(An earlier version of the following report had said without any qualification that the Facebook page was the official page of the UAE President.

On Sunday, a reader conveyed to the newspaper that the Facebook page on which the main part of the article was based looked like an unofficial page or a fake account.

Since Sunday afternoon, The Telegraph has written to multiple government agencies in the UAE for an official confirmation either way. We apologise for not having done this before publishing the report but relying fully on sources in the UAE.

The newspaper went ahead with the report on Friday night because of an assumption that it would be difficult to operate an account in the name of the UAE President without official knowledge.

The Telegraph will publish the official version as soon as any of the UAE government agencies respond. Until an official denial is issued, the newspaper has no reason to question the basis of the report.

The following is an edited version of the original report published on Saturday. )

Bangalore: As the Sangh parivar ecosystem split hairs on whether the United Arab Emirates (UAE) promised “Rs 700 crore” to the flood-hit Kerala or not, two tell-tale but subtle pointers were in play.

One, a Facebook page claiming to be that of UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan featured a news report under the headline “UAE Pledges rs-700-crore Kerala relief and rehabilitation”.

The report was not an official announcement by the UAE but the reproduction of a report based on a media briefing by Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on August 21. The report quoted the chief minister as saying: “The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan informed this to Lulu Group chairman Yusuff Ali.” M.A. Yusuf Ali is a Malayali businessman based in the Emirates.

Posted on August 21 at 8.45pm, the news report was on the purported Facebook page of the President till late on Friday night. The page also features a photograph of the powerful Crown Prince, the younger brother of the President.

Sources familiar with the UAE said that it would be inconceivable that the official site of the President would post a canard and continue to keep it there for days. Some sources went to the extent of describing the post as “a virtual endorsement”. (The sources were speaking on the assumption that it was the official page of the President.)

Two, the Emirates airline has begun transporting over 175 tonnes of flood relief cargo to Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, from Thursday.

Tweeting about it with photographs of the cargo being loaded on to an Emirates aircraft, the Government of Dubai Media Office said: “The relief goods will be transported to Thiruvananthapuram -- the nearest online @Emirates station to the areas most affected by the flood. The goods, including lifesaving boats, blankets and dry food items, will be handed over to the local flood relief & aid organisations.”

Fresh controversy had erupted on Friday morning after the UAE ambassador to India, Ahmad Albanna, was quoted as saying that no specific assistance had been announced yet.

What the ambassador was quoted as having said is nothing new as there was no official announcement from the UAE that it wanted to give Rs 700 crore to Kerala.

But the ambassador’s quote was construed and spun by Right-wingers and government-friendly television channels as confirmation that there was never an offer from the UAE and they heaped scorn on Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and those who felt that the state should be permitted to access bona fide foreign aid.

At his daily press briefing on Friday, Vijayan iterated what he had said on Tuesday. “Even that day I made it very clear that it was M.A. Yusuf Ali who had passed on the information. He even said I could disclose this information,” the chief minister added.

In New Delhi, foreign ministry officials said there was an offer from the UAE but did not specify the amount.

UAE foreign office officials also told Malayalam news channels that the government there was in the process of finalising the quantum of assistance and financial aid to Kerala was on the cards as a committee had been set up by the Prime Minister himself for the specific purpose. Now that the Indian government has said bilateral assistance is not acceptable, the UAE government is exploring other avenues to route it through.

On Monday itself, the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation of the UAE President had contributed AED 10 million (Rs 19 crore) to support flood victims in Kerala while at least three Dubai-based Indian businessmen chipped in with AED 5 million each.

According to an OECD report, the UAE was the world’s largest donor of official development aid last year, relative to its national income, and is currently involved in rescue campaigns in Indonesia and Sudan.

Malayalees occupy a special place in the Gulf country. In his first statement of intent to help Kerala, UAE’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum had said on Saturday: “The people of Kerala have always been and are still part of our success story in the UAE. We have a special responsibility to help and support those affected….”