Last week, Narendra Modi came under public scrutiny: after his claim that no Congress leader visited Bhagat Singh while he was in jail was debunked. While the readers of publications like Alt News and Boom enjoy the advantage of a team of fact checkers, the electorate being addressed by the Prime Minister is likely to have taken his statement at face value.
In a similar vein, anyone who has been on social media, is now aware of “fake news”. At a time when we consume so much of our news through Facebook and Whatsapp forwards, it might seem prudent to at least have a cursory understanding of contemporary politics, based on which we can make future judgements. In countries like the United Kingdom and the United States, it is common to study contemporary history. A large number of students taking their A-level examinations read about their country’s history—not only the legends of the past, but also the realities of today.
