I did a bit more digging, and it seems like mostly only the American sources (NBC, VOA, CNBC, Forbes, Time, Fox, WSJ) mentioned India landing ON the South Pole, while other sources (The Guardian, BBC, Al Jazeera, China Daily, CBC) all corroborated what Modi actually said: that they got closer to the South Pole than anyone else and landed NEAR the South Pole.
Both Ouyang’s statement and Modi’s statement are true: India landed at 69 degrees South (not at the 90 degrees of the pole), but that’s also further South than anyone else has achieved yet.
NPR and AP did both get it right, so I guess American journalism isn’t completely down the gutter yet… But it’s not a good look.