the world,โ and hailed his governance. The reports went on to claim that Toje said India is becoming a rich and powerful country because of PM Modiโs policies.
๐ง๐ผ๐ท๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ป๐ถ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ธ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฎ๐ป๐ ๐๐๐ฐ๐ต ๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐, ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ '๐ณ๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฒ ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐'
However, within few hours of such reports doing rounds on the internet, the Deputy leader of the prestigious prize committee had to issue a clarification.
In a byte given to news agency ANI, Asle Toje cleared air regarding the tweet doing rounds about PM Modi being the biggest contender for peace prize and said: "I am the deputy leader of the Nobel committee. A fake news tweet was sent out. And I think we should treat it as all fake news. It's fake! Let's not discuss it. Let's not give it energy or oxygen. I categorically deny that I said anything resembling what was in that tweet."
Earlier in the day, news channels had ran reports quoting Toje, who they claimed had endorsed PM Modi as the main contender for the prestigious prize. The reports also claimed that Toje had referred to PM Modi as the world's 'most trusted' and 'most reliable' leader. Toje, however, seems to have cleared the air around the claims in these reports by denying that he made any such statements.
