The Times of India issued a front-page apology on Monday for reporting that Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh will be “faces” of a women-centric BJP campaign launching June 9 to mark the completion of 11 years of the Narendra Modi government.
“We have since gathered that the BJP does not have such a plan. Though the report was based on a conversation with Jamal Siddiqui, national president of the BJP minority morcha, we should have checked with the party’s central leadership. We apologise for the lapse,” the paper said.
In its apology, Times of India noted that its June 1 editions from Lucknow and Chennai carried a report headlined “Col Qureshi, Wg Cdr Vyomika set to be BJP campaign faces”.
This came hours after BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya called the Times of India report as “fake news” and said “comments made by BJP Minority Morcha president Jamal Siddiqui have been misconstrued. He simply made a limited point about highlighting Col Qureshi as an example of an empowered Muslim woman within the community.”
This is #FakeNews. The BJP has no plans to use either Col Sofia Qureshi or Wing Commander Vyomika Singh as campaign faces. The comments made by BJP Minority Morcha President Jamal Siddiqui have been misconstrued. He simply made a limited point about highlighting Col Qureshi as an… pic.twitter.com/nPttvpTWMs
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) June 1, 2025
Last week as well, the BJP had rejected a Dainik Bhaskar report that had claimed the party was planning a campaign to send vermillion to every house. Unlike The Times of India apology, Dainik Bhaskar incorporated its apology in a longer report headlined “Deshbhar mein ghar ghar sindoor pahuchaane ka BJP ki or se koi karyakram nahin (BJP has no plans to distribute sindoor at every house across the country)”. “No official response was sought from the BJP for the news published on May 28. The error is regretted while clarifying the situation to our readers,” it said.
The May 28 Dainik Bhaskar report as well as the June 1 Times of India report were not accessible on their their respective websites at the time of writing this report.
Op Sindoor remains rallying point
The Bhaskar report had led to scathing remarks against the BJP. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had lashed out at the party and PM Modi, saying that women accept the sindoor only from their husbands. “You are not the husband of everybody…why are you not giving sindoor to your Mrs first?”
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, meanwhile, claimed the BJP was forced to withdraw its campaign due to the backlash and was now “calling it fake news”.
Despite the BJP’s denials, Operation Sindoor remains a rallying point for the party. At a party meeting in West Bengal, Amit Shah invoked it repeatedly, tying the 2026 state elections to national security. “Most importantly, you (Banerjee) are opposing Operation Sindoor to please the Muslim votebank. Tell me, should this appeasement be allowed to continue?” Shah asked the crowd, urging them to resolve to uproot the Mamata Banerjee government in 2026.
The Trinamool Congress fired back, demanding Shah resign over the intelligence failures behind the Pahalgam terror attack.
In a show on News24 last week, BJP spokesperson Shivam Tyagi was asked by anchor Manak Gupta on the need to distribute vermillion if the party had done so much work. “Because that is a matter of pride for us…we beat the enemy, we will say that. Why shouldn’t we?”
Last week, the family of Colonel Sofiya Qureshi was seen at PM Narendra Modi’s roadshow in Vadodara. “It felt great. We are proud that PM Modi met us. Sofiya Qureshi is the daughter of the country, she only did her duty,” her father told news agency PTI.
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