USA Today Mixes Up Indian PM With Kailash Satyarthi, Calls Modi as ‘Nobel Peace Prize Winner’

Rescue workers and a family member carry the coffin of a student who was killed during an attack by Taliban gunmen on the Army Public School in Peshawar December 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen in Pakistan took hundreds of students and teachers hostage on Tuesday in a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, military officials said. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz

USA Today called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the Nobel Peace Prize winner on Twitter. The reference was made while the news agency shared Modi's reaction to the Taliban attack in a Pakistan school.

USA Today shared an image quoting Modi on the Taliban attack. "These are all out children who've been murdered today. My prayers and condolences are with the families" - Nobel Peace Prize winner Narendra Modi, the post said. The post was similar to the post it shared while quoting the Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi. On that post, USA Today referred to the Indian as "Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi." The statement which USA Today claims to have said by Modi was, in fact, said by Satyarthi in one of his tweets.

Several users instantly reacted to the post. One user "Our PM Imran Khan" (‏@nep1usultra) wrote that Modi was not a Nobel Peace Prize winner. "He was denied visa to U.S. when wasn't a PM coz of his role in Gujrat Massacre," he wrote. MR.KHAN ‏(@kamir23) called it a "False tweet." He also emphasised that Modi did not win the Nobel. Alastair Jamieson ‏(@alastairjam) said that neither had Modi won the Nobel Prize nor had he said the quote. Jeba ‏(@Jeba) wondered what USA Today might have been "smoking." "It's malala dumb a**," the user said about the tweet. While USA Today apparently tried to acknowledge the mistake, it made another mistake by tweeting: "That is correct. Narendra Modi is not a Nobel Peace Prize winner." "You mean incorrect," Joshy Pootron ‏(@darthhomme) corrected the tweet.

USA Today, on the other hand, did not make such mistake on its report. It quoted Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner who had been shot in the head by the Taliban in October 2012. "Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this," the youngest ever Nobel winner was quoted. She called the attacked children as her "brothers and sisters" and said that the spirit would "never be defeated." Modi condemned the attack in one of his tweets as well. "It is a senseless act of unspeakable brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings - young children in their school," he wrote.

These are all our children who've been murdered today. My prayers and condolences are with the families #PakSchoolSiege #PeshawarAttack
— Kailash Satyarthi (@k_satyarthi) December 16, 2014

It is a senseless act of unspeakable brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings - young children in their school. — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 16, 2014