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Fictional BJP MLA 'Anil Upadhyay' revived, now with false claim that he was thrashed by women - Alt News
Archit
4th February 2020 / 9:55 pm / Last updated: 5th February 2020
A video of women thrashing a man is being shared on social media with the claim that the man is BJP leader ‘Anil Upadhyay’. One Jaan Mohd Tyagi shared a Facebook ‘watch party’ on January 31 and said in Hindi, “Women thrash BJP leader Anil Upadhyay. Let’s make him famous [Translated from बीजेपी नेता अनिल उपाध्याय जी को महिलाओं मिलकर कुट दिया। थोड़ा इनको फेमस कर दीजिए।].” This has been shared over 90,000 times.
Similarly, Twitter user @AudaciousQuest tweeted the viral video and said, “BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay is getting thrashed by a group of angry women. If this is BJP’s present, imagine what the future is going to be. This is what this govt is scared of.”
BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay is getting thrashed by a group of angry women.
If this is BJP’s present, imagine what the future is going to be. This is what this govt is scared of.
Via – FBhttps://t.co/UehHfQT0yH pic.twitter.com/HCWyGZyAnR
— Sanghamitra (@AudaciousQuest) February 4, 2020
Alt News took a thumbnail from the viral video and did a reverse image search on Google. On the first page, we found links to several Twitter profiles that had shared the viral video.
After reviewing multiple profiles, Alt News found a tweet by @DineshmishraRm on @Abhishekchilm1’s timeline.
@DineshmishraRm tweeted, “Disgusting behaviour by Manoj Dubey. The primary school teacher of Bankat, Muradabadshahpur, Jaunpur did perverted things with students of the fifth standard. As a result, the women from the village thrashed him. This not just puts the education system to shame but also humanity as well. [Translated from एक शिक्षक का घिनौना कुकर्म. प्रा0वि0बनकट मुगराबादशाहपुर जौनपुर के मनोज दुबे कक्षा 5 के छात्रा के साथ अश्लील हरकत किया जिससे गाँव की महिलाओं ने जमकर धुलाई की यह न बल्कि शिक्षा मंदिर औरअपितु मानवता को शर्मसार करने वाली घटना है @yadavakhilesh @NareshUttamSP @SpArajesh @BrajeshYadavSP]”
Using this as a clue, Alt News did another keyword search and found a report by Public Akrosh on January 24. According to the report, Additional Superintendent of Police informed that Manoj Kumar Dubey, a teacher at Rajjupur Primary School, Bankat was arrested by the Pawara Police Station for indecent behaviour with two girls.
Jaunpur Police had tweeted about the incident on January 24. The tweet shared the video byte of the ASP. “Jaunpur, Byte of Additional Superintendent of Police, Pawara Police Station on the matter of indecent behaviour towards two girls by the teacher of primary school in Bankat. [Translated from जौनपुर~थाना पवारा अन्तर्गत प्रथामिक विद्यालय बनकट के अध्यापक द्वारा दो बच्चियों के साथ अभद्रता की घटना के सम्बन्ध में अपर पुलिस अधीक्षक ग्रामीण की बाईट।],” reads the tweet.
जौनपुर~थाना पवारा अन्तर्गत प्रथामिक विद्यालय बनकट के अध्यापक द्वारा दो बच्चियों के साथ अभद्रता की घटना के सम्बन्ध में अपर पुलिस अधीक्षक ग्रामीण की बाईट। @Uppolice @dgpup @adgzonevaranasi @IgRangeVaranasi @News18UP @ZeeNewsUPUK @tanmaybaranwal2 @NationDeepak @mdabbasjnp pic.twitter.com/IP4urfKx4h
— JAUNPUR POLICE (@jaunpurpolice) January 24, 2020
In the video, ASP Sanjay Rai said, “We have been informed that a primary school teacher misbehaved with two young girls. Their father filed the complaint and subsequently, the teacher in question in under custody. After interrogation by witnesses, further investigation will take place.”
Therefore, a video of women thrashing a primary school teacher for allegedly misbehaving with girls is used to target the BJP.
‘Anil Upadhyay’ is a recurring name used to propagate misinformation to target different political parties. However, no such MLA exists in any state assembly or the parliament, according to MyNeta database. The name crops up on social media sometimes as a BJP MLA, and sometimes as a Congress MLA. Posted below is a screenshot of the search result on MyNeta website.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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4th February 2020 / 9:55 pm / Last updated: 5th February 2020
|
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/fictional-bjp-mla-anil-upadhyaya-revived-with-false-claim-that-he-was-thrashed-by-women/",
"author": "Archit"
}
|
1,342 |
Another video viral in fictitious Congress leader Anil Upadhyay's name - Alt News
Priyanka Jha
31st August 2020 / 1:45 pm / Last updated: 12th November 2020
An almost 2-minute long clip has gone viral on social media with users claiming that it features “Congress MLA Anil Upadhyay”. The man in the video can be seen speaking against certain politicians and journalists. It begins with his criticism of the Congress party and ends with him demanding that a total of 100 people be sent to jail.
*Congress MLA Anil Upadhyay unknowingly spoke out, but spoke the complete truth. Make this VIDEO viral, so that the entire Nation can see it.*
👌🏻👌🏻👇👇 pic.twitter.com/A1zcna9Uc7
— Sridhar Sadashiva Rao (@sadashiva_ra) November 11, 2020
The same video was also widespread earlier in August.
कांग्रेस विधायक #अनिल #उपाधाय अनजाने में कह गया पर सही बोल दिया । इस VIDEO को इतना वायरल करो कि ये पुरा हिदुस्तान देख सके
Posted by Deepak Oberoi on Tuesday, 18 August 2020
We found that this video has been viral with the same claim on Twitter since July.
कांग्रेस विधायक अनिल उपाधाय अनजाने में कह गया पर सही बोल दिया इस VIDEO को इतना वायरल करो कि ये पुरा हिदुस्तान देख सके।👌🏻👌🏻A👆🏽👆🏽 pic.twitter.com/nGYIcnqVNT
— भीम सिंह सैनी( छोटा मोदी ) (@BHIMSIN25246977) July 24, 2020
This video cannot possibly show “Congress MLA Anil Upadhyay” because there is no such MLA by this name. This is a fictitious name that goes viral every few months with a new video. Alt News has investigated many such videos with this name.
1. Fictional BJP MLA ‘Anil Upadhyay’ revived, now with false claim that he was thrashed by women
2. BJP MLA ‘Anil Upadhyaya’ talking about CAA? No, videos yet again viral with fictitious name
3. Fictitious politician ‘Anil Upadhyaya’ makes a comeback, now as BJP MLA criticising CAA/NRC
4. Fact check: Is this Congress MLA Anil Upadhyay praising PM Narendra Modi?
5. False claim, viral video: Dalit youth beaten by BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay
In the screenshot below, the search results of the name ‘Anil Upadhyay’ on myneta.info is shown. This website is a database of contesting political candidates. As evident, there is no Congress politician named “Anil Upadhyay”.
Now, let’s find out who is the person in the video. On the bottom of the clip, the words ‘The Newspaper Exclusive’ can be seen.
We found a verified channel called ‘The Newspaper’ on YouTube that has more than 5 lakh subscribers. However, its social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are not verified and have a much smaller follower count. The channel uploaded this 11-minute video of a professor on March 4, 2020. The video is entitled, “What did this professor say about Rahul Gandhi that made people lift him up in the air? | Delhi.”
In this video, the person seen talking for eight minutes is the same one from the video going viral but his name is not mentioned anywhere in the video. We contacted ‘The Newspaper’ and tried to find out who he was. We were told that his name is Vinay Kumar Singh. Singh is from Delhi who had contested elections from the Janashakti Party (Rashtriya).
When we looked for him on myneta.info, we discovered that he had contested elections from Patparganj on a Janshakti Party (Rashtriya) ticket in the recent Delhi Assembly Elections of 2020. The entry also has a photo of him along with other information and affidavits on the Election Commission of India website.
Therefore, Delhi-based Janshakti Party (Rashtriya) leader Vinay Kumar Singh is being misidentified in this viral video as fictional Congress leader Anil Upadhyay.
She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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31st August 2020 / 1:45 pm / Last updated: 12th November 2020
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/fictional-congress-mla-anil-upadhyay-revived-with-another-video/",
"author": "Priyanka Jha"
}
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1,343 |
Fictional movie poster 'The Omicron Variant' believed to be true - Alt News
Archit
2nd December 2021 / 7:35 pm
The World Health Organisation has declared the new SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.529 as a “variant of concern”. It has been named Omicron and its first incidence was reported to WHO from South Africa on November 24.
Around December 2, several social media users shared an alleged movie poster with the title ‘The Omicron Variant’. Bollywood director Ram Gopal Verma also shared the poster.
Believe it or faint ..This film came In 1963 ..Check the tagline 😳😳😳 pic.twitter.com/ntwCEcPMnN
— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) December 2, 2021
Actor Gautam Rode and Christian-conservative Carmine Sabia also shared it.
What are the odds 😳… this movie released in 1963! #OmicronVariant pic.twitter.com/Ny2Z6l5awJ
— Gautam Rode (@gautam_rode) December 2, 2021
This is a legit movie from the 1960s. #Omicron. pic.twitter.com/JNNaxAlA0G
— Carmine Sabia (@CarmineSabia) December 1, 2021
There is another alleged poster for the movie with the same title. US-based Twitter user Christopher Miller posted it, gathering over 1,000 retweets.
The Omicron Variant sounds like a 60’s sci-fi movie pic.twitter.com/CAAZJaRtqm
— Christopher Miller (@chrizmillr) November 27, 2021
Readers should note that there is no movie titled ‘The Omicron Variant’. However, there is a 1963 science fiction movie titled ‘Omicron’. The movie’s plot on Internet Movie Database (IMDb) states, “An alien takes over the body of an Earthman in order to learn about the planet so his race can take it over.”
Image 1: The poster shared by Ram Gopal Verma was made by writer Becky Cheatle from Virgin Media Ireland. She posted three images and wrote, “I Photoshopped the phrase “The Omicron Variant” into a bunch of 70s sci-fi movie posters #Omicron”.
I Photoshopped the phrase “The Omicron Variant” into a bunch of 70s sci-fi movie posters #Omicron pic.twitter.com/1BuSL4mYwl
— Becky Cheatle (@BeckyCheatle) November 28, 2021
The poster made by Chatetle is based on a 1974 movie called ‘Phase IV.’ The plot on IMDb states, “Desert ants suddenly form a collective intelligence and begin to wage war on the inhabitants. It is up to two scientists and a stray girl they rescue from the ants to destroy them.” In the following image comparison, readers should notice the identical hand and names of cast members on the posters.
Image 2: This poster shared by Miller, just like the first image, is based on another movie — the 1966 film ‘Cyborg 2087’.
To sum it up, several social media users have posted fictional movie posters with the false claim that the movie ‘The Omicron Variant’ predicted the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the 1960s.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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2nd December 2021 / 7:35 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/fictional-movie-poster-the-omicron-variant-believed-to-be-true/",
"author": "Archit"
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1,344 |
Fictional story on Muslim boy taking away 'Hindu Jain' girl in Andhra's Nellore viral - Alt News
Archit
2nd January 2020 / 7:36 pm / Last updated: 6th November 2021
Two photographs of an interfaith couple have been shared on social media with the claim that a ‘Hindu Jain girl’ was lured by a Muslim man in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. It further adds that after the incident 550 Jain shops and factories decided to terminate all Muslim employees which left 1,800 Muslims jobless. As a result, the girl was returned to her family in nine hours. The text ends by pointing out what can be achieved when a community is united.
दक्षिण भारत में नेल्लोर में एक *शांतिदूत युवक* एक *जैन लड़की* को फुसलाकर भगा ले गया
सुबह यह वाकया पता लगा और फिर दोपहर…
Posted by Vande Mataram on Thursday, 28 October 2021
The story and the pictures have also been shared on Twitter.
दक्षिण भारत नेल्लोर का एक शांतिदूत जैन लड़की को फुसलाकर भगा ले गया। तुरंत जैन समाज ने बैठक कर निर्णय लिया कि अपनी दुकानों और फैक्टरीयों से शांतिदूतों की छुट्टी कर दी जाए। शाम तक कुल 1800 नौकरियों पर नोबत आ गई,
सिर्फ 9 घंटे में जैन बिटिया की सुरक्षित घर वापसी हो गई। 😊 pic.twitter.com/TbKc8lUKCx
— हम लोग We The People (@humlogindia) October 30, 2021
A similar message was shared earlier in May. It alleged that 10,000 Muslims were fired by their Jain employers after the girl was “taken away”.
👏👏👏
Posted by Durga Menon on Wednesday, 19 May 2021
The story was massively widespread on Facebook.
In fact, the story has been doing the rounds on WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter since at least 2019.
The first hint that the story is fictitious is the reference made to a ‘Hindu Jain girl’. Hinduism and Jainism are two distinct religions. Alt News had reached out to B. Srinivasa Reddy, PRO to Superintendent of Police, Nellore in 2019. He stated, “The claim made in the viral text is fabricated to create differences between two communities.” On December 28, 2019, Nellore police filed a rejoinder stating that the viral text is “totally false” and issued a warning that criminal cases will be filed against persons spreading or propagating such rumours.
Reddy further informed that as per their investigation “the messages we initially sent from Mumbai and Ahmedabad and so far no arrests have been made”. He added that a similar message was shared in August 2019 but in Hindi. It claimed 550 Jain traders fired 1,800 Muslim employees.
The complete message read in Hindi, “नेल्लोर में एक मुस्लिम ने जैन लड़की को फुसलाकर लेके गया सुबह को और दोपहर को समाज की बैठक हुई 550 जैन दुकानों से फैक्टरी से मुस्लिम को कह दिया तुम अभी से ही नोकरी से छुटी है थोड़ी देर बाद सब समाज ने एक के बाद एक जैन समाज को सपोर्ट दिया शाम तक 1800 मुसलमान की नोकरियों पे नोबत आ गई तो मुस्लिम समाज ने वो लडकी को उसके घर सही सलामत छोड़कर आये और मुस्लिम लड़को को कह दिया की गलती से भी हिन्दू लड़की को जैन लड़की को ना देखे ये होती है एकता की ताकत अभी भी कुछ थर्ड क्लास दयालु कृपालु कम दिमाग वाले सेक्युलर डरपोक अभी भी हमे सलाह दे रहे है की इनलोगो से झगड़ा मोल नही लेने का !!! अभी तो वक्त है ये लोगो ने हमे मौका दिया है एकजुटता दिखाने का”
A simple reverse image search reveals that wedding photos of an interfaith couple have been misused to support the false story.
According to ScoopWhoop, Faiz and Ankita met in IIM Indore. Ankita’s parents were worried about polygamy in Islam and that Faiz would be allowed to have four marriages. “To set their concerns at rest, Faiz decided to have four marriages, all of them with the one woman he loves. On 17th February [2017], Faiz and Ankita exchanged varmalas in a small Ram mandir at the foot of the Mahalaxmi temple. They then went on to have a court marriage under the Special Marriage Act which does not allow Muslims to marry four times…They married each other once again in a nikah, surrounded by friends and family [in Goa].” They also had another Hindu wedding in Goa.
Ankita wrote about their marriage in her own blog.
The claim that a Muslim boy abducted a Hindu girl who was returned only after the Jain community in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh terminated all Muslim employees is a fictitious tale. Nellore police have clarified that no such incident has taken place in the district and the viral message attempts to create communal differences. An interfaith couple’s wedding pictures from 2017 were used to further amplify the false story.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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2nd January 2020 / 7:36 pm / Last updated: 6th November 2021
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"author": "Archit"
}
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1,345 |
Fictitious list of names viral as accused in naval spy racket - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
23rd February 2020 / 9:19 pm
Earlier this week, multiple social media users shared a list of names of “13 navy personnel” who were accused of spying for Pakistan. One of the prominent among them was Advocate Prashant Bhushan. On February 18, Bhushan shared a hitherto unknown website by the name of AajTak Media published an article naming the accused in the spy racket busted in Indian Navy. “सतीश मिश्र, दीपक त्रिवेदी, पंकज अय्यर, संजीत कुमार, संजय त्रिपाठी, बबलू सिंह, विकास कुमार, राहुल सिंह, संजय रावत, देवशरण गुप्ता, रिंकू त्यागी, ऋषि मिश्र, वेदराम्। (Satish Mishra, Deepak Trivedi, Pankaj Iyer, Sanjit Kumar, Sanjay Tripathi, Bablu Singh, Vikas Kumar, Rahul Singh, Sanjay Rawat, Devsaran Gupta, Rinku Tyagi, Rishi Mishra, Vedram)”, is the list of the names of the arrested naval officers shared by Bhushan. The tweet has garnered nearly 8,400 retweets so far.
According to the article by AajTak Media, 13 people including 11 navy personnel have been apprehended who were allegedly involved in the espionage. It further claims that the names of personnel honey-trapped by the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI were made public by ‘news agency’ India Today. It may be noted that the article cited by Bhushan doesn’t list the names mentioned in his tweet.
INC’s National Campaign in-charge Srivasta tweeted the names and opined, “NO TV DEBATES NO FRONT PAGE HEADLINE Why? Bcos they are not Muslims?”. The tweet has amassed over 13,000 retweets.
Lord Nazir Ahmed, a Pakistani-origin member of the House of Lords in the UK, too posted the list and questioned the ‘lack’ of media coverage on the issue.
Lawyer-columnist Dushyant also posted a report by The Print, with the same list. However, the article doesn’t identify a single accused. His tweet has gathered over 2,400 retweets at the time of writing this article. Tweeting the same article, Academic Ashok Swain claimed, “NOT one of them is a Muslim – Most of them are Upper Caste Hindus!”.
Among other prominent social media users who shared the viral list were TV news panellist Rahul Easwar and the former national executive member of Samajwadi party Preeti Chobey.
An operation named Dolphin’s Nose was launched by Andhra Pradesh Intelligence Department in association with the Central Intelligence Agencies and Naval Intelligence after it was suspected that certain navy personnel are leaking information to Pakistan.
Under this operation, a hawala operator and seven navy personnel based in Visakhapatnam, Karwar and Mumbai, were reportedly arrested on December 20, 2019. These seven sailors were arrested following sustained surveillance. The personnel were honey-trapped by an ISI module.
On January 4, 2020, India Today subsequently reported that three more navy personnel – Rajesh, Lokanda and Nirajan who were serving at Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam – were arrested in the espionage case. The report also identified eight other accused as Sunny Kumar, SK Das, and S Kumar Sarma, Ashok Kumar (Jhunjhun), Ashok Kumar (Jodhpur), V Kumar, Somanath and Ashok Kumar Singh. In total, 11 navy personnel along with 2 other civilians have been arrested in the case so far. The names were earlier reported in a TOI report on December 29, 2019. Alt News was unable to independently verify the names.
According to a TOI report, NIA had taken custody of 13 people for five days with permission from the court. It identified two more accused – a hawala operator from Mumbai named Sayyed alias Masoom Ali and Sheikh Shahista, a 47-year-old woman who was reportedly the key conduit in routing the money to accused through a hawala channel.
Shashank Singh, the director of fact-checking organization Fact Hunt, floated one such dubious list of names and intentionally propagated disinformation.
In conclusion, none of the names of the accused, as reported by the media, match with the list viral on social media. Additionally, it was alleged that all the accused in the case belonged to the Hindu community. However, as mentioned above, there were 13 arrests – 11 naval personnel and 2 civilians. All the naval personnel are reportedly from the Hindu community and two civilians belong to the Muslim community.
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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23rd February 2020 / 9:19 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/fictitious-list-of-names-viral-as-accused-in-naval-spy-racket/",
"author": "Jignesh Patel"
}
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1,346 |
Fictitious politician 'Anil Upadhyaya' makes a comeback, now as BJP MLA criticising CAA/NRC - Alt News
Nibedita Sen
15th January 2020 / 7:46 pm / Last updated: 15th January 2020
A video of a politician is being shared in with the claim that he is ‘BJP MLA Anil Upadhayay’ criticising the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Bjp mla Anil upadhyaya.
Posted by Mohammedali Mannaril on Wednesday, 8 January 2020
In the video, he says that the government is asking for proof of ancestral evidence from Muslims and cites Red Fort, Char Minar and Qutub Minar as examples.
At about 30 seconds into the video, the name of the politicians appears on the screen – ‘Faruk Ahmed Spokesperson VBA MH’.
A keyword search on YouTube led us to the same speech uploaded on October 11, 2019. It is titled as, “VBA candidate Faruk Ahmed Press Conference at Nanded [Maharashtra] on 10 Oct 2019”. Based on this, Alt News located the full version of viral clip posted on December 20, 2019. This speech was made by Farukh Ahmed in Grant Dharna Pradarshan at Nanded.
The name ‘Anil Upadhyaya’ regularly crops up on social media – sometimes as a BJP MLA, and at other times, a Congress MLA. However, there is no such MLA in the assemblies of any state, as per myneta. The screen-grab posted below show the search results for ‘Anil Upadhyay’.
A video of a VBA politician from Maharashtra, Faruk Ahmed, has been shared on social media as BJP MLA ‘Anil Upadhyaya’ criticising the ruling party over CAA and NRC.
Defence Correspondent turned fact-checker. Two times award winning journalist by Govt. of Goa.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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15th January 2020 / 7:46 pm / Last updated: 15th January 2020
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"author": "Nibedita Sen"
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Fight between customers and staff in Harayana dhaba falsely communalised - Alt News
Archit
9th March 2022 / 7:37 pm
A CCTV clip of a clash at a restaurant is being shared online with the claim that the incident took place at a dhaba in Haryana owned by a Muslim. As per the claim, a waiter hailing from the Muslim community made lewd comments at a woman from the Hindu community. The claim adds that when the woman opposed, the entire staff comprising Muslims beat up her husband. The viral message also appeals to people to avoid visiting dhabas owned by Muslims.
Twitter user @VishnuMTiwari1 shared this clip and so did many other Twitter users.
हरियाणा के एक मुस्लिम ढाबे में हिंदू महिला को देख कर मुस्लिम वेटर ने महिला पर अश्लील कमेंट किया,
महिला के विरोध करने पर उसके पति को पूरे मुस्लिम स्टाफ के लड़को ने मिल कर बहुत मारा।
किसी मुस्लिम के ढाबे में फैमिली सहित जाने से बचे!!!
धन्यवाद।।🙏 pic.twitter.com/tuLPbig7oW
— विष्णु तिवारी (@VishnuMTiwari1) March 5, 2022
We found that several Facebook pages and groups posted this video, including pro-BJP accounts such as योगी है तो यकीन है।, WE SUPPORT BJP RSS ( नमो ), We Support Narendra Modi Ji, BJP Mission 2024 and श्री मोदी जी और श्री योगी जी समर्थक तुरंत जुड़े🙏.
The clip has a voice-over narrating the incident. It carries the logo of ‘Janta Breaking News’ on the top right. The narrator said the incident took place at ‘Mannat Star’ dhaba in Haryana’s Kurukshetra. However, there is no reference that the incident was communal.
Next, we performed a keyword search on Facebook and found that the viral video is clipped from a February 20 report by the Facebook page Janta Breaking News. The viral video comprises the opening three minutes of the report. The original video has 2.1 million views. As per this report, the dhaba staff was assaulting customers. Five minutes into the video, the narrator states the chronology of the events – a couple visited this restaurant for dinner. The wife, Samana Bahu, expressed her concern after a server made a comment. However, the narrator hasn’t revealed the comment.
Haryana News, a YouTube channel, also reported this incident based on the video by Janta Breaking News. As per this report, Ravi and his friends were attacked. Ravi spoke to the channel and his bite can be heard at the 10-minute mark. He said, “…Me and my wife, along with some friends and their partners, went to have dinner at ‘Manna dhaba’. During dinner, they [the staff] misbehaved with my wife. When we raised an issue, we were told to speak with the manager sitting outside. The manager refused to speak with us and soon we were attacked with sticks.” Ravi does not claim that the attack was communally motivated.
At 22:00 minutes, Butana Police Station SHO Kanwar Singh joined the broadcast via a phone call. He said, “By the time we reached the dhaba on February 13, the conflict was over. The victims said they would file a complaint the next morning. The FIR mentions that the staff misbehaved and manhandled the women. While the fight indeed took place, there is no evidence of misbehaving and manhandling as per our investigation.”
Alt News spoke with Kanwar Singh and he informed, “Both the parties hail from the Hindu community. The social media claim that the incident is communal is totally false.” He added, “I have seen the CCTV footage. There is no truth to the claim that the staffer misbehaved with women. As per our investigation, Ravi and his friends spoke rudely to the dhaba staff. This led to a fight between the two groups. As of now, we have arrested three dhaba staffers. The dhaba management has also filed an FIR.”
A clash between customers and staff of a dhaba in Haryana’s Butana was shared with a false anti-Muslim spin.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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9th March 2022 / 7:37 pm
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"author": "Archit"
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Filming of Russian music video viral with hoax claim that COVID is a conspiracy - Alt News
Archit
9th April 2021 / 2:17 pm
As COVID cases surge in several countries, social media users have shared a 10-second TikTok clip that shows a man inside a body bag, placed on a truck filled with more body bags, smoking a cigarette. “Before beginning the drama of COVID deaths in the media, a dead body smokes a cigarette,” says the viral message adding that the coronavirus pandemic is a conspiracy hatched by the Jews and Eurasians.
(Translated from: कोरोना वायरस की तबाही लाशों को ठिकाने लगाने और मिडिया में पैश करने का ड्रामा शुरू करने से पहले एक लाश सिगरेट पीते हुए ! याद रखना कोरोना यहुदी और युरेशियन लोगो की एक बहोत बड़ी वैश्विक साजिश है !)
Twitter user @FalahiMuhammed posted the video, garnering over 2,500 views. Several Twitter users have made similar posts.
लाशों को ठिकाने लगाने ओर मीडिया में पेश करने का ड्रामा शुरू करने से पहले एक लाश सिगरेट पीते हुए 😂👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/kLkSFpjqDg
— Muhammed Falahi (@FalahiMuhammed) April 6, 2021
Several Facebook users also posted this video including Firoz Malek who shared it on a pro-Congress group (I m back Congress………group) with over 90,000 members.
This video was first uploaded by Twitter user @denisdriver3. It has been retweeted over 11,000 times.
They’re preparing dead Rona bodies for the news. One is still smoking a cigarette. 😅😅👍 pic.twitter.com/cDN9cmbC6q
— Denis driver (@denisdriver3) March 30, 2021
While rummaging the replies to the viral tweet by @denisdriver3, we noticed @deGourlay wrote, “1500 RTs for a blatant lie using an old Russian Music video by rapper Хаски [HUSKY]. There are a lot of gullible idiots on Twitter.”
1500 RTs for a blatant lie using an old Russian Music video by rapper Хаски. There are a lot of gullible idiots on twitter.
— Peter (@deGourlay) March 30, 2021
We compared the viral video with the music video of the song ‘Never end’ (Никогда-нибуд) by Russian rap artist Husky who is known for mocking the government and talking about police brutality in his songs. The similarities are given below.
The complete music video can be watched below. The part with the truck starts at around 2:15 minutes. [Warning: The video is graphic and may be disturbing for some viewers.]
Last year in September Russia-based Ren TV reported that the location where the scene was shot is Shchepkina Street in Moscow. Mikhail Marizov, the video producer, told RenTV that the body bags were filled with mannequins.
The report added that this is not the first time Husky’s performance raised controversy. In 2018, similar props scared passers-by who called the police. That same year, The Guardian reported that Husky was sentenced to 12 days in jail on charges of hooliganism after he performed on top of a car.
This was earlier fact-checked by Hoax Eye and AFP.
A TikTik clip of Russian-rapper Husky’s music video being filmed has been circulating on social to claim that COVID is a conspiracy theory.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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9th April 2021 / 2:17 pm
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"author": "Archit"
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Financial Express asks 'anti-Hindu' Kamal Haasan to mind his 'own' religion, quietly changes the article later - Alt News
Pratik Sinha
27th March 2017 / 1:41 pm
How does a major Indian media outlet deal with a blunderous article filled with astronomical factual inaccuracies? They change the content surreptitiously hoping that no one notices. Yesterday, Financial Express published an article authored by Manika Gupta and titled “Is Kamal Haasan anti-Hindu, does he even know what he is talking about?”. The article was in reference to Kamal Haasan’s recent comments on Draupadi and Mahabharata and the complaints filed against him by certain groups who were angered by his comment.
In an interview on March 12 to a private channel, Kamal Haasan had said:
Following this comment, a police complaint has been lodged with the Chennai police by a group known as Hindu Munani Katchi and later a PIL was filed by a member of the same group in Chennai High Court.
On this issue, Manika Gupta of Financial Express wrote an article attacking Kamal Haasan for his comments. The article was so hilariously blunderous that I took a backup of the article using the archive.is service in case Financial Express realises the blunder and changes the article later. The website “archive.is” can take a snapshot of any web page and this snapshot will always be alive even if the original web page disappears or changes. Not surprisingly, this morning, Financial Express had quietly changed the content of the article.
The original article backed up on archive.is can be accessed here => http://archive.is/zergT
The article in its present state can be accessed here => http://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/is-kamal-haasan-anti-hindu-does-he-even-know-what-he-is-talking-about/603025/
In para 3 of the original version of the article, the author suggested that while living in a Hindu majority country, Kamal Haasan had no business commenting on a Hindu mythological figure and that it was a misuse of his freedom of speech.
Clearly, the author has no clue about a book called the ‘Constitution’ which still gives equal rights to all citizens irrespective of religion and article 19 guarantees the freedom of speech and expression. The changed version of the article has the following content instead.
Para 4 of the original version of the article was even more shocking.
No equivalent of this para exists in the revised version of the article. In the original version of the article, the author assumed that Kamal Haasan is Muslim, probably because of his name. She went on to attack him for the condition of women in ‘his’ religion and asked him to ‘mind’ his ‘own’ business. As it happens, Kamal Haasan was born in a Tamil Brahmin family in the town of Paramakudi, in the Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu, to D. Srinivasan and Rajalakshmi. Clearly, the author doesn’t believe in researching the topic she writes about. Otherwise, it is difficult to come up with an article which is such a ginormous pile of rubbish. Also, a single Google search would have been enough to know that Kamal Haasan has publicly proclaimed himself to be an atheist on multiple occasions.
In Para 5 of the original version of the article, the author actively wishes for action against Kamal Haasan. She writes:
The revised version of this para in the article currently available on Financial Express website is as follows:
It seems that the author Manika Gupta was as hurt by Kamal Haasan’s comments as were the members of Hindu Munani Katchi and that is alright. What is questionable is her personal emotions manifesting into her journalism. What is shocking is Financial Express letting such views come out in public domain without any editorial intervention wherein an author is actively hoping that action be taken against Kamal Haasan and these views are pushed to lakhs of readers via their platform.
Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker.
Follow @free_thinker
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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27th March 2017 / 1:41 pm
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"author": "Pratik Sinha"
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FIR against Sudhir Chaudhary no badge of honour, ‘jihad chart’ lifted from dubious page - Alt News
Sam Jawed & Pooja Chaudhuri
8th May 2020 / 6:01 pm / Last updated: 8th May 2020
Zee News editor-in-chief Sudhir Chaudhary tweeted on May 7, “Here’s my Pulitzer Prize for reporting the truth”, and shared a copy of an FIR filed against him. The FIR states that Chaudhary has been booked for “maligning the Muslim community in a programme called DNA broadcast on 11.03.2020 on Zee News”. In another tweet, Chaudhary wrote that the FIR is the “prize for daring to speak against #ZameenJihad in Jammu, #LoveJihad in Kerala…”
This is the price for daring to speak against #ZameenJihad in Jammu,#LoveJihad in Kerala,
PFI funding of CAA protests,
and for daring to enter Shaheen Bagh.
I have all the respect for the law but these tactics won’t stop me. Bring it on! https://t.co/4xoLhIgDSi
— Sudhir Chaudhary (@sudhirchaudhary) May 7, 2020
The FIR concerns Chaudhary’s Match 11 broadcast where he indulged in a five-minute discourse on “different types of jihad” during his DNA show. “Today we have a diagram about jihad which I want read out to you so that you can understand what the conspiracy is.” Chaudhary then went on to describe ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ Jihad in detail. With the help of the diagram, he explained history jihad, media jihad, love jihad, movie jihad, population jihad, land jihad, etc.
#DNA : जम्मू, ज़मीन और जेहाद#ZameenJihad @sudhirchaudhary pic.twitter.com/lVqROQguga
— Zee News Hindi (@ZeeNewsHindi) March 11, 2020
The FIR was registered at Kasaba police station on April 24 by advocate P Gavas, AIYF state joint secretary, Kozhikode. Chaudhary has been booked under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).
Gavas shared his complaint with Alt News which states, “Sudhir Chaudhary, the head and editor-in-chief of Zee News covered the different types of jihad organized by Muslims in India. He used a diagram to target the Muslims of India…He made comments during the show that can create religious hate amongst people and lead to communal riots. ” The complaint also carries the Malayalam translation of the March 11 show on the “different types of jihad”.
Ironically, Zee News had plagiarized the chart from a dodgy Facebook page. The image was traced by Newslaundry to a five-year-old post by the page ‘Boycott Halal in India’. The Facebook page goes on to a detailed explanation of how ‘Halal’ is an example of economic jihad.
Halal as economic jihad
“Full employment for Moslems …no others need apply”.
When existing food producing companies go…
Posted by Boycott Halal In India on Friday, 31 July 2015
Alt News found that the image was even older than August 1, 2015, when it was posted on the ‘Boycott Halal’ page. It carried the watermark of a now-deleted Facebook page called ‘Secularism ki topi’. The chart also features on a 2015 post of blog called sickular.com which is dedicated to propaganda against minorities. The image has been in circulation since 2014 and has been shared by many Facebook and Twitter users with the same Islamophobic narrative for which it was created. Below is a tweet by BJP supporter Payal Rohatgi from September 2019.
Why did Mughals come to Bharatvarsh from Middle-east? They wanted to CONQUER, do #FORCEDCONVERSION 🙏 Simple but jokers like #ZainabSikander who are jobless, have NO logic in their brain want money to run their house so spread misinformation in disguise of #HistoryJihad 🙏 pic.twitter.com/HA9qhZIOV6
— PAYAL ROHATGI & Team- Bhagwan Ram Bhakts (@Payal_Rohatgi) September 9, 2019
The chart seemed to be circulation before it made into Zee News newsroom, as can be seen from this March 1, 2020 tweet.
Forms of jihad pic.twitter.com/KvVRnuHi0k
— Twamevaaham…. (@Suryaevani) March 1, 2020
Interestingly, in the DNA show, before presenting the ‘jihad’ poster, Sudhir Chaudhary also featured the views of Pakistani-Canadian author Tarek Fatah, who is known for his frequent targeting of Indian Muslims with false information. Fatah was presented by Zee News as “Islam ke jaankaar”, which can be translated as ‘one knowledgeable about Islam’.
Following the outrage about the jihad chart, Chaudhary went on to defend his show and indulged in name-calling his critics as ‘designer patrakar’ and ‘tukde-tukde gang’.
To defend his jihad chart, he tried to explain a concept he called ‘Gajwa-e-Hind’, quoting from the book of the controversial American anti-Muslim author and blogger, Robert Spencer. All through his explanation, Chaudhary repeated several times that he was not targeting any particular religion but rather those who hold unholy ideas of dividing the country.
Incidentally, Chaudhary, who blatantly plagiarized the jihad chart from a dubious Facebook page had once made a plagiarism charge against TMC MP Mahua Moitra. Not only was the charge false but the man who he accused Moitra of plagiarizing, came to her defence and slammed Chaudhary’s allegations.
I’m internet famous in India because a politician is being falsely accused of plagiarizing me. It’s kind of funny, but right-wing assholes seem to be similar in every country.
— Martin Longman (@BooMan23) July 2, 2019
Moitra had filed charges of criminal defamation against Chaudhary.
At a time when the country witnessed deadly communal riots in the capital which caused close to 50 deaths, Zee News dedicated an entire show to different types of ‘jihad’ – a derogatory word coined to fan anti-Muslim sentiments. This wasn’t just irresponsible journalism but a blatant misuse of public emotion which was at an all-time high. The show was nothing more than sectarian propaganda to drive views. Now that a police complaint has been filed against Sudhir Chaudhary, the anchor is playing the victim by portraying that the FIR is a “prize” for speaking the truth.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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8th May 2020 / 6:01 pm / Last updated: 8th May 2020
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FIR filed against admin of fake news site Postcard News for an alleged derogatory post - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
1st December 2017 / 6:13 pm / Last updated: 1st December 2017
An FIR has been lodged against the admins of Postcard news for derogatory comments allegedly made against three women warriors of Kannada history on facebook pages run by them. It has been alleged that the abusive comments about Kittur Rani Chennamma, Belavadi Mallamma and Onake Obavva, celebrated women figures in the history of Karnataka were made in an article on fake news site postcardkannada.com. In the past, Alt News has exposed how Postcard is a serial fake news purveyor and unfortunately supported by many senior BJP leaders. Postcard News is founded by Mahesh Vikram Hegde and Vivek Shetty.
According to the complaint filed at the Sanjay Nagar police station, the comments were made in a postcardkannada.com article posted on the facebook pages ‘I support Pratap Simha’ and ‘Pratap Simha for CM’. The article, questioning the indifference and lack of outrage among the Kannada film industry over the Padmavati movie controversy resorted to a vulgar comparison that resulted in outrage. These pages are run by the admins of Postcard news. The article was also carried on the Postcard news website but was subsequently deleted.
The page ‘I support Pratap Simha’ has more than 105,000 likes and over 110,000 followers whereas ‘Pratap Simha for CM’ has over 78,000 likes and followers. These pages mostly share only Postcard articles.
Pratap Simha in a public statement has denied any link with the said pages and their admins.
Dear ETV, I have nothing to do with this page. If u don’t know the basics of journalism, better find some other job. pic.twitter.com/P0YGc9bXwO
— Pratap Simha (@mepratap) November 29, 2017
While there is no evidence that Pratap Simha is handling the page himself, Alt News conducted a background check to ascertain whether the BJP MP has any connections with the admins of the above pages.
In a tweet by Simha dated November 13, he is seen posing with admins of the Postcard News team Vivek Shetty and Mahesh Vikram Hegde whom he calls his ‘best buddies’ and ‘Trend Setters’ on social media. Another person in this picture Abhishek Singh is also a frequent contributor to Postcard news and had recently called for the lynching of a bus driver.
Simha’s proximity to the admins of Postcard news is further established by this post dated September 2 wherein he praises Mahesh Hegde and Vivek Shetty for their ‘service’ to community and nation.
ಇವರಿಬ್ಬರೆಂದರೆ ವಿರೋಧಿಗಳು ಬೆಚ್ಚುತ್ತಾರೆ, ಏಕೆಂದರೆ ….https://t.co/e47cSNyep6
ಹ್ಯಾಟ್ಸಾಪ್ @mvmeet & @vivekshettym pic.twitter.com/eNYYtLWuew
— Pratap Simha (@mepratap) September 2, 2017
Postcard News is notorious for spreading fake news and malicious propaganda. It is disconcerting to see sitting law makers give credence to elements who have been caught red handed spreading rumours and false news. While Pratap Simha has predictably distanced himself, there is enough evidence on record to suggest his acquaintance at the very least if not proximity to the admins of Postcard news.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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1st December 2017 / 6:13 pm / Last updated: 1st December 2017
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"author": "Arjun Sidharth"
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BJP MP Sushil Modi falsely claims first five Indian education ministers were Muslims - Alt News
Priyanka Jha
4th March 2021 / 7:15 pm
On March 3, BJP MP and former deputy chief minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi posted several tweets targeting Rahul Gandhi and the Congress. One of these addressed Gandhi himself. Modi questioned the Congress leader why the first five education ministers of India were all chosen from a single community. “Will Congress ever apologise for teaching a distorted history of India and negating the existence of Lord Ram,” he further asked. (Archive link)
राहुल गांधी बतायें कि देश के पहले पांच शिक्षा मंत्री केवल एक ही समुदाय से क्यों बनाये गए?
भारत का विकृत इतिहास पढाये जाने और भगवान राम का अस्तित्व नकारने के लिए क्या कांग्रेस माफी मांगेगी?
— Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) March 3, 2021
Even a basic Google search reveals that Modi’s claim is false. The names of India’s first five education ministers are as follows.
1. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
2. Kalu Lal Shrimali
3. Humayun Kabir
4. Mohammad Karim Changla
5. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
Dr Kalu Lal Shrimali held the post of education minister twice – in 1958 and 1962. Following him, Humayun Kabir served as the education minister for only three months and the fifth education minister was Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. He held office for four months.
BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, in an attempt to target the Congress, alluded that the first five education ministers of India hailed from the Muslim community. In reality, the second education minister Dr Kalu Lal Shrimali who filled the position twice was a Hindu. Furthermore, the claim that members of the Muslim community are tampering with Indian history frequently circulates. A photo of students from the religious studies branch in a Hyderabad college was viral with the false claim that they were distorting the Vedas.
She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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4th March 2021 / 7:15 pm
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"author": "Priyanka Jha"
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First Muslim woman SP in Maharashtra? No, image of Women's Day celebration viral - Alt News
Archit
13th March 2020 / 8:30 pm / Last updated: 3rd September 2020
Several Facebook and Twitter users have uploaded an image of a girl surrounded by police officers. It is claimed that she is the “first Muslim woman SP (superintendent of police) from an Urdu medium in Maharashtra…” who is not following the official dress code for policewomen instead, wearing a hijab. “Do only ‘you people’ get such lenience in Maharashtra or is it for everybody? This is a good joke. (महाराष्ट्र मे ये छूट आप लोगो के लिये ही है या सबको दी जायेगी? अच्छा मजाक है),” wrote Twitter user TEAM SCB बबलू सैनी 🇮🇳 (@bablu3796) on September 2.
उर्दू मीडियम से पढ़कर IPS बनी
पहली मुस्लिम SP महिला बधाई की पात्र हैं
किन्तु ड्रेस कोड को दरकिनार करके
आप जिस वेशभूषा मे सरकारी कुर्सी पर विराजमान हैं
तो पहला नियम का उल्लंघन तो
आपने आते ही कर दिया है
महाराष्ट्र मे ये छूट आप लोगो के लिये ही है
या सबको दी जायेगी ?
अच्छा मजाक है 😠 pic.twitter.com/5xwBKSwFa9
— 🇮🇳 TEAM SCB बबलू सैनी 🇮🇳 (@bablu3796) September 2, 2020
The same image was also circulating in March however, the posts were commending the girl for becoming the first “Muslim woman SP” in Maharashtra.
Along with the image, a video was also viral with the same claim. A Facebook user posted the video on March 8.Alt News had received several requests to fact-check the viral image on WhatsApp (+91 76000 11160) and on our official Android application.
After unsuccessful reverse image search attempts, Alt News performed a keyword search on YouTube and found a March 5, 2020 video by Times of India. The video title reads, ‘Women’s Day: 14-year-old girl becomes DSP ‘for a day’ in Maharashtra’s Buldhana.’
The video description states that Sahrish Kanwal, a 14-year-old high school student, was made the district superintendent of police (DSP) for a day in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district ahead of International Women’s Day.
On March 4, Buldhana Police tweeted, “I want to be a police superintendent. It’s important to me” (Expectation of) Sahrish Kanwal, one day police superintendent, District school, Malkapur. Statement on the occasion of the international woman’s day. (मलाही पोलीस अधिक्षक व्हायचयं..” आजचा दिवस माझ्यासाठी अत्यंत महत्वाचा! – एक दिवसाच्या पोलीस अधिक्षीका सहरीश कवल, जिल्हा परिषद हायस्कुल, मलकापुर यांच्या अपेक्षा –पोलीस अधिक्षक, बुलडाणा मा.डॉ.दिलीप पाटील-भुजबळ यांचा जागतिक महिला दिनानिमित्त अभिनव उपक्रम.)”
Therefore, the claim on social media associated with the viral image is false.
Last year, Tata Trusts, the philanthropist arm of Tata Group, published ‘India Justice Report 2019.‘ According to the report, “Over fifteen years, from 1999–2013, Muslim representation in the police has remained consistently low, at 3–4 per cent (including Jammu and Kashmir pushes it up to 8 per cent), as against the 14.2 per cent population that is Muslim. A few states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal include reservation for Muslims under the Other Backward Classes category. Inexplicably, since 2013, the National Crimes Records Bureau annual report has ceased reporting the level of Muslim representation in the police.”
This report also found that “Women make up just 7% of the police (Bureau of Police Research and Development, Jan 2017). Over 5 years, 31 states and UTs have improved women’s representation in the force. The pace, however, is much too slow.” The infographic below shows the time Indian States will take to reach 33% women representation in the police.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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13th March 2020 / 8:30 pm / Last updated: 3rd September 2020
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"author": "Archit"
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Fish rain in Mumbai? No, manufactured video goes viral - Alt News
Aqib Pathan
13th July 2019 / 6:36 pm
A video has been doing rounds on social media where, in the first frame, fish are shown to be falling from the sky like rain. The next frames show fish scattered on the road with people trying to collect them. The video is viral with the claim that it rained fish in Mumbai.
*FISH RAIN!*
It rained fish in Mumbai this morning, according to BBC news. Instead of a rain of water or snow, it was a shower of fish. God is powerful!!! Scientists are still confused by this mysterious event. Of course, where the knowledge of man ends, that is where the power of God begins. The explanation for this phenomenon is known as waterwheel, a tornado hits the sea and sucks everything in its path, unloading it in the place where the tornado dissolves. Here is the video 👇
Posted by Irfan alam on Thursday, 4 July 2019
“It rained fish in Mumbai this morning, according to BBC news. Instead of rain of water or snow, it was a shower of fish. God is powerful!!! Scientists are still confused by this mysterious event. Of course, where the knowledge of man ends, that is where the power of God begins. The explanation for this phenomenon is known as a waterwheel, a tornado hits the sea and sucks everything in its path, unloading it in the place where the tornado dissolves. Here is the video,” reads the message.
The video was also shared last year.
Alt News did a simple keyword search, “fish rain”, on Google and found videos with the same frames as in the viral video. As it turns out, the viral video has been developed by merging bits and pieces from existing clips available online.
1. First few seconds lifted from at least a decade old video.
The first few seconds of the viral video show fish falling from the sky. This has been lifted from a 1999 BBC Supernatural: The Unseen Powers of Animals series 2008. A YouTuber posted a part of one of the episodes in 2008, titled – “BBC Supernatural (raining fish!!!!).” This video has simulated imagery to show fish falling from the sky.
In the juxtaposition below, the image on the left is from the viral video and the one on the right is from the YouTube video, appearing at 1:09 minutes. Both the frames match.
2. The second part of the video was taken from a 2013 clip.
This video was uploaded by a YouTube channel named Yo Man Bukka, which said that the incident took place in Nashik. A car that appears in the 22nd second has Nashik’s vehicle registration code – MH 15. However, it could not be conclusively established that the incident indeed occurred in Nashik as no media reports were found.
At about 1:10 minutes, a person can be heard saying “tyre puncture”, which hints that an accident might have scattered the fish on the road. A closer look at the video shows that the fish are accumulated only on one side of the road, which means that they could not have rained.
Given below is a frame-by-frame comparison of the viral video (left) and the 2013 YouTube video (right). The scene depicted in the viral video appears at 1:29 minutes in the YouTube video.
3. The third section of the video was found in a 2017 video.
The last few seconds of the viral video shown fish scattered on the road. The scene which was incorporated into the viral video appears at 0:37 seconds into the YouTube video. In the juxtaposition below, the viral video is on the left and the YouTube video is on the right.
The video was uploaded on YouTube in 2017 and has the description – “Fish rain in india…truck palat gaya (Fish rain in India…truck was overturned.)” While we were unable to conclusively establish the origin and location of the video, a truck that appears at 1:47 minutes has Jharkhand’s number plate.
A 2004 report in BBC had talked about the strange phenomenon after it rained fish in a village in Wales. The report said, “The phenomenon can be explained simply: given strong enough winds, in thunderstorms, for example, small whirlwinds and mini-tornadoes may form. When these travel over water any small items of debris in their path, such as fish or frogs, may be picked up and carried for up to several miles. Sooner or later, the clouds carrying them will open and drop their strange cargo – resulting in a hail of fish, frogs or whatever the winds happened to pick up.”
In 2017, The New York Times reported about a small community in the periphery of Yoro, Honduras where it rains fish at least once every year. But it happens “only under specific conditions: a torrential downpour, thunder and lightning, conditions so intense that nobody dares to go outside.”
When fish had fallen from the sky in an Andhra Pradesh village in 2015, a Met official had given a similar explanation – “Sea tornados occur in the Bay of Bengal and, along with seawater, they also carry aquatic life as well. It is possible that they can suck up a school of fish or frogs and ‘rain’ them elsewhere,” said K. Nagaratna, a scientist with the Hyderabad Meteorology Department.”
Therefore, it is possible that fish or other small animals and vegetables or fruits fall from the sky. But they don’t literally rain as there is no evaporation and condensation taking place. These living creatures or other objects are carried by strong winds and subsequently dropped from the sky.
Nevertheless, the viral video has nothing to do with the above-mentioned phenomenon as it was entirely manufactured.
Aqib is monitoring and researching mis/disinformation at Alt News
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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13th July 2019 / 6:36 pm
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"author": "Aqib Pathan"
}
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Old video falsely viral as Rajnath Singh came in support of farmers amid protests - Alt News
Anuradha Prasad
11th March 2021 / 8:43 pm
Farmers have been protesting the new agricultural laws for four months now. Another round of talks between them and the Centre is ongoing, with neither side willing to back down. In the backdrop of this, a 10-minute video of Defense Minister Rajnath Singh talking about farmers is causing quite a stir online. At the beginning of the clip, the senior leader says, “And my farmer brothers, never consider yourself weak. I am aware of the constraints you have to live with because I am also a villager, I am a farmer’s son myself …” Users were sharing the visuals as recent. One such post was captioned, “Rajnath Singh came forward in support of farmers and spoke against the farm laws. This came as a huge shock to the government.”
Facebook user Rajesh Deshwal shared the video on February 28, where it amassed more than 5.2 lakh views at the time of writing.
Livestream
https://www.facebook.com/Rajlokmorcha/
राजनाथ सिंह उतरे थे कृषी बिलो के विरोध मे किसानो के सम्मान मे
केन्द्र सरकार को लगा था तगङा झटका
Posted by राजेश देशवाल वि.क्षैत्र फुलेरा on Sunday, February 28, 2021
Another user named Bhanu Baba posted the clip with the same caption. It garnered over 15,000 views at the time of writing.
Livestream
जय जवान जय किसान
राजनाथ सिंह उतरे थे कृषी बिलो के विरोध मे किसानो के सम्मान मे
केन्द्र सरकार को लगा था तगङा झटका
Posted by Bhanu Baba on Tuesday, March 2, 2021
In the video, Rajnath Singh is expressing admiration for the farmer leader and president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Mahendra Tikait, who passed away back in 2011. Apart from this, he also names a few other farmer leaders including Chaudhary Charan Singh and Chaudhary Chhotu Ram. Using this information, we performed a keyword search on YouTube which led us to the original clip containing the full speech. It was uploaded on October 6, 2015, by the Bharatiya Janata Party on its YouTube channel. The title mentions that the BJP leader delivered this speech on the occasion of Mahendra Tikait’s 80th birth anniversary. The clip in its entirety is 18:44 long.
It is worth mentioning that Rajnath Singh’s address has been clipped and edited. The original video was cropped at the 5:48 mark to create the viral footage. Apart from this, the section between the 11:50 and 14:36 mark has been removed. Here, Singh is praising Narendra Modi and the BJP government while saying, “You know the administration which I’m working under and our respected Narendra Modi very well. I am telling you the truth, his heart aches for farmers’ issues and we discuss them often…”
A 10-minute clip of Defense Minister Rajnath Singh expressing sympathy and support for farmers has gone viral. However, the clip is more than five years old. Some users falsely linked it to the movement against the new agricultural laws, circulating it as proof of the senior minister siding with farmers on this issue.
A journalist and a dilettante person who always strives to learn new skills and meeting new people. Either sketching or working.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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11th March 2021 / 8:43 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/five-year-old-video-of-rajnath-singh-giving-speech-at-a-program-viral-as-recent-supporting-farmers/",
"author": "Anuradha Prasad"
}
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Five-yr-old image from Patna shared to claim no solidarity for recent Bharat Bandh - Alt News
Archit
27th September 2021 / 7:16 pm / Last updated: 27th September 2021
To mark one year since President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the three controversial farm laws, a Bharat Bandh was called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of 40 farm unions, on September 27 from 6 AM to 4 PM. As per media reports, about 700 farmers have died since the beginning of the agitation.
In the backdrop of this several users have posted an aerial view of a city and claimed that their city didn’t show solidarity with the SKM protest. Twitter user @Shubham__Pathak posted the image and wrote, “My city is fully open. Surat do not support Bharat bandh.”
My city is fully open.
Surat do not support Bharat bandh.#भारत_खुला_है pic.twitter.com/8XCcK7lGy4
— mr.shubhu__7 (@Shubham__Pathak) September 27, 2021
This image has also been shared as Pune, Sultanpur and Patna.
Alt News performed a reverse image search and found that the photo was posted by the website Patna Beats in 2016. This report is about the launch of an odd-even parking scheme in Patna.
Since then, the image has been published by various websites as a stock image including Hindi language daily Dainik Bhaskar. To sum it up, a 5-year image of traffic in Patna was shared to discredit the ongoing farmers’ protest.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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27th September 2021 / 7:16 pm / Last updated: 27th September 2021
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"author": "Archit"
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'Flood jihad' - NewsX, other media outlets, journos communalise Silchar floods - Alt News
Archit
11th July 2022 / 7:35 pm / Last updated: 12th July 2022
While reporting on the Assam floods in June, The Indian Express stated that Silchar — southern Assam’s biggest town and the gateway to the three districts on the bank of the Barak river — had submerged in water unlike “ever before in its history”. By the first week of July, the total death toll in the state had crossed over 170.
On June 26, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed that the flooding in Silchar was “man-made”. “If the embankment at Betukandi was not breached [destroyed by people], this would not have happened,” he said. Betukandi is less than 10 kilometres away from Silchar.
In the first week of July, four men — Kabul Khan, Mithu Hussain Laskar, Nazir Hussain Laskar and Ripon Khan — were arrested for their alleged involvement in causing the breach. Dyke or embankment is a structure that typically runs parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastlines. Its purpose is to keep the course of rivers from changing and to protect against flooding of the area adjoining the river or coast.
Around July 5, a section of the mainstream media reported the alleged breach as ‘flood jihad’. NewsX had conducted a prime-time debate regarding flooding in Silchar. The panellists were former diplomat Bhaswati Mukherjee, former Home Ministry official RVS Mani, Aurelius Corporate Solutions founder Sumit Peer (as a political analyst), and Editorial Director at iTV Network (parent company of NewsX) Madhav Nalapat. All panellists, including the anchor, were of the opinion that “flood jihad” took place. (Archived link)
After introducing the panellists, anchor Meenakshi Upreti asked, “…this doesn’t seem like an innocuous mischief… would you say it’s a simple mischief or do you smell a more sinister plot… do you think perhaps… at the highest level the Indian government should be alerted…” Mukherjee called this incident “a matter of internal sabotage”, “an act of treason”. Responding to Upreti, Nalapat said that this incident was “a plan for mass murder”. All panellists opined that the incident was an attempt to destabilise the BJP-ruling state.
‘Dyke Sabotage’ Exposes Flood Jihad in Assam’s Silchar. NewsX gets you this revetting discussion.
Click on the link below to watch the full debate with @MeenakshiUpreti https://t.co/1ROOCJwJAt pic.twitter.com/VaspsZs6GB
— NewsX (@NewsX) July 5, 2022
Pro-BJP propaganda outlet Sudarshan News also produced a similar show. The clip is available on Facebook and YouTube. Sudarshan News’ chief Suresh Chavhanke also posted it from his social media handle multiple to amplify the claim further. (1,2,3)
Hindi media outlet Dainik Jagran didn’t use the phrase “flood jihad” but its report stated, “There are signs of a deep conspiracy behind this.”
OneIndia published an article titled ‘Flood Jihad: Assam floods may have more than meets the eye‘ authored by Vicky Nanjappa. Pro-BJP propaganda outlets such as The Frustrated Indian also reported along similar lines. (Archived links 1 and 2)
“Journalists” of varying influence also described the incident as “flood jihad” — Live Hindustan’s Deputy Chief Content Producer Himanshu Jha; India Today anchor Gaurav C Sawant; Nishant Azad, senior correspondent at RSS mouthpiece Organiser; the founding editor of Earshot Abhijit Majumder; Ashwani Mishra, special correspondent at Panchjanya; and journalist Vicky Nanjappa.
Rahul Nagar, National Social Media In-charge for BJP’s OBC Morcha, also made the same claim. He shared a clip of the four accused and wrote, “Succeeded in drowning the whole of Assam, what should we name it now. #FloodJihad”. (Archived link)
पूरा असम को डुबोने में कामयाब ,क्या नाम दे इसे अब ।।#FloodJihad pic.twitter.com/RQNI63d8zh
— Rahul Nagar (@RahulNagarbjp) July 6, 2022
Two days after NewsX and other media outlets dubbed the alleged Betukandi embankment breach as “flood jihad”, CM Sarma said, “It is not a big deal. There was no need to use words like jihad. A few people with small brains did that.” While he refuted the “jihad” angle, Sarma seemed to have stuck with his narrative that the Silchar floods were “man-made”.
The Hindu reported, citing India Meteorological Department, that Assam received 41% above normal rainfall during the pre-monsoon season (March to May), and it has received 71% more than normal rainfall up to June 25. As per the report, Assam’s annual normal rainfall between 1961 and 2010 has been 2,239.4 mm. However, it received 1,891.9 mm of rainfall between just March 1 to June 24 — which is close to the annual rainfall level in less than three months.
On July 7, in a press interview, Cachar SP Ramandeep Kaur stated she came across the phrase “flood jihad” for the first time in her life and categorically refuted the communal angle to the incident. She urged news outlets and others to not give the incident a communal angle. Around the 1:15 mark, she said, “… a few days ago we got a complaint from the irrigation department stating that the dam [embankment] was broken. They also did not know how the dam was broken… In our preliminary investigation, we learnt few people broke it and based on that, four people have been apprehended…”
Cachar SP Ramandeep Kaur warns against rumors on ‘Flood Jihad’
#Northeastlive | A new angle to the recent devastating flood in Silchar has come to the fore with a section of the media including news channels, web portals and social media have tried to give a new connotation to the calamity. The recent incident of devastating floods in Silchar caused as a result of breach at the Bethukandi dyke has even been termed by a section of the media and in various social media platforms as ‘Flood Jihad’.
Dismissing such claims, Cachar Superintendent of Police Ramandeep Kaur said that a section of the media encompassing platforms have attempted a give a communal angle to this dyke damage incident.
#floodjihad #silcharfloods #dyke #assamfloods #northeastlive
Posted by Northeast Live on Wednesday, 6 July 2022
On July 4, SP Kaur told Telegraph that the police started probing the case after the irrigation department lodged a complaint on May 23 about miscreants damaging the Bethukandi dyke. As per the same report, the alleged breach was 30 meters.
The report stated that the accused allegedly caused the breach in May to reduce water logging in Betukandi. East Mojo, on May 19, had reported, “Torrential rains cause flash floods in Barak Valley, hundreds affected”.
Telegraph’s report also added that the residents of Bethukandi had made several requests to the authorities to find a permanent solution to water logging. Alt News spoke with multiple journalists from the region who had visited the affected area, out of which two are associated with national news portals. On the request for anonymity, they confirmed that the water logging pushed the community to take such drastic measures, i.e., to allegedly breach the embankment/dyke. Additionally, they also opined that state authorities should have fixed the embankment much sooner. A source told Telegraph, “They should not have damaged the dyke and the administration, too, should have taken timely action against the miscreants and plugged the breach on time.”
Regional photojournalist Partha Sheel shared images of the embankment from May 23 and July 4. “To the best of my knowledge, the rebuilding started around June 26 and was completed by July 6 or 7,” he said over a telephonic call.
In fact, in May, local news outlet Way2Barak reported that an executive engineer of Silchar WR Division sent a formal message to the state government saying, “The most vulnerable dykes at Bethukandi area, Berenga area, Ringbund area, Bagadahar area at Silchar town are also in threat due to flooding.” Another regional media outlet also warned that the affected area could face flooding if authorities don’t take action.
A senior water resources department official, who did not want to be named, while speaking to the Scroll said it was not unreasonable on the part of residents to breach the embankment. The official added, “If your house remained under water, you would have also cut it.” The report explains the relationship between the floods and embankment — thus capturing the crisis’ magnitude.
Several media outlets have reported that embankments have become the Achilles heel in Assam and other states prone to flooding. Times Now wrote that “building embankments to control floods started from the 1950s. It has now led to an “embankment economy” of sorts, in which large amounts of money are invested in construction, maintenance and repair of embankments every year. They often give away during high flood season and the intensity of the water then released causes more damage”.
The Sentinel reported, “Nearly 70% of embankments in Assam have outlived their span which explains the devastation following a recurrence of breaches in every wave of flood in the state in recent years.” According to a report in Firstpost, “Building embankments alone is not sufficient, steps must also be taken to protect erosion and these need to happen simultaneously.”
Alt News spoke with Parthankar Choudhury, Professor at the Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Assam University, Silchar. He said, “If the breach was the only cause of the flood, then why didn’t the concerned departments and the administration give urgent attention to the problem? This had to be done on war footings. Excessive rainfall (<1900mm) was in place and the city experienced the first phase of flood in the month of May. To have a long-term solution for ‘Silchar-flood’, the government should consider sanctioning ‘water canal’ infrastructure.”
He added, “Yet, some national news media’s reportage has called it “flood Jihad”. They couldn’t report when the people were suffering. However, now that the situation is improving, they are trying to politicise the incident by giving it communal shade. Absolutely shameful!”
It’s worth noting CM Sarma and SP Kaur have refuted that the alleged act of breaching the embankment was communally motivated. Furthermore, Alt News spoke with several regional journalists who stated that it was done to get relief from water logging.
This isn’t an isolated case of a mainstream media outlet branding an incident as communal by the use of the term “jihad”. Zee News dedicated an entire show in 2020 to “report” on different types of “jihad” – from “love jihad” to “economic jihad” to “film and music jihad”. The police filed an FIR against then Zee News chief Sudhir Chaudhary. In the same year, Sudarshan News, a pro-BJP news channel, broadcasted a controversial show on Muslim “infiltration” in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination after the Supreme Court overturned a Delhi High Court order staying the program. Alt News debunked six falsehoods in the one-hour-long broadcast. Sudarshan News’s broadcast was termed as a “communal and irresponsible piece of journalism” by the Indian Police Service Association.
To sum it up, on May 23, the irrigation department sent a complaint to the concerned police station about the alleged breaching of the Betukandi embankment which is less than 10 km away from Silchar. The town on Silchar submerged in water unlike “ever before in its history” around June 19. In the first week of July, four Muslim men were arrested for allegedly breaching the embankment. Local reporters said that the embankment was damaged in May to relieve water logging. More than a month after this incident, Assam’s Chief Minister called the flooding in Silchar a “man-made” disaster. Several media outlets then added an anti-Muslim spin by reporting that the floods were a part of the “larger controversy”. Instead of reporting on the nuances of the calamity, media outlets and journalists dubbed the incident “flood Jihad” to blame the Muslim community for the floods in Silchar. It is unfortunate that the reports were carried at a time when communal tensions have flared up in several parts of the country.
As per Cachar SP Ramandeep Kaur, the investigation is still in process. However, both the CM and SP have refuted any communal angle to the incident.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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11th July 2022 / 7:35 pm / Last updated: 12th July 2022
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"author": "Archit"
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Food safety officer alleging BJP MLA Nand Kishor Gurjar attacked him is from 2019 - Alt News
Archit
13th February 2021 / 1:39 pm
A two-minute interview of a man is widespread with the claim that BJP MLA Nand Kishor Gurjar attacked him. It has also been alleged that the victim is a government officer and was attacked because he didn’t comply with Gurjar’s request to shut down Muslim-owned restaurants.
(Viral Hindi text: BJP के MLA नंदकिशोर गुर्जर ने लोनी के सभी मुस्लिम होटल बंद करवाने के लिए एक सरकारी ऑफ़िसर से कहा …जब ऑफ़िसर ने मना किया तो बीजेपी MLA नंदकिशोर गुर्जर ने उसे अपने ऑफिस बुलाया और उसके साथ मारपीट की ! सुनिए पूरी दास्तान खुद उस बेकसूर ऑफ़िसर की जुबानी ! #Beimaan_Modi_Sarkar )
The tweet embedded below gained over 60,000 views.
BJP के MLA नंदकिशोर गुर्जर ने लोनी के सभी मुस्लिम होटल बंद करवाने के लिए एक सरकारी ऑफ़िसर से कहा …
जब ऑफ़िसर ने मना किया तो बीजेपी MLA नंदकिशोर गुर्जर ने उसे अपने ऑफिस बुलाया और उसके साथ मारपीट की !
सुनिए पूरी दास्तान खुद उस बेकसूर ऑफ़िसर की जुबानी !#Beimaan_Modi_Sarkar 👇 pic.twitter.com/HGfAbywWJg
— Santosh Kaur (@Kaur0211) February 10, 2021
In the two-minute video, the man says that a representative of an MLA called him. His name was Lalit Sharma. The man claimed that Sharma enquired why he wasn’t shutting down Salam Hotel, to which he replied that there wasn’t any breach of protocol. The man then alleged that he was beaten by the MLA and later by his security guards upon his visit to the MLA’s office.
BJP MLA Nand Kishor Gurjar has been in the news after the January 26 violence that ensued during farmers’ tractor rally. He had said in a now-deleted tweet that farmer leaders and opposition leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Yogendra Yadav should be hanged to death. He blamed them and Rakesh Tikait for the violence.
The video was also shared by the national president of Bharat Prabhat Party Archana Singh and Samajwadi Party spokesperson (as per Twitter bio) Birendra Kumar Yadav.
Several Facebook and Twitter users posted the video.
Alt News performed a reverse image search on Yandex and found this incident was reported by Republic World in November 2019. According to the channel, a Ghaziabad-based BJP MLA attacked food department officials in his office. It was also reported by Punjab Kesri and News18.
Hindustan Times reported that food safety inspector Ashutosh Singh approached the district administration and the police alleging that he was held captive and beaten by BJP MLA Nand Kishor Gurjar. Singh told Hindustan Times that Gurjar’s representative Lalit Sharma called him, as heard in the viral video.
Around the 1-minute mark in the News18 video, Singh said that the conflict between Gurjar arose after he insisted to shut restaurants selling meat. However, Singh argued that there is no protocol against selling cooked meat but only slaughterhouses.
SP Neeraj Kumar Jadaun told HT that he received Singh’s complaint against more than 10 people including Gurjar and his security guards. Gurjar refuted Singh’s claim and told HT, “The allegations of beating him are false. If about 15 men had beaten him, he would have been severely injured.”
Alt News couldn’t independently verify if Singh was thrashed by BJP MLA Gurjar and his goons. However, the incident is from 2019 and not recent.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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13th February 2021 / 1:39 pm
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"author": "Archit"
}
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Football related hooliganism in Switzerland shared as rioting by Muslims during Ramazan in UK - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
29th May 2018 / 7:37 pm / Last updated: 10th July 2018
“Muslims violence in Birmingham during Ramadan!!! They want to close the road to eat on the roads”. This message has been shared on social media along with a video that shows rioters attacking cars on a street. It has been claimed that the incident occurred in Birmingham, U.K when members of the Muslim community resorted to vandalism as they wanted to ‘eat on the roads’, in a reference to the practice of breaking fast during Ramadan. The video is circulating on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrJOZEkcp7Q
Renuka Jain, whom PM Modi follows on Twitter, has also shared this video with a similar context. Once again, the manner in which this video and the message has been shared suggests that it may be circulating on WhatsApp, as a large number of individual users have uploaded it on their Facebook timelines with identical or similar text.
The video has also been uploaded on YouTube with the words “रमजान माह में लंदन में मुस्लिमो का हंगामा” (Violence by Muslims in London during month of Ramzan- translated).
Alt News broke up the video into individual frames with InVid software for videos, and reverse searched the image via Google. A video demonstration of the fact-check can be seen below. We found that the incident in question occurred not in Birmingham, U.K but in Basel, Switzerland. Also, it has nothing to do with Islam or Muslims.
The vandalism on display is in relation to a football match between Basel and Lucerne football clubs, and the violence took place on May 19 at Birsstrasse, Basel. According to reports, about 90 persons were involved in rioting and the police has arrested two people. Two people were injured in the clashes that took place. The incident was reported extensively by the media in Switzerland.
This video is viral not only in India but has also been shared in other parts of the world. In each case, the video has been mischievously placed out of context, blaming some community or the other for this aggression.
Hooliganism in Brazil
This video has been shared by a YouTube channel RedeBrasil.NET with the claim that this vandalism took place in Brazil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTEwTsgoRLM
Attack by Pakistanis
Yet another version projects this incidents as the handiwork of Pakistanis in Birmingham, U.K
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmCeKNcPRMk
Messages and posts that seek to create a rift among religious communities and reinforce prejudices are commonplace on social media. Old videos and photographs are often shared with provocative and inflammatory messages. Thus, it is not surprising that in the Indian context, this video of vandalism related to football is passed off as rioting by Muslims.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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29th May 2018 / 7:37 pm / Last updated: 10th July 2018
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"author": "Arjun Sidharth"
}
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Fake Video Of Muslims Rioting In UK Now Shared As Muslim Youth In Kashmir Pelting Stones On Tourists
Pooja Chaudhuri
4th June 2018 / 8:50 pm / Last updated: 10th July 2018
“इस छुट्टियों में कश्मीर मत जाओ कश्मीर के युवक टूरिस्ट गाड़ियों पर पत्थर बरसाते हुए” (This vacation don’t go to Kashmir. Kashmiri youth pelting stones at tourists’ cars – translated). This message is currently circulating on social media along with a video showing rioters attacking cars on a street. It has been claimed that the incident occurred in Kashmir when a group of youth began pelting stones at cars of tourists visiting the valley on vacation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zRWytgCDcI
The video has been widely shared on Facebook by both individual users and pages. Identical text has been used multiple times by numerous individual users, suggesting that the video may be circulating on WhatsApp too.
This is the same video which Alt News had earlier debunked in an article published on May 29. We broke up the video into individual frames with InVid software for videos, and reverse searched the image via Google. A video demonstration of the fact-check can be seen below. We found that the incident in question had occurred at Birsstrasse in Basel, Switzerland on May 19, 2018 after supporters of the Basel and Lucerne football clubs came to blows.
Two of the Facebook pages – Dongi AAP and Jammu Mission – that have circulated the video have a combined membership of nearly 2 lakh people and more than 5,000 individuals have shared the video only from these two pages.
The video was earlier shared on social media with different claims. One version states that the incident had occurred in Birmingham, U.K when members of the Muslim community resorted to vandalism as they wanted to ‘eat on the roads’, in a reference to the practice of breaking fast during Ramadan.
Violence in Birmingham during Ramazaan!!!
They want to close the road to eat on the roads….
Total Nonsense…
This is not in some district of UP, but in United Kingdom, UK, London. A suburb in UK, Birmingham, where the muslim community is slowly becoming majority.#Birmingham pic.twitter.com/UVEBDRpljY
— 🇮🇳Sandeep Singh🇮🇳 (@sandeepfromvns) June 4, 2018
According to another version, this video has been shared by a YouTube channel RedeBrasil.NET with the claim that this vandalism took place in Brazil. It was also shared along with a set of gruesome images which falsely claimed that a gang of 15-20 people are on an abduction and killing spree in Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar, attacking vehicles under the cover of darkness.
Now, yet another context has been imagined for this video and shared widely with the objective of inciting suspicion and hatred among communities. This not only points to a pattern in which fake news is floated on social media but also shows that how thousands are still in the dark about the origin of the video. This is further exacerbated by the fact that such misinformation primarily relies on impulse and needs only a click to be shared further.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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4th June 2018 / 8:50 pm / Last updated: 10th July 2018
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"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
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Former Union Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal shares fake newspaper cutting quoting Amit Shah - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
12th December 2018 / 9:41 pm / Last updated: 18th March 2019
“यह कहा था श्री अमित शाह ने अपने समरथिकों के प्रति। असत्य का सहारा लेने वाले अलग-अलग जगह अलग-अलग बात ही करते हैं। (This is what Shri Amit Shah said about his supporters. People taking the recourse of untruth speak different things at different places.-translated)” tweeted former Union Minster Pawan Kumar Bansal on Tuesday. Along with this tweet an image of a purported newspaper cutting was also attached. The newspaper has ascribed a statement to BJP chief Amit Shah which calls the Baniya community ‘thieves’ and accuses them of profiteering.
यह कहा था श्री अमित शाह ने अपने समरथिकों के प्रति। असत्य का सहारा लेने वाले अलग-अलग जगह अलग-अलग बात ही करते हैं। pic.twitter.com/gSIAa0OvAJ
— Pawan Kumar Bansal (@pawanbansal_chd) December 11, 2018
On December 10, Alt News had debunked the viral fake newspaper clip. It was found that no mainstream media outlet had reported the statement. Hence, it is unlikely that such a statement coming from the BJP chief calling members of the Baniya community ‘cheaters’ and ‘thieves’ would have gone unreported.
To corroborate, we looked at the news reports and the video of Amit Shah’s rally in Bundi, Rajasthan on December 3. Alt News found that Shah had not uttered the statements attributed to him in the fake newspaper clip.
लाइव : श्री अमित शाह की बूंदी में जनसभा। #राजस्थान_री_शान_भाजपा https://t.co/Ffd8rLu9Yx
— BJP (@BJP4India) December 3, 2018
Other false claims
In a sub-section of the same article, it was falsely claimed that Amit Shah said that “these businessmen” will be replaced in retail and wholesale markets with big investment. The concluding paragraph also fabricated a lie that Prime Minister Modi had compared businessmen and the Baniya community with “thieves”.
In the past as well, Alt News has debunked several instances where misinformation is circulated on social media in the form of fake newspaper clips to provide credibility.
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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12th December 2018 / 9:41 pm / Last updated: 18th March 2019
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"author": "Jignesh Patel"
}
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Founder of fake news website PostCard News arrested - Alt News
Alt News Desk
29th March 2018 / 6:58 pm / Last updated: 30th March 2018
Peddling communally sensitive rumours and fake news cannot be without consequences. Karnataka police has arrested Postcard News founder Mahesh Vikram Hegde under sections 153A, 295A and 120B of IPC. BJP MP Pratap Simha was among those who tweeted about his arrest. Hegde was arrested over fake news that was spread by PostCard News that a Jain sage had been attacked by Muslim youth in Karnataka. Alt News was the first to report this story, which can be read here.
Today morning Coward Congress Govt (Karnataka) arrested @mvmeet Mahesh Vikram Hegde under unconnected IT act 66, that too by using CCB! Shame on you @INCKarnataka. pic.twitter.com/SZGUJKsfzi
— Pratap Simha (@mepratap) March 29, 2018
However, the information about him being arrested under Section 66A as claimed by Pratap Simha is incorrect according to the information Alt News has received. Alt News will keep a close eye and get the latest updates on this story. Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code deals with attempt to promoting enmity between religious groups, Section 295A addresses deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage sentiments whereas Section 120B of IPC refers to criminal conspiracy.
Postcard News, the publication run by Hegde is known for patently false news to polarize communities. Postcard News has time and again been promoted by senior members of BJP. States with non-BJP governments like West Bengal and Karnataka are a particular focus of the propaganda spread by this mega factory of fake news. Earlier in November 2017, an FIR had been filed against the admins of Postcard News for an alleged derogatory post.
Curiously, Hegde is followed by the Prime Minister of India on Twitter. Hegde was part of the Alt News story in which we produced a comprehensive list of shady accounts that the PM follows.
With dates of Karnataka elections already announced, we expect to see many communally divisive fake stories to surface. Social media users have be more alert than ever, particularly when it comes to news shared by the well-known serial peddlers of fake news.
Follow @free_thinker
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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29th March 2018 / 6:58 pm / Last updated: 30th March 2018
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/founder-of-fake-news-website-postcard-news-arrested/",
"author": "Alt News Desk"
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Fountain springs water upon chanting 'Om'? No, it is voice-activated - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
5th February 2019 / 4:30 pm / Last updated: 3rd July 2021
A video currently viral on social media is being circulated with the claim that it depicts a fountain in Thailand which magically springs water when somebody chants the Hindu mantra ‘ॐ’ (Om). One Ganesh Divadiga shared the video on Facebook groups Bhagavad Gita and Hinduism Worldwide.
Divadiga has posted BJP leader Ram Kadam’s post from last year. Kadam has shared the video with the same claim, drawing over 2 lakh likes and 72,000 shares.
थाइलैंड में एक पर्वत के नीचे पानी का एक छोटा झरना है जिसके बाजु वाले पर्वत पे *ओम् ( ॐ* ) का उच्चारण करने पर पानी का फ़व्वारा बन कर पर्वत से भी उपर तक उछलता है..
ये किसी बोद्ध साधु – सम्प्रदाय ने बनाया है ।पानी का वज़न + गुरुत्वाकर्षण से भी इतना ऊपर पानी सिर्फ़ आवाज़ के तरंग से कैसे जा सकता है? ये कोई विज्ञानी ही बता सकता हे .. क्योंकि ऐसा सिर्फ़ *ओम् ( ॐ* )बोल ने पर ही होता हे !!
ये भी एक अजूबा हे ..
आमदार राम कदम मुम्बई
Posted by Ram Kadam on Saturday, 26 September 2020
In the clip, a woman can be heard screaming into a mic and water shoots up from the valley in front of her. The video was also viral last year.
थाइलैंड में एक पर्वत के नीचे पानी का एक छोटा झरना है जिसके बाजु वाले पर्वत पे ओम् ( ॐ) का उच्चारण करने पर पानी का फ़व्वारा बन कर पर्वत से भी उपर तक उछलता है.. ये किसी बोद्ध साधु – सम्प्रदाय ने बनाया है ।पानी का वज़न + गुरुत्वाकर्षण से भी इतना ऊपर पानी सिर्फ़ आवाज़ के तरंग से कैसे जा सकता है ?ऐसा सिर्फ़ ओम् (ॐ)बोलने पर ही होता हे !! ये भी एक अजूबा है.
Posted by Ujwala Deo on Saturday, 6 July 2019
The caption used to share the video said – “थाइलैंड में एक पर्वत के नीचे पानी का एक छोटा जरंना (small natural river) के बाजु वाले पर्वत पे *ओम् (ॐ)* का उच्चारण करते पानी फ़ूवाँरा बन कर पर्वत से भी अपर तक उछलता है….ये किसी साधु सम्प्रदाय ने बनाया है…. हमें ये नहि समज में आता है की ये एैसे कैसे होता है ? पानी का वज़न + गुरुत्वाकर्षण से भी इतना अपर पानी सिर्फ़ आवाज़ के तरंग से कैसे जा सकता है? ये कोई विज्ञानी ही बता सकता है…. उसे जान ने के लिए हमें बहुत जिज्ञासा है क्योंकि ऐसा सिर्फ़ *ओम् (ॐ)* बोल ने पर ही होता हे !! ये भी एक अजीबो अजूबा है. A stream flows below a mountain in Thailand. If you pronounce ‘Om’ at the adjacent mountain, the water shoots up even higher than the height of the mountain itself. A community of saints has built this fountain. We don’t understand how this happens. How can the water defy its own weight and gravity and reach such heights just because of someone’s voice? Only a theologist can explain this. We are curious to know how this happens because it’s possible only when you say ‘Om’. It’s a miracle.”
It was circulating on Twitter as well.
थाइलैंड में एक पर्वत के नीचे पानी का एक छोटा झरना है, जिसके बाजु वाले पर्वत पे ओम् ( ॐ* ) का उच्चारण करने पर पानी का फ़व्वारा बन कर पर्वत से भी उपर तक उछलता है। ये किसी बोद्ध साधु – सम्प्रदाय ने बनाया है।
पानी का वज़न + गुरुत्वाकर्षण से भी इतना ऊपर पानी सिर्फ़ आवाज़ के तरंग से pic.twitter.com/2Zg0bZh4lN
— Tara Singh (@SakeenaTara) June 15, 2019
If one carefully listens, the woman does not shout “Om” but actually says “Aaa”. This suggests that social media claims about the spring being activated with the mystical word are dubious.
थाइलैंड में एक पर्वत के नीचे पानी का एक छोटा झरना ( small natural river ) के पास वाले पर्वत पे #ओम् ( ॐ ) का उच्चारण करते पानी फब्बारा बन कर पर्वत से भी ऊपर तक उछलता है .. ये किसी बौद्ध साधु ने बनाया है..#ज्ञानांमृत#AmazingThailand pic.twitter.com/xFcjSW3Gd5
— $hw€t@ 🐦 (@dixit_511) February 3, 2019
The fountain does not magically shoot up water when someone says “Om”. It is, in fact, a voice-activated spring. Ergo, the louder you shout, the higher the water goes, irrespective of what you scream.
Alt News found the original video on a Chinese video streaming website Tencent Video (v.qq.com). From what it seems, the fountain is not in Thailand, but China. A Google translation of the description of the video says – “Shouting the subtlety of the spring, how high you want the spring water, it depends on your lung capacity!”
A fact-check by India Today found a video posted by a Chinese news channel New China TV which claimed that the fountain is located in Cangshan Mountain, north China’s Shanxi Province. The start of the video does seem similar to the viral video. However, the later parts of the video show a different location with another voice-activated fountain. Alt News could not independently confirm its exact location.
We found a few YouTube videos showcasing the same technology. In the video posted below, the man can be heard screaming “Aaa” and water shoots up from the spring in front of him.
In fact, such a kind of voice-controlled fountain is also available for purchase online. A Chinese e-commerce website ChinaHao.com is selling the device for US$106.98.
The same video was also shared in February 2019.
Thailand’s Flowing Rivulet (small river) Rises above as Natural Fountain on reciting Sound Of The Universe ‘Om’*ओम् (ॐ)*!!!!
Thailand’s Flowing Rivulet (small river) Rises above as Natural Fountain on reciting Sound Of The Universe ‘Om’*ओम् (ॐ)*!!!!
थाइलैंड में एक पर्वत के नीचे पानी का एक छोटा जरंना (small natural river) के बाजु वाले पर्वत पे *ओम् (ॐ)* का उच्चारण करते पानी फ़ूवाँरा बन कर पर्वत से भी अपर तक उछलता है….
ये किसी साधु सम्प्रदाय ने बनाया है…. हमें ये नहि समज में आता है की ये एैसे कैसे होता है ? पानी का वज़न + गुरुत्वाकर्षण से भी इतना अपर पानी सिर्फ़ आवाज़ के तरंग से कैसे जा सकता है ? ये कोई विज्ञानी ही बता सकता है…. उसे जान ने के लिए हमें बहुत जिज्ञासा है क्योंकि ऐसा सिर्फ़ *ओम् (ॐ)* बोल ने पर ही होता हे !! ये भी एक अजीबो अजूबा है…..
Posted by NaMo Mantra:- Nation FIRST on Monday, 4 February 2019
That the spring shoots up water upon the chants of ‘Om’ was viral on social media.
The false claim was also shared on WhatsApp.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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5th February 2019 / 4:30 pm / Last updated: 3rd July 2021
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"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
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Four men dressed as women thrashed by mob in Haryana over false child-kidnapping rumours - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
4th September 2019 / 7:09 pm / Last updated: 4th September 2019
A video of four men who are dressed in women’s clothing, being escorted by the police was shared by Facebook page Pehchan Faridabad. Posting the video, the page claimed that these men were child-kidnappers who were arrested by the police in Dheeg locality of Haryana’s Ballabgarh city. “सुरक्षित हुए शहर के बच्चे, पकड़ी गई बच्चा चोरी करने वाली गैंग (The children of the city are safe now, gang of child-kidnapper was nabbed -translated)”, asserted the message. The post has garnered over 3, 800 shares so far.
सुरक्षित हुए शहर के बच्चे , पकड़ी गई बच्चा चोरी करने वाली गैंग
फरीदाबाद : शहर में फतेहपुर बिल्लौच के पास में दीग गांव में बच्चा चोर पकड़े जा चुके हैं। अजीबोगरीब पहनावा पहनकर छुप कर बैठे थे ये चोर प्रशासन और गांव के लोगों ने मिलकर उन्हें धर दबोचा ।
Posted by Pehchan Faridabad on Sunday, 25 August 2019
With a keyword search on Google, we found a Navbharat Times report published on August 26, 2019. According to the report, villagers had brutally beaten four people who were roaming in unusual clothes over suspicion of them being child-kidnappers. These men were dressed as women and were begging for alms in the village. Meanwhile, somebody in the village spread a rumour that these people were child-kidnappers. We also found another video of the same incident from a different time-frame, which corroborates that this video is of Dheeg village. In the interrogation, they claimed to be resident of Godota village from Palwal district in the state.
Alt News found that the men dressed as women were part of a religious dance troupe who had just performed at the nearby village called Sahupura. At least two individuals commented below the same video that these men had come to their village to perform and these weren’t child-kidnappers.
In conclusion, a video of four men, who were dressed as women and were mistaken for child-lifters, being escorted by the police was massively shared on Facebook with the false narrative that these were child-kidnappers arrested in Faridabad district, Haryana.
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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4th September 2019 / 7:09 pm / Last updated: 4th September 2019
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"author": "Jignesh Patel"
}
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Old fake news about Qatari princess caught with seven men resurfaces - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
24th April 2020 / 7:54 pm / Last updated: 9th June 2022
A newspaper clipping of a report published by DNA which is headlined, “Qatari Princess caught in Orgy with 7 men” is circulating on social media. It cites a report by the British newspaper Financial Times (FT) and says, “Qatari Princess Sheikha Salwa was caught having group sex with seven men at a hotel in London”.
The prospect of 7 men running train on a Qatari princess is crazy ffs💀 pic.twitter.com/6ZhZeq2wLA
— Aks (@AksWashed) June 8, 2022
The same story was carried by Hindi daily Amar Ujala in 2016.
Certain users have also shared Amar Ujala’s now-deleted report.
अल हबीबी अल हबीबी ओये 🤲🏿
तुम सब इधर उलझे होती उधर 2016 में अमारे बगल के कतर की राजकुमारी लंदन में कांड करवा लेती ओये
वल्लाह वल्लाह ओये 🤲🏿🤲🏿@zoo_bear @RanaAyyub pic.twitter.com/C1Q2XJnOOq
— शेख पंचरूद्दीन (@Dubai___wale) June 8, 2022
@fahedalemadi@qatar@zoo_bear ❤️डे के फैक्ट चेकर
Please explain pic.twitter.com/KYhqIEiLx8
— राजनर्तकी (@Barbala_) June 9, 2022
The alleged news was also viral in 2020 after old, Islamophobic tweets by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya targetting Arab women resurfaced and subsequently received flak from prominent Arab influencers. The clipping was posted by Twitter handle @TheSquind and garnered more than 500 retweets. However, @TheSquind had tagged Princess Hend Al Qassimi, a member of the UAE royal family. This was when Qassimi had called out an Indian national working in Dubai for posting racist and discriminatory tweets against UAE.
It was claimed in the report that when the Qatari Embassy in the UK was notified about the matter, they had offered the media outlet $50 million to kill the story. Twitter handle Kishore K Swamy too posted the clipping and said, “And she is the princess celebrated by Dmk it wing and single-source idiots. Bloody paid campaign rats.”
Social media influencer Payal Rohtagi, who on several occasions has been found spreading communally-charged misinformation, also tweeted the newspaper clipping with a message targeting journalist Nidhi Razdan.
With a Google search, Alt News found several reports which stated that the story is “fake”. A report published by Firstpost on August 24, 2016, said, “An alleged scandal about Qatari princess which Financial Times, a British publication reported has been termed ‘fake’. At the time of writing, a variety of news reports have contradicted the Financial Times story — that has subsequently vanished as several Google searches revealed.”
A Twitter search for the oldest article that had cited this alleged FT report revealed that a website named Oddcrimes.com was one of the earliest to cite it. The report published on this website doesn’t exist anymore. This alleged report was cited by several other shady websites.
One such website is AWD News. It’s a fake news website which had infamously published a piece of misinformation that led to Pakistan issuing a nuclear warning to Israel. Fact-checking outlet Snopes says the website “doesn’t have more than a nodding acquaintance with facts, instead playing on nationalistic fantasy and conspiracy theory to create alarming (and thus clickable and shareable) stories”. An archived version of the fake news story published by AWD News can be accessed here.
It may be noted that AWD News while quoting an alleged report by FT cited their source as another website called Middle East Press (archive).
Interestingly, this article by middleeastpress.com has also been deleted. This article too cited an alleged report by Financial Times, however, it carries no hyperlink.
Thus, it can be said with certainty that there exists no report by FT which is claimed to have broken the story of a ‘Qatari princess caught with seven men’. Moreover, one of the earliest websites that cited this alleged FT report has a history of publishing fake news stories.
In an email response to Mumbai-based English tabloid Afternoon Voice, then Editorial Assistant at FT’s Newsroom Michael Lindsay had said, “We understand that the article mentioned by you was originally published on www.awdnews.com, which is not our website. The Financial Times is not responsible for false articles published by AWD. Further, it is not the case that the Financial Times has published any such news report, or been involved in any such events, as are mentioned in AWD’s false article.”
Unrelated photo of an Arab businesswoman
Moreover, the woman whose photo is being shared as Qatari Princess ‘Sheikha Salwa’ is actually the Chief Operating Officer of Dubai-based Mazrui Holdings Alia Al Mazrouei. You can watch a video interview of her with the Dubai-based news outlet Gulf News.
Moreover, you can also see a tweet by her account on Twitter.
I am looking forward to be part of the Jury for the MENA Effie Awards 2017.#menaeffie17 pic.twitter.com/KGHBOko3TA
— علياء المزروعي (@AliaAlMazrouei) September 13, 2017
In conclusion, an old fake news story was revived by social media to vilify Princess Hend Al Qassimi of UAE.
[Update: Amar Ujala’s false report was added to this fact-check on April 25, 2020.]
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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24th April 2020 / 7:54 pm / Last updated: 9th June 2022
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"author": "Jignesh Patel"
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Freight train traversing the famous 'Tehachapi Loop' in US viral as China-Germany train route - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
27th December 2019 / 6:33 pm
“This train from China to Germany travels through kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland. Distance travelled 10214 kms. Started on the 13th of June last year. Goods transporting train. Plying from Europe (Germany) to China n vice versa. 200 containers per trip n there are plans to increase to 300. Travelling time abt 14 days. If by ship takes abt 2 mths. Spectacular shots 👍🏿 This is most interesting and must see to the end. The train is like a snake going round the hill. Take note 4 engines to pull 200 containers. Fantastic.”
This message is being shared widely, along with a video showing a train with numerous coaches emerging from a tunnel and going around a hillock in a serpentine fashion.
This train from China to Germany travels through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland. Distance travelled 10214 kms. Started on the 13th of June, 2018. It’s a Goods transporting train plying from Europe (Germany) to China and vice versa carrying 200 containers per trip. THREAD! pic.twitter.com/LfP7576I29
— Manney Uto (Ph.D by 🇳🇬Affidavit!) (@BrosManney) September 14, 2019
The above tweet of September 2019 has been retweeted widely. The video, however, is being circulated widely on WhatsApp at present. Alt News received scores of requests on the official Alt News app for verification of the accompanying claim. The video is 4:57 minutes long.
Alt News found that this video with the said narrative has been posted on Facebook since 2018.
Alt News found the narrative accompanying the video to be false. This train seen in the video does not ply from China to Germany as claimed. It is in the USA.
To begin with, Alt News searched Google with the keywords ‘China to Germany train’, and found the same video posted on YouTube in 2018 with the same claim– this is a train that travels from China to Germany via Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland. However, in the comments section, we found a comment by a user who claimed that the video shows a cargo train in the USA, and the route is the Tehachapi loop.
On the basis of this information, Alt News found several videos posted on YouTube on the Tehachapi loop, which resembles the video shared by social media and WhatsApp users. The Tehachapi loop is a spiral railway route, connecting Bakersfield and Mojave in California. The route, hailed as an engineering marvel, became operational in 1876.
Posted below is another video showing the Tehachapi Loop. As can be seen, it is the same route which has been shown in the viral video.
It may be noted that a freight train does indeed ply from China to Germany. The Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe railway route links the city of Chongqing in southwestern China to Duisberg in Germany, passing through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland before reaching Germany. The total length of the track is 11,179 kilometres, and the railway was launched in 2011. The video in question, however, shows a railway route in California, USA. The social media claim is false.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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27th December 2019 / 6:33 pm
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"author": "Arjun Sidharth"
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From Dharm Sansad to hate speech PIL: The curious case of Ashwini Upadhyay - Alt News
Indradeep Bhattacharyya
27th September 2022 / 7:25 pm
Last week, as advocate and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay stood in the Supreme Court arguing for his own petition on hate speech, he must have remembered that not-so-distant afternoon at Jantar Mantar, less than 3km away, where, at an event reportedly organized by him, open genocide calls were made against Muslims, or, the Dharm Sansad in Haridwar, where he distributed copies of ‘Bhagwa Samvidhaan’ and referred to Yati Narsinghanand as his ‘Gurudev’.
Upadhyay filing a public interest litigation (PIL) in the apex court for implementing the Law Commission report to curtail hate speech is a case of mind-boggling irony; one that requires what Samuel Taylor Coleridge called willing suspension of disbelief, to fathom; one that is so bizarre and brazen that as a journalist writing on it, you wonder if you are missing something.
In February 2020, Upadhyay filed a PIL in the apex court in his personal capacity seeking a direction to the Centre to take appropriate steps to implement recommendations of the Law Commission’s 267th report on hate speech. The commission had submitted its report to the erstwhile minister for law and justice Ravi Shankar Prasad on March 23, 2017. After analyzing the existing laws on hate speech, it recommended “amendments to the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Code of Criminal procedure, 1973 by adding new provisions on ‘Prohibiting incitement to hatred following section 153B IPC and ‘causing fear, alarm or provocation of violence in certain cases’ following section 505 IPC, and accordingly amending the First Schedule of the CrPC.”
On page 38, the report defines hate speech as an “expression which is abusive, insulting, intimidating, harassing or which incites violence, hatred or discrimination against groups identified by characteristics such as one’s race, religion, place of birth, residence, region, language, caste or community, sexual orientation or personal convictions.”
On September 21, 2022, while hearing the PIL by Upadhyay along with 10 other petitions, a division bench of Justices K M Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy came down heavily on TV channels and news anchors saying that hate speech on television goes unregulated and poisons the fabric of the country.
Justice KM Joseph on role of TV anchor “As far as mainstream television channel is concerned, the role of anchor is very critical because the moment you see somebody going into hate speech, it’s the duty of the anchor to immediately see that he doesn’t allow that person”. pic.twitter.com/Wt5SMYmqFt
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) September 21, 2022
During the hearing, the Bench asked who had given the hate speeches. “Politicians,” Upadhyay replied.
#SupremeCourt hearing batch of pleas seeking steps be taken against hate speech, incidents where hate speeches delivered.
Ashwini Upadhyay: These speeches harm the unity and integrity of our nation.
Justice Joseph: Who gives the hate speeches?@AshwiniUpadhyay: Politicians pic.twitter.com/GmAWvsL24r
— Bar & Bench – Live Threads (@lawbarandbench) September 21, 2022
It is not clear whether Updhayay included himself among them.
In order to see for itself how politicians and anchors throw all sensibilities and journalistic ethics to the wind on TV shows and vilify groups identified by religion, the court needs to look no further than Upadhyay’s comments made on news anchor Aman Chopra’s show on News18 India titled ‘Desh Nahi Jhukne Denge’ on November 16, 2021. According to this Newslaundry article the video of the show uploaded on YouTube was taken down the next day. The one-hour programme centred on the allegation that Indian Muslims were spitting into food they were making. It used kickers like ‘Khane mein thookna, jihad ya jahalat?’, or, ‘Riwaaz-e-thook, ye kaisi bhookh?’, and the hashtag #ThookJihad.
Appearing as a guest in the show Upadhyay suggested that Muslims were not only spitting, but might be urinating in the food as well. “Ye bhi toh ho sakta hai ki dal ka rang peela hota hai, sabzi ka rang peela hota hai, usme pishaab bhi kar rahe ho?.” (There is a possibility that they are urinating in the food as well, and that’s why daal is yellow in colour and sabzi is also yellow in colour), he said. A few minutes later in the programme, he went on to say, “In thook jihadiyon ko ya toh maa baap sikha rahe hai ya koi school mein jaa rahe hai” (Either the parents are training these ‘thook jihadis’ or they are going to some schools). The Wire also reported Upadhyay’s comments.
On YouTube, Alt News found another video of a show called ‘Rashtradharm’ posted by ‘News Nation’ in which Upadhyay talks about ‘jansankhya (population) jihad‘.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGfWFKlrnWk]
In his introductory words, the anchor, Vidyanath Jha, refers to an alleged PFI document, and asks, “Will India become an Islamic state by 2047?” Appearing in the show as an expert, Upadhyay first gives his version of the history of Partition. When the anchor asks what is the blueprint for converting India into an Islamic state? In his reply, Upadhyay first talks about infiltration of Rohingyas through the Bengal border. “To change the demography of this country, around 5 crore Rohingyas and Bangladeshis have entered India as of 2017.” Upadhayay says. This is, incidentally, a piece of misinformation that Alt News had debunked in September 2018. The report can be read here.
At the 7.01-minute mark in the video the anchor asks Upadhyay if he is talking about ‘Jansankhya Jihad’? Upadhyay replies, “Absolutely. This is Jansankhya Jihad.” The anchor then asks Upadhyay to further explain how this ‘population jihad’ will convert India into a Muslim-majority country by 2047.
“In 75 years, Hindus have been finished in nine Indian states,” Upadhyay claims in his response, though when he lists those, he names only five — Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya. Ironically, in three of the five states/UTs he mentions, the Muslim population is smaller than that of the Hindus.
That India will become a Muslim-majority nation within a particular year is an idea often shared on social media. This Mint article calls it a piece of ‘fiction’, and using data from the National Family Health Survey conducted in 2015-16, shows that such claims are without any basis.
According to this Boom Live article, Upadhyay is an engineer by qualification who quit his corporate job and joined the Anna Hazare movement in 2011-12. He was one of the founding members of the Aam Aadmi Party, but was expelled from the party on April 6, 2014, after he had allegedly called Arvind Kejriwal ‘a liar’. In November, he joined the BJP and was later appointed its Delhi spokesperson.
Upadhyay, 47, who had worked with senior barristers like Ram Jethmalani and Prashant Bhushan, filed his first PIL in 2015 seeking a uniform civil code. Dismissing the petition, the then Chief Justice of India TS Thakur warned him against wasting the court’s time. Undaunted by the censure, he has since filed around 50 PILs in the apex court and Delhi High Court, most of which are aligned with the interest of the RSS-BJP. This article in The Print describes him as the ‘uncrowned king of political interest litigation.’
In March, 2021, he filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking immediate steps for identification, detainment and deportation of all illegal immigrants and infiltrators, including Bangladeshis and Rohingyas.
In a recent interview with India Today, he said, “There are only three ways of solving your country’s problems: Sadak (street protest), Sansad (Parliament) and Supreme Court. I had been part of a street protest. Such movements do not take place every day. The Anna Andolan happened over three decades after India saw the JP movement. It was difficult for me to enter Parliament. I joined the BJP and chose the Supreme Court route to solve the country’s problems.”
Upadhyay was arrested along with five others on August 10, 2021, two days after hate speeches were delivered at a meeting reportedly organized by him at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. He was charged under Sections 268, 270, 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code, Section 3 of The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and Section 51B of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 (refusal to comply with any direction given by the government). He was granted bail the very next day.
Frontline reported in detail the kind of slogans raised at the rally. According to it, hundreds of people attended the rally, and slogans like ‘Jab mulle kate jayenge, Ram Ram chillayenge’ (Muslims will be cut in the name of Ram), ‘Suaron ki karo vidai, Hindu Hindu bhai bhai’ (Farewell to the pigs, Hindus are brothers), ‘Hindustan mein rehna hoga, Ram Ram kehna hoga’ (If you want to live in India, you have to chant Ram! Ram!) and ‘Band karo band karo, mullo ke vyapaar band karo’ (Shut down the businesses of Muslims) were raised in front of media crew and Delhi Police personnel.
Anmol Pritam, a 24-year-old journalist then working for a YouTube channel, was heckled by the crowd and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
तथाकथित नक़ली हिंदू संगठनों ने बहुजन पत्रकार @anmolpritamND को धमकाने की कोशिश की।
इस घटना से यही प्रतीत होता है कि यह तथाकथित हिंदू संगठन दलित, ओबीसी समाज से आने वाले लोगों को हिंदू नही मानते हैं।
नेशनल दस्तक टीम इस घटना की निंदा करती हैं।#bahujanmedia pic.twitter.com/ArT6PswjUo
— National Dastak (@NationalDastak) August 8, 2021
Speaking to Newslaundry (report here), Pritam said he had he reached the site around 3 pm along with his cameraperson. “When I reached, a group of about 300-400 people were chanting slogans such as ‘Jab mulle kaate jaynege to Ram-Ram chillayenge.”
Soon after the rally, the National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations wrote to the Minority commission “against hate-speech at Jantar Mantar which openly called for violence against Muslims.” “This poisonous event was part of a “movement”, led by former spokesperson of the BJP Delhi, Ashwini Upadhyay,” the panel wrote in a tweet.
NCHRO Delhi Chapter President Adv. Amit Srivastava wrote to Minority Commission against hate-speech at Jantar Mantar
which openly called for violence against Muslims. This poisonous event was part of a “movement”, led by former spokesperson of the BJP Delhi, Ashwini Upadhyay. pic.twitter.com/ZNxOKr8fCS
— NCHRO (@NCHROofficial) August 11, 2021
The Delhi High Court Women Lawyers’ Forum condemned the rally and wrote to the registrar general of the Supreme court against “Slogans amounting to hate speech raised at Jantar Mantar in a rally organised by Advocate Ashwini Upadhyaya”.
Delhi High Court Women Lawyers Forum condemns and writes to The Registrar General, Supreme Court regarding “Slogans amounting to hate speech raised at Jantar Mantar in a rally organised by Advocate Ashwini Upadhyaya”#JantarMantar pic.twitter.com/BTm9GAV6Yj
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) August 9, 2021
In his defense, Upadhyay said he did not know the people who raised the slogans and he had left the venue and the meeting had been over by the time the incendiary slogans were raised. He also said he was just a guest at the rally. A tweet that he later deleted, however, suggests otherwise. In it, he thanked everyone who attended the rally and exhorted them to organize similar programmes in their respective cities. (Archive Link)
He had also made an image from the Jantar Mantar rally his profile picture on Twitter, but he later deleted that as well. (Archive Link)
This Times of India report quoted Delhi Police as saying, “Upadhyay had mentioned Preet’s name in the application form submitted to the police before organizing the event.” Preet Singh, one of the accused, is the director of the Save India Foundation.
While he was out on bail in the above-mentioned case, Upadhyay took part in a Dharm Sansad organized by Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati in Uttarakhand between December 17 and 19, 2021, where, once again, open genocide calls were made against Muslims. Speaking at the meeting, he referred to Narsinghanand as his ‘Gurudev, friend and brother’ and handed over to him a copy of a book that he described on the microphone as ‘bhagwa samvidhaan’ (saffron constitution). He also said that it was shameful that he had to make a saffron constitution in Hindustan; the constitution should have always been saffron.
“The fight that Maharaj ji (Yati Narsinghanand) is fighting is not unconstitutional. In five minutes I can connect his words to the constitution,” he adds.
Day 3, 19 December:
BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay presents “Bhagwa Constitution” to his “Gurudev” Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati. Earlier when he was accused in the Jantar Mantar Hate Speech case, he distanced himself from those disciples of Narsinghanand who raised slogans. pic.twitter.com/cwUm3Skvc4
— Kaushik Raj (@kaushikrj6) December 22, 2021
The theme of the meeting was ‘The Future of the Sanatan (Dharma) in Islamic India: Problem and Solutions’. According to this report in Scroll.in, Yati Narsinghanand said in his speech, “Economic boycott [against Muslims] will not work…No community can survive without picking up weapons…And swords won’t work, they look good only on stages. You need to update your weapons…More and more offsprings and better weapons, only they can protect you.”
One of the speakers, Dharmadas Maharaj, made a reference to former prime Minister Manmohan Singh and said he would have shot him six times if he was present when Singh allegedly spoke in the parliament about the right of the minorities on the national resources.
Dharamdas Maharaj from Bihar
“If I was present in the parliament when PM Manmohan Singh said that minorities have first right over national resources, I would’ve followed Nathuram Godse, I’d have shot him six times in the chest with a revolver. #HaridwarHateAssembly pic.twitter.com/p5Li3gkPN2
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) December 22, 2021
Narsinghanand, the organizer of the event and Upadhyay’s ‘Gurudev, friend and brother’, was arrested on January 15, and released on bail about three weeks later, on the condition that he would not deliver speeches that could hamper social harmony. He, however, didn’t care.
Narsinghanand is, in fact, a serial offender when it comes to delivering hate speeches. All major media houses have documented his repeated diatribes against Muslims. Examples can be found in Scroll.in, The Times of India, BBC, The Indian Express. According to this investigative report in The Wire, hate speeches by Narsinghanand and his associates played a crucial role in radicalizing rioters who eventually unleashed a bloodbath in North East Delhi in February 2020. As many as 53 people were killed in the Delhi riots that lasted four days.
Ironically, under the heading ‘An Effort to Find Solution’ on Page 47 of the report that Upadhyay wants to be implemented, the Law Commission says, “All instances of violations of freedom of expression in the context of religion and incitement of hatred resulting in violence should be condemned and prevented.”
On his Facebook page, Upadhyay has shared images of his bonhomie with Yati Narsinghanand.
Observing Upadhyay’s Twitter activities, we found that he tweets regularly on the PILs he files and the related topics. We also noticed him congratulating Sudarshan News on completing 14 years and wishing its editor Suresh Chavhanke on his birthday, in separate tweets. Addressing Chavhanke as his ‘priya mitra’, Upadhyay said the editor was doing great service to ‘Maa Bharti’.
Incidentally, Sudarshan News, its editor Suresh Chavhanke and its journalists have been repeatedly accused of indulging in hate speech. Their programmes on what they called ‘UPSC jihad’, where they cast aspersions on the presence of Muslims in civil services and sought to ‘expose’ an alleged conspiracy to inject Muslims into the Indian civil services, had created a huge uproar in 2020. The information and broadcasting ministry, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, had said that the show was ‘offensive, not in good taste and has the likelihood of promoting communal attitudes.’
Expressing concerns about the nature and content of Chavhanke’s show, Justice D Y Chandrachud had said, “Can there be something more insidious and dangerous for the stability and integrity of the nation? This also destroys the credibility of the institution of the civil services, by casting aspersions on an institution like the UPSC without any evidence.”
Alt News had done a report in August 2020 documenting Sudarshan News’s history of spreading dangerous and communally divisive misinformation.
Among the many ‘services to Maa Bharti’ done by Upadhyay’s ‘good friend’ Chavhanke, notable was him administering an oath to kill for the cause of Hindurashtra during an event organised by the Hindu Yuva Vahini on December 19, 2021 in New Delhi.
This is no longer some fringe activity, this is happening with the absolute collusion of mainstream Hindutva forces. Threatening to kill in order to make India as a Hindu nation, is, in mild terminology “ethnic cleansing”, and in actual translation, “Muslim genocide”! pic.twitter.com/8q50GrQvD3
— Dr Meena Kandasamy ¦¦ மீனா கந்தசாமி (@meenakandasamy) December 23, 2021
Alt News reached out to Upadhyay for his comment on the apparently irreconcilable contradictions in his public and professional life. He refused to comment.
Which Ashwini Upadhyay, then, should we take seriously?
The one who pleaded to the apex court to “direct the Centre to examine the international laws relating to hate speech and rumour mongering and take appropriate effective stringent steps to control hate speech and rumour mongering in order to secure rule of law freedom of speech and expression right to life liberty and dignity and other fundamental rights of citizens”, or the one who attended Narsinghanand’s meeting?
The one who says in his petition, “the injury to the citizens is extremely large because hate speech and rumour mongering has the potential of provoking individuals or society to commit acts of terrorism genocides ethnic cleansing etc” or the one who allegedly organized the hate-spewing rally at Jantar Mantar and was subsequently arrested?
The one who notes in his PIL that “all instances of violations of freedom of expression in the context of religion and incitement of hatred resulting in violence should be condemned and prevent it” or the one who suggests Muslims are urinating in the food?
The Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde?
Will My Lordships ask the real Ashwini Upadhyay to stand up, please?
Indradeep, a journalist with over 10 years' experience in print and digital media, is a Senior Editor at Alt News. Earlier, he has worked with The Times of India and The Wire. Politics and literature are among his areas of interest.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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27th September 2022 / 7:25 pm
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"author": "Indradeep Bhattacharyya"
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Gabbar Singh has a look-alike, but he is not from Karachi as reported by Pak and Indian media - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
3rd August 2018 / 6:40 pm / Last updated: 3rd August 2018
Two photographs have gone viral on social media over the last few days, shared by all and sundry. They show a look-alike of Gabbar Singh, the iconic villian played by actor Amjad Khan in the 1975 movie Sholay. The person in the photos is seen wearing an identical outfit and sporting an identical hairdo, and is standing in a crowded market area. The picture has inspired dozens of memes. News organisations have reported that these images are from Karachi, Pakistan.
The screenshot posted above is of an article published by Times Now on August 2, claiming that this person was spotted in Karachi. Apart from Times Now, a number of media organisations have ‘reported’ that this person is from Karachi. These include Zee News, Jansatta, Dainik Jagran, Financial Express, News18 Punjab and Republic TV among others. Republic TV attempted to inject a dose of humour with the headline, “पाकिस्तान में ‘बसंती संग शॉपिंग करता दिखा गब्बर सिंह’, सोशल मीडिया पर लोगों ने लिए ऐसे मजे…” (Gabbar Singh spotted shopping with Basanti in Pakistan, social media users have a ball- translated).
Any doubts over whether the photographs are from Karachi or not would have seemingly been put to rest by a number of media organisations from Pakistan too which reported that Gabbar’s doppelganger was seen shopping in Karachi.
Gabbar Singh spotted in Karachi?
See more: https://t.co/Saj9nIieXJ#TheNews pic.twitter.com/N4rHOJd4bY
— The News (@thenews_intl) August 1, 2018
The above tweet is by The News International, a Pakistani news organisation. It was also reported by Pak Times, Times of Islamabad and Urdu Point. Meanwhile, social media users have circulated these pictures with different versions of where the photograph is from.
The news outlets mentioned in this article which have reported about these viral photographs all did so on either August 1 or August 2. The photos however had been circulating on social media a few days earlier. It may be noted that in both the photos, the same woman can be seen standing next to the Gabbar Singh look-alike, indicating that the two photos have been taken at the same location. On July 28, a Facebook user posted a photo claiming it to be from Dakshineswara temple in Kolkata. Another photo was tweeted by a social media user on July 29, 2018 saying that it was taken at Bara Bazaar in Kolkata. Yet another social media user claimed the same in a tweet of July 31, 2018.
@luvsalimkhan @aapkadharam @Javedakhtarjadu @hemamalinimpmtr @FarOutAkhtar Gabbar Singh Found alive at Kolkata Barabaazar today. pic.twitter.com/rGQnqdwIFt
— ARWATCH (@OrdinaryMan25) July 29, 2018
Alt News took a close look at one of the photographs that is being circulated and found something written in Bengali on the top right corner. The text says ‘Sardalaya’ and it is probably the name of the shop.
This in itself does not confirm that the photographs were indeed clicked in Kolkata as claimed by social media users since they could even have been taken in Bangladesh, for instance. On further probing, we came across an article published by Kolkata 24X7, a regional news channel in West Bengal which reported on July 27, 2018 that “Gabbar Singh is back in Dakshineshwar”. The article reports that he was seen offering prayer at the Dakshineshwar temple in Kolkata. The news outlet also spoke to him and asked him his name which he refused to divulge, stating “What will be gained by knowing my name? You must be very courageous to ask Gabbar Singh’s name.”
It is surprising to note that none of the mainstream media organisations in Pakistan and India bothered to find out where these photographs are from, and simply relayed the message that Gabbar Singh’s look-alike has been spotted in Pakistan, when the most elementary verification would have revealed that the picture is from Kolkata and not Karachi.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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3rd August 2018 / 6:40 pm / Last updated: 3rd August 2018
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"author": "Arjun Sidharth"
}
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No, PM Modi isn't visiting a camp housing displaced Hindus from Pakistan in this photo - Alt News
Anuradha Prasad
19th March 2021 / 4:37 pm
Actor and former FTII chairman Gajendra Chauhan shared a black and white photograph on March 2 with the claim, “This is a rare 31-year-old picture when Narendra Modi met Hindus displaced from Pakistan in a camp in Barmer. He was neither the Chief Minister of Gujarat nor the Prime Minister of the country. It’s in his nature to stand by those in need.” Over 700 people retweeted Chauhan’s tweet as of this writing.
ये 31 वर्ष पुरानी दुर्लभ तस्वीर है,
जब नरेंद्र मोदी बाड़मेर में पाकिस्तान से विस्थापित हिंदुओं से मिलने उनके कैम्प में पहुँचे थे.
तब वो ना गुजरात के मुख्यमंत्री थे और ना ही देश के प्रधानमंत्री थे.
दुख, मुशीबत मे लोगों के साथ खड़ा होना मोदी जी की फितरत में शामिल है। pic.twitter.com/jh5Shc81Jq
— Gajendra Chauhan (@Gajjusay) March 2, 2021
Several other users have shared this picture with the same claim. One Prabhakar Singh Parihar’s tweet was retweeted by more than 200 people.
The photograph is also widespread on Facebook.
A reverse image of this picture takes one to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s website narendramodi.in. The picture is available on the website’s gallery. However, Gajendra Chauhan’s claim that Prime Minister Modi visited Hindus displaced from Pakistan in a camp in Rajasthan’s Barmer is false. The photograph was shot in Gujarat. It was uploaded on PM Modi’s website in May 2014.
The picture is captioned ‘Narendra Modi in a village of Gujarat’. The website states that “Narendra Modi was made the ‘Sambhaag Pracharak’ (the equivalent of a regional organiser) as an appreciation of his activism and organisational work during the preceding years. He was given charge of South and Central Gujarat”.
It further says, “His travels across Gujarat continued and increased through the early 1980s. This gave him the opportunity to visit every Taluka and almost every village in the state.”
The website does not state that Modi visited Barmer or Hindus displaced from Pakistan. Furthermore, Gajendra Chauhan claimed that the picture was taken 31 years ago, i.e. around 1990. However, it is older. According to the Prime Minister’s website, it was shot sometime in the 1980s.
A photograph of Narendra Modi in Gujarat when he was a regional organiser has been falsely shared as him visiting a camp in Rajasthan’s Barmer housing Hindus displaced from Pakistan.
A journalist and a dilettante person who always strives to learn new skills and meeting new people. Either sketching or working.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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19th March 2021 / 4:37 pm
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"author": "Anuradha Prasad"
}
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WhatsApp rumours of "gangs on a prowl attacking people at midnight" take a communal turn - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
21st July 2018 / 2:45 pm / Last updated: 21st July 2018
“सावधान इंदौर में 15 से 20 लोगों की अलग अलग रोहिग्या मुस्लिमो की टोली आई है उनके साथ बच्चे और महिलाएं हैं और उनके पास हथियार भी है और 2 बजे आधी रात को और किसी भी वक्त आते हैं और बच्चे की रोने की आवाज आती है कृपया दरवाजा ना खोले प्लीज इसको आप सारे ग्रुप में शेयर करें। – इंदौर पुलिस C.S.P. Send to all group plz” (Beware! Several gangs of 15-20 Rohingya Muslims have come to Indore, accompanied by women and children. They carry weapons and come around 2 AM at night or any other time at night when the wailing of children can be heard. Kindly do not open the door and share this in all groups – Indore Police, C.S.P. Send to all groups please.) This is the latest rumour being circulated on Whatsapp about “gangs on a prowl attacking people at night” and for the first time it has taken a communal turn, targeting Rohingya Muslims. Alt News has not found copies of this exact rumour on Facebook or Twitter thus far, suggesting that it may not be widely circulated yet.
Alt News had earlier covered another version of this message that led to lynchings in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha. The message that was circulated to propagate that “child abductors” are on a prowl is now being shared with altered images and narratives to suggest that “gangs of 15-20” people are attacking innocents at midnight.
कृपया सावधान रहें राँची,घोराठी,तिलैया,चितरतपुर, गोला,बरवाडीह और रामगढ , ओरमांझी, पतरातू, हज़ारीबाग़, बोकारो, आदि जगोहो पर …
Posted by Shubham Singh on Thursday, 31 May 2018
Fake messages on “child-abductors” and “gangs killing people for organ trade”, led to the lynching of at least 20 people in the last two months. Alt News has several times in the past reported different versions of these rumours being floated across Indian states – Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Ahmedabad. The latest victim of the “child-lifters” hoax was a Google techie from Hyderabad killed by a frenzied mob.
However, for the first time, fake messages are targeting a particular community.
Alt News searched for the message with the keyword “15 से 20 लोगों की टोली” and found a Facebook post shared on March 16, 2017 at 5:13 PM. It was posted with the text similar to the “Rohingya Muslim” Whatsapp forward and only included two changes – the place where the gang is on a prowl and the state police cautioning citizens.
The post reads – “Please be alert. In Ajmer, Kishangarh, Beawar, Nasirabad and Kekri Bandwara gangs 15-20 people have come, accompanied by women and children. They carry weapons and come at any time at night when the wailing of children can be heard. Kindly do not open the door and share this in all groups. This message is by Rajasthan Police and should spread in the whole of Rajasthan in 5 to 10 days.”
कृपया सावधान रहें
अजमेर किशनगढ़ ब्यावर नसिराबाद और केकडी बण्डवाड़ा में 15 से 20 लोगों की टोली आई है उनके साथ बच्चे और…
Posted by Krishna Kumar Gehlot on Thursday, 16 March 2017
In March last year, this message was viral with several narratives, claiming that the “gang of 15-20 people” is active across districts in Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat, and many other states.
On March 16, 2017, Dainik Jagran published an article at 12:55 AM, busting another version of the fake message claiming that the gang is active in Rohtak, Haryana. The report said that people had been confronting Rohtak police because of a rumour on Whatsapp claiming that a gang is attacking those coming out at night in aid of children crying on the streets.
A later paragraph in the article said that the message was initially circulated in English and gives its entire translation in Hindi. The translation provided by Jagran reads the same as the messages of “active gangs” viral last year, suggesting that people might have read this article and copy-pasted the translated Hindi message across social media platforms, thereby giving birth to rumours.
Furthermore, among those who circulated this fake message, many included CCTV images of the purported “child-lifters.”
The CCTV images are in reality of burglars affiliated to alleged “chaddi baniyan” gangs which have been reported by various news outlets in the past, including Patrika, Zee News, Maharashtra Times and The Indian Express, among others.
On searching for the viral message in English, Alt News found that it was being shared even before March 16, 2017 (i.e., when the first message in Hindi appeared on social media). We also observed a pattern – 1)The text remained similar to the rumours circulated in Hindi; 2)The places where the gang is said to be active is changed; and 3)The names of police stations cautioning the public is altered.
We found different versions of the same rumour claiming that the gang is active across Rohtak, Punjab and Mumbai. After the message was shared in the name of Punjab police, Station House Officer (SHO) of Rajpura City police station clarified on March 16, 2017 that it is false.
That same day, a Facebook user also shared a few more versions of the viral hoax, with otherwise identical messages and just the name of the place, where the gang is supposedly on a prowl, changed – Yamuna Nagar, Bhatinda, Faridabad.
ਅਫਵਾਹ….
Plz Alert
******** mein 15 se 20 logo ki toli aayi hai unke sath bache aur ladies hai aur unke paas hathiyar…
Posted by ਗੁਰਪ੍ਰੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਜਾਗੋ on Thursday, 16 March 2017
Patrika reported another English version of the message viral on social media which claimed that these “gangs” are active in Madhya Pradesh. The article says that the police are investigating the matter of “people forwarding cautionary messages in their names.”
Alt News has observed that the rumour-mongering of ‘gangs on a prowl’ and the child-kidnapping rumours have a behaviour that is not consistent with the usual circulation of a viral hoax. We have usually observed that when a hoax goes viral, the central text blurb that is circulated along with a video, an image or as a standalone text doesn’t usually change. Many of those who circulate a viral piece of misinformation add their opinion as a suffix or prefix, but the central text is usually not modified. In the specific case of these ‘gang’ rumours documented in this article, the changing names of places and police stations suggests that there’s constant human intervention in this process as the messages keep altering based on the state/locality it is being circulated in. If the rumour is aimed at Rajasthan, it is claimed that the message is circulated by the Rajasthan police to alert citizen of attackers on a prowl. Similarly, if the rumour is aimed at Gujarat, the message suggests Gujarat police has made the announcement. Alt News had earlier observed this pattern in the “child-abduction” rumours. A video made for awareness purposes for Pakistani audience was used in India with altered narratives to fan rumours about children being lifted by kidnappers.
However, what’s even more worrisome is the targeting of a particular ethnic group which not only fuels anti-Rohingya sentiments but also puts members of the Muslim community at risk. As witnessed in the past, innocents have lost lives due to irresponsible sharing of Whatsapp forwards thus, readers are advised to refrain from circulating such messages if received.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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21st July 2018 / 2:45 pm / Last updated: 21st July 2018
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"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
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#GauriLankesh: Did Karnataka Home Minister state 'Will probe Maoist link to murder' as claimed by Republic TV? - Alt News
Sam Jawed
6th September 2017 / 7:27 pm / Last updated: 6th September 2017
Many who were present at the Karnataka Home Minister’s press briefing on Gauri Lankesh’s murder were taken by surprise when a tweet by Republic TV quoted him as saying “Will probe Maoist link to murder”. They were sure the Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy had made no such statement.
The tweet by Republic has the statement in quotes. Anyone reading it would think that these were the exact words or a translation of the exact words of the minister. Two journalists who were present when the Home Minister addressed the journalists tweeted their reaction to the Republic TV’s tweet.
Certainly didn't hear home minister saying this. https://t.co/aob3Ahkzee
— Tanu (@TanuKul) September 5, 2017
@TanuKul @nathan_archana @ArunDev1 were all there. Ramalinga Reddy definitely did not say this. https://t.co/pex6A2Owgv
— Mohit Rao (@mohitmrao) September 5, 2017
“There you go, Maoist link to Gauri Lankesh’s murder” The reaction of the right-wingers to Gauri Lankesh’s murder was predictable. They had not only engaged in their classic victim shaming and whataboutery but also cheered on hearing about the murder. Republic TV now gave them the Maoist link to talk about.
The Republic tweet about the Karnataka Home Minister’s statement of the Maoist link was widely quoted as a new angle to the murder. Did the minister really make the statement that Republic TV attributed to him?
Alt News spoke to some of those present at the briefing and they confirmed that they did not hear the minister say this or even use the term “Maoist” in his statement. Alt News got a recording of the press interaction to reconfirm what the minister said.
The Karnataka Home Minister, Ramalinga Reddy was asked the question, “she played a major role in asking Naxalites from Chikmagalur to surrender. Few have already surrendered; Do you think their groups have played role in this Murder?” To this the minister replied, “only after investigation we can come to know”. This is very different from saying “Will probe Maoist link to murder” that was tweeted in quotes by Republic TV.
As reported by The Hindu, the minister had said, “Though there is a similarity with the murder of M.M. Kalburgi, it is too early to draw conclusions” Clearly the minister was not drawing any conclusions at that stage. Three teams have been formed to probe the murder. Indian Express also quotes the minister as saying “It will not be appropriate for me to make any comments as to who is behind the incident. It could be for personal reasons or for ideological reasons.” Despite him exercising caution and choosing his words carefully, they were twisted to give a Maoist angle by Republic TV.
As a final check and confirmation, Alt News contacted the minister himself to clarify what he said. We informed him about the tweet by Republic which quotes him stating “Will probe Maoist link to murder“. The minister categorically denied that he made any statement about the Maoist link and reconfirmed the statement that other media houses have quoted.
At a time when there is so much vitriol being spread on social media about the murder of Gauri Lankesh, is it too much to ask Republic TV to play a responsible role? Republic TV must answer why it twisted the statement of the Home Minister to conclude that a Maoist angle was being investigated.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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6th September 2017 / 7:27 pm / Last updated: 6th September 2017
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Gautam Gambhir targets AAP with video of a school under renovation - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
28th January 2020 / 11:39 pm
On January 27, BJP Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir tweeted a video suggesting that it shows a dilapidated school in the capital. “They say fight the election on education, I say fight the election on truth!” he wrote. Delhi legislative assembly elections are set to be held on February 8 and Gambhir’s tweet attempted to portray the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in poor light.
They say fight the election on education, I say fight the election on truth! pic.twitter.com/ay4KduhKO1
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) January 27, 2020
At the start of the viral video, a notice is visible on the building’s gate however the camera does not focus on the notice. Journalist Uday Rana Singh tweeted a close-up of the notice which informs that the school was relocated to SBV JJ Colony on October 9, 2019. If one notices carefully, the photograph has been taken at the same location – the art on the gate is identical.
The video that @GautamGambhir put out, claiming poor infrastructure in Delhi schools, doesn’t stop to focus on this notice posted on the gate of this Delhi government school. On 9th October 2019, this school was shifted to another makeshift location. #BattleForDelhi @CNNnews18 pic.twitter.com/2xAyF516jO
— Uday Singh Rana (@UdaySRana) January 28, 2020
The official Twitter handle of AAP quote-tweeted Gambhir’s tweet and wrote that the building featured in the video is no longer a functional school. “The school you visited has been shifted to SBV JJ Colony in October 2019,” tweeted the party along with a video where the notice is clearly visible.
The school you visited has been shifted to SBV JJ COLONY in Oct 2019.
FIGHT THE ELECTION ON TRUTH @GAUTAMGAMBHIR. Your lies are once again EXPOSED!
We request you to please LEAVE YOUR COMMENTARY BOX and do visit our DELHI GOVT SCHOOLS. https://t.co/OxT3BdKCiO pic.twitter.com/xcw4wiydCP
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) January 28, 2020
Singh shared a photograph of the makeshift school provided for the students. “I also visited the makeshift school in Khichdipur. They’ve been studying here since October as their school is under renovation,” he wrote.
I also visited the makeshift school in Khichdipur. They’ve been studying here since October as their school is under renovation. @GautamGambhir #BattleForDelhi @CNNnews18 pic.twitter.com/GepZPDYRdq
— Uday Singh Rana (@UdaySRana) January 28, 2020
The misinformation was also called out by Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia. He wrote, “The notice on the building’s gate itself says that the school was relocated to a neighbouring school six months ago as it is undergoing renovation.”
सर @AmitShah जी! आपके सांसद गौतम गम्भीर जी जिस स्कूल का विडियो बनाकर लाए और आपसे ट्वीट भी करवा लिए उसका सच ये है – उसके गेट पर ही लिखा है कि नई बिल्डिंग बनने के लिए उस स्कूल को छह महीने पहले बाज़ू के स्कूल में शिफ़्ट कर दिया गया है. 1/2 https://t.co/stU1vhTVav pic.twitter.com/bWSBAbmU0Q
— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) January 28, 2020
BJP MP Gautam Gambhir shared a video of a dilapidated building to suggest that it is a functional school in AAP’s Delhi. A notice on the building’s gate however informs that the school has been shifted to another location.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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28th January 2020 / 11:39 pm
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Gazing into the crystal ball: A compilation of Subramanian Swamy’s predictions for the future - Alt News
Sam Jawed
31st December 2017 / 2:06 pm
Alas 2017 has ended without Subramanian Swamy’s much awaited prediction of “$1=Re 1” coming true. It was in April 2012 that Swamy made this legendary forecast that has since been a butt of jokes. Not much is known about the context of his tweet as the original tweet that it was in response to, has been deleted. Swamy later clarified that this was conditional on him being the Finance Minister. Oh well, we will have to wait a little longer for this one to come true but let us check out the fate of the other predictions.
Subramanian Swamy runs a popular handle on Twitter with 6.3 million+ followers. His PTs or ‘Patriotic Tweeples’ as he likes to call them are clued on to his controversial views on various topics. He talks to them using a code language with words like TDK, JJ, Bottle, R3, etc., which they have now learnt to decipher. Swamy also keeps his PTs encouraged with his many prophecies promising his variation of the elusive “achche din”.
A lot was expected to happen in 2017 that didn’t. Let us look at it through Subramanian Swamy’s prophecies.
2017 didn’t quite go as expected
The process of “Congi crooks” going to Jail was to start by November 1, 2017. Though this deadline has been missed, there is still hope as August 2018 is the final date to watch out for.
By Nov 1, 2017 I hope the process of Congi crooks going to jail will commence. By Aug 2018 most should be inside
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) September 20, 2017
Poor PTs have been waiting with a first aid box since this tweet and are now wondering if they should use the burnol on themselves. Swamy has meanwhile launched a sharp attack on the government’s claim of no negative impact of GST by calling the CSO data on GDP bogus and alleging that Moody’s and Fitch will publish any report “if you pay them.” So much for India being re-energised by the time 2018 begins!
From Sept 2016 to Nov 2017 India will be transformed for the better. PTs be ready for a bumpy ride till then. Keep a first aid box handy.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) March 27, 2016
Tomorrow 2017 begins. India will be re-energised by the time 2018 begins by tumultuous changes. Hindutva will triumph. PTs our time has come
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) December 31, 2016
Even though the Ram Temple is yet to start and the Article 370 is untouched so far, PTs can still take comfort in the hope for a national ban of cow slaughter in 2018. With the upcoming elections in Meghalaya and Nagaland, that is certainly a very optimistic expectation.
@vinaysutraway : next year for Ram temple, 2017 for removing Art 370, 2018 for national ban on cow slaughter.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) October 29, 2015
The year 2017 also ended without the exclusive temple areas or the Ram Mandir construction in full swing.
I predict by end 2017 Vrindavan, Ayodhya, Kashi Vishwanath will re- become exclusively temple areas with Hindustani Muslim concurrence.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) June 30, 2014
By the end of March month, I will have left 3/4th of 2016. On progress so far on Ram Temple, I am confident construction will start by 31/12
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) March 29, 2016
Swamy had also predicted that after the Ram Mandir, Modi government will bring Uniform Civil Code Bill in 2017. The latest update on that is that Justice Chauhan, the Chairman of the Law Commission was recently quoted as saying “Uniform Civil Code is not possible, it’s not even an option.” Oh well…
@mohitshrm8 : Sometime in 2017 after Ram Temple
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) March 8, 2016
The story prior to 2017
It is not just this year that Swamy’s predictions have gone awry. The past record has not been too encouraging either.
Swamy had hoped that Congress will join NDA if it got less than 70 seats in the 2014 general elections. And Vadra would be in jail. We have no comment to make on this except, “Are you serious?”
If Congi gets less that 70 MPs in 2014 then it will join NDA
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) March 1, 2014
@kishor6kumar : There is a court stay. After Mid May 2014 direct action. Vadra in jail
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) February 11, 2014
Talking of Article 370, it was to be deleted in 2015 itself. Such were the expectations that Swamy held from the BJP government.
I predict that Art 370 will be deleted around Sept 2015.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) June 30, 2014
Unfortunately Swamy’s recent election predictions have been off the mark. Delhi did to Kiran Bedi what Punjab did to the Akali-BJP alliance.
Announcing next CM of Delhi is Kiran Bedi
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) February 7, 2015
As of now, it appears Akali BJP will win majority in Assembly. Part of the credit goes to Akalis for their waking up to the narcotics threat
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) October 1, 2016
What about 2018?
So what does 2018 hold in store for us? Here are some of Swamy’s predictions for the new year:
I am confident Smart Cities will be a reality in 2018 but not sure if the future GST Act can survive in SC because of GSTN– a PC time bomb
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) August 9, 2016
Deepavali 2018
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) December 18, 2017
: If I am not blocked by her well wishers in the woodwork then by July end. Otherwise before 2018 end. An open shut case
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) March 20, 2017
@SimplyArsh : By 2018 India will overtake China. By 2030 will come on par with US.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) March 1, 2014
Smart Cities will be a reality, we will get the Ram Mandir by Diwali and Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will be behind bars by 2018 end and India will overtake China on the economic front. On this note, we welcome 2018 and wish you all a very Happy New year.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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31st December 2017 / 2:06 pm
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General G D Bakshi makes false claim about Mehbooba Mufti and 2014 Budgam firing - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
18th February 2019 / 10:20 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019
A video clip of India TV editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma on his prime time news show has been shared massively on social media. The video clip is two minutes and twenty seconds long, and features Sharma and retired Indian army officer and TV panelist Major General G D Bakshi. Puducherry governor Kiran Bedi is among those who have shared this extract from Sharma’s programme. Her tweet has been retweeted over 13100 times already.
Listen to this please. pic.twitter.com/iC8Djq1a7B
— Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) February 17, 2019
Rajat Sharma asks G D Bakshi how the explosive laden SUV which hit the CRPF convoy in Pulwama escaped scrutiny, to which the latter narrates an incident, and blames former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti’s policies for having created this situation. The exchange between Sharma and Bakshi is as follows:
Rajat Sharma: Mr. Bakshi, everyone is asking how the terrorist could manage to attack a convoy of 2500 jawans?
Maj-Gen G D Bakshi: Rajat ji, it is very important for the peole of India to understand one thing: every morning, when convoys are on their way, road opening parties do road clearance for detecting explosives. This was an explosive laden car. Why was it not checked? There is a story behind this.
During Mehbooba Mufti’s rule there were three army checkposts outside Srinagar. Once, a Kashmiri gentleman had got angry as to why he is being checked, and crashed two barriers before a soldier opened fire after repeated warning, and he got killed. This led to a furore- why is the army harassing Kashmiris and resorting to atrocities, and Mehbooba Mufti ensured that the jawan who opened fire is today in Tihar jail. Then Army commander General Hooda had to issue a public apology and the barriers were removed. Today, if the car manages to pass through, WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? WILL MEHBOOBA MUFTI ANSWER THOSE 30 CORPSES AND FAMILIES?
Rajat Sharma: Mehboob Mufti has expressed grief over the deaths of the jawans and has appealed for a solution?
Gen Bakshi: This is adding salt to wounds. You get them killed, issue order saying no car will be checked. In Delhi, you and I cant escape road barriers but in a sensitive place like Srinagar, you prevent checking and send a jawan who does so to Tihar jail? Which jawan will have the courage to check? Who is responsible?
On Facebook, this video clip has been shared by a page Presstitutes, with the caption “Gen G D Bakshi gives the reason why SUV carrying 350kg explosives that hit the convoy was not checked”. The video has been viewed over 377,000 times and shared over 9600 times so far.
Gen G D Bakshi gives the reason why SUV carrying 350kg explosives that hit the convoy was not checked
Posted by Presstitutes on Sunday, February 17, 2019
Several individual Facebook users too have shared this video, as have Twitter users.
Others who alluded to this incident, making a similar claim were BJP MP Subramaniam Swamy and Gaurav Arya. Swamy’s tweet was retweeted almost 9000 times. It may be noted that Swamy and Arya have not named anyone in their tweet.
Who authorised the prosecution of our army jawans who in 2014 shot at a Maruti car which smashed through three check points without stopping? That person is responsible for this latest SUV to get near the convoy killing 37 CRPF jawans. The army jawans are still in jail
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) February 16, 2019
Had Mehbooba Mufti’s government issued orders for cars to not be stopped at checkposts? Which incident was G D Bakshi referring to?
The incident that Major General G D Bakshi is referring to had occurred in November 2014. Two youths had been shot dead in Chitergam village of Budgam district on November 3, 2014 by army jawans, after they had jumped two mobile checkposts. The incident had led to an uproar, with protests breaking out in the valley. The army had acknowledged it as a case of mistaken identity and had admitted to violation of rules of engagement.
General Bakshi, in essence, makes two claims:
Mehbooba Mufti was NOT the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir when the Budgam incident had occurred. The CM of J&K was Omar Abdullah of the National Conference, which was in power in the state from 2009. Abdullah was sworn in as Chief Minister in January 2009. He had acknowledged the Budgam incident on Twitter a day after it had occurred.
Have spoken to Union Defence Minister @arunjaitley reg. yesterday’s incident where army firing resulted in 2 avoidable deaths 1/n
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 4, 2014
Mehbooba Mufti became Chief Minister of J&K much later, in April 2016 following the demise of her father, Mufti Mohammed Sayyid.
The Budgam incident in the Kashmir Valley is highly regrettable. A fair enquiry will be held and action taken against those found guilty.
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) November 3, 2014
Union Minister Arun Jaitley had tweeted in the aftermath of the incident, calling it “highly regrettable” and ensuring a fair inquiry and action against the guilty. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too had referred to the incident at a rally in Srinagar in 2014, referring to the fact that the Indian Army had acknowledged that it had made a mistake. PM Modi added that a case had already been filed against the accused. This portion can be heard from 39:25 in the video posted below.
Insofar as the claim that an order had been issued by Mehbooba Mufti that vehicles will not be stopped at checkpoints, The Quint has reported that “(Lt Gen DS) Hooda also said that there was never any government order against “stopping vehicles at check points” following the Budgam incident, as claimed by (Subramaniam) Swamy and other Twitter users.” General Hooda was the then Northern Army Commander.
Bakshi’s second claim viz. the jawan who fired at the youths is imprisoned at Tihar jail, is false. Speaking to The Quint, Lt Gen D S Hooda confirmed that the claim about army personnel being court martialed or imprisoned is false.“This all fake news. There was an inquiry that was conducted, but there was no court martial. While we had done our inquiry, a police investigation was ongoing. We wanted to wait till the police completed its investigation, so we could put both the things together and take action on the court of inquiry and police report. But there’s been no court martial.”
The official Twitter account of Northern Command, Indian Army had reiterated the same in July 2016, affirming that no security personnel were imprisoned or court martialed.
No army soldier , officer court martialed / imprisoned in the Budgam incident of Nov14 @capt_amarinder @adgpi
— NorthernComd.IA (@NorthernComd_IA) July 23, 2016
In conclusion, the claim made by Major General G D Bakshi about Mehbooba Mufti’s alleged role in diluting operating procedures for the army is false. Mufti was not even the CM when the incident of firing had happened. No army men have been imprisoned or court martialed following the incident. Moreover, no order was issued in the first place allowing vehicles to go unchecked.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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18th February 2019 / 10:20 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019
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"Get out of My Country" - White man yelled, shot two Indians, one dead, another critically injured - Alt News
Alt News Desk
24th February 2017 / 5:26 am / Last updated: 12th July 2018
In triple shooting yesterday at Austin’s Bar & Grill in Olathe Kansas, three people were shot including two Indians and one American. The two Indian associates working in Garmin, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani were shot. Unfortunately, Srinivas was killed in the shooting. Officers conducted a manhunt for the white man and have seemingly arrested a suspect. The suspect, Adam Purinton was drinking at a bar in an Applebee’s in Clinton, when he was arrested early Thursday, about five hours after the shooting, police said.
As the incident unfolds, the two Indians at the bar were provoked by a white man in his 50s, who consequently got into an argument. The shooter questioned their presence and even asked how they are better than him. To control the situation the Bar management asked the accused to leave from the place. The shooter left only to come back with a gun and shoot them. An American national, Ian Grillot who was at the scene stood up to the shooter and tried to stop him, but unfortunately got injured. The shooter fled the scene and Srinivas who was originally in critical condition passed away. Two of the shooting victims were employees of the Aviation Systems Engineering team at Garmin, headquartered in Olathe.
In an email to employees, Garmin officials identified the fatal victim as employee Srinivas Kuchibhotla. Alok Madasani was injured. In a public statement, Garmin said, “We’re saddened that two Garmin associates were involved in last night’s incident, and we express our condolences to the family and friends of our co-workers involved. Garmin will have grievance counsellors on-site and available for its associates today and tomorrow.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up for Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani by a stranger who was sickened by the crime.
A third victim, Ian Grillot, was shot in the hand and shoulder. Witnesses said he stood up to the shooter and tried to stop him.
Records indicate Purinton has an inactive pilot’s license and air traffic controller certificate. A U.S. Navy spokeswoman confirmed that Purinton served in the Navy but said no further details were readily available because the records were being retrieved from the archives.
Reports say that the shooter yelled “get out of my country”, “terrorist” and used racial slurs though the police have not confirmed the same. Before the arrest, the shooter apparently told the bartender that he killed two Middle Eastern men and needs a place to hide. The bartender intimated the police who arrested the unarmed suspect, Adam Purinton, about five hours after the shooting. No charges have been filed yet.
Here are a few reactions to the said incident:
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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24th February 2017 / 5:26 am / Last updated: 12th July 2018
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"author": "Alt News Desk"
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Giriraj Singh quotes fake news website, terms Congress 'world's 2nd most corrupt party' - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
24th December 2018 / 12:00 pm / Last updated: 18th March 2019
Union Minister and BJP MP Giriraj Singh tweeted on December 24 – “Top 10 List of Most Corrupt Political Party in the World 2018 and Rahul Gandhi led congress making it all the way to 2nd spot …congratulations to the most corrupt political party.” In a little over two hours, Singh’s tweet attracted over 1,000 likes and 474 retweets.
The BJP MP termed the Congress a “shame for India”, basing his claims on an article by ‘bbcnewshub.com’, titled – “Top 10 List of Most Corrupt Political Party in the World 2018”. The article placed the Congress at the second position.
The list shared by Singh was created by a fake news website posing as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The distinction between ‘bbcnewshub.com’ and the official bbc.com website is clear.
Furthermore, the poorly worded article is replete with grammatical errors. “…political parties do hire member or contenders, these parties are also to run and organize elections to decide the government of any country in the world,” reads its first paragraph.
The ludicrous ‘About us’ section of BBC News Hub also gives away its falseness. It states, “bbcnewshub.com is best place to provide complete, brief, correct, healthy and strong content for the respectable visitors which are related to all over the world. It provides the national and international current and all type of information.”
Alt News had earlier debunked the same list of ‘most corrupt political parties in the world’. Chairman of Manipal Global Education Mohandas Pai had fallen for this article that has been doing rounds on social media since July this year.
BBC News Hub had produced one more list that placed Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 7th place among the most corrupt politicians worldwide. Another fake news website ‘foxnewspoint.com’, imitating American news organisation Fox News, called PM Modi’s family the second most corrupt political family in the world.
Despite debunking BBC News Hub in the past, Giriraj Singh shared its list to target Congress. The Union Minister had earlier claimed that a tweet by Rahul Gandhi was retweeted by Pakistan’s official defence account. This too turned out to be false as the handle belonged to an online forum that discussed the country’s defence issues.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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24th December 2018 / 12:00 pm / Last updated: 18th March 2019
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/giriraj-singh-quotes-fake-news-website-term-congress-worlds-2nd-most-corrupt-party/",
"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
}
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1,377 |
"If I win, I will start good slaughterhouses here", says Kerala BJP leader - Alt News
Alt News Desk
2nd April 2017 / 12:22 am / Last updated: 12th July 2018
“Give me votes, I will start good slaughterhouses here” – This is the winning slogan for N.Sriprakash, the BJP candidate for the byelection to the Malappuram Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala. His stand on beef, which is diametrically opposite to that of his party leaders in North India, was revealed during a meet-the-press event held here on Saturday. When asked about the BJP’s stand regarding beef, especially the Gujarat Government’s bill to award life-term for cow slaughter, he said that his party is not against the consumption of “good beef”.
“What is the problem in choosing a food of our liking? Beef has not been banned. This is part of a misinformation campaign. Life imprisonment is being awarded only for cow slaughter. Beef has not been banned. I will try my best to start good slaughterhouses here, which provide quality beef, if you vote me to power. It was during the Congress rule that beef ban was imposed in many states. In some states, even the meat of dead cattles become food, which is unfortunate. Please don’t mistake me as someone who stands for beef ban,” he said.
Sreeprakash certainly knows that supporting the views of his parent party regarding beef is a recipe to be unpopular in Kerala, and especially in Malappuram, which is a Muslim majority district. This latest stand of a BJP candidate, further exposes the hypocrisy of the party’s stand regarding beef. Two days back, the party’s leaders in the North East had said that they would never think of banning beef in the region. This came on the same day when the BJP Government in Gujarat passed the bill to award life imprisonment for anyone caught slaughtering cow. The Chattisgarh BJP CM Raman Singh today said that his Government will hang those who kill cows.
The by-election in the Malappuram constituency was necessitated by the passing away of Muslim League leader E.Ahamed. He had collapsed inside the Parliament a day before the Union budget was to be presented. There was a huge controversy surrounding his death, with the Modi Government facing criticism for the way in which the death of the former Union minister was handled. The news of his death was apparently suppressed for several hours to prevent the budget presentation from being postponed. Ahamed’s family was not allowed to see him at the hospital. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders also went to the hospital to see Ahamed, but were not permitted to meet him. Ahamed’s son-in-law Dr Babu was heard saying that he and his wife were doctors and did not understand why they were not allowed to meet his father.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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2nd April 2017 / 12:22 am / Last updated: 12th July 2018
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/give-votes-ill-give-beef-says-kerala-bjp-leader/",
"author": "Alt News Desk"
}
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GoAir fires the wrong person based on hateful tweets from a dubious Twitter account - Alt News
Pratik Sinha
7th June 2020 / 5:49 pm / Last updated: 8th June 2020
Screenshots of tweets from a Twitter account with the name Asif Khan and Twitter id @MdAsif35534489 went viral on June 4. The account, which has now either been deleted or deactivated, posted tweets that were hateful and provocative in nature. The account in its bio claimed to be employed with Indian airline GoAir as a cabin crew. Several Twitter accounts – BALA (@erbmjha), Ramesh Solanki (@Rajput_Ramesh) and Sonam Mahajan (@AsYouNotWish) – tagged the GoAir official Twitter account and demanded action to be taken against the said person if he indeed is an employee of the company.
Late afternoon on June 4, GoAir reacted to this issue through their official Twitter account and stated that they are inquiring if the said person is their employee or not.
pic.twitter.com/49CV0NwPUs
— GoAir (@goairlinesindia) June 4, 2020
At 9:43 pm on the same day, within 7 hours of the above tweet, GoAir tweeted again on this issue and stated that they have terminated the employment contract of trainee first officer Asif Khan.
pic.twitter.com/qeXP4TpaVY
— GoAir (@goairlinesindia) June 4, 2020
This development was reported by news organisations such as News18, OneIndia and right-wing portals Swarajya, OpIndia and MyNation.
Asif Iqbal Khan whose employment contract was terminated by GoAir on account of the viral tweets took to Facebook to tell his side of the story. In his Facebook post, he narrated how he had been falsely targeted. He denied any association with Twitter account @MdAsif35534489 and the hateful posts. “I have been getting death threats, abusive hate messages, my mother and sister threatened with rape, all because of mistaken identity and because a guy with the same name as mine had abused Holy Hindu God’s,” he wrote.
Khan also stated that he’s filed a formal police complaint and is willing to completely co-operate in the investigation, “My only request is to please investigate this matter fairly and swiftly because this whole matter has put a huge stress on me and my family especially my dad who is very ill at this moment. I trust our Judicial System and I trust my company GoAir to deal with this matter swiftly and sensitively.”
Khan posted a screenshot of his personal Twitter account @FarOutAsif.
GoAir’s reaction on this issue is shocking because even the most basic investigation would have revealed that they’re possibly firing the wrong person.
Alt News was able to locate GoAir employee Asif Iqbal Khan’s Instagram account. We compared a photo retrieved from the account with the profile image of the alleged imposter account on Twitter. It is clear that the faces of the two individuals do not match.
Further, the GoAir employee sports a beard in every picture of his dating back to about five years, while the person in the alleged imposter account is clean-shaven.
Using Wayback Machine which archives selective web pages around the world, Alt News was able to retrieve certain old tweets posted by the alleged imposter account @MdAsif35534489. In one of the retrieved tweets, the account had posted the picture of an individual in Qatar airways uniform and claimed that the Qatar airways employee is his older brother.
We have blurred out the face in order to protect the identity of the said individual whose picture was used without his permission. We were able to get in touch with the Qatar airways employee and sent him the profile image used by the alleged imposter account. He informed Alt News that the person representing the imposter account is not his brother. We are concealing the identity of the Qatar airways employee at his request.
In the tweet concerning the Qatar employee, the following observations can be made.
The behaviour seen in the above tweet is typical of those who create accounts to earn a quick buck by trending Twitter hashtags. It is a common practice on Twitter for accounts to impersonate other individuals and trend hashtags and is a source of income for many Twitter users. We found many such tweets put out by this account, using Wayback Machine, which shows repeated behaviour (1, 2, 3). These were tweeted over a span of several weeks.
In conclusion, even a basic investigation would have thrown up enough reasons for GoAir to institute a longer investigation, and not terminate the employment of their pilot in a matter of seven hours. The account with offensive tweets shows all traits of an imposter account created to make money by trending hashtags. It is unlikely that an airline pilot would need a source of income through trending hashtags.
Hashtag trending is a full-time profession for many on Twitter, and anonymous accounts impersonating others in order to gain followers is a common practice. The same anonymous accounts are often a source of hate and misinformation. Even after years of this practice where anonymous accounts have caused untold misery for real people, Twitter is yet to find a way around this issue.
[Update: GoAir has now revoked the termination of Asif Iqbal Khan and he is suspended pending investigation.]
Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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7th June 2020 / 5:49 pm / Last updated: 8th June 2020
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/go-air-fires-the-wrong-person-based-on-hateful-tweets-from-a-dubious-twitter-account/",
"author": "Pratik Sinha"
}
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1,379 |
Goa Congress member falsely branded as ‘Naxal Bhabhi’ in Hathras case - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
14th October 2020 / 10:01 am / Last updated: 14th October 2020
A photograph of a woman panellist in a press conference held by Goa Pradesh Congress Committee was shared by Chayan Chatterjee, great-grandson of former Calcutta University vice-chancellor Ashutosh Mukherjee. He claimed that the woman is ‘fake Naxal bhabhi’ who hugged Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi in Hathras. Chatterjee’s tweet drew over 3,000 retweets and more than 7,000 likes.
On October 3, Priyanka Gandhi had visited the family of a Dalit woman who died after being allegedly gang-raped by four upper-caste men in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras. Chatterjee’s post alleges that Gandhi hugged a woman at the victim’s residence who is associated with the Congress but posed as a family member. Renuka Jain and Arun Pudur claimed the same.
Twitter user @AshishJaggi_1 identified the woman in the panel as ‘Dr Rajkumari Bansal’ and referred to her as #FakeNaxalBhabhi. The context behind the term will be discussed later in the report.
Squint Neon, a page that frequently peddles misinformation, posted the same on Facebook and so did one Suresh Kochattil.
Facebook page The Right Voice also shared the image along with a picture of Gandhi hugging a saree-clad woman.
In an earlier fact-check, Alt News had debunked identical false claim however circulating without the photo of the Congress panellist. A picture of Gandhi hugging Hathras victim’s mother was misused to claim the woman was ‘fake Naxal bhabhi’.
Alt News rummaged through the Facebook page of Goa Congress and found a press conference video where the same woman can be spotted in a black saree. The press conference was held on the Hathras case. The woman has been identified as Pratibha Borkar, social media head of the committee.
Press Conference by Senior Congress leader Shambhu Bhau Bandekar, Vithu Morajkar (Spokesperson) and Pratibha Borkar at Congress House, Panjim.
Posted by Indian National Congress – Goa on Wednesday, 30 September 2020
In the viral image, Borkar and the other panellists are not wearing masks which suggests that this press conference was held prior to at least March 2020. We found that it was uploaded on September 2019.
Borkar has the same picture currently viral as her cover photo on Facebook.
Now coming to ‘fake Naxal bhabhi’. The term is used for Dr Rajkumari Bansal who was accused by Hathras police for posing as a relative of the victim’s family and feeding them statements to give to the cops. A News18 report claimed that she was posing as the victim’s bhabhi (sister-in-law). Dr Bansal is an assistant professor at the forensic department of Jabalpur medical college. She claimed that her visit was for humanitarian reasons and she wanted to examine documents pertaining to the deceased’s medical treatment considering her forensic expertise. Dr Bansal also said that she was providing the family financial assistance. She was accused by some media outlets of being a Naxalite, a claim that she has denied.
A quick facial comparison of Dr Bansal and Pratibha Borkar proves they are different people. The most evidently contrasting feature is their nose.
Jabalpur-based Dr Rajkumari Bansal was misidentified as Congress member Pratibha Borkar to claim that a woman associated with the party posed as Hathras victim’s family member whom Priyanka Gandhi hugged. There are more than enough media reports that Gandhi had hugged the victim’s mother.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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14th October 2020 / 10:01 am / Last updated: 14th October 2020
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/goa-congress-member-falsely-branded-as-naxal-bhabhi-in-hathras-case/",
"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
}
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1,380 |
Goa elections: Fake WhatsApp chat shared by AAP and Congress supporters - Alt News
Kalim Ahmed
14th February 2022 / 8:19 pm
On February 12, 2022, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Goa shared a link to a YouTube video on their official Twitter handle. The video was an hour-long broadcast of a ‘sting operation’ aired by a news channel called Hindi Khabar. In the broadcast, it is alleged that Congress and TMC candidates in Goa indulged in horse-trading and discussed plans to change parties if need be post the election.
SHOCKING NEWS!!!!
Congress and TMC MLA caught red handed taking money for defecting to BJP, If they win the election.
Watch Nowhttps://t.co/psthUocOjp
— Aam Aadmi Party Goa (@AAPGoa) February 12, 2022
Congress Goa put out a statement on Twitter claiming the sting to be “a conspiracy hatched by the BJP-AAP duo”.
STATEMENT
A conspiracy has been hatched by BJP-AAP duo to defame the Congress & three of the party office bearers. With malafied intention, through a news channel called ‘Hindi Khabar’, they have released a fake, distorted and doctored video during the 48 hour silent period.(1/3)
— Goa Congress (@INCGoa) February 12, 2022
In the context of these accusations made by both AAP and Congress on each other, various screenshots of WhatsApp chats are being shared on social media by supporters of both parties.
In the screenshot shared by supporters of Congress, it is being claimed that the ‘sting operation’ is a “deep-fake” video made by AAP.
Whether it’s #AAP leaders or their supporters…
Both just wants to dent the couple votes of #Congress to ensure BJP’s victory in #Goa that’s it now it’s up to Goan voters to show them their place… #GoaElections2022 pic.twitter.com/1DQ2c4dFGv
— Bilal Ahmed (@BilalAhmedNgp) February 13, 2022
While the screenshot shared by supporters of AAP suggests that the sting ‘operation’ has “rattled” Goa Congress.
WhatsApp chat LEAKED!
Sting has rattled Goa Congress. Now they’re trying to save face by calling it a Deep Fake video + drama of complaint to Election Commission#GoaElections #CongressSold pic.twitter.com/1WQDF4L5e1
— Post Truth🌹 (@PostTruthIndia) February 13, 2022
The screenshots of these WhatsApp chats are viral on Facebook.
We had a close look at these screenshots and observed a few anomalies. The first screenshot which was shared by supporters of the Congress party has the following anomalies:
The screenshots shared by supporters of AAP also has some errors:
Based on all the observations that we have made, it is safe to conclude that the chats shared by supporters of both parties are fake. We suggest that our readers should check WhatsApp and make the observations themselves.
Kalim is a journalist with a keen interest in tech, misinformation, culture, etc
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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14th February 2022 / 8:19 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/goa-elections-fake-whatsapp-chat-shared-by-aap-and-congress-supporters/",
"author": "Kalim Ahmed"
}
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Goa MLA Vijai Sardesai who had called Manohar Parrikar a 'Dalal' and a 'Dictator' now wants him as the CM of Goa - Alt News
Pratik Sinha
13th March 2017 / 6:36 pm / Last updated: 13th March 2017
Manohar Parrikar is all set to take the oath as the Chief Minister of Goa even after BJP having won only 13 seats in the recently concluded polls. One of the reasons that Parrikar and BJP are in a position to form the Govt is because of the 3 Goa Forward Party (GFP) MLAs that have extended support to BJP. However, GFP under the mentorship of Vijai Sardesai won their seats on a completely anti-BJP plank. In fact, Prabhakar Timble, the President of the Goa Forward Party (GFP), resigned from his post on 12th March 2017 after the party’s three elected MLAs, led by Vijai Sardesai, extended direct support to the BJP to form the next government in Goa.
Since the GFP party won on an anti-BJP plank, the tweets from various social media accounts representing the party including Goa Forward Party’s own Twitter account and Vijai Sardesai’s account are patently anti-BJP and have become an embarrassment for them. We have recorded some of the tweets here where in Vijai Sardesai not only pledged not to join BJP ever but also calls Manohar Parrikar a ‘Dalal’ and a ‘Dictator’.
Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker.
Follow @free_thinker
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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13th March 2017 / 6:36 pm / Last updated: 13th March 2017
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/goa-mla-vijai-sardesai-called-manohar-parrikar-dalal-dictator-now-wants-cm-goa/",
"author": "Pratik Sinha"
}
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Goat "arrested" for not wearing mask in Kanpur? Bizarre media misreports - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
27th July 2020 / 10:43 pm
A bizarre piece of news made headlines on July 27 — a goat was “arrested” by Kanpur police for not wearing a mask. An IANS feed republished by National Herald, Orissa Post and News18 English claimed, “The incident took place over the weekend and the Beconganj police picked up the goat and took it to the police station in a jeep.”
However, IANS also carried a contradictory statement by Circle Officer, Anwarganj police station, Saifuddin Beg, who said that cops had found a youth without a mask taking the goat along. “When he saw the police, he ran away leaving the goat behind so the policemen brought the goat to the police station. Later, we handed over the goat to its owner,” the officer was quoted. IANS accused the police of “changing” its version of the story.
News18 deemed the story important enough to be published in Telugu and Bangla languages as well. The channel broadcast a video of policemen loading a goat into their jeep.
Times Now, Republic and India Times carried similar reports. Times Now too blamed the police of “changing” the narrative. “Now they say they wanted to arrest the man who was seen not wearing a mask instead of the goat,” read the report.
Other outlets that published articles on the peculiar story were Asianet News (Kannada and Hindi), Kashmir Today, Zee News Tamil, Dainik Bhaskar and Loksatta.
The story contradicts common sense just by the first reading. It sounds like something one would find on satirical websites, yet was published by legitimate media organisations as “news”. The video of a goat being pushed inside a police van was floating on mainstream media and social media alike. A Twitter user claimed that a person accused Beconganj police of forcefully taking away his goat. Kanpur police replied to the user that an unclaimed goat roaming around Dada Miyan intersection during lockdown was brought to Beconganj police station and handed over to its owner Khanikujjma, son of Mohammed Ali.
प्रकरण में प्र0नि0 बेकनगंज द्वारा बातया गया कि लॉकडाउन में बकरा लावारिस घूम रहा था जिसको थाने लाया गया, बकरा मालिक मो0 अली पुत्र खनीकुज्जमा नि0 दादामियां का चौराहा, थाना बेकनगंज कानपुर नगर के आने पर उन्हे नियमानुसार बकरे को सुपुर्द कर दिया गया, शेष आरोप असत्य व निराधार है।
— Kanpur Nagar Police (@kanpurnagarpol) July 27, 2020
Alt News reached out to Beconganj police and was told that a police van was passing by when locals informed that a goat was roaming unclaimed on the streets. “We brought the goat to the police station in case it gets lost and called the owner. He came and picked it up. The news that we “arrested” the goat for not wearing a mask is completely false,” said the police.
Mohammad Ali, the goat’s owner, laughed at the inane news reports when we called him for a statement. “The police helped us. Our goat would’ve gotten lost if they hadn’t brought it to the police station and informed us,” he said.
We also contacted Anwarganj police station Circle Officer, Saifuddin Beg, who has been quoted by several media organisations. He said that the man accompanying the goat was roaming without a mask. The police wanted to catch him but he fled, leaving the goat behind. While his version of events differs from Beconganj police statement, CO Beg maintained that news reports claiming the goat was “arrested” for not adorning a mask are laughable. “Is that even possible?” he asked.
Media organisations, several led by news agency IANS, therefore published an absurd story as genuine news. It is ridiculous to suggest that the police “arrested” a goat for not wearing a mask when Indian streets are littered with (obviously unmasked) stray animals all the time. While in the past we have noticed outlets falling for satire, this time comical news was crafted out of a real incident. IANS referred to the police as the “butt of jokes” all the while believing that a goat was actually arrested in Kanpur for not wearing a mask during COVID-19. This is a reminder of the time in 2017 when media outlets published reports claiming that donkeys were “detained” by Uttar Pradesh police for eating expensive plants.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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27th July 2020 / 10:43 pm
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"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
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Godman whose genitals were cut off has strong links with Hindu Aikya Vedi, an organisation close to the Sangh - Alt News
Alt News Desk
21st May 2017 / 10:43 am / Last updated: 12th July 2018
The Kerala ‘Godman’ whose genitals were cut off by a 23-year old girl, to put an end to eight long years of sexual exploitation, is a associate of Hindu Aikya Vedi, an organisation that is considered close to the Sangh. The Hindu Aikya Vedi’s blog carries a report and photographs from 2010, when the accused Ganeshananda Theerthapada Swami along with the current Kerala BJP Chief Kummanam Rajsekharan and other swamis went to meet the then Chief Minister to submit a memorandum.
The memorandum demanded the withdrawal of the Government’s order to takeover the administration of ashrams, matt’s and temples in North Kerala. In 2013, he was also the convenor of a spiritual event organised by the Aranmula Paithruka Grama Karmasamithi, an organisation of which the Kerala BJP Chief is the patron.
According to the Police, the Swami has been a frequent visitor to the house for the past many years, ever since he came into contact with the family with promises to cure the girl’s father’s illness through prayers and mantra. As per the 23-year old girl’s statement to the Police, the Godman has been sexually assaulting her ever since she was in Class 10.
On Friday night at 11.30 p.m., he allegedly barged into her room, after everyone else in the home had slept and demanded sexual favours while threatening her with a knife. Later, she managed to get hold of the knife and cut off his genitals. She soon ran out and called up the police control room to inform them of the happenings. The Godman was brought to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital with genitals badly damaged.
The civil society and even the Kerala Chief Minister came out in support of the girl. In television discussions, the Hindu Aikya Vedi leaders distanced themselves from the Godman. The BJP in Kerala tries to create an impression that it is not connected to organisations like Hindu Aikya Vedi, known for a more extreme form of Hindutva. The link between the two organisations became clear recently with the appointment of the new BJP Chief Kummanam Rajasekharan, who was till that point serving as the State General Secretary of the Hindu Aikya Vedi. Rajasekharan also used to be a full-time RSS Pracharak.
A few Hindutva websites even tried to pass off stories claiming that he had stopped being a swami and had become a “comrade”.
Soon after the incident came to light, old news reports of the Swami’s public appearances and speeches were shared across social media. In one of his speeches, he says,”Spirituality has to be inculcated in children. This should be done not through books, but through spiritual leaders.”
In one of the speeches made on December 31, 2016, he is quoted as saying that only those who are able to see the ‘mother’ in every being will be able to achieve salvation.
Follow @free_thinker
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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21st May 2017 / 10:43 am / Last updated: 12th July 2018
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/godman-whose-genitals-cut-off-close-links-sangh-organisation-hindu-aikya-vedi/",
"author": "Alt News Desk"
}
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1,384 |
What do these Nathuram Godse fans have in common? They are all followed by PM Modi on Twitter - Alt News
Alt News Desk
2nd October 2017 / 8:53 pm / Last updated: 3rd October 2017
“Godse was God sent”, “Gandhi should have been hanged“, “Godse had valid reasons to shoot Gandhi”, “I repeat I’m a big Godse fan, so what?” What do the people who posted these tweets have in common? Yes, they are all followed by the honorable Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi. “गांधी जयंती पर बापू को शत्-शत् नमन! I bow to beloved Bapu on Gandhi Jayanti. His noble ideals motivate millions across the world,” Even as PM Modi tweeted his homage to Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, he continues to follow many of those who celebrate the killer of Gandhi.
The video that is attached to Mr. Modi’s tweet pays a personal tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his Birth Anniversary. Though from Prime Minister downwards, BJP leaders don’t miss to their mandatory Gandhi Jayanti tweet, the situation on the ground among the followers of the RSS ideology is very different. From criticizing Gandhi to praising Godse, you can see it all there.
गांधी जयंती पर बापू को शत्-शत् नमन! I bow to beloved Bapu on Gandhi Jayanti. His noble ideals motivate millions across the world. pic.twitter.com/NFUHMLVCxo
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 2, 2017
Alt News researched the tweets of the people Mr. Modi follows to see the sentiment they express towards the father of the nation and his murderer. Here is a small selection:
@Alamsha_Karnan Godse is God.
— zookybeans (@zookybeans) January 5, 2010
OMG its such gr8 feeling to share your b'day with Nathuram Godseji…now I know why i chose him against "G"
— नंदिता ठाकुर (@nanditathhakur) May 19, 2012
@GauravPandhi I said the Gandhi last name is like a gaali. I would have rather been a Modi or Godse!! 🙂 @calgalin @MaswoodZ
— Priti Gandhi (@MrsGandhi) October 21, 2012
@gsurya :: I am a big fan of Nathuram Godse. Anytime you, Sibbal or Chindu can visit me.. Most welcome! @siddarthpaim
— Amit Jaiswal Jain (@ArkJaiswal) May 19, 2012
The following tweet is by BJP’s National IT Cell head.
Godse's love for India was intense and he was fed up of the continued Muslim appeasement done by Gandhi, which was destroying India.
— गीतिका (@ggiittiikkaa) January 8, 2015
Many of us criticize Nathu Ram Godse for what he did, but if you ponder over why he did it, i think i'll pass his act as equitable action.
— Akhil Rana (@AkhilRana18) August 8, 2010
What's wrong with Sri Godse ??? Any Gandhi Supporter …. Reply Plzz
— Anupam Pandey (@AnupamkPandey) January 30, 2013
I Truly Recommend,
Godse Pic Beside Gandhi Inside Parliament.#MyFreedomOfSpeech https://t.co/KHsOL2rpTO
— विकास साबू (@SabooVikas) June 1, 2017
Veer Savarkar Bano Bhagat Sinh Bano Nathu Ram Godse ki Tarah Desh ke Gaddaro ko Samne hi Maro—-VANDE MATRAM
— Hardik Bhavsar (@HARDIKBHAVSAR10) March 14, 2013
Why don't we have more Godse ??
— ❅ Keep Smiling (@upma23) January 29, 2015
Ram ne Raavan ko maara. (R-R)
Krishna ne Kans ko maara.(K-K)
Godse ne Gandhi ko maara.(G-G)
Obama ne Osama ko… http://fb.me/Z1DKllCU
— Tranforming India (@NaMo4PM) May 10, 2011
Ram ne Raavan ko Mara. Krishna ne Kans ko. Godse ne Gandhi ko. Obama ne Osama ko maarna hi tha obviously. #Osama'sdeathanniversary.
— Sandeep Gupta (@DelhiTweeter) May 2, 2012
Ram ne Ravan ko maara (R=R)Krishna ne Kansa ko (K=K)Godse ne Gandhi ko (G=G)Obama ne Osama ko (O=O) Corruption maarega Congress ko (C= C)
— अलका (@ALKAAGARWAL9) February 21, 2013
We need someone like Nathuram Godse who will show this harami digvijay & raj babbar their real place
— Chhayank Mehta (@chhayank) June 5, 2011
Wish Nathuram Godse would have alive today to teach a lesson to Prashant Bhusan.
— Tapas Nayak (@tnk0205) January 5, 2014
What's wrong in it ? Even I respect Godse and not Gandhi. Matter of personal choice. https://t.co/SwNxZwEJYa
— Sadhana Tiwari (@Swt_Sadhana) December 19, 2014
The above is only a small extract from a large number of such tweets by people Mr Modi handpicked to follow. Though he follows so many admirers of Nathuram Godse, Mr. Modi himself has never tweeted anything in his praise. At the same time, he has never said anything negative about him either. His views on Godse remain unsaid, never to be expressed openly.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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2nd October 2017 / 8:53 pm / Last updated: 3rd October 2017
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"author": "Alt News Desk"
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Is GOI's National Informatics Centre also culpable for Abhinav Srivastav's Aadhaar data hack incident? - Alt News
Alt News Desk
11th August 2017 / 9:57 am
There are three people. Person A, Person B and you yourself. Person A somehow manages to get the login details of your email account, i.e. username and password, and writes it down on a piece of paper and stores it in a place which he/she considers is secretive enough, but it really is not. Person B manages to find that piece of paper which Person A had hidden, accesses your email account and misuses the information for his/her personal gain. Aren’t both Person A and Person B equally culpable in this little story?
Recently, a 31-year-old MSc graduate from IIT-Kharagpur, Abhinav Srivastav, was arrested for allegedly stealing Aadhar data. If an analogy were to be drawn between the story in the first paragraph and this incident in which various sections of main stream media are claiming that Srivastav ‘hacked’ Aadhar data, then Srivastav would be the Person B in the story.
Through the course of this article, we’ll show that Person A in this story is the team at National Informatics Center (NIC) who designed and developed the eHospital hospital management software. NIC is the prime builder of e-Government / e-Governance applications for Government of India. This story will show how NIC released a horribly designed application which published a secret token in a non-secure manner. Abhinav Srivastav got hold of this secret token and gained unauthorised access to Aadhar data.
As reported by Indian Express, Srivastava had accessed UIDAI (Aadhaar) data without authorisation between January 1 and July 26 for an app called ‘eKYC Verification’. The app delivered demographic data like name, address, phone number of individuals from the central identities data depository of Aadhaar to authenticate unique identity numbers. It was placed on Google Play Store with the claim that it was developed by an entity called myGov linked to the start-up Qarth Technologies, which had been acquired by the taxi hailing service Ola in 2016. Further, Times of India reported the police version which stated that Srivastav accessed Aadhaar data through the e-hospital application hosted by the government’s National Informatics Centre (NIC). Quint reported a follow up statement by Bengaluru Police which stated that Srivastav had exploited weak security protocols of the e-hospital system, a government server, for easy access of Aadhaar data.
To understand how Abhinav Srivastav exploited the eHospital system, it is necessary to have a basic understanding of eHospital, Aadhaar/UIDAI and the eKYC service offered by UIDAI.
According to the eHospital website, it is a Hospital Management System designed and developed by NIC for Government sector hospitals across India. It is a generic software which covers major functional areas like patient care, laboratory services, work flow based document information exchange, human resource and medical records management of a Hospital.
One of the features provided by eHospital is Online Registration System (ORS) which utilizes Aadhaar to provide an online appointment system across various Government hospitals. As part of the eHospital suite, an Android application has been developed which enables access to the Online Registration System (ORS). ORS is hosted by NIC and uses the Aadhaar number to get eKYC data of a customer for authorisation in order to create online appointments.
eKYC is a service provided by UIDAI which enables a resident having an Aadhaar number to share their basic demographic information such as name, age, date of birth, post address, phone number and a digitally signed photograph with a UIDAI partner organization after user consent either through biometric authentication or OTP (One Time Password). eKYC service by UIDAI thus provides an online verification service for Proof of Identity (PoI) and Proof of Address (PoA). KYC in eKYC stands for ‘Know Your Customer’.
UIDAI has 254 partner organisations who can access the eKYC service by UIDAI. National Informatics Center (NIC), who built the eHospital service and Android application, is one of the partner organisations. In the UIDAI world, these partner organisations are called KUA or KYC User Agencies. Each KUA is given a unique license key using which it can access UIDAI’s eKYC service.
No. The eKYC service can only be accessed over secure leased lines which provide connectivity to UIDAI’s data store also known as Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR). At the time of writing, 27 partner organisations have secured leased line connectivity with the CIDR (Aadhaar data). These partner organisations are called ASA or Authentication Service Agency. Those ASAs who are eligible to provide access to the eKYC service are called KSA or KYC Service Agency. NIC or National Informatics Center is also a registered KSA.
If the eKYC service provided by UIDAI can only be accessed over a secure leased line with only 27 partner organisations having access to the Aadhaar data, how did Abhinav Srivastav manage to get access to it?
The leak was not at the KSA level but at the KUA level. In this particular case, NIC or National Informatics Centre is both a registered KSA as well as KUA. What this entails is that NIC has secured leased line access to CIDR (Aadhar Data) and is also eligible to access the e-KYC service by UIDAI. For the eHospital application and more specifically the Online Registration System, NIC built an additional service on top of the existing eKYC service already provided by UIDAI. In the software engineering world, such a service is also called an API or Application Programming Interface.
This additional API, which piggybacked on existing UIDAI eKYC service, was utilised by the Android eHospital Online Registration application to create online appointments while using the patient’s Aadhaar number for eKYC verfication. This additional API which gave proxy access to UIDAI’s eKYC service and was created by NIC and was exploited by Abhinav Srivastav to gain access to Aadhar Data. For the purpose of this story, we will call this additional API the ‘NIC eKYC API Proxy‘.
While UIDAI’s eKYC service is only accessible over a secured leased line connection and not a regular internet connection, NIC eKYC API proxy is accessible over a regular internet connection and anybody in the world can access the API provided they have the authentication details. NIC had to create this API since the eHospital Android application would create eKYC assisted appointments over a regular internet connection.
Unfortunately, the NIC eKYC API Proxy had major security holes.
The eHospital Android application was communicating with the eHospital backend via NIC eKYC API proxy. However, as pointed out earlier, this communication was over an insecure HTTP connection instead of a secure HTTPS connection. Anybody who knows how to sniff this HTTP communication would be able to find the password. While it is not possible to determine the exact software application used by Abhinav Srivastav to determine the default password, here are the two methods using which one could have found the default password.
Anand Venkatanarayan and Anivar Aravind who did the background research for this entire story decompiled the eHospital Android application and found out that the password ‘dG9rZW5Ad2ViQGFwcG9pbnQjbmlj’ is visible as plain text in the decompiled JAVA code. Based on their research of the decompiled code, here are their three findings:
The back end “http://ors.gov.in” allowed anyone to obtain the complete list of APIs, through which one can surmise how it uses Aadhaar eKYC APIs.
By either sniffing the HTTP traffic using a proxy or decompiling the Android application, Abhinav Srivastav must have figured out the default password and the API required to do Aadhaar eKYC. He used this knowledge to create his own service on top of the NIC eKYC API proxy. This service was accessed by the ‘eKYC verfication’ app that he created. For the purpose of this story, the Android application created by Abhinav Srivastav will be called the ‘Qarth App’ and the service that utilised the compromised password to communicate with the NIC eKYC API proxy will be called the ‘Qarth App Back End’.
We started this article with a small story where Person A jots down username/password of your email account on a piece of paper and Person B manages to find that piece of paper and misuses the information. In this story, Person A is the team at National Informatics Center who designed and developed the insecure eHospital service and application which uses a single default password ‘dG9rZW5Ad2ViQGFwcG9pbnQjbmlj’. Person B is Abhinav Srivastav who found out this default password and misused it to create the ‘eKYC verification’ application. If Abhinav Srivastav is culpable of misusing the vulnerability in eHospital app, isn’t the team at NIC also equally responsible for creating a service with a Jupiter-sized security hole?
So why did UIDAI panic and file the FIR? It is not the Application that Abhinav developed, it is the implications.
The basic principle in the eKYC infrastructure is that not every entity is trustworthy to be given full access to CIDR (Aadhaar data). Thus KYC Service Agencies (KSA) are directly regulated by UIDAI since they are closer to CIDR than other parts of the ecosystem. Every KYC User Agency is vetted by UIDAI and the KSA.
However, applications like the NIC eHospital were never considered as part of the ecosystem and hence were not audited by UIDAI’s auditors. The scope of the audit was only restricted to KSA and KUAs. This is a crucial mistake as the above example indicates that all it requires is one vulnerable application using the eKYC API, which can allow a back door access to the eKYC and Authentication APIs.
There are now 254 such KUAs and there could be a large number of vulnerable applications like NIC eHospital, which were built on top of the eKYC service offered by these KUAs. Every one of these applications can potentially allow a back door to the authentication infrastructure, which significantly expands the risk of abuse.
For a normal user, an Application developed by UIDAI will be indistinguishable from the numerous apps released by third parties as this example indicates and one malicious app is all that it takes for an actual data theft.
The example also clearly points out the complete and total lack of awareness of basic security practices even by the top-most e-Governance vendor. By digging deeper into the eHospital App, it is possible to understand how bad NIC’s security practices were.
UIDAI has shown time and again that it is incapable of handling security incidents without resorting to bullying tactics as is evident by their past behavior. The design problems of Aadhaar and the ecosystem security issues will not go away because of these tactics. Instead they will remain unreported or worse sold to the highest bidder and will be exploited by malicious actors and nation states.
It is time the organisation realises that it cannot make citizens secure by making them more vulnerable, in the mistaken false confidence that “Aadhaar is very very secure”. The security concerns have become real and the grudging acknowledgement by Nandan Nilekani was long overdue and perhaps too little and too late.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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11th August 2017 / 9:57 am
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Gold plated journalism: India Today and fake news - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
14th February 2018 / 6:24 pm / Last updated: 14th February 2018
India Today has responded to reports that one of its editors’ contract was terminated allegedly after she refused to delete a tweet. Angshukanta Chakravorty, Editor with DailyO was allegedly asked to put in her papers by the India Today group after she had tweeted on the need for legal action and social boycott against those news promoters who turn a blind eye in the face of violation of journalistic ethics and norms. Chakravorty says that she had tweeted in her personal capacity and had not targeted any journalist or media organisation.
Promoters turning a blind eye to hate-mongering, fake news spreading news anchors, editors, reporters and writers, or hiring them in the first place, must be tried in courts as hate speech enablers-profiteers. Must be boycotted socially by secular politicians & Industrialists.
— Angiography (@angshukanta) February 4, 2018
In its defence, Prerna Kaul Mishra, Social Media Editor, India Today told The Wire:
Angshukanta Chakravorty’s services were terminated due to breach of editorial conduct. The India Today Group prides itself in being the gold standard of credible journalism. Our Code of Conduct is sacrosanct across all our mediums, including social media. Actions contrary to our editorial ethos have no place in our organization.
India Today claims to represent the gold standard of credible journalism with a code of conduct that is sacrosanct across all our mediums, including social media. In this article, Alt News has reproduced instances where this gold standard was openly flouted by senior anchors and correspondents.
1. Rumour mongering over Paresh Mesta’s death
Paresh Mesta’s body was found floating on a lake in Uttara Kanada district in Karnataka in January 2018. India Today reported on the story claiming that Mesta had been brutally tortured, with his ‘head cut open’, ‘castrated’ and ‘boiling oil poured over face’.
However, a document from the Department of Forensic Medicine which was released by Karnataka police categorically stated that there were no signs of castration and mutilation, and that no boiling oil had been poured on his face. India Today conducted a prime time debate on a piece of information which was absolutely and maliciously false. After Alt News pointed out that the information is fake, the story was quietly pulled down by India Today.
2. Mail Today editor spreads fake news on Kasganj violence
After violence in Kasganj, U.P on Republic Day led to the killing of Chandan Gupta, reports began to spread that apart from Gupta, another youth, Rahul Upadhyay had been killed due to the violence after he succumbed to his injuries in a hospital. Among those at the forefront of spreading this information was Abhijit Majumder, managing editor of Mail Today whose tweet was retweeted more than 1,700 times.
It turned out that the ‘deceased’ person, Rahul Upadhyay was alive. He was not even at the scene of the violence on the said day. Majumder later issued a clarification and deleted his tweet but not before indulging in a fresh dose of whataboutery.
3. Cow only animal to inhale and exhale oxygen
Sweta Singh, senior anchor with Aaj Tak said that cow is the only animal which both inhales and exhales oxygen. She also listed numerous other benefits- cow milk protects from radioactive radiation, stroking a cow’s back for 15-20 minutes daily can cure blood pressure etc.
It is a universally known and acknowledged fact that aerobic creatures such as the cow inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. That such a basic scientific fact was overlooked by the channel in its reportage is shocking, at the very least.
4. 2-year old video used to report Pakistani mortar fire
‘Pak stands exposed’. ‘Pak army fires mortar’. ‘Pak Army targets civilians. Here’s the proof’. These were the titles used by India Today when it reported on January 22 that Indian civilians in Jammu & Kashmir had been targeted by Pakistani mortar fire along the Line of Control and the International Border. India Today gave much prominence to this story which was fronted by Gaurav Sawant.
Coward Pakistan targets Indian civilians: Time for another surgical strike?
Watch #IndiaFirst with @gauravcsawanthttps://t.co/6xsMnBK0QFpic.twitter.com/y8z0TX6hNb
— India Today (@IndiaToday) January 23, 2018
The video in question turned out to be two years old. It was uploaded in February 2016 and was a clip of the Pakistani army firing mortars in North Waziristan as part of its ‘Zarb-e-azb’ operation. Despite this, India Today broadcast the video as a ‘border ground report’ by its correspondent. The Alt News report can be accessed here. The video and the report have not been removed to date.
5. Dawood Ibrahim’s property seized in UAE
“UAE ke baad ab Britain mein bhi zabt hogi Dawood ki sampati, Modi sarkar active” (After UAE, Britain too will seize Dawood’s property. Modi Govt active), said a tweet by Aaj Tak in May 2017. According to Aaj Tak, underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s properties were raided and sealed in a crackdown by the UAE Govt in January as a result of PM Modi’s effective diplomacy, and that Britain too was considering such a move due to the proactiveness of the Indian Govt.
UAE के बाद ब्रिटेन में भी जब्त होगी दाऊद की संपत्ति, मोदी सरकार एक्टिवhttps://t.co/T5IcHWU18dpic.twitter.com/3BpLaxOamP
— आज तक (@aajtak) May 4, 2017
Overzealous sections of the media had gone overboard with this report, which had no grain of truth in it. The UAE ambassador to India had clarified that no such raids had taken place. Despite this report being debunked in January itself, Aaj Tak in its tweet of May 2017 reiterated a falsehood.
6. Major who tied civilian to jeep in J&K given clean chit
India Today reported in May 2017 that Major Nitin Gogoi, who was in the news after he had used a Kashmiri citizen as a human shield during polling in J&K had been given a clean chit by the Army. According to India Today, ‘sources’ had informed the channel that a Court of Inquiry (CoI) conducted by the Army had concluded that Major Gogoi through his presence of mind and acumen had saved many lives.
India Today’s claim was refuted by none other than the Army itself, which said that the “journalist be advised to corroborate factual information from official sources when reporting on sensitive military issues and this news report may, therefore, accordingly be corrected”. India Today reported the army’s denial but the reporter stuck to her story. It is to be noted here that India Today had put out this report when the final inquiry was still pending.
7. Lalu Prasad acquitted in fodder scam
All hell broke loose when reports emerged that RJD chief and former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad had been acquitted by a CBI Court in the fodder scam. India Today and Aaj Tak were among the channels which reported this news in December 2017.
Red-faced television channels and anchors were compelled to retract when it emerged that Lalu Prasad had not been acquitted but rather convicted in the scam. In their rush to break news, India Today and Aaj Tak too got it wrong.
8. Fatwa that was declared fake by DailyO was news on Aaj Tak
In April 2017, Aaj Tak through its Facebook page posted ‘news’ about a ‘recent’ fatwa that was issued in Saudi Arabia which apparently stated that “men can eat their wives if hungry”.
This report turned out to be fake. Ironically it was busted by none other than DailyO which also belongs to the India Today group, way back in October 2015. DailyO also stated that the ‘news’ first appeared in a sarcastic column written by a satirist Moroccan blogger. Despite this, Aaj Tak ran a one and a half year old rumour as news.
9. Indian Army retaliates, destroys Pakistani posts on LoC
On May 1st, as reported by several Indian media outlets, Pakistan killed and mutilated two security personnel along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of J&K. Soon after, news channels reported that Indian Army had destroyed 2 Pakistani posts and killed 7-10 Pakistani soldiers in retaliation. Aaj Tak’s report claimed that two posts, ‘Kirpan’ and ‘Pimple’ had been destroyed in retaliation.
It turned out that Kirpan was actually an Indian post and the news of an immediate retaliation by the Indian army was fake. TV channels had gone overboard without seeking an official confirmation from the army. An army spokesperson had confirmed to Hindustan Times that “There was no retaliation whatsoever by us in the KG sector on Monday night. They (TV channels) go ballistic without asking us anything. We will retaliate and when we do, we will come out with an official statement.” You can read more about how this chest-thumping fake news unfolded here.
10. Design of ‘new’ 1000 rupee notes
After unconfirmed reports quoting senior Govt officials emerged that the Govt was considering releasing new currency notes in the denomination of 1000, India Today shared a picture of a 1000 rupee currency note and asked ‘Is this the new look?’
There was no substance to the report, as Das had said that the Govt was focusing on printing Rs.500 notes and there were no plans to introduce 1000 rupee notes. However, the damage had been done as the report was widely circulated and resulted in much speculation.
India Today’s statement refuting Chakravorty’s allegations is laced with platitudes. There are however multiple instances in the public domain which lay bare the media group’s penchant for overlooking basic journalistic norms and ethics in reportage. The sacking of its editor allegedly over a tweet which raised questions of media propriety stands in stark contrast to the lenience shown by the media group towards anchors and reporters who on numerous occasions have reported news which is dubious in authenticity.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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14th February 2018 / 6:24 pm / Last updated: 14th February 2018
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Gold standard of credible journalism? Aaj Tak falls for a parody account - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
14th February 2018 / 8:45 pm / Last updated: 15th February 2018
On 14 Feb, 2018, senior anchor at Aaj Tak Anjana Om Kashyap began her programme Halla Bol by saying, “Yeh aaj ki sadi ka Hindustan hai, ek 18 saal ki ladki raato raat puri duniya mein chha gai, deewangi ka asar ye hota hai ki karoro log video share kar lete hain. Lekin iss bich kuch logo ko ye gawara nahin aur woh iske khilaf police shikayat kar lete hain, chetavni jari kar dete hain, baat kar rahe hain Priya Varrier ki jiske baare mein kuch maulanao ko ye apatti hai ki uske gaane se islam ka apmaan hua hai. Maulana Qadri ye keh rahe hain ki jaw woh namaz ke liye aakhen bandh karte hain toh unhe Priya Varrier dikh rahi hain” (An 18 year old girl becomes an overnight global sensation and millions of people have shared her video. But some do not accept this and they have lodged a police complaint. We are talking about Priya Varrier who has been opposed by some Maulanas who say her song is an insult to Islam. Maulana Qadri has said that when he shuts his eyes for prayer, he sees Priya Varrier)
As it happens, a tweet by a parody account has been viral all day and multiple people have fallen for it. The entire one-minute introduction to Aaj Tak’s evening programme was based on this tweet which at the time of writing had been tweeted over 2000 times.
Just In : After the viral video of Priya Prakash Varrier, Whenever we or our fellow Muslim Brothers closed our eyes to offer Namaz, instead of Allah, her face would appear, which is hurting our sentiments, hence we issued a fatwa against her.”
– Maulana Atif Qadri (File Pic) pic.twitter.com/YOksBNt8S0
— TIMES HOW (@TiimesHow) February 14, 2018
The quote which was attributed to Maulana Qadri made him the punching bag for both mainstream and social media. So, did he really issue a fatwa against Varrier and did he really say those words? Look closely at the tweet. The tweet is not from the Times Now official handle but Tiimes How (T-I-I-M-E-S H-O-W), a parody account. The account in its biography clearly states that it is a parody/satire account. However, a morphed logo of Times Now that the account uses fooled a large number of people who took the tweet to be real. This is not the first time this has happened. A few days back, Madhu Kishwar had fallen prey to a tweet by this account assuming it to be real. The below screengrab shows the difference in the logos between the real account on the left and the parody account on the right. Moreover, the official Times Now account is a verified account with a blue tick.
Indiatimes.com which is an Internet subsidiary of The Times of India Group also took the bait. In an article on the Indiatimes website, it published the tweet which quoted the Maulana and reported that a complaint had been filed against Varrier for hurting religious sentiments through the song.
Not just mainstream media but even social media fell for the tweet. Users widely tweeted and shared the screenshot of the tweet on various platforms.
So, was a fatwa issued as reported by the media? No, but a complaint was lodged at the Falaknama police station in Hyderabad by some Muslim youth who alleged that Varrier through her expressions had hurt their sentiments. They also claimed that the lyrics of the song were an insult to Islam as they referred to the life of the Prophet.
In response to criticism over the termination of the contract of one of its senior employees on 13 Feb, 2018, the India Today media group in its defence had stated that the organisation adheres to a ‘gold standard of journalism’. India Today’s avowed commitment to the core principles of reporting came under the scanner the very next day, when it broadcast the above programme on Aaj Tak.
For a news organisation which claims to follow a ‘gold standard of credible journalism’ while at the same time terminating the services of an employee allegedly over a tweet, a tweet from a parody account which had no basis in reality was picked up by Aaj Tak and construed as truth in its urge to garner eyeballs and TRPs. Aaj Tak’s skullduggery only reinforces the media house’s penchant for compromising with facts in the pursuit of sensationalism.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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14th February 2018 / 8:45 pm / Last updated: 15th February 2018
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"author": "Arjun Sidharth"
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'Golden Dragon' video from China viral on social media as Diwali celebrations in Kerala - Alt News
Mahaprajna Nayak
9th November 2022 / 2:04 pm / Last updated: 9th November 2022
A video of a glittering fleet of boats cruising in a serpentine motion supposedly on a river in Kerala has been doing the rounds on social media with the hashtag #Deepotsavam.
Bhawana Somaaya, the entertainment editor at an FM Radio channel, who translated a book by Prime Minister Narendra Modi titled ‘Letters to Self’, shared the video and pointed out how 240 boats could be seen sailing in the river with lamps to mark Diwali celebrations. She tweeted:
#Deepotsavam in Kerala. 240 boats sailing in the river with lamps.#Diwali celebrations continue… pic.twitter.com/rHKoT4LUGt
— Bhawana Somaaya (@bhawanasomaaya) November 7, 2022
The official Twitter handle of Malaimurasu TV also shared the video with a caption in Tamil that can be translated as: Diwali celebration continues in Kerala..! 240 boats ply the river with twinkling lights on the occasion of Deepothsavam.
கேரளாவில் தொடரும் தீபாவளி கொண்டாட்டம்..!
தீபோத்ஸவத்தையொட்டி மிளிரும் விளக்குகளுடன் ஆற்றில் பயணிக்கும் 240 படகுகள்#deepotsav2022 | #kerala | #boats | #Malaimurasu pic.twitter.com/zVWIBzD44H
— Malaimurasu TV (@MalaimurasuTv) November 8, 2022
Social media user Sanjay Fadnavis even identified the place as Miralam Mandi Mahakanaleshwar temple in Kerala on the river Karthik.
Nageswara’s procession of 240 handboats in the river Karthika near the Miralam Mandi Mahakanaleshwar temple in Kerala is a spectacular display. pic.twitter.com/OE4jPkvqB6
— SANJAY FADNAVIS (@sanjayfadnavis1) November 7, 2022
Facebook user Ruchi Sharma also shared the video claiming 240 boats in Kerala carried lamps on a river.
A reverse image search on Google led us to the YouTube channel Виталий Кузь which had posted the video with the title ‘Glowing bamboo dragon chasing the pearl over the Yulong river‘.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oggijmMjU0A]
The twitter handle of China Daily, a state-affiliated media house, had tweeted the video on September 4, 2022, calling it a dragon dance on the river.
Dragon dance on the river! #TrendingNow pic.twitter.com/FQG8nSYeal
— China Daily (@ChinaDaily) September 4, 2022
Twitter user @InterestingPot also shared the video saying that there were 88 bamboo rafts on the Yulong river.
A keyword search on Facebook also led to two videos that attributed the event to China on the river Yulong. Facebook user Fubiz posted the video on September 9, 2022 and with the caption, ‘Beautiful Golden Dragon Lighting on Yulong River in China’.
We also found a tweet by PD China, a Chinese state-affiliated media house, from December 14, 2021. It said that the Baili Liujiang Sports Tourism Demonstration Base and the Yulong River Leisure Sports Tourism Resort in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region had been listed as national demonstration base for sports tourism according to the local Department of Culture and Tourism.
Thus we can say that video which has been shared as celebrations of Diwali in Kerala is actually the clip of an event which took place in China on the Yulong River. Besides, the floating object is not a boat as claimed, rather a series of bamboo rafts.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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9th November 2022 / 2:04 pm / Last updated: 9th November 2022
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"author": "Mahaprajna Nayak"
}
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CCTV video of boy attacking girl with knife shared with false communal spin - Alt News
Kinjal
30th December 2021 / 7:18 pm
CCTV footage of a boy stabbing a young girl on the street is viral on social media. It has been claimed that the attacker was Asraf Ali who stabbed an eighth-grade female student with a knife after she resisted his advances. The video is circulating with the hashtag ‘#लव_जिहाद’ (#Love_jihad).
Twitter handle ‘@VishalRuhelaIND’ made the same claim while sharing the clip. It received more than 2,000 views as of this writing. (Archive link)
छेड़खानी का विरोध करने पर आठवीं की स्कूली छात्रा को असरफ अली ने दिनदहाड़े चाकुओं से छलनी किया। सारे वामपंथी और मीडिया खामोश हैं।#लव_जिहाद pic.twitter.com/9Qk8nxHnPQ
— 🕉️📿Kshatriya Vishal Ruhela🇮🇳 (@VishalRuhelaIND) December 22, 2021
Several Twitter users also posted the video.
The visuals are widespread on Facebook with the accompanying claim.
Alt News performed a keyword search which led us to a few news reports covering the incident. On December 22, Aaj Tak reported that a boy attacked an eighth standard female student with a knife in Gopalganj, Bihar. The incident took place in Pratappur village under the jurisdiction of Manjhagarh police station.
The report added that the police investigation found that the accused would often harass the victim. She even complained to his family members, but he did not stop. When the girl was returning from school one day with her friends, the boy attacked her with a knife. The girl’s friends ran away but bystanders rushed to the spot after hearing her scream and took her to a hospital.
A TV9 Hindi report identified the accused as Guddan, son of Asraf Ali, a resident of Pratappur village. It is worth noting that the viral message states the name of the attacker is Asraf Ali. However, the individual behind the stabbing is actually Ali’s son.
We also reached out to the Manjhagarh police for more details on the case. An officer informed us that there was no communal angle to the incident and both the victim and accused were from the same religion. The accused fled from the scene of the crime but was subsequently found and arrested by the police.
The video has, thus, been shared with a false communal spin. Both the victim and the perpetrator hail from the same community.
Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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30th December 2021 / 7:18 pm
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"author": "Kinjal"
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Gopalganj case: Boy drowns in river, OpIndia claims he was sacrificed in a mosque - Alt News
Priyanka Jha & Pratik Sinha
17th May 2020 / 4:57 pm / Last updated: 18th May 2020
In an article published on May 9, right-wing propaganda website OpIndia claimed that a mosque sacrificed a Hindu boy in Bihar’s Gopalganj. “A new mosque had been built in the village and it is being alleged that there was a belief that if a Hindu was ‘sacrificed’, the mosque would become powerful and its influence would increase,” wrote OpIndia claiming that 15-year-old Rohit, son of Rajesh Jaiswal, was killed in Bela Dih village of Kataiya. The article also stated that the boy’s family had to leave the village because of police brutality. “She [Rohit’s sister] alleges that the police had taken a bribe from the accused, hence they were not taking any action against the killers,” read the article.
“The guardians of those Muslim children, who were sent to call Rohit, were waiting for all the children in that new mosque. When they reached there along with Rohit, he was captured and allegedly strangulated to death, family alleges. There are allegations that six people were involved in the heinous act,” it further stated, claiming that the victim’s sister alleged that his dead body was thrown in a river.
Apart from videos of the victim’s sister and father, the article also carries videos of Kataiya police. These are the first two clips attached in the article where the police can be seen misbehaving and hurling abuses at the victim’s family. In a Facebook Live on May 17, DGI of Bihar police Gupteshwar Pandey informed that Kataiya SHO Ashwini Tiwari has been suspended. In the two remaining videos, the victim’s family members are pleading for justice. It is noteworthy that they accuse a few people of murder and do not mention any mosque. Nowhere in the videos have the family members claimed that Rohit was killed in a mosque or that he was sacrificed.
OpIndia published two follow-up stories on the incident and the common element in every report was ‘Gopalganj mosque sacrifice case’.
Title of the report published on May 9: Hindu family leaves Gopalganj district in Bihar due to fear, claims their minor son was sacrificed to make a local Mosque ‘powerful’
Title of the report published on May 11: Gopalganj mosque sacrifice case: 4 accused arrested by the police, silence on the family’s charges
Title of another report published on May 11: No enmity with anybody, only want justice for son – Father in Gopalganj mosque sacrifice case pleads
Apart from OpIndia, Sirf News, ABP Bihar and Vijay Karnataka published similar stories. It is to be noted that ABP Bihar is not a part of ABP Group.
On May 13, OpIndia published two more articles (1, 2) on the incident. There is no mention of mosque or sacrifice in the title but the articles maintain the claim, crediting it to the victim’s family. A few questions are raised based on OpIndia’s story:
1. Is there a custom of human sacrifice in Islam?
2. Was a Hindu boy sacrificed to make a mosque ‘powerful’?
3. Were all accused Muslims?
4. Are Hindu residents of the village scared of Muslim residents?
We will investigate each of these questions, however, before we begin, let us see what the initial reports on the incident say. According to OpIndia, the incident took place on March 28. Dainik Bhaskar had published a report on March 30. As per the report, “Rohit had gone for a swim with four of his friends to Goita Tola river. When he did not return home till late in the evening, his family members went looking for him. In the meanwhile, Vijay Mal Bhagat’s son informed that Rohit had drowned in the river and that his friends threatened to kill him if he told anyone which is why he was mum. The police has recorded his statement.” Kataiya SHO told Dainik Bhaskar that for some reason the children had kept the information to themselves. They were unwilling to share any details regarding the case. The police arrested a few people from the victim’s village.
Therefore, it can be said with certainty that initial reports on the incident have no mention of mosque, sacrifice or a communal angle.
1. Is there a custom of human sacrifice in Islam?
Alt News contacted Islamic scholar Mufti Mohsin Idree Qasmi who informed, “Islam does not permit Halal sacrifice of any animal for any reason other than an offering to Allah. Human sacrifice is forbidden. According to Quran-e-Pak verse in Al-Ma’idah, the Zibah of an animal for anyone except Allah is not considered Halal.”
2. Was a Hindu boy sacrificed to make a mosque ‘powerful’?
Since OpIndia’s entire story is based on the statement of the victim’s father, Rajesh Jaiswal, his testimony is of utmost importance for the fact-check. We spoke with Rajesh who sounded visibly distressed. The father has been trying to come to term with his son’s death and looking for answers for the unfortunate incident. He shared two theories with us — first, Rohit had told his mother days before his death that a Maulvi of a new, under-construction mosque used to sprinkle water on him whenever he passed through the area. Second, Rajesh used to manage a pakora stall with his son. Right opposite to their stall was Sabir Ansari’s shop which wasn’t doing very well. “So maybe they killed my son for this reason,” Rajesh speculated.
But the FIR filed by Rajesh has no mention of either the Maulvi or Sabir. When asked if the police investigated Sabir, Rajesh said that he has no role in the case. He also denied ever having an issue with Sabir. Speaking with him, we realised the helplessness in his voice. Here was a father gouging every corner to make sense of his son’s death. He was also disappointed with the lackadaisical efforts of the police and the administration.
It was evident that his theories stemmed from the fact that he had no clear answers. He did not know what killed his son and was thus looking at all possibilities. OpIndia based a story on his speculations — on the emotional state of mind of a father who lost his child.
On May 14, DGI Vijay Kumar Verma, who was investigating the incident, said that the matter has now been transferred to the CID and five people have so far been arrested. In a video statement, he said that OpIndia’s claim that the child’s death is connected with a new mosque’s construction is false. He informed to have verified the allegation himself. An FIR has been filed against OpIndia and Khabar Tak, DGI Verma further informed.
On May 17, the Director-General of Bihar police Gupteshwar Pandey went on a Facebook Live to address the rumours. He also tweeted about the Live. In the nearly 30-minute briefing, he clarified that the rumours about the boy sacrificed in a mosque are false. The DGP himself visited the village and the river where Rohit’s body was recovered from. He investigated the water body in the presence of the victim’s family. He also spoke with residents of the village, none of whom claimed that the incident has communal overtones. The victim’s family has maintained that he was murdered. DGP Pandey said that the police is investigating if the death was premeditated murder or accidental drowning while adding that no locals could give the motive of anyone wanting to kill the child. Furthermore, the top cop added that a few cattle grazers had spotted the five children when they had gone for a swim in the river. They did not see a sixth person in the spot. DGP also spoke with the doctor who performed the postmortem on the dead body and other forensic experts. The doctor stated that the boy’s lungs had become spongy which is indicative of drowning. During his address, the DGP also requested people to refrain from promoting rumours on the case.
The FIR was filed by Rajesh a day after his son’s death. The FIR has no mention of a mosque and it lays down the following sequence of events — a few kids had come to the house and asked Rohit to play with them. Among these boys, three were Hindus and one was a Muslim. Rohit did not return home in the evening and the next morning his family found out that a child’s dead body has been recovered from the river. The family suspected a boy. When he was questioned, the boy said that six children murdered Rohit and dumped his body in the river. His clothes were hidden behind a bush. Rajesh has named six people for Rohit’s death. Among them, one is Hindu and the rest are Muslims. Since four out of the six are minors, we are nor disclosing their identities. Their names have also been blurred in the FIR copy posted below.
The postmortem report states ‘asphyxia due to drowning’ as the cause of death. The report from March 29 does not mention that the body had severe injuries.
“While the postmortem report could have been more comprehensive, based on the existing information, the cause of death is most likely drowning. Whether it is accidental or homicidal is a matter of police investigation. As far as bloating of drowned bodies is concerned, it is not necessary that it happens every time. Bloating up of the body is not necessary even after being in water for 19-20 hours as water is a lot cooler, and can significantly slow down decomposition. As the body remained in water overnight, it would have been cooler than in the daytime,” said Melbourne-based forensic scientist Jaydip Sarkar.
Victim’s father Rajesh sent us a few videos of the body being pulled out of the water. The videos are disturbing in nature hence we are only attaching a screenshot. The body does not have any injury marks on the neck. If Rohit had been ‘sacrificed’, his neck would have injury marks. The body does not have any marks that would suggest that Rohit was sacrificed according to Islamic or Hindu customs.
Therefore, the claim that Rohit was sacrificed in a mosque is false. The victim’s father also does not mention any mosque’s role in the FIR. It is unclear how OpIndia created the story — a question that only the outlet can answer.
Rohit’s dead body was recovered on March 29. The postmortem report is also dated March 29 and so is the FIR filed by the victim’s father. None of the reports on the case between this date and May 8 mention either mosque or sacrifice. The first occurrence of the words was found in OpIndia’s report from May 9. The ‘news’ subsequently reached social media and one report after the other, OpIndia tried to portray that Rohit died of communal reasons.
3. Were all accused Muslims?
OpIndia claimed in its report that all accused were Muslims. The outlet alleged that the victim’s father was the source of this information.
The FIR names four minor boys. One among them is a Hindu. In fact, in the video statement of the father attached in OpIndia’s article, Rajesh takes the Hindu boy’s name who called Rohit to play cricket.
Therefore, OpIndia’s third claim that all accused were Muslims is also false.
4. Are Hindu residents of the village scared of Muslim residents?
Citing villagers, OpIndia claimed that even powerful Hindus were sacred of Muslims in the village.
Alt News contacted a local journalist who spoke with the victim’s family, including his mother, on May 13. The journalist wished to remain anonymous.
Rohit’s mother gave similar testimony as stated by his father and said that the family does not have any personal enmity with Muslims in the village. The family left the village frustrated with the administration. They did not leave because they were scared of Muslims, as claimed by OpIndia.
When asked about the claim that her son was sacrificed in the mosque, she said, “We won’t lie. We didn’t see the incident with our own eyes. You can ask anyone in the village. They called the boy, killed him and dumped him. The children themselves confessed that they killed him and threw his body in the river.” The victim’s mother also accused the police of not carrying out a proper investigation.
The journalist spoke with several villagers who were also of the opinion that the ‘mosque sacrifice’ claim is false. The people who made the claim are not from the village but posting rumours on Facebook. The villagers also said that the claim that the victim’s family does not have food to eat is false. The village in fact came together to feed the family. There is no Hindu-Muslim angle.
A resident of the village, Pradyuman Rai, was asked the ratio of Hindu-Muslim population in the village. He said that around 150-175 are Muslims and 600-700 are Hindus. Rai also informed that the claim that the victim’s family had to move out of the village because of Muslims is false. He specially said that he had read OpIndia’s article on his mobile phone and the report is incorrect. He denied the ‘mosque sacrifice’ claim as well.
The journalist subsequently spoke with the family members of the persons named in the FIR. The man first seen in the video statement below is Idrees Ansari, the grandfather of one of the accused. He said that five children had gone to the river for a swim and one of them drowned. The rest of the children fled the spot because they were scared and did not say anything. The person who comes at 5:20 minutes — his son and father both have been named as accused. He said that the matter should be duly investigated. At 9:10 minutes, accused Mustafa’s family also shared similar sentiments. All of them said that the village has Hindu-Muslim brotherhood and the communities take part in each other’s festivals and marriages.
The police has filed an FIR against OpIndia for publishing false news. After giving details of the case, the FIR states, “Several baseless claims have been written on social media on the case. News portal OpIndia published a report on May 9 without knowing or understanding the case. It claimed that the boy was murdered to make a new mosque in Belahi Dih powerful. That the child was sacrificed. Similar news was carried by news portal Khabar Tak. After reading these reports it is clear that they were written based on the statement of former SP Rashid Jamal. However, he was transferred six months ago. The current SP is Manoj Tiwari.”
OpIndia later updated its story and removed SP Rashid Jamal’s name without any clarification. Below is a screenshot of OpIndia’s initial report where the SP is named.
OpIndia and a few other websites attempted to give the incident a communal colour. However, the victim’s family members have themselves denied any enmity with Muslims in the village. Moreover, the FIR filed by the victim’s father has no mention of ‘mosque’ or ‘sacrifice’. Both these words were first brought into the picture by OpIndia 40 days after the victim’s dead body was recovered. The incident was then heavily communalised and widely circulated on social media. The case has now been transferred to the CID. The FIRs filed against OpIndia and Kabar Tak are attached below.
At a time when the nation is coping with a deadly pandemic, OpIndia chose to push out dangerous, unverified rumours in one article after another causing communal disharmony to the extent that the DGP of a state had to intervene. The top police officer visited the small village in Gopalganj district to talk to the victim’s family, local residents and investigate the matter himself. OpIndia not only wasted the police’s time but also of numerous journalists who went on the ground to debunk the rumours. The individuals who intervened to stop the rumour mongering and communal disharmony caused by OpIndia’s articles could have been working on issues of greater importance at a time when the nation is in the middle of a health and humanitarian crisis.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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17th May 2020 / 4:57 pm / Last updated: 18th May 2020
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Gopalganj case: OpIndia blames victim's father, accuses him of lying to give itself a clean chit - Alt News
Priyanka Jha
25th May 2020 / 8:58 pm / Last updated: 25th May 2020
In an article published on May 9, OpIndia claimed that a 15-year-old boy Rohit was sacrificed in a mosque in Bihar’s Gopalganj. Our investigation found that the story was false. Gopalganj police has also filed an FIR against the outlet for publishing a fabricated report. On May 19, OpIndia’s CEO Rahul Roushan penned an article on his platform expressing concern that his editors are being targeted for the story and claimed that the only place where the editors were at fault was believing the statements of the victim’s father. In this report, we will show that even this statement is untrue and how OpIndia promoted false claims one report after the other despite evidence saying otherwise.
In its updated story published on May 17, OpIndia presented only part of the statement given by Rohit’s father, Rajesh Jaiswal. This was the part where he spoke of the sacrifice in a mosque. However, a few days later Rajesh clarified that he did not state this as a matter of fact but speculation. OpIndia shared the interactions it had with Rajesh on May 9 and May 14. He talked about the ‘mosque sacrifice’ claim on May 9. On May 14, he said that these were just suspicions he had in his mind.
Two points are to be noted here —
First, OpIndia did not present the complete audio of its interaction with the victim’s father. It was uploaded in bits and pieces. In the video itself the outlet wrote, “We are only uploading the relevant portion.” However, which statement is necessary and which isn’t cannot be determined by the party accused of publishing false information.
Second, how many times did OpIndia speak with the victim’s father between May 9 and May 14? The outlet wrote at least 5-6 articles during this time. Did Rajesh always claim that Rohit was murdered in a mosque? Did he ever make the claim after May 9? Was this the basis for OpIndia to declare the postmortem report false? There is no clarity on any of these questions.
What should have been the appropriate course of action? OpIndia should have asked Rajesh his reasons for bringing up ‘mosque’ in his conversation. The outlet published a grieving father’s speculations as a matter of fact. This is not only irresponsible journalism but unethical because the story was capable of sparking communal tensions. Had OpIndia referred to the FIR filed by Rajesh, spoken to the local police and paid heed to the postmortem report, there is no way that the story would’ve seen the light of day with the ‘sacrificed in a mosque’ angle. The outlet should have also questioned Rajesh about why he did not mention the mosque claim on the FIR?
OpIndia strives to establish itself as a fact-checking website however the outlet was miles away from ‘facts’ in its reportage on the Gopalganj case. Maybe because this was an opportunity to further the right-wing propaganda it openly espouses. We had observed similar propaganda in OpIndia’s coverage of IB staffer Ankit Sharma’s murder during communal riots in Delhi. It claimed that Sharma’s dead body had 400 knife wounds and that he was stabbed continuously for 4-6 hours. All of this was false. The postmortem report mentioned the presence of 13 wounds on Sharma’s dead body however the propaganda had already reached such heights that the country’s home minister presented the false information on record.
Alt News had spoken with Rajesh Jaiswal during our investigation of OpIndia’s false story. This was a man in shock and grief of losing his child. His state of mind was such that he was looking for answers in every corner. He wanted no stone left unturned to find the truth behind Rohit’s death. At no point during our interaction with him did Rajesh claim that his son was sacrificed in a mosque. In fact, he completely denied that the incident had any Hindu-Muslim angle. After OpIndia’s story blaming a grieving father for giving false information, we again contacted Rajesh. He told us that the police is investigating the case. He sounded more hopeful than the last time. “It is a good thing that the SHO has been suspended. We are no longer averse to going back to the village and staying in our house. But that house has too many memories of Rohit — memories that scare the other children. We cannot return yet,” he said. We informed him that he was being blamed for taking a one-eighty on his earlier statements to which he responded that he doesn’t remember everything that he said. “No one can understand my mental state. The condition of a man who lost a young child. Even if we assume that he died of drowning, why didn’t the other kids come and inform us? What was the need to keep it from us? Why did they hide Rohit’s clothes?” His questions were reasonable. “No one can bring back my son but the truth will surely unfold,” he said.
In the report published on May 16, Alt News revealed how 40 days after the death of 15-year-old Rohit in Bihar’s Gopalganj, OpIndia took interest in the case and presented it with a communal angle. OpIndia claimed that Rohit was sacrificed in a mosque. However, we laid out several aspects of the case which prove that he died of drowning. Bihar police had also filed an FIR against OpIndia on May 16.
Subsequently, that same day, OpIndia editor Nupur Sharma tweeted that Rohit was indeed murdered and his father was taking back his words. She wrote that Rajesh maintained that ‘Muslims’ had sprinkled water on his son. Without addressing the communal angle presented in their report, Sharma claimed that an FIR was filed against OpIndia for publishing the father’s version.
A boy is murdered. His father says ‘muslims killed him’. He first said he was sacrificed in a mosque, then said ‘I don’t remember’ but maintained that Muslims sprinkled water on him. FIR is filed against OpIndia for publishing father’s version. But the truth cannot be defeated
— Nupur J Sharma (@UnSubtleDesi) May 16, 2020
While OpIndia’s editor was sternly asserting that Rohit was murdered, not a single evidence cropped up during the police’s ongoing investigating hinted the same.
On May 19, Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey uploaded a 38-minute video on his YouTube channel of the police’s investigation at the site where Rohit’s dead body was recovered. Pandey spoke with Rohit’s family members, the accused persons. the doctor who conducted the postmortem and locals. None of them suggested that Rohit was sacrificed in a mosque.
The DGP also jumped inside the river where Rohit’s dead body was found. He informed that the depth of the water was around 12 feet and that the water level was higher in March. A cattle grazer had told the police that he has spotted Rohit and the four other boys swimming in the river. His statement can be heard at the 17th minute in the video, “I had seen all the five boys come to the river. No other sixth person was present with them. I do not know how the boy died.”
Local journalists following up on the story said that there was no communal angle in the case. They spoke with both the victim’s family and the family of the accused persons. None of the local reports mentioned that the incident was communally-motivated, the journalists informed. This angle suddenly appeared a month later after OpIndia picked up the story.
Dr Ashok Kumar Akela who conducted the postmortem can be heard at 19 minutes into the video. He informed that the trachea had mud and the lungs had turned spongy. A dissection of the lungs revealed air bubbles which hints that Rohit died of drowning. Another doctor Ranjeev Kumar’s opinion was taken on the matter. He also said that it is likely that the cause of death is drowning. Dr Kumar further stated that the dead body had blood spots near the nose and the mouth which could raise suspicions. However, he also said that such wounds might develop when someone falls down but this cannot be a reason for death.
At the 22nd minute, the DGP speaks with all the minor children one by one. They said that all of them were friends and used to frequently go for swims. They did the same on that fateful day but not in their usual spot. The kids were diving into the water but remained near the edge of the river. Rohit, however, jumped further into the water and began to drown. They waited for him to come out but he didn’t. The children got scared and decided to not tell anyone about what happened.
OpIndia claimed in its report that all accused were Muslims. However, initial reports and the victim’s father’s statement clarify that one of the minors named in the FIR was a Hindu. He was the one who called Rohit from his house but this found no mention in OpIndia’s report.
After an FIR was filed against OpIndia, the outlet claimed that its report was completely based on the father’s statement. But this argument falls flat even if we assume that OpIndia is speaking the truth. The titles of all its reports read ‘case of sacrifice in mosque’. This wasn’t attributed to the victim’s father but presented as a fact. Some of the articles that carried this phrase which was later removed by OpIndia are given below.
1. “Hindu family leaves Gopalganj district in Bihar due to fear, claims their minor son was sacrificed to make a local Mosque ‘powerful’.” This was changed to — “Hindu family leaves Gopalganj district in Bihar due to fear after their minor son was killed.”
2. “Gopalganj mosque sacrifice case: 4 accused arrested by the police, silence on the family’s charges” OpIndia changed this title to — “No enmity with anyone, only want justice for my son: Pleads victim Rohit Jaiswal’s father.”
3. “No enmity with anyone, only want justice for my son: Father of the victim in ‘Goapalganj mosque sacrifice case’ plead” was changed to “No enmity with anyone, only want justice for my son: Pleads victim Rohit Jaiswal’s father.”
Subsequently, OpIndia removed the words ‘mosque’ and ‘sacrifice’ from its reports and began pinning the blame on the grieving father. It is noteworthy that in none of the videos attached in OpIndia’s story did Rajesh Jaiswal make any reference to his son sacrificed in a mosque. A screenshot of OpIndia’s initial report and the one that they later changed have been given below.
The story took social media by storm with many BJP supporters relentlessly promoting it through their Twitter accounts. One of the names that first comes up is Prashant Patel Umrao. We had earlier published a dedicated report on Umrao’s trysts with misinformation. He made multiple tweets on the Gopalganj case where he promoted the ‘sacrifice in a mosque’ angle. His tweets were retweeted thousands of times.
On May 16, Umrao added his own spice to the story and claimed that the Maulvi of the mosque where Rohit was sacrificed has absconded. The DGP had himself stated that the village, Kataiya, has no mosque or Maulvi.
National spokesperson of VHP Vijay Shankar Tiwari also tweeted the same mosque angle on May 11 in a provocative tweet.
बिहार के गोपालगंज से खबर आ रही है कि मस्जिद को शक्तिशाली बनाने के लिए 15 वर्षीय रोहित जयसवाल की बलि दे दी जाती है।और बलि देने वाले होते हैं शांति दूत जो आबादी में केवल 15% हैं लेकिन 40% संसाधनों
पर क़ब्ज़ा कर रखा है।क्या अब 25% आबादी होने की प्रतीक्षा है।स्वयं सिंह बनों।
— Vijay Shankar Tiwari (@VijayVst0502) May 11, 2020
Other usual suspects who promoted the false claim were Sanjay Dixit and Payal Rohatgi.
OpIndia and several others attempted to give a boy’s death in Bihar’s Gopalganj a communal colour despite the police investigation and the family’s statement supporting no such claims. OpIndia is now trying to pin the entire blame on the victim’s father to rid itself of all responsibility.
OpIndia’s Hindi editor @ajeetbharti put out a video in which he repeatedly labeled the father as a ‘liar’. Watch this 44 seconds clip to see the number of times the grieving father has been targeted by OpIndia.
Full video: https://t.co/v0GFMuCO1M
6/7 pic.twitter.com/oTsmb0Q3EV
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) May 17, 2020
She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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25th May 2020 / 8:58 pm / Last updated: 25th May 2020
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"author": "Priyanka Jha"
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Doctored Video: Gorakhpur police warning against false child-lifting rumours clipped and shared online - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
16th September 2019 / 9:40 pm / Last updated: 12th September 2022
On August 24, 2022, a video of a man kidnapping a 4-month-old baby from Mathura railway station went viral on social media. Following this, multiple reports started coming in on people attacking sadhus and unknown persons at many places based on rumors of child theft. Recently Alt News had investigated a video with a false claim that child-lifters in the guise of a sadhu were beaten up by villagers.
A video is now being shared on WhatsApp in which a police officer is speaking on camera, while the narration in the background warns of ‘child-kidnappers on a prowl’. The narrator, who asks people to be aware of gangs of 500 people involved in illegal organ trade, ascribes the ‘warning’ to SP (city) Gorakhpur, Kaustab.
The narrator can be heard saying in Hindi, “Do not open doors for any garbage collectors, sadhus, hawkers and beggars. Just make noise and send them away. Do not utter the words “no one is at home right now, come later” even by mistake. Unleash your pet dog if you have one. Do not open the main gate. Take care of yourself and your children. Stay alert and stay safe. Today, there have been reports that 500 people, disguised as beggars, have come from Bargadwa. They take hostage anyone on their way and sell their hearts and kidneys. Around 6-7 people have been caught and they have admitted that 500 people are on a prowl. Forward this message to all your friends and family members. Please stay safe. Gangs of 15-20 people are prowling. They have women and children accompanying them. They also have weapons. They come at midnight when the cries of children are heard. Please do not open your doors and share to maximum groups. This message should be viral in 2-3 days. Your safety is in your hands. Beware. Issued in public interest, Gorakhpur police. This is said by SP (city) Dr Kaustab, while talking to Gorakhpur newspapers.”
Same Clip was Viral in 2019
In September 2019, Alt News had received verification requests on our official mobile application for the same video.
That the message has no truth to it is revealed if one takes a careful glance at the video. The narration does not match the news ticker at the bottom of the screen which says – “SP (city) Dr Kaustab terms the messages viral on social media ‘fake.’ The messages are not true. If you spot someone suspicious, inform the police and do not take the law into your own hands.” (Translated from Hindi)
The original video was uploaded by Gorakhpur News on August 25, 2019. In the first part of this video, the anchor gives a brief of Gorakhpur police’s statement. He tells viewers that SP Kaustab has termed the messages viral on social media ‘fake’.
In the second part of the broadcast, the anchor reads out the false message viral on social media. This portion has been clipped and circulated online.
From 1:49 minutes onward, the SP can be heard debunking the rumours. He says that messages warning about child-kidnapping gangs are false and no such cases have been reported from Gorakhpur. He adds that messages ascribed to Gorakhpur police are being circulated on social media but the police have not issued any warnings.
In the top left corner of Gorakhpur News broadcast, two videos are played simultaneously.
Both these videos depict mobs hounding mentally-challenged people on false child-kidnapping rumours.
This woman was held hostage by a mob in Dimrauni village of UP’s Jhansi district. Alt News had contacted Badagaon police station and was informed that the woman was mentally-challenged. The villagers had mistaken her for being a child-lifter. SI RK Pandey said, “We have not arrested any child-kidnapper recently.”
This incident also took place in UP’s Jhansi. Alt News contacted Mauranipur police station and was informed that the man was not a child-kidnapper. He was a mentally-challenged person beaten on the suspicion of being a child-lifter. “The youth’s name is Pushpendra Singh, son of Gajrar Singh. He is from Ruthiyai gram in Guna, Madhya Pradesh and was getting treated for his mental illness in Gwalior. He lost his way at a station and wandered all the way to Khilara gram in Mauranipur where locals, who believed that he was a child kidnapper, thrashed him.”
The police also informed us that a psychology test helped them determine that the youth was mentally unstable. His parents, who were looking for their son, were called to Mauranipur from MP. They informed that he used to be a student of engineering.
1. The message which was read out by the Gorakhpur News anchor and misused on social media has been viral at least since the past three years. It was used to circulate a video of a father-son duo narrating an implausible tale of child-kidnappers who attempted to lift the son. The police filed no case in this regard as the duo’s story was found to be flimsy.
The entire message shared in Hindi is as follows:
“किसी भी अजनबी जैसे कबाड़ी वाला फेरी वाला बाबा या कोई भिखारी कोई भी हो उसके लिए दरवाज़ा ना खोले ना ही कोई बात करे बस हल्ला करके भगा दें। ग़लती से भी ये शब्द ना कहे । “अभी घर में कोई नही है बाद में आना या चले जाओ “ घर में अगर कुत्ता है तो उसे खोल दो उसी टाइम और मेन गेट मत खोलो। अपना और अपने बच्चे का ध्यान रखिए । सतर्क रहें। सुरक्षित रहें । Larankello से आज खबर मिली है की भिखारी के बेस में पांच सौ लोग निकले है जो रास्ते में जो मिलता है उसको काटकर कलेजे अौर कीडनी निकाल रहे है जिसमे से छः सात लोग पकड़े गाए है .जो पकडे़ गए हैं वही लोग को कडी़ पुछताच के बाद पांच सौ लोग आने की बात कबुल की है इसलिए हमारे भाईयों मेसेज को आपके जितने परिवार और मेंबर है सबको फाॅरवर्ड कीजिए: कृप्या सावधान रहे 15 से 20 लोगों की टोली आई है उनके साथ बच्चे और महीलांए हैं और उनके पास हथियार भी हैं और और आधी रात को किसी भी वक्त आते हैं और बच्चे के रोने की आवाज आती है कृपया दरवाजा ना खोले प्लीज ज्यादा से ज्यादा ग्रुप में से शेयर करें पूरे एरिया में 2 से 3 दिन के अंदर फेल जाना चाहिए। अपनी सूरक्षा अपने हाथ, सावधान रहे, जनहित मे जारी .”
Only the word ‘Larenkelo’, which is in Himachal Pradesh, was replaced with ‘Bargadwa’, a village in UP.
2. The same message with the ‘Larenkelo’ angle was also used to circulate another video where a mentally-challenged man was thrashed by locals in Madhya Pradesh.
At least 15 people were lynched across the country in mob attacks sparked by child-kidnapping rumours in 2019. Social media users are advised to not forward any message that fuels the false claims. Below is a video where Alt News debunks the 15 of the most viral child-lifting rumours.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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16th September 2019 / 9:40 pm / Last updated: 12th September 2022
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/gorakhpur-police-warning-against-false-child-lifting-rumours-clipped-and-shared-online/",
"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
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Gory, disturbing videos shared to stoke false rumours of child-kidnapping - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
26th August 2019 / 10:57 am / Last updated: 24th September 2019
A set of videos is circulating on social media with the narrative that these depict child-kidnappers who sell kidneys of children for money. Alt News was asked to verify the videos which are currently shared on WhatsApp to fuel rumours. The message used to share the video claims – “These videos were circulated from district morena of Madhya Pradesh. They were extracting kidneys and heart from children.” The visual description of the four videos from top-left is as follows:
Alt News was able to ascertain that out these four videos, three are unrelated to the child-kidnapping. We have traced the origins of each video with their actual narrative.
With the help of digital verification tool InVid, we obtained multiple frames of the video which were then used to perform a reverse image search on Google. One of the earliest references to the incident happens to be in an American news website Breitbart. The 2018 article includes screenshots of the gory video and claims that the incident took place at a ranch near the boundary between Michoacan and Guerrero states in Mexico. The same video was uploaded on the video-sharing platform BitChute with a similar narrative. While Alt News is unable to confirm any other details of the incident, it is clear that the video is not from India and has no links to any child-kidnapping incident. The people in the video are not conversing in any Indian language. Alt News is not posting the video here due to its graphic nature.
This incident took place in Neemuh district of Madhya Pradesh earlier this year in mid-July. According to a Dainik Bhaskar report, a mob near Bhadwa Mata temple caught three young men red-handed while they were stealing goats offered at the holy place. The mob took the law in their own hands by thrashing the men for stealing the goats and burning their motorcycle. A case was registered by the police against the three accused of stealing, while six others were booked for beating them.
Alt News reached out to Neemuch police. SP Rakesh Kumar Sagar said, “The accused were arrested and produced before the court.” Neemuch City police also informed Alt News that all the accused are released on bail.
The video, therefore, has nothing to do with child-kidnapping.
This video was earlier debunked by Alt News when it was shared with a similar narrative of organ trafficking. It was found that the clip depicts the aftermath of a riot which broke out in Alcaçuz prison in Brazil on January 14, 2017. The people in the video are conversing in Portuguese with a Northeast Brazilian accent. On January 14, a riot between rival gangs had broken out in Alcaçuz prison which led to the death of at least 30 inmates. In the aftermath of the violence that took place in the prison, gory visuals of mutilated bodies were seen. This incident was reported by several international media outlets. You can read our detailed fact-check here.
This report by IBC24 News refers to an incident that happened in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena city on August 7, 2019. “People have caught a baba (saint) and beaten him up. He was taking three school children with him. People handed him over to the police.”, said the anchor. According to the broadcast, the incident took place near Hanuman crossroad area under the jurisdiction of station road police station. An eleven-year-old girl had lodged a case against the baba and he was sent to jail, said a Dainik Bhaskar report. He was allegedly trying to kidnap her.
Alt News contacted Station Road police station to inquire about the current status of the case. Town Inspector Ashish Rajput said, “We have concluded the investigation, the statements have been taken and the accused was arrested. He will now be produced before the court. When asked as to what have they established since the incident, he added, “according to the eye-witnesses, the baba had attempted to take the girl with him.”
In conclusion, three out of four videos of incidents are unrelated to child-kidnapping but were shared on social media to stoke false rumours. Circulating gory videos of mutilation to suggest that these depict child-kidnappers who sell organs is baseless fear-mongering. While one of the viral videos – the news report on child-kidnapping – turned out to be true, the court’s judgement on the case is still pending.
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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26th August 2019 / 10:57 am / Last updated: 24th September 2019
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"author": "Jignesh Patel"
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1,394 |
Government wrongly claims no country is vaccinating children, clarifies later - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
27th May 2021 / 9:45 pm / Last updated: 27th May 2021
The Central government has come under heavy criticism for the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and shortage of life-saving vaccines despite India being one of the largest manufacturers. The government released a list on May 27, addressing ‘myths’ around the inoculation program. The list essentially tries to make the case that the Centre has been tirelessly working to acquire vaccines from overseas, ramp up domestic production, provide vaccines to states and ensure vaccination of children.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted a link to the PIB press release which claims, “As of now, no country in the world is giving vaccines to children. WHO has no recommendation on vaccinating children.”
As of now,no country in the world is giving vaccines to children.
WHO has no recommendation on vaccinating children.
Trials on children in India are going to begin soon.
The decision is to be taken by scientists after data is available based on trials. https://t.co/Ib7iz5XP6t
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) May 27, 2021
The ‘myths’ were busted by NITI Aayog member Dr Vinod Paul. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal also tweeted the part that claims no country in the world has begun vaccinating children.
NITI Aayog’s release was also reported by news agency ANI and several other media outlets. Twitter handle of PIB India and All India Radio News also put out a graphic with the same claim.
Myth: Centre is not taking any step to vaccinate children
Fact: As of now, no country in the world is giving vaccines to children. Also, WHO has no recommendation on vaccinating children. There have been encouraging studies about safety of vaccines in children – NITI Aayog (6/7)
— ANI (@ANI) May 27, 2021
The claim that no country has rolled out the vaccination program for children is false. It has been widely reported that the United States of America, Canada and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have started vaccinating children. More than 6,00,000 children between the age of 12 to 15 have received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccination in the US as of May 18.
According to a report by The New York Times, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had only given emergency authorization to Pfizer-BioNTech for children aged between 12 to 17 in May 2021. Two other vaccines – Moderna and Johnson & Johnson – are likely to be given emergency authorization in the coming months.
A report by German news agency DW states that Canada was the first country to approve a vaccine for children aged 12 and above on May 5. Furthermore, an article published by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) on May 27 stated, “Both Ontario and Quebec are vaccinating children as young as 12, covering all the federally approved age groups. These children have to be age 12 as of their appointment date.”
On May 24, UAE-based The National News reported, “Private schools in the UAE have immunised thousands of pupils against Covid-19 in the week since authorities approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12 to 15.”
DPS Dubai had recently tweeted about a vaccination drive organised for children above 12 years.
Upholding the safety of our pupils, their families and the wider community, DPS Dubai launched a COVID-19 vaccination drive at Grand Hyatt, Dubai for administering the first dose of Pfizer vaccine exclusively for children above 12 years from 21 May to 27 May. @KHDA pic.twitter.com/ymaQwUdXct
— DpsDubai (@DpsDubai2) May 23, 2021
Qatar has also opened up online registration for children to get vaccinated.
News | MOPH Opens Online Registration for Children Aged 12 to 15 in COVID-19 Vaccine
Read more: https://t.co/9VbWzBPVNH@MOPHQatar #Qatar pic.twitter.com/zMXJxz2Qvx
— حكومي – قطر (@HukoomiQatar) May 19, 2021
There are also reports which state that Bahrain has approved Pfizer-BioNTech for children above 12 years.
#Bahrain has approved Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine for children aged from 12 to 17 years https://t.co/kITmIO7oEi
— Saudi Gazette (@Saudi_Gazette) May 19, 2021
While the government’s claim that no country in the world is vaccinating children is false, it is true that there is no WHO recommendation on vaccinating children. At the time of writing the article, WHO’s website said, “There is not yet enough evidence on the use of vaccines against COVID-19 in children to make recommendations for children to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Children and adolescents tend to have milder disease compared to adults. However, children should continue to have the recommended childhood vaccines.”
However, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends “everyone 12 years and older should get a COVID-19 vaccination to help protect against COVID-19.” CDC has informed that children 12 years and above are able to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Approximately 7 hours after it pointed out that a few countries have started vaccinating children, NITI Aayog’s Dr VK Paul gave a statement to ANI. “1-2 countries will start doing that now. WHO hasn’t given any recommendation yet to cover the pediatric population in general as any illness in the pediatric population is very very mild,” he was quoted by the news agency.
1-2 countries will start doing that now. WHO hasn’t given any recommendation yet to cover pediatric population in general as any illness in pediatric population is very very mild. If we go with paradigm of deaths as a public health objective, it’s at lower priority: Dr VK Paul
— ANI (@ANI) May 27, 2021
The Finance Minister quote-tweeted his clarification.
. My tweets (11) were drawing out essential elements of Dr. V K Paul of @NITIAayog answers to FAQs. Subsequently, particularly on children he has given clarification through @ANI. (See below) Have tweeted that too. May kindly see. Thanks for drawing attention. https://t.co/4SjXl7rZGR
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) May 27, 2021
The press release was later updated saying, “The release mentions that ‘no country in the world is giving vaccines to children’. It should read ‘no country in the world is giving vaccines to children under 12 years” and termed the error as a ” typographical omission”.
PIB deleted its earlier tweet and subsequently tweeted another graphic that says ‘children under 12 years’.
Myth: Centre is not taking any step to vaccinate children
Facts: Encouraging studies about the safety of vaccines in children
Trials in children in India are going to begin soon#LargestVaccineDrive
Read details: https://t.co/UXv3ytaGaA pic.twitter.com/4dvp0gFzZv
— PIB India (@PIB_India) May 27, 2021
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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27th May 2021 / 9:45 pm / Last updated: 27th May 2021
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/government-wrongly-claims-no-country-vaccinating-children-clarifies-later/",
"author": "Jignesh Patel"
}
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1,395 |
Govt decision to block 4 videos on YouTube channel 'Mr Reaction Wala' perplexing - Alt News
Archit
28th October 2022 / 7:16 pm
The ministry of information & broadcasting (MIB) on September 26 announced the blocking of 45 videos from 10 YouTube channels. The MIB said in a statement: “Based on the inputs from intelligence agencies, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has directed YouTube to block 45 YouTube videos from 10 YouTube channels. Orders to block the concerned videos were issued on 23.09.2022 under the provisions of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021.”
On going through the available content of the 10 channels, Alt News could see that there was an inherent bias in their selection. When it reached out to the channels, only two of them — Dhruv Rathee and Mr Reaction Wala (MRW) — cooperated with this correspondent. Of the two, Alt News could only access the four removed videos posted by MRW. Upon close analysis of the clips, the reasons for their removal were not apparent.
According to the ministry statement, the blocked content was found to be detrimental to the ‘sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the State, India’s friendly relations with foreign States, and public order in the country.’
सूचना प्रसारण मंत्रालय ने 10 यूट्यूब चैनलों को देश के खिलाफ जहर उगलने वाले, भ्रामक खबरों के माध्यम से मित्र देशों के साथ सम्बंधों को ख़राब करने का प्रयास करने के लिए प्रतिबंध लगा कर उन्हें सस्पेंड कर दिया है।
राष्ट्रहित में ये पहले भी किया है, आगे भी करेंगे।
| @MIB_India | pic.twitter.com/uIIpXvEUOw
— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) September 26, 2022
The press note also stated three types of content categories under which the ban was exercised —
Alt News could not find any of the above reasons applicable to the four blocked videos of MRW. It also went through the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, based on which action was taken against the YouTube channel, but there also, Alt News couldn’t find anything that justified the blocking of the four videos in question.
To sum it up, Alt News found that none of the videos could be categorized under the three reasons listed in the September 26 press release by the ministry of information & broadcasting.
MRW, who prefers to be addressed by his YouTube handle, told Alt News, “I’m aware that some YouTube channels peddle fake news. However, I don’t feel that the four videos from my channel can be categorized as fake news. Nonetheless, at the moment, I have deleted them from the channel.”
When Alt News asked MRW what kind of content he made, he said, “My videos are not news reports. However, I do commentary on various events from Indian and other countries. Nonetheless, I ensure I am not misleading my audience in any way.”
Among the other channels, Gaurav Thakur from GetsetflyFACT uploaded a detailed video statement on the matter on his YouTube channel GetSetFly Fact. In the video, he explained that before he could make the necessary changes, the video was banned. Similarly, Rathee shared his views about the ban in an interview with Lalantop. Their videos had initially depicted the Indian map erroneously.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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28th October 2022 / 7:16 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/govt-decision-to-block-4-videos-on-youtube-channel-mr-reaction-wala-perplexing/",
"author": "Archit"
}
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1,396 |
Govt fact-checks its own fact-checking arm PIB on false news about IB recruitment - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
19th December 2020 / 12:56 pm / Last updated: 19th December 2020
A now-deleted tweet by government-run PIB Fact Check claimed that an Intelligence Bureau (IB) recruitment circular floating online has not been issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and is fake.
PIB later took down its December 16 tweet.
A day after PIB’s claim, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) contradicted the fact-check by the government’s media arm. Its publication division tweeted that the IB has confirmed that the advertisement is genuine.
Important notice regarding an advertisement of MHA being published in Employment News. pic.twitter.com/s5d3RMrQoV
— Publications Division (@DPD_India) December 17, 2020
The same was tweeted by the Twitter handle of I&B Ministry’s weekly job journal.
Important notice regarding an advertisement of MHA being published in Employment News. pic.twitter.com/kqDMPUaZiu
— EMPLOYMENT NEWS (@Employ_News) December 17, 2020
Earlier in June, PIB had blundered another fact-check when it claimed that media reports on Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UPSTF) directing its personnel and their family members to delete 52 Chinese applications from their mobile phones for security reasons is “fake news”. PIB’s tweet is yet to be taken down even as ADG Prashant Kumar informed about the advisory in a video statement to the press. The government agency also published unsubstantiated fact-checks declaring migrant workers who died in Sharmik trains during COVID lockdown had pre-existing conditions.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar…
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Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile…
Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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19th December 2020 / 12:56 pm / Last updated: 19th December 2020
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"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
}
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1,397 |
Govt to limit maternity benefit to first child only, budget allotted is grossly insufficient - Alt News
Alt News Desk
19th February 2017 / 3:09 am / Last updated: 12th July 2018
Prime Minister on 31st Dec 2016 had announced a scheme to provide financial aid of Rs 6,000 to pregnant women who undergo institutional delivery for hospital admission.
It was announced that the maternity benefit scheme would be extended to the entire country. The sum was also meant to help with their child’s vaccination, as well as nutritional food. A scheme which was started by UPA II Govt in 2010 as Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahayog Yojana on a pilot basis in 53 districts through the Anganwadi centres, now under the National Food Security Act 2013, the coverage was required to be made universal.
According to Govt Survey (2012-13), The total annual live births are 2.63 crores, Out of which 2.24 cr (85%) are registered births. The total annual requirement for 2.24 Crore Births is Rs 13,489 Crore.
After Prime Minister Modi’s announcement, Child Development Ministry had issued details of the scheme stating that the Centre would provide 60 per cent of the funds for all pregnant and lactating women above the age of 19 years for up to two live births.Govt had promised 60 percent of annual requirement for 2.24 crores Births which comes to approximately Rs 8090 crores.
On Feb 1st 2017, based on the announcement by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the budget allotted for Maternity scheme stands at Rs 2,700 crores. This amounts to one third of the 8090 crores that is required. Even though the Centre was supposed to provide 60 percent of the funds, it will now bear only 50 percent of the cost, while the states needed to shell out the remaining amount.
The Women and Child Development Ministry is currently preparing the Cabinet note for the scheme. According to a senior ministry official who spoke to Indian Express, “Following discussions with the PMO, we are in the process of preparing the Cabinet note for the implementation of the scheme. Considering the amount allotted for the scheme in the Budget, we have been told that the money should be provided to the mother only in case of the first child”.
With the increase in the number of annual live births to 2.6 crores since 2013, estimates have shown that Rs 16,000 crore is what is required per year for the scheme. But the budget allotted for 2017-18 is Rs 2,700 crores. Has yet another of PM’s announcements failed to live up to his word?
Follow @free_thinker
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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19th February 2017 / 3:09 am / Last updated: 12th July 2018
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"author": "Alt News Desk"
}
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Govt's Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-धन Vyapar Yojana website down for over 40 hours, has anyone noticed? - Alt News
Pratik Sinha
26th February 2017 / 6:14 pm
On December 15th, Nitiayog had announced the launch of two schemes, Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-धन Vyapar Yojana, to encourage cashless transactions by giving cash awards via a lucky draw to consumers and merchants who utilise digital payment instruments. The scheme was to run for over 100 days and Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurated the first draw of lots in Delhi on December 25, 2017. A website (digidhanlucky.mygov.in) was created so that consumers and merchants could check if they are the lucky winners by inputting their mobile numbers and an OTP code.
However, the website of Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-धन Vyapar Yojana (https://digidhanlucky.mygov.in/) has been down for over 40 hours since Alt News started monitoring it and continues to be non-functional. We used uptimerobot.com, a service that monitors the uptime status of various websites, and the monitor setup for digidhanlucky.mygov.in shows that the website has been down for over 40 hours since the time we setup the monitor.
Coincidentally, PM Modi in his Mann Ki Baat monologue today encouraged those who won prizes in Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-धन Vyapar Yojana to become ambassadors of these schemes.
Doesn’t the Govt utilise basic services such as the aforementioned uptimerobot to monitor the status of their websites? How does a website go down for over 40 hours without anyone in the Government noticing it? Digital India?
Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker.
Follow @free_thinker
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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26th February 2017 / 6:14 pm
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"author": "Pratik Sinha"
}
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1,399 |
Grand Master Shifuji: A Fake Soldier who fooled many emotionally foolish Indians - Alt News
Alt News Desk
14th February 2017 / 7:54 pm / Last updated: 12th July 2018
Many of you might have come across videos of a man who calls himself Grandmaster Shifuji Shaurya Bharadwaj on Facebook, Twitter and also circulated on WhatsApp Groups. Most of his videos and photos which have been uploaded by his channel project him as an Elite Army officer. In most of his videos and photographs, he is seen sporting combat attires which includes the Balidan insignia, Marcos badge, a stiff (worn around the neck), Maroon beret (a soldier’s cap), and a pointed moustache (to look like Shahid Bhagat Singh).
Besides projecting himself as an elite officer, on his Linkedin page, he has also claimed to have been made the Brand Ambassador of Madhya Pradesh and having won an International Award called “Living legend – True patriot”. Additionally, on his Linkedin page, he claims to know 16 languages and much more.
Many have mistaken him to be an officer of the Indian army based on his claims in many of his videos, Instagram posts, Blogs, Interviews and Facebook page. In fact, he even claims to be the next Bhagat Singh. In most of his videos on Youtube (many removed now) and in his official channel, he claims to be “Special Commando Trainer for Combatants of the Army’s Fighting Regiment”. However, he has also staked claim to be many other things such as “Special Mentor for the Mumbai QRT Commandos”, “Special Anti Urban Terrorist Tactics Instructor for Mumbai Police” and “Special Commandos VIP Protection skills of the Elite Special Forces”. That is like ninja level expertise, though most of us wouldn’t have ever heard of such positions.
In articles published in Mumbai and Pune Mirror, he claims to have spent 29 years in the military, training the Hawk Commandos and Special Armed Forces. After this stint of 29 years, he retired and since then he has been teaching women the art of self-defence for the past 15 years. That makes it a total of 44 years of experience. For a guy who looks to be in 45-50 years range, he probably started training the Indian army while he was still in his nappies.
However, a few people started seeing through the charade, one Abhishek Shukla from Ahmedabad started exposing this Shifuji by a posting series of videos. Search for “Shifuji Shaurya Bhardwaj EXPOSED| STOLEN VALOUR” on youtube to see some of those videos. Finally, Shifuji was forced to confess that he isn’t from Armed Forces. He now has removed many videos from his facebook page and has taken down his official page (but claims, it’s hacked).
Well, though the bubble might have burst now, Shifuji new the exact recipe of how to fool the middle class Indians on social media who will buy anything that is propagated in the name of the army ( “Soldier bol diya.. Argument Khattam!!”). That’s exactly why his youtube videos are full of bravado, profanity, hate against certain sections of the society, against Pakistan. He knew how that works so well to fool people these days. And boy, did people fall for it!
It first started with media houses inviting him for interviews, introducing him as an Army officer. He was invited to television debates on Surgical strike, to discuss the quality of food in army camps, to discuss Uri Attack, about his Kargil war experience and what not. Was media foolish enough not to know his reality? Hard to believe. TV Media these days have their sole focus on TRP and they would project anybody who brings them TRP, whether it is Grandmaster Shifuji or imports like Tarak Fateh. And his fame grew leaps and bounds. He started getting offers from Bollywood like in the film ‘Baaghi’. Zee promoted him as “Shifuji Shaurya Bhardwaj: The living legend who played Tiger Shroff’s trainer in ‘Baaghi’ ”
A few from Bollywood have now hired him as their trainer, thanks to the “Soldier Card” he played.
Now the President of Ex-Servicemen federation of Uttar Pradesh, Major Ashish Chaturvedi, has filed a complained against Shifuji for posting images and videos wearing Army uniform and Special Forces uniform and for claiming to be an army officer.
The website Lallantop recently published an article exposing him. Soon after the article went viral, our Brave Soldier Shifuji took down his website and has finally confessed that he wasn’t ever in the Army.
Now that fake soldier bit is exposed, wonder what next Shifuji could do next?
Follow @free_thinker
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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14th February 2017 / 7:54 pm / Last updated: 12th July 2018
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"author": "Alt News Desk"
}
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Graphic images of unsolved murder in Haryana viral with baseless 'love jihad' spin - Alt News
Archit
25th November 2020 / 7:54 pm
Last month, several Twitter and Facebook users shared three images of a woman’s dead body found in a suitcase. The images are graphic, viewer discretion is advised. The viral text associated with the pictures states, “Once she used to live in a jihadi’s heart, today she is dead inside a suitcase. A secular girl became victim. Open your eyes or else you will keep dying in #LoveJihad.”
(Translated from कभी किसी #जेहादी के दिल मे बसने वाली आज अटैची में मर कर बस गई! एक सैकुलर हिन्दु लड़की शिकार हुई! अभी भी आँखें खोल वरना ऐसे मरती रहेगी! #LOVE_जेहाद में!)
The following tweets gained over 1,000 retweets — @DrAvnii, @AlkaShr72024579 and @UttamIND_.
Similarly, several Facebook users posted these images. Facebook page Siv Se Santan shared the images along with a graphic that juxtaposes a still from a Tanishq ad featuring an interfaith couple and a photograph of a suitcase.
An advertisement by Tanishq featuring a baby shower of an interfaith couple sparked massive controversy in the month of October. The jewellery brand subsequently took down the commercial but that hardly prevented hoax ‘love jihad’ claims from floating online. Shefali Vaidya had also quote-tweeted the picture of a dead woman inside a suitcase along with a still from the ad.
The incident was reported by Punjab Kesari and Dainik Bhaskar in October. As per the reports, the incident took place in Ding city of Haryana’s Sirsa district. Initial reports stated that the unidentified victim’s likely cause of death was strangulation.
Alt News spoke with Ding police station head constable Pradeep Sharma. He informed, “The body has not been identified yet. The investigation is still on-going.” When we asked about a possible ‘love jihad’ angle, he said, “No evidence suggests inter-religious conflict.”
We also reached out to a Sirsa-based journalist who stated that the police have shared a WhatsApp message carrying two images in hopes of identifying the victim. The police’s message states that the victim is aged around 26-27 years. These are the same images circulating on social media. The journalist also said that no evidence suggests that the murder was communally-motivated.
On October 12, Chandigarh-based Khabrain Abhi Tak also reported the same. Sirsa’s Deputy superintendent of police Sanjay Kumar confirmed that there were strangulation marks on the dead body and added that the police is waiting for a postmortem report.
We spoke with the SHO at Ding police station on November 25. He said, “As per the post-mortem report, the victim was killed by strangulation. The victim is yet to be identified.”
The present facts do not establish the identity of the victim or the culprit. Social media claims that a Hindu woman was killed by a Muslim man are baseless. This is an ongoing investigation and our report will be updated once the police is able to uncover further information.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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25th November 2020 / 7:54 pm
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"author": "Archit"
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Graphical representation video believed to be satellite visual of CDS Bipin Rawat's chopper crash - Alt News
Archit
13th December 2021 / 2:48 pm
On December 8, an Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter carrying India’s first chief of defence staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Raje Singh Rawat, crashed in Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor. The IAF confirmed that 13 of the 14 passengers on board the chopper, including the CDS and his wife, died in the accident.
In the backdrop of this, several Twitter users have posted a video that shows a helicopter crash. It has been shared with the claim, “Satellite video of helicopter crash in Conoor. It appears the tail rotor got snapped and the chopper suddenly turned in the reverse direction and crashed within 2 seconds. No reaction time.”
Satellite video of helicopter crash in Conoor. It appears the tail rotor got snapped and the chopper suddenly turned in reverse direction and crashed within 2 seconds. No reaction time. pic.twitter.com/LXi1YI1IJt
— 🇮🇳 शेषधर तिवारी 🇮🇳 (@sdtiwari) December 11, 2021
Multiple Facebook users also shared this video on various groups.
A verified Tamil-language YouTube channel Mosquitobat Channel also uploaded this video with the same claim.
Alt News has received several requests to fact-check this claim on our WhatsApp helpline number (+91 76000 11160).
On the bottom left of the video, the logo of ‘News7 Tamil’ can be spotted.
A keyword search on YouTube revealed that the video was uploaded by News7 Tamil PRIME on December 8. Upon translating the video title, we learnt that the video in question is a graphical representation of the helicopter crash and not a satellite video as claimed on social media.
Raj Bhagat Palanichamy, a remote sensing expert at World Resources Institute, India told Alt News, “This is a graphical video. It is worth noting that satellite images or videos are taken hundreds of kilometres above land and helicopters fly at a lower altitude as compared to aeroplanes. Thus, recording a close-up shot of a helicopter as shown in the video is not possible via satellite nor its sound be heard at this resolution or zoom level. Moreover, there is no live capture satellite available in the public domain at this resolution.”
To sum it up, a graphical representation of the recent IAF helicopter crash by News7 Tamil PRIME was shared with the false claim that it is a genuine satellite video.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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13th December 2021 / 2:48 pm
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"author": "Archit"
}
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A grieving father was insulted and shooed away by Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das - Alt News
Pratik Sinha
10th March 2017 / 6:12 am / Last updated: 10th March 2017
In a shocking incident, Jharkhand’s BJP CM Raghubar Das insulted a grieving father who had come to meet him to ask for justice for his daughter and the CM shooed him off the stage. The said incident happened during a Woman’s day event which the CM was attending. Sanjay Singh, whose daughter Ichchita Singh according to police version has committed suicide, had come to the function to request the CM to investigate the issue as Sanjay Singh believes that this was not a case of suicide. However, when Sanjay Singh got up on the stage and tried to talk, the CM flew into a rage and said the follow:
On March 3rd, 2017, 20-year-old girl Ichchita Singh, a medical college aspirant, was found dead. Ichchita, a resident of Daltonganj, was preparing for medical entrance examination at a local coaching centre. The girl’s father had lodged a police complaint stating that he suspected Ichchita’s case to be a case of murder and not suicide.
This is not an isolated case of Raghubir Das’s overreach. While delivering a speech in December 2015, Raghubar Das had ordered the suspension of District Commissioner of Bokaro Steel City for walking past him.
Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker.
Follow @free_thinker
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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10th March 2017 / 6:12 am / Last updated: 10th March 2017
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"author": "Pratik Sinha"
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Gruesome video of man's tongue and hands cut off is not from India; no communal overtones - Alt News
Mohammed Zubair
26th August 2019 / 5:34 pm / Last updated: 26th August 2019
A graphic video, showing a man’s tongue and hands being chopped off, is viral on social media. The accompanying audio in Urdu says, “Allahu Akbar! See the extent of atrocities. There are no words to express how Hindus are inflicting atrocities on Muslims. It is the duty of every Muslim should share and make this video viral around the world (translated).” Due to the graphic and highly disturbing nature of the video, Alt News is not posting it here. However, the accompanying audio can be heard below:
Alt News has received several verification requests on WhatsApp.
Alt News searched for the video using keywords – “man tongue cut off” – and was redirected to a January 15 article in Daily Star which said that a “teen army deserter was caught by his former colleagues and punished by having his hands cut off, his tongue removed and his eyes gouged out. He was captured in an army raid on the Yin Yan gold mine where he is believed to have been one of a number of people trying to survive on illicit gold mining.” According to the media outlet, the incident took place in the town of El Callao in the state of Bolivar in southern Venezuela.
Daily Star carried the name of the 19-year-old victim – Leocer Jose Lugo Maiz. Upon searching for his name on Twitter, we found several tweets from January 2019 which spoke about the same incident and carried images of the same man as in the viral video.
In a Twitter thread, Bram Ebus (@BramEbus) a journalist and investigator from Colombia and Venezuela reported the incident explaining how physical mutilation is a warning and a punishment in Venezuela’s mining regions., “Today the Venezuelan army entered a mining area called “Yin Yan” where the 19-year old Leocer José Lugo Maiz – a recent army deserter – was mutilated after stealing in the mines. Eight persons were killed during this incursion”, tweeted Ebrus on Jan 15, 2019
/1 El Callao – Venezuela
Today a youngster was found with his hands amputated, his eyes gouged out and his tongue cut off.
Physical mutilation as a warning and a punishment is unfortunately nothing new in Venezuela’s mining regions. https://t.co/uBMu0BlwND
— Bram Ebus (@BramEbus) January 14, 2019
Other Venezuelan journalists had also tweeted about the case. If one looks carefully, the man’s clothes match those of the victim in the video. Other users have also shared the same video.
#Bolívar Según autoridades la víctima es el soldado Leocer José Lugo Maíz perteneciente al contingente septiembre 2018,plaza del 642 BINGF. Este estaba ausente de las instalaciones desde el #28Dic (fue declarado presunto desertor el #1Ene). pic.twitter.com/AbobJSQDsV
— Pableysa Ostos (@PableOstos) January 14, 2019
It is clear that the gruesome video being used to foment communal tensions neither has any relation to India nor does it depict atrocities being inflicted on Muslims by Hindus or vice versa in any other part of the world. In recent times, we have seen several such instances where unrelated videos depicting violence have been circulated with a communal narrative to further polarize communities.
Co-founder, Alt News
Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via Twitter at https://twitter.com/zoo_bear
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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26th August 2019 / 5:34 pm / Last updated: 26th August 2019
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Gujarat CM's understanding of ICMR guidelines on recording COVID deaths is flawed - Alt News
Archit
26th April 2021 / 1:32 pm / Last updated: 26th April 2021
Coronavirus cases are rapidly increasing in Gujarat. More than 14,000 cases are being reported in the State daily while the healthcare sector is overwhelmed with high demands it is unable to meet. Furthermore, fatalities due to COVID are much higher than the State government’s official death toll.
On April 15, Sandesh News aired a 50-minute interview with Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. This video has been uploaded on YouTube in two segments. In the second segment at the 14-minute mark, the journalist asked, “There is one question that I must ask, please try to answer this question with an open heart so that the people of Gujarat gain some faith…Taking the example of Rajkot, the death toll is around 80. However, the government’s official death toll is very low. There is a large inconsistency between the toll and what is being reported by the government.”
CM Rupani elaborated on the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines related to recording deaths due to COVID-19. According to him, as per ICMR, the primary cause of death of COVID-19 patients who had pre-existing diseases like cancer and diabetes is not COVID-19.
Rupani said, “As per ICMR, there are two reasons for the cause of death. The first is purely due to COVID and the second is due to comorbidity. For example, a patient who is 75 to 80 years old has cancer in the third stage. Their immunity is broken and if they get COVID and dies, then the cause of death is cancer as the primary reason and COVID is the secondary reason. Patients with 500 points diabetes are admitted. Therefore, the cause of death is diabetes and COVID is the secondary reason.”
He added, “Therefore, a doctoral committee is formed to audit each death. They distinguish the cause of death as primary or secondary. For example, if 100 deaths take place and only 20 are reported (under COVID), then 80 are due to primary reason (non-COVID) and 20 is due to the secondary reason.”
Gujarat CM gave the same statement to The Times of India on April 19 – “The method of recording COVID deaths has been stipulated by ICMR and all states, including Gujarat, are following it.”
As per The Quint and Gujarat Samachar, multiple dead bodies are being simultaneously cremated in the State. The Print reported that the death tolls at Ahmedabad’s six crematoriums were at least 84 on April 16. However, the Health and Family Welfare Department of Gujarat reported just 25 deaths in the city.
A day prior to The Print report, The Hindu reported that on April 16 state health bulletin recorded 78 deaths related to COVID-19. However, The Hindu found that at least 689 bodies were either cremated or buried following COVID-19 protocols on the disposal of bodies.
India Today also looked into the allegations that Gujarat is under-reporting COVID-19 deaths. According to the channel’s on-the-ground assessment, the “toll could be a lot higher”. Reports from Varanasi, Bhopal, and Telangana exhibit a similar pattern.
Alt News studied ‘Guidance for appropriate recording of COVID-19 related deaths in India’ (view PDF) by ICMR and the National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR) and found that CM Rupani’s statement is misleading. As per NCDIR director Dr Prashant Mathur these guidelines issued in May 2020.
Page 3 states, “Patients may present with other pre-existing comorbid conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma, chronic bronchitis, ischemic heart disease, cancer and diabetes mellitus. These conditions increase the risk of developing respiratory infections and may lead to complications and severe disease in a COVID-19 positive individual. These conditions are not considered as UCOD (underlying cause of death) as they have directly not caused death due to COVID-19. Also, a patient may have many co-morbid conditions, but only those that have contributed to death should be recorded in Part 2.”
Mathur told Alt News, “Death of a COVID-19 patient with comorbidity, such diabetes, and cancer, can happen due to COVID-19 as the contributing or underlying cause.” He also stated, “Irrespective of the cause of death it is important to use COVID-19 related mortality codes on Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) forms to understand the impact of the pandemic accurately.”
Expert opinion
Alt News spoke to Associate Professor Chalapati Rao at Australia National University. Last year, he wrote a WHO editorial titled ‘Medical certification of cause of death for COVID-19′. After reading CM Rupani’s statement to Sandesh News, he said, “In the process of explaining the ICMR guidelines, CM Rupani used the phrases primary and secondary cause of deaths. The appropriate terms to be used are underlying and contributory causes, and these labels are assigned to causes based on their placement on various sections of the MCCD. For primary mortality statistics, the magnitude of mortality from COVID-19 needs to be assessed from the perspective of COVID-19 as an underlying cause. However, for monitoring the impact of the pandemic, all deaths with COVID-19 mentioned on the certificate, irrespective of whether listed as an underlying or as a contributory cause, are included for the analysis. Hence, the accurate listing and placement of COVID-19 on MCCD are of critical importance for detailed mortality assessment.”
Rao further explained, “More crucially, if a patient has tested positive for COVID-19, then the MCCD should state it clearly along with the prefix ‘confirmed’ so that the State has accurate data and thus takes appropriate measures. Certifying physicians also have the discretion to record ‘suspected COVID-19’ on MCCD, if a test result was not available but the clinical picture was suggestive of COVID infection. The term COVID-19 should always be prefixed with confirmed or suspected, to enable accurate data analysis.”
Alt News has written to the Gujarat Chief Minister’s Office and will update the article if we get a response.
In order to explain nuances related to documenting COVID related deaths our report is split into:
Understanding medical terms related to death
The guidelines by ICMR/ NCDIR define ’cause of death’ (CoD) as, “all those diseases, morbid conditions/abnormalities, injuries which either resulted in or contributed to death and the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced any such injuries”. It further adds that ‘mode of dying’ should be avoided as the cause of death because the former isn’t specifically related to the disease process.
As per the guidelines abbreviations should not be used for the cause of death. Here are some examples of CoD – respiratory acidosis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, disseminated intravascular coagulation, acute cardiac injury.
The following are some examples of ‘mode of dying’ as per ICMR/ NCDIR:
Death often results from the combined effect of two or more independent or related conditions, that is, one condition may lead to another, which in turn leads to a third condition and so on. Where there is a sequence, the disease or injury that initiated the sequence of events, called the underlying cause of death (UCoD), is recorded and reported.
ICMC/ NCDIR guidelines specify that UCoD is:
Death Certificate vs Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD)
The readers should note that “death certificate” typically means the document issued by the Registrar as per the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 (view pdf). In order to obtain this, one must present a document for proof of death (MCCD or document offered after cremation), and other documents. For more details visit this government website. It this pertinent to note that the document issued by the Registrar doesn’t mention the cause of death.
MCCD is the certificate issued by the attending medical practitioner who had treated the person during admission in a medical institution or in the last illness (prior to death) while taking treatment from a physician outside of a medical institution.
MCCD is the process of recording and reporting death using standard Form 4 (institutional deaths) and Form 4A (non-institutional deaths) as per the rules of the Registration of Births and Death Act, 1969.
The MCCD form contains two parts:
Thus, when CM Rupani mentioned primary and secondary causes of death, he was essentially referring to Part I and Part II of the MCCD.
Process of recording death
As per the guidelines, Part 1 should note the sequence of events leading to death.
The guidelines further specify that only one ’cause of death’ should be written in the above-mentioned spaces. It also states that disease, injury or complication that immediately preceded death can be the only entry in the MCCD form if only one condition is present at the time of death.
More crucially, the last line in Part 1 must list the underlying cause of death. It is the disease or condition that started the sequence of events between normal health to the immediate cause of death. Conditions if any, as a consequence thereof will be entered above it in ascending causal order of sequence.
Part 2 should include all other diseases or conditions believed to have unfavourably influenced the course of the disease leading to death but were not related to the disease or condition directly causing death. The following image lists some examples by ICMR /NCDIR, including cardiovascular disease and cancer.
As per WHO guidelines, COVID-19 deaths are recorded using U07.1 (COVID-19) and U07.2 (test negative but has symptoms, test awaited and test inconclusive along with symptoms) codes to distinguish the diagnosis based on test and symptoms. The readers can view the document by WHO here. Both these codes must be clearly listed on the MCCD.
Multiple sample forms (Form 4/4A) have been included in the guidelines issued (view PDF) by ICMR and NCDIR. The following screenshots are of sample forms of two COVID-19 patients who had cancer and diabetes respectively. The guidelines are clear, if a patient is COVID-19 positive, it should be reflected in the antecedent cause of Part I (immediate and antecedent). The pre-existing diseases are recorded in Part II (significant conditions that contributed to the death but were not part of the sequence of events leading to death).
MCCD issued by Shalby Hospital
The Hindu had reported that 48-year-old COVID-19 positive Rupal Thakkar’s MCCD prepared by Ahmedabad’s Shalby Hospital mentioned “sudden cardiac arrest” as the cause of death. This was despite the fact that the form itself states that the mode of death such as heart attack should not be listed as the immediate cause of death.
Alt News spoke with Thakkar’s family and gained access to her COVID-19 test (dated April 12) and MCCD. Her brother Dipan gave us permission to highlight the flaws in the MCCD.
The MCCD was issued by Shalby Hospital’s consultant Dr Harshil Mehta. It is pertinent to note that the certificate doesn’t state that Thakkar was COVID positive despite the fact that she did test positive. Dipan also informed that as a result, the cremation took place without COVID-19 protocols. He also pointed out other errors such as age and time of admission to the hospital.
A corrected MCCD was subsequently issued by Shalby Hospital to Thakkar’s family. This version mentions COVID-19 as the antecedent cause of death. However, it does not list the COVID-19 specific identify codes on MCCD as per the guidelines. Furthermore, Shalby Hospital didn’t amend the immediate cause of death either.
Discussing the MCCD issued by Shalby Hospital, Chalapati Rao said, “The phrase ‘sudden cardiac arrest’ should not have been listed as an immediate cause of death. It’s against the guidelines. However, this practice is commonly followed due to a lack of checks and balances. If at all stated, cardiac arrest should be further qualified with the mention of a preceding clinical condition or disease that precipitated the cardiac arrest, which would then be considered as the underlying cause of death.”
Alt News spoke with Dr Priyal, the on-duty doctor mentioned on Thakkar’s MCCD. She said that the MCCD was prepared as per Dr Mehta’s instructions. Dr Mehta in turn told Alt News, “Death certificate [MCCD] is just for our medical and corporation purpose. Whatever cause we are writing it is medically terminated and it for the data record. It is not certifying that the patient has died because of certain diseases.”
However, Section 3, 10 (3) of The Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 (view pdf) states “in the event of the death of any person who, during his last illness, was attended by a medical practitioner, the medical practitioner shall, after the death of that person, forthwith, issue without charging any fee, to the person required under this Act to give information concerning the death, a certificate in the prescribed form stating to the best of his knowledge and belief the cause of death; and the certificate shall be received and delivered by such person to the Registrar at the time of giving information concerning the death as required by this Act.”
To conclude, Gujarat CM Rupani’s interpretation that comorbidities such as cancer or diabetes can be listed as the primary cause of death for COVID-related fatalities is not as per ICMR’s written guidelines for appropriate recording of COVID-19 related deaths in India.
[Note: An unpublished version of this report, still under review, was erroneously shared on social media. It carried a quote attributed to Dr Prashant Mathur, which wasn’t the final version of his comment. The error is regretted.]
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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26th April 2021 / 1:32 pm / Last updated: 26th April 2021
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Gujarat Congress Seva Dal shares photo from Bangladesh as aftermath of rain in India - Alt News
Kalim Ahmed
29th July 2021 / 7:12 pm
A photo of a woman cooking food for her children on a makeshift boat while stuck in a flooded area is viral on social media with the claim that this is “present India”.
The photo was shared by the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Sevadal on Facebook with a Hindi caption that reads, “A live example of present India, anyway, you keep building mosques and temples”.
वर्तमान भारत की जीती जागती #तस्वीर
खैर आप #मंदिर_मस्जिद बनाइये😢
Posted by Gujarat Pradesh Congress Sevadal on Friday, 23 July 2021
The photo has also been shared on Twitter with the same caption by Congress worker @MayankpareekINC.
वर्तमान भारत की जीती जागती #तस्वीर है ये
खैर आप #मंदिर_मस्जिद बनाइये😢#mayankpareekinc
pic.twitter.com/mElvGFkDU7
— Mayank Pareek (@MayankpareekINC) July 23, 2021
It is massively viral on both Twitter and Facebook.
We did a reverse image on Google and found that the photo is old and used by various news outlets between 2019 and 2020 as a photo of the flood situation in the Northeast. The photo was used by DNA, The Times of India, Zee News Bangla and NE Now.
We dug further and found a PDF titled ‘Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA) Bangladesh: Flood’ uploaded by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The PDF file had the same photo described as “Flood situation in Kurigram” and was credited to RDRS, a social organisation based in Bangladesh. The PDF document said that the disaster took place in July 2016.
We also found the photo uploaded on Pinterest by National Geographic with credits given to Shamsul Haque Suza.
Alt News spoke with Shamsul Haque Suza who told us that the photo was clicked by him in 2016. The location in the photo is Ulipur Upazila, which is in the Kurigram District, located in North-West Bangladesh. He was employed with the RDRS in 2016 and was covering the floods for the organisation. Shamsul further said that over the years many organisations have used this photo but most of them never gave him any credit.
Hence, an old photo from Bangladesh was shared as the “present situation” in India due to heavy rainfall. While the viral photo is not from India, several states in the country have recently experienced incessant downpours triggering floods and landslides.
Kalim is a journalist with a keen interest in tech, misinformation, culture, etc
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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29th July 2021 / 7:12 pm
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"author": "Kalim Ahmed"
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Gujarat Congress tweets 2014 image of Ganges to target BJP - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
26th April 2019 / 8:32 pm / Last updated: 30th April 2019
Gujarat Congress tweeted a collage of river Ganga in an attempt to showcase how the BJP advertises a ‘clean’ Ganga but in reality, the river is a hotbed of pollutants.
The same photo montage was also shared by Gujarat Congress on Facebook.
Reverse-searching the image revealed that the photograph has been available on the internet at least since 2014. Website indiawaterportal had uploaded the image in an article published on April 4, 2014. Narendra Modi was sworn in as the prime minister on May 26, 2014, hence, the photograph was clicked before the BJP came into power.
Ironically, the image used by Congress to target BJP was used also used by the BJP to target Congress earlier this year. As part of the ’10-year-challenge’, BJP Tamil Nadu secretary Vanathi Srinivasan was among those who shared the image to depict an unclean Ganga during Congress rule in 2009.
Last year, Congress had used an image from 2009 to target PM Modi and the government in a similar manner.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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26th April 2019 / 8:32 pm / Last updated: 30th April 2019
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"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
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Gujarat Govt burns off Rs 2.27 Crore to hand out appointment letters to police personnel - Alt News
Alt News Desk
21st May 2017 / 1:03 pm
The elections are due in Gujarat, and the BJP government is trying to cash in on every possible opportunity to advertise their work. Even a procedure as routine as hiring fix pay employees is being advertised to the hilt. On 18 May, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani gave away appointment letters to over 18000 police jawans in a mega event held at Sabaramati River Front ground in Ahmedabad.
Alt News is in possession of a leaked document, which Ahmedabad City Police Commissioner AK Singh had sent out to Home Minister’s office listing the estimated expenditure that will be incurred for this ceremony of handing out 18000 appointment letters to police jawans.
In this leaked letter which is dated 6 May 2017, the total cost of the ceremony was estimated to be a whopping 2.27 crores. The police department estimated Rs 1.5 Cr for the Stage/Shamiana, Sound System, LED lighting etc, Rs 25 lac for food for 20000 people, Rs 27 lac for T-Shirt with logo and Rs 25 lac for sundry expenses.
Former Gujarat IPS officer Rahul Sharma posed a question on Social Media about the legitimacy and need of such unnecessary expenses, accusing the State Government of abusing public funds. He also said that it is actually a shortcoming of the Government that as many as 18000 posts, which come up to about 20% of the state’s total force, were lying vacant for so many years.
According to RTI Activist Chandravadan Dhruv, the State of Gujarat has a public debt of Rs 1,82,000 crores and such events add to the per capita debt of the state. Dhruv had also written letters to CM office and Secretariat, appealing to cancel the event so as to save Rs 2.27 Crores of tax payer’s money. However, there was no response or action from the state government on the appeal.
When Alt News spoke with Police Commissioner A K Singh, he said, “These are minimal estimated costs for the job of making arrangements, given to us by the state government. There are other costs involved like, transit costs for bringing the appointees from their respective hometowns and preparing appointment letters. However, that job has been given to some other department. The contract for food, water and venue setup has been given to Gandhi Corporation based on our past associations.”
When questioned as to what was the purpose of the 25 lac worth of Sundry expenses, he said, “There are so many last minute arrangements to be made and emergency situations to be handled. This amount also includes arrangement of Mobile Toilets to be set up at the venue for the attendees.”
However, on the day of the event, as reported by Divya Bhaskar, there were neither enough toilets for 20000 people nor was there enough cold drinking water to cool off people in the scorching summer of Ahmedabad. The male attendees managed to pee in the open space around ground, but the female attendees had no place to answer the nature’s call. It was also reported that the event venue was filled with plastic trash as there weren’t enough dustbins to dispose off the garbage, thus making a mockery of ‘Swachch Bharat Mission’ which is the other widely advertised initiative of Modi Govt.
Gujarat Government has much to answer about the need of such programs which burn off crores of rupees for an exercise as routine as appointment of people for Government jobs. The primary purpose of such events is political advertisement for BJP in election season. BJP is free to do its propaganda, but can it be done at the cost of people’s tax money?
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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21st May 2017 / 1:03 pm
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Video from Gujarat shared as upper caste men in UP assault Dalit woman for drawing water from well - Alt News
Priyanka Jha
9th June 2020 / 5:14 pm / Last updated: 6th October 2020
A disturbing video of three men brutally assaulting a woman with sticks and pulling her by her hair was shared on social media. A message in Tamil claims that upper-castes beat up a Dalit woman for drinking water from a public well.
[Warning: Violent and disturbing content. Viewer discretion is advised.]
மோடி ஆசீர்வாதத்தால் ஆட்சி நடக்கும் உத்திரபிரதேசத்தில் யோகியின் யோகிதை ஆட்சியில் தாழ்த்தப்பட்ட பெண் பொதுக் கிணற்றில் குடிநீர் எடுத்ததாக கூறி அந்தப் பெண்ணை பெண்ணென்றும் பாராமல் ஆதிக்க நாய்கள் அவர்கள் செய்யும் அநியாயத்தை பாருங்கள். #bjpagainstdalith #bjpagainstnation pic.twitter.com/dtSmv77SGi
— 𑀫𑀼𑀢𑁆𑀢𑀫𑀺𑀵𑁆_செல்வன் (@Raja_Muthamil) October 4, 2020
The clip has also been shared on Facebook.
மோடி ஆசீர்வாதத்தால் ஆட்சி நடக்கும் உத்திரபிரதேசத்தில் யோகியின் யோகிதை ஆட்சியில் தாழ்த்தப்பட்ட பெண் பொதுக் கிணற்றில் குடிநீர் எடுத்ததாக கூறி அந்தப் பெண்ணை பெண்ணென்றும் பாராமல் ஆதிக்க நாய்கள் அவர்கள் செய்யும் அநியாயத்தை பாருங்கள். நாம் இன்னும் சுதந்திர நாட்டில் தான் இருக்கிறோமா? என்ற சந்தேகம் எழுகிறது. யாராக இருந்தாலும் இவர்களை சட்டத்தின் முன் நிறுத்தி தண்டனை வாங்கி தரும் வரை இந்த பதிவை முடிந்தவரை அனைவருக்கும் பகிருங்கள்.
Posted by Please Follow on Thursday, 1 October 2020
Akali Dal member Manjinder S Sirsa had tweeted the video earlier in June. He wrote (archive), “I don’t know if the mistreatment of the Dalit woman is due to water or something else…I urge @Uppolice to investigate & to strong action against culprits.”
मुझे ये वीडियो Whatsapp पर Fwd हुआ
मैं नही जानता इस वीडियो मे दलित औरत के साथ जो बदसलूकी हो रही है वो पानी करके है या किसी और कारण से!
पर कोई भी कारण किसी भी इंसान को इस तरह का दुर्व्यवहार करने का हक नहीं देता
I urge @Uppolice to investigate & to strong action against culprits pic.twitter.com/geTSFz49IV
— Manjinder Singh Sirsa (@mssirsa) June 7, 2020
The same video had also been shared with a caption in Telugu — “In Uttar Pradesh, a Dalit woman has been brutally beaten for drinking water from a well belonging to the upper caste people. (ఈ ఘోరం ఏమిటి? దీన్ని అపేదెవరు? ఉత్తర ప్రదేశ్ లో దళిత మహిళ అగ్ర వర్ణాల కు చెందినవారి బావిలో త్రాగునీరు తోడుకున్నందుకు వారని అమానవీయంగా కొడుతున్నారు. త్రాగు నీరు తోడు కోవడమే నేరమా?”)
The clip was also circulating on WhatsApp.
This incident is not from Uttar Pradesh but took place in a region bordering Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. A reverse image search of a frame of the video led to a few news reports. An article from One India dated May 27, 2020, said, “This case of a minor girl beaten is from tribal areas where punishments are brutal. She was brutally beaten for being in an illicit relationship.” A Punjab Kesari report from May 28 says, “A 16-year-old tribal girl was brutally beaten up by three men in front of her father and villagers when she went with a boy to a village in Chhota Udaipur in Gujarat.” The Daily Mail also reported the incident on May 28.
According to Dainik Jagran’s May 27 report, “PI Vasava of Rangpur police station reported that 17-year-old teenager, living with her aunt in Kolbokadia village, was in love with a young man from the village. Both of them used to meet in secret. A few days ago, they ran away from home. When the girl’s uncle and other family members living in Bhilwant village found out, they began searching for her. On Thursday, the teenager was discovered in a village in Madhya Pradesh and was brought to Bhilwant village where was tied with a rope. After this, the villagers took the teenager outside the village and beat her brutally with sticks. The accused also pulled the teenager’s hair and clothes. When the victim’s father came to the rescue, he was also brutally beaten. Following a complaint, the police arrested around 15 people from Bhilwand village.”
UP Superintendent of Police (SP) Sonbhadra issued a statement and said that the video has no relation with UP.
सोशल मीडिया पर एक वीडियो जो यूपी के सोनभद्र बीजपुर में दलित महिला के कुएं से पानी भरने पर सवर्णों ने महिला को बेरहमी से पीटा नाम से वायरल हो रहा है जिसमें कुछ व्यक्ति एक लड़की को डंडे से पीटते नज़र आ रहे हैँ। उक्त वीडियो की सत्यता के सम्बंध में पुलिस अधीक्षक सोनभद्र द्वारा दी गयी बाइट ।
https://www.news18.com/news/india/gujarat-minor-tribal-girl-brutally-thrashed-for-eloping-video-goes-viral-2640541.html
Posted by SP Sonbhadra on Monday, 8 June 2020
Therefore, a video of a girl beaten in a village in Gujarat for eloping with a boy was shared with the false claim that a Dalit woman was beaten in Uttar Pradesh for drawing water from a well used by upper-caste villagers.
[Update: This video was revived in October 2020 against the backdrop of the alleged rape of a Dalit woman in UP’s Hathras by four upper-caste men.]
She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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9th June 2020 / 5:14 pm / Last updated: 6th October 2020
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{
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/gujarat-minor-girl-publicly-thrashed-for-eloping-video-viral-as-dalit-girl-beaten-up-in-up-by-upper-cast-men-drawing-water-from-a-well/",
"author": "Priyanka Jha"
}
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Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani shares photoshopped image of PM Modi's visit to Indore - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
17th September 2018 / 2:47 pm / Last updated: 17th September 2018
“जिन्हे था इंकार कभी टोपी से किसी दौर में। मस्जिद के अंदर नजर आये वो साहेब इंदौर में।” (Someone who had an issue with (skull)cap was seen inside a mosque in Indore -translated). Jignesh Mevani, an independent MLA from Gujarat, tweeted an image of PM Narendra Modi wearing a skull cap on September 16, 2018 along with the aforementioned text. The tweet has now been deleted as it turned out to be a morphed image. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Indore on Friday to attend Ashara Mubaraka, an event to commemorate the death anniversary of Prophet Mohammed’s grandson Imam Hussain.
A Facebook user had also shared the same image with a similar claim. It had been shared more than 2700 times at the time of writing.
जिने था इंकार कभी टोपी से किसी दौर में।
मस्जिद के अंदर नजर आये वो #साहेब इंदौर में @ 😝
ओहो अब तो साहेब हिंदू ना रहे अब उन हिंदुत्व के ठेकेदारों के हिदुत्व का क्या होगा माईबाप तो अब्बू हो गए 😜😜😜😜😜😜😜
Posted by Vandana Gupta on Friday, 14 September 2018
One of the images has also been posted by the page I Support Ravish Kumar NDTV which has over 550,000 followers. The post has been shared close to 8000 times so far.
क्या से क्या हो गए देखते देखते
Posted by I Am With Ravish Kumar NDTV on Friday, September 14, 2018
Many individuals have shared the same image on Facebook and Twitter.
Alt News had found this widely shared image to be photoshopped and had shared the facts on social media.
Yet another photoshopped image pertaining to the same event was also circulated on social media.
The spiritual head of the Dawoodi Bohra community, Syedna Mufaddal felicitated the Prime Minister at Saifee Mosque in the city.
It is always wonderful to meet Dr. Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin. Saint and scholar, his commitment towards nation building is appreciable. He is at the forefront of several community service initiatives. pic.twitter.com/qLUUJN6Lpw
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 14, 2018
Jignesh Mevani, a vocal critic of BJP, had shared a photoshopped image of UP CM Yogi Adityanath and Sri Sri in the past as well.
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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17th September 2018 / 2:47 pm / Last updated: 17th September 2018
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/gujarat-mla-jignesh-mevani-shares-photoshopped-image-of-pm-modis-visit-to-indore/",
"author": "Jignesh Patel"
}
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Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani shares photoshopped image of Yogi Adityanath and Sri Sri - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
30th May 2018 / 5:50 pm / Last updated: 10th July 2018
“Arre re..isko dekhkar seriously bolne lag gaya, “Oh my god!”..bahut filmy ho gaya yeh toh. Did art predict real life? Film ki tarah, 3 bahut bade actors hai…dramebaaz”. This is a tweet by Gujarat MLA and youth leader Jignesh Mevani, along with a photograph comparing UP CM Yogi Adityanath, ‘spiritual guru’ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and columnist with Swarajya magazine, Shefali Vaidya with a still from a movie.
This tweet was posted on May 29, 2018. It was ‘liked’ more than 3200 times and retweeted over 900 times. Mevani has a following of more than 177,000 on Twitter.
The photo tweeted by Mevani mocking Adityanath, Ravi Shankar and Vaidya by comparing them to movie characters is photoshopped. There are clear visual markers to suggest this is the case.
1. On the left and right side of the photograph, the same person can be seen. (marked in yellow)
2. Again on both the left and right side, another person can be seen twice. (marked in red)
3. Yogi Adityanath’s image too has been sought to be used twice in the photo. On the right hand side of the image, his hand can be seen, along with the right side of his body. (marked in green)
This photograph has been shared widely on social media over the last 24 hours. Yesterday, it was posted by a Twitter user @ThisrtyScholarr who had however clarified that the image is photoshopped and not original.
Photoshop.
— Thomas Shelby (@ThisrtyScholarr) May 29, 2018
Mevani later acknowledged that he had tweeted a photoshopped picture and issued an apology.
I am told that this is a photoshoped image. Apologies for posting it without verification. Deleting my previous tweet now and will be careful in future.We all should be careful abt this and whenever we get to know that it’s fabricated we should delete ithttps://t.co/Iw5FnxINe5
— Jignesh Mevani (@jigneshmevani80) May 30, 2018
A close inspection of all images and videos is advised before sharing it on social media.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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30th May 2018 / 5:50 pm / Last updated: 10th July 2018
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/gujarat-mla-jignesh-mewani-shares-photoshopped-image-of-yogi-adityanath-and-sri-sri/",
"author": "Arjun Sidharth"
}
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Gujarat mob violence video viral as Muslim auto drivers in Mumbai protesting BEST fare drop - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri & Priyanka Jha
13th July 2019 / 8:13 pm
A video shared by several social media users shows a mob vandalising a public bus by smashing its windows with bricks. It is being claimed that the incident occurred in Mumbai when an auto driver, angered with the recent fare drop for BEST buses running between BKC and station, wrecked a bus after Friday’s Namaaz.
Jumme ki namaz ke baad ….auto wale ne BKC me khadi BEST ki bus ki todfod ki …kyuki wo log ne low rate me BKC to Stn seva start ki …..
Posted by Vimal Thakkar on Friday, 12 July 2019
The corresponding message reads, “Jumme ki namaz ke baad ….auto wale ne BKC me khadi BEST ki bus ki todfod ki …kyuki wo log ne low rate me BKC to Stn seva start ki (After Friday’s prayers, an auto driver smashed a BEST bus because the rate between BKC to the station has been lowered.)”
The claim is also circulating on Twitter.
Jumme ki namaz ke baad ….auto wale ne BKC me khadi BEST ki bus ki todfod ki …kyuki wo log ne low rate me BKC to Stn seva start ki ….. its Dangerous site . Signal of future what lies ahead of us. pic.twitter.com/AxoOg56Oqg
— Milind Thuse (@milindthusempt) July 13, 2019
Another caption used to share the video says – “Oppose of bus route started to Bandra to BKC by group of Muslim Rikshawala’s running share Riksha on that route.” The same has been posted on Twitter as well.
Oppose of bus route started to Bandra to BKC by group of Muslim Rikshawala’s running share Riksha on that route
Posted by Chetan Mehta on Friday, 12 July 2019
Alt News closely analysed the video and found that the incident took place in Surat, Gujarat and not Mumbai, Maharashtra.
The word ‘SITILINK’ is imprinted on the side of the bus. SITILINK stands for Surat Bus Rapid Transit System, which is an integrated public bus transportation system that runs only in Surat.
The second clue was the number plate of the bus. A faint ‘GJ 05’ is visible at numerous points in the video. GJ 05 is the RTO vehicle registration code for Surat.
When we looked for related videos on YouTube with the keyword ‘stone-pelting bus surat’, we found one shot at the same location and uploaded by Surat-based Divang News Channel. This clip showed scenes in the aftermath of the attack. The video was titled, “Surat: Police fire tear gas shells as rally against mob lynching incidents turns violent.”
TV9 Gujarati also reported the incident. A rally to protest mob lynchings was taken out in Surat on July 5. The agitation, however, turned violence and mob began pelting stones. The Times of India reported, “A section of [the] crowd went berserk when the rally participants were not allowed to go beyond Makkai Pool to submit a memorandum to [the] district collector. According to the report, two buses were attacked. “The mob targeted a city bus near Take Off restaurant and broke its window panes and the other at another place,” it said.
Forty people have been reportedly arrested for perpetrating the violence.
An incident of mob violence that occurred in Surat, Gujarat was falsely shared on social media as Muslim auto drivers protesting the recent ticket price drop for BEST buses in Mumbai.
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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13th July 2019 / 8:13 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/gujarat-mob-violence-video-viral-as-muslim-auto-drivers-in-mumbai-protesting-best-fare-drop/",
"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri & Priyanka Jha"
}
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Gujarat Youth Congress tweets photoshopped image of religious leaders holding INC flag - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
11th April 2019 / 8:03 pm / Last updated: 11th April 2019
Gujarat Youth Congress tweeted an image showing religious leaders from five different religions holding the Indian National Congress flag with a message, “कांग्रेस ही देश को जोड़े रख सकती है हिन्दू मुस्लिम सिख ईसाई सबके साथ कांग्रेस का हाथ | (Only Congress can unite the Country. Congress is with everyone – Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians -translated)”. This was an attempt to convey that only Congress can unite people from different religious identities together.
This image was also posted on the official Facebook page of Gujarat Youth Congress.
A Facebook page, 60 years of Congress had also posted this image with an identical text on April 5.
Alt News found that the image, which has the religious leaders holding the INC flag, is photoshopped. In the original image, the religious leaders were seen holding the Indian National flag and NOT the INC flag. The picture was clicked at Wagah Border, Amritsar in 2016 where interfaith saints including Swami Dipankar, Acharya Lokesh Muni, Sushil Goswami, Dr Imam Ilyasi and Paramjit Singh Chandhok were seen marching on the Wagah border with the Indian National flag.
‘Walk of Peace’ A Historical, Mesmerising, Heart Touching March of Interfaith saints on #WagahBorder #amritsar pic.twitter.com/3YIGPGboMu
— Swami Dipankar (@swamidipankar) June 18, 2016
Earlier, the same image was photoshopped with Samajwadi party’s flag and Swami Dipankar had called it out on Twitter.
वाघा बॉर्डर पर हम धर्मगुरु हाथों में राष्ट्रीय ध्वज लिए चले थे।@yadavakhilesh भैया आपके किसी नेता ने Photoshop से हमारे हाथों में तिरंगे को आपकी पार्टी का झंडा बना दिया।ये दुखद है गिरते राजनैतिक स्तर के लिए और असहनीय है मेरी पार्टी निरपेक्ष छवि के लिए तुरंत कार्यवाही करें pic.twitter.com/veklc03k79
— Swami Dipankar (@swamidipankar) November 11, 2018
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar…
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Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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11th April 2019 / 8:03 pm / Last updated: 11th April 2019
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/gujarat-youth-congress-tweets-photoshopped-image-of-religious-leaders-holding-inc-flag/",
"author": "Jignesh Patel"
}
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Gujarati media broadcasts Maharashtra's Hatnur dam as Vadodara's Ajwa dam - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
1st August 2019 / 10:23 pm / Last updated: 2nd August 2019
At least four people were killed and over 5000 were evacuated from Vadodara city, which had received over 20 inches of rainfall for more than 12 hours on Wednesday that caused flooding in the major areas of the city. According to reports, the water level at Ajma dam that is located near Vadodara city of Gujarat has exceeded its warning limit of 215 feet.
On August 1, Gujarati news channel Zee 24 Kalak broadcasted visuals of a dam with an enormous amount of water flowing through the gates. In the broadcast video, the anchor can be heard saying, “Water from 62 gates of Ajwa dam is being released.”
News 18 Gujarati also tweeted the video with the caption, “નાયગ્રા ફોલ ના સમજી લેતા આ વીડિયો છે આજવા ડેમનો (Don’t take the video to be from Niagara falls, it from Ajwa dam -translated)”. The same was also incorporated in a live feed report for rainfall updates in Vadodara.
Several other Facebook users have also shared the video claiming it to be from Ajwa dam.
Twitter user Aravind Chaudhari alerted Alt News about the visuals relayed by the broadcaster being old and unrelated to the Ajwa dam.
Alt News found that the video is actually from Hatnur dam, Maharastra. We found the same video uploaded on July 29, 2019, with the description that 41 gates of Hatnur dam were opened and 2.38 lakh cusec water was released.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1rgM-HzWHk
TV9 Gujaratialso reported the same while relaying these visuals.
More than 2,50,000 cusec water released in Ukai dam from Hatnur dam#Monsoon2019 #TV9News pic.twitter.com/edSf4QUZKY
— Tv9 Gujarati (@tv9gujarati) July 29, 2019
In conclusion, a video of Hatnur dam in Maharashtra was broadcasted as Ajwa dam after heavy rainfall in Vadodara by leading Gujarati media outlets.
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar…
In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin…
The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to…
Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile…
Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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1st August 2019 / 10:23 pm / Last updated: 2nd August 2019
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/gujarati-media-broadcasts-maharashtras-hatnur-dam-as-vadodaras-ajwa-dam/",
"author": "Jignesh Patel"
}
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Gujarati Newspaper Sandesh, OneIndia fall for satirical post about man sentenced to death due to farting - Alt News
Pratik Sinha
3rd July 2017 / 1:33 pm
It is one thing for Twitter trolls to use posts from satirical websites for political propaganda. However, for main stream media outlets to promote satire as news is quite disturbing. It shows how the process of news making lacks the due diligence in a few organisations. Sometime ago, Aajtak had published a fake fatwa about men being allowed to eat their wives if they are extremely hungry. Pune Mirror had published the same fake fatwa in their newspaper. It turned out to be a sarcastic column written by a satirist Moroccan blogger called Israfel al-Maghribi. Yesterday, yet another set of news organisations have fallen for a piece of satire claiming a Pakistani man was sentenced to death due to farting in mosques during Ramzan.
This satirical post was published by a website called World News Daily Report. The website carries a disclaimer at the bottom of every page on its website stating that the nature of their content is entirely fictional. The disclaimer states, “World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle.” The statement about their content being fictional is also present on their disclaimer page. The photo used in the World News Daily Report article is that of one Behnam Yaali who’s been accused of murdering his former girlfriend in Canada.
Despite the disclaimer, many on social media believed this report to be true and at the time of writing, this post has been shared/liked over 102,000 times on Facebook. People usually don’t scroll down to the bottom of the website and almost never visit the disclaimer page. A satirical post should ideally state that the content is fictional immediately after the main text of the article and not at the very bottom of the website. However, for the sake of traffic and the resulting money from advertisement clicks, many satirical websites often push the disclaimer to places where people are not likely to notice.
Recently, even Shashi Tharoor had fallen prey to a new report from this website and had tweeted about it. Upon being informed about his error, he deleted the tweet, albeit without an apology.
Now, one main stream vernacular newspaper, Sandesh, and an online news portal called OneIndia have fallen for this. Sandesh has the second largest circulation in Gujarati Newspapers in Gujarat. They translated the report from World News Daily Report and published it on the 12th page of the newspaper on Sunday (02-07-2017). OneIndia translated the news report into Hindi and published it on their online portal.
India.com, right-wing Bengali website Sangbad Pratidin and Samacharnama.com are few of the other websites which published this story as factual. Many in the right-wing Twitter ecosystem also fell for this and propagated it via their Twitter timelines (1, 2 & 3). Both Rishi Bagree and Gaurav Pradhan are followed by PM Modi by Twitter.
While it is the business of many right-wing Twitter trolls to promote hatred, let’s hope that the main stream media websites in India stop falling for satirical websites. And if and when they do, they’ll be named and shamed for it.
Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker.
Follow @free_thinker
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Trigger Warning: The following story contains graphic imagery. Several users have shared images of the…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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3rd July 2017 / 1:33 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/gujarati-newspaper-sandesh-oneindia-fall-satirical-post-man-sentenced-death-due-farting/",
"author": "Pratik Sinha"
}
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Gunda-raj: Car labelled 'Noida General Secretary, Hindu Yuva Vahini' runs over a bike, drags it for several metres - Alt News
Pratik Sinha
15th April 2017 / 2:30 am
An undated video is currently viral on social media which shows a mangled bike lying in front of a car and a man with a saffron stole trying to fix the bumper of the car which is hanging loose. “Hindu Yuva Vahini” is written in bold paint on the top of the windshield, Hindu Yuva Vahini being the hardliner Hindu organisation founded by the present Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath.
When the unknown man shooting the video queries the crowd as to where the biker is, one man on a bike states that he’s lying on the previous crossroads. Meanwhile, the driver of the car calmly gets back into the car and drives over the mangled bike once again as he vanishes into the traffic. This video seems to have been first posted on Facebook on a page called SIN.
The license plate of the car is “UP 16 BL 2333”. We looked up the license number in the RTO Vehicle Information application available on Android which gathers vehicle information from Government records. The app suggests that the car belongs to Lalit Singh Chauhan and the registration date of the car is 1st February 2017.
We cross checked the information on Government’s vahan.nic.in and it shows the same Chassis number as returned by the Android app thus indicating that the information provided by the app in all probabilities is genuine.
We also looked up the license plate of the victim’s bike (DL 11 SE 3593) in the same Android application. According to the app, the vehicle belongs to Home Core Lifestyle and has been registered on 14th March 2013. The storage space on the back of the bike suggests that the victim could be a person who does home deliveries and the bike belonged to some company.
We cross-checked this information on vahan.nic.in and the Chassis number again matches with the information provided by the Android app.
Considering that the registration date of the Tata Safari Storme is 1st February 2017, this video can’t be very old since the car itself is brand new. On the back of the car is a label which suggests that the owner of the car is the General Secretary of the Noida Chapter of Hindu Yuva Manch.
Here’s a close-up of the label on the back of the car.
In the latter part of the video, the crowd that is gathered indicated again that the location where the video of the car was being shot is several metres beyond the site of the actual accident where the biker is purportedly lying. One can also see how power drunk the person driving the car is by the way he deliberately drives over the mangled bike once again while driving away from the scene of crime.
Modiji had said that Yogi Adityanath will make UP into Uttam Pradesh. How is it ever going to be ‘Uttam’ with a cadre like this?
Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker.
Follow @free_thinker
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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15th April 2017 / 2:30 am
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"author": "Pratik Sinha"
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Gurmehar Kaur, the daughter of a martyr, is getting rape threats from 'nationalists' for speaking against ABVP - Alt News
Pratik Sinha
26th February 2017 / 10:51 pm / Last updated: 4th July 2017
From the casual commentator to seasoned journalists to Bollywood celebs, everyone has faced the wrath of the trolls loyal to PM Modi and BJP when one has dared to question either their policies or their governance. The repercussions of speaking critically of the present regime in Delhi is well known now. Abuse, rape threats, death threats, endless trolling on social media and in some instances even physical attacks are various tactics employed by these trolls to drown every critical voice. But what happens when a Kargil martyr’s daughter raises her voice?
After the recent attack by ABVP members in Ramjas college, Delhi, on members of others unions such as SFI, AISA and other students, Gurmehar Kaur, daughter of a Kargil martyr Captain Mandeep Singh, posed with a placard stating “I am a student from Delhi University. I am not afraid of ABVP. I am not alone. Every student of India is with me. #StudentsAgainstABVP”.
In India, we place a martyr’s family at a much higher pedestal than others. Was Gurmehar spared of the wrath of the trolls? She wasn’t. On the contrary, the attacks against her on social media are the most vile in recent times. The three images below collated by Lallantop shows a glimpse into the extent of abuse that this 20 year old has had to face.
“Chullu bhar paani mein doob maro. Shahid ki beti Jehadi ban gai.”
“Aaj iska baap jinda hota to sharm se mar jata”
“I wanna f*** you really.”
“She is terrorist now jisko dekho goli mar do janna nasib hogi – Nathuram Godse.”
“F*** you..I am proud of abvp”
“Saare Mullon mein Khushi ki leher daud gayi hai. Inki badi behen..Gurmeherina Begum..INKI AZADI ke liye lad rahi hai..Aur inka saath degi .. Inki Buwa.. #IFUCKANTINATIONAL”
I got rape threats for calling out #ABVP, says Kargil martyr’s daughter
Watch @WeThePeopleNDTV LIVE here: https://t.co/hMlRpgak2y pic.twitter.com/X6Wto1Kjsh
— NDTV (@ndtv) February 26, 2017
So, the ‘nationalists’ while professing their love for the country are threatening a 20 year old with rape because she dared to speak. Meanwhile, Gurmehar Kaur is taking on the hateful ‘nationalists’ with much poise and elegance.
Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker.
Follow @free_thinker
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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26th February 2017 / 10:51 pm / Last updated: 4th July 2017
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"author": "Pratik Sinha"
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Gurmehar Kaur's message of peace had 347 words. Sehwag, Randeep Hooda and Right-Wingers read only 9 of those. - Alt News
Pratik Sinha
27th February 2017 / 6:42 am / Last updated: 5th May 2017
On April 28th, 2016, a video of Gurmehar Kaur, the daughter of a Kargil martyr, went viral. In this video, she appealed the Governments of India and Pakistan to find ways to make peace. This video has been watched by over 1.5 million people on the Facebook page it was initially posted on and tens of thousands of times on other platforms such as Youtube. In a 4 and a half minute video, she held 36 posters, one after another, with handwritten messages on them where in she narrated her story of how she lost her father at the age of 2, how she used to hate Pakistan, Pakistanis and Muslims, and how she overcame her hate. The 13th poster out of the 36 posters read “Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him”. After Gurmehar Kaur recently spoke out against the attack on students by ABVP at Ramjas College, Delhi, this 13th poster has become a bone of contention for many.
Ever since Gurmehar spoke out against ABVP, she has been trolled incessantly and has been at the end of endless abuse, rape threats and more. She was even accused of misusing her father’s martyrdom for political ends. As if that weren’t enough, a couple of celebs got into the act last evening. It started with Virendra Sehwag posing with the following poster.
The poster read, “I didn’t score two triple centuries, my bad did.” The poster was meant to mock Gurmehar’s 13th poster which read “Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him”. Soon enough, Randeep Hooda joined the action when he tweeted a poster comparing the above two images.
Around the same time, BJP MP Pratap Simha tweeted the following comparison between Gurmehar and Dawood Ibrahim.
These tweets kicked off a new round of vicious trolling and abuse with many Modi supporters whom the PM himself follows on Twitter getting into the act. Unfortunately, Sehwag, Hooda and the trolls completely overlooked the context in which she held up that 13th poster. In fact, the words in that 13th poster weren’t even hers, they were the words of a slain army officer’s wife, they were the words of a mother trying to tell her angry-conflicted daughter that it is the war that killed her husband, and not Pakistan. The little girl had just tried to attack a burqa-clad woman thinking that it was the woman who was responsible for her father’s death and the mother was trying to hold her daughter back and trying to calm her down. Even though the nuance of such a statement could be hard for many to understand, especially for those who form their world-view based on WhatsApp forwards, what the mother was probably trying to express is that it is the war and the politics of wars that consumes people.
In fact, Sehwag, Hooda and the troll gang fixated on exactly 9 words out of Gurmehar Kaur’s 347-word message of peace. I have transcribed the video and the 347 word message is as follows:
The original video can be seen below:
A message from a girl to those who killed her father!
Dear GurMehar Kaur,
It was an honour to assist you in telling your truth, your story and your point of view to the world.
What you have done is truly brave. I hope your message is seen by the world and it helps us become a better race.
much respect and love,
– Ram Subramanian
Posted by Voice Of Ram on Thursday, April 28, 2016
After reading the above text and watching the above video, one can easily see how Sehwag, Hooda and the troll gang robbed all the nuance from this poignant message of peace. Randeep Hooda, in fact, kept going on for quite a while and called her a ‘pawn’ and a ‘prop’ thus trying to portray that Gurmehar doesn’t have an independent faculty of thought.
One may or may not agree with what Gurmehar has to say but it is rather disgusting to cherry-pick a single poster out of the 36 posters and make that the basis of trolling, abuse and character assassination. It is even more disgusting when one realises that those words were a mother’s advice to a daughter who’s lost her father. While the 20 year old Gurmehar handled all this with a lot of poise and elegance, for many others, this episode is deeply unsettling.
Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker.
Follow @free_thinker
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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27th February 2017 / 6:42 am / Last updated: 5th May 2017
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"author": "Pratik Sinha"
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"Had Modi not become PM, Congress would have destroyed India"- Fake quote ascribed to Pranab Mukherjee - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
26th June 2018 / 5:36 pm / Last updated: 9th July 2018
“अगर मोदी जी सही समय पर PM नहीं बनते तो कांग्रेस भारत को बर्बाद कर देती। “(If Modi ji had not become PM at the right time, Congress would have destroyed India- translated). These are apparently the words of former President Pranab Mukherjee, according to a Facebook page बार बार मोदी सरकार (Baar Baar Modi Sarkar) which has shared this quotation along with the words “क्या आप प्रणब मुख़र्जी की बात से सहमत हैं?” (Do you agree with Pranab Mukherjee?) The quote has been shared more than 2500 times since it was posted on June 22.
Posted by बार-बार मोदी सरकार on Friday, June 22, 2018
It has also been posted by individual users on the social media platform. Most of these posts are from May 2018.
Searching online for this quotation, we found that the Oriental Times website had published an article around this quote on May 27, 2018.
Alt News contacted the office of the former President. In a clarification, the office of Pranab Mukherjee stated, “The statement attributed to him is false and baseless. He has never said anything of this sort.”
Pranab Mukherjee is a favourite of the right-wing fake news machinery on social media. In the last few weeks and months, the former President’s name has been used to spread fake quotes in which he severely berates the Congress Party. Consider the following instances:
1. PostCard News shares fake extract from Mukherjee’s book
“After PM Modi completed one year of his term in office, I praised him for the work done so far, on which Sonia Gandhi took umbrage and became angry…” The Facebook page of the fake news website, Postcard News posted this excerpt from former President’s book that expressed his admiration for PM Modi and displeasure with Sonia Gandhi. This extract turned out to be fake. Mukherjee’s latest book The Coalition Years chronicled events from 2004 to 2012, before Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister.
2. Photoshopped image of Mukherjee at RSS event
When Pranab Mukherjee attended an RSS event at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, a photograph emerged on social media showing him in the trademark RSS cap and doing the traditional RSS salutation.
Alt News found that the photoshopped picture was the handiwork of a social media user who is followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter.
3. “Sonia Gandhi hates Hindus”
Numerous fake quotations have been attributed to Mukherjee in recent times. “Sonia Gandhi hates Hindus”, “I am not a slave like Manmohan Singh”, “Congress perceived as anti-national outfit, will be finished in 2019”, etc. are a few examples, all of which are patently fake.
Most of the fake quotations ascribed to Mukherjee are falsely claimed to be from the books he has penned. However, this particular quote was simply conjured up and betrays a conscious and clear attempt to portray the former President as sympathetic to the cause of the BJP/RSS.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to…
Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile…
Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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26th June 2018 / 5:36 pm / Last updated: 9th July 2018
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"author": "Arjun Sidharth"
}
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Had states demanded decentralized vaccine procurement as claimed by PM Modi? - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
9th June 2021 / 11:41 pm / Last updated: 10th June 2021
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on June 7, days after the Supreme Court termed the centre’s vaccine policy “arbitrary and irrational”. He reversed the vaccine decentralisation strategy and said that the centre will provide free vaccines to states from June 21.
PM Modi claimed that the centre had earlier been “pressured” to decentralise vaccine policy. “From January 16 till the end of April this year, India’s vaccination program ran mainly under the supervision of the central government. The country was moving in the direction of providing free vaccines to all. The citizens of the country too were maintaining discipline and getting vaccinated when it was their turn. Meanwhile, several state governments again said that the vaccine work should be de-centralized and left to the states…We thought that when the states are making this demand and they have enthusiasm, so let’s give 25 per cent of the work to them,” he said.
The Prime Minister attempted to evade the responsibility for a vaccine policy widely criticised by the opposition, the Supreme Court and the media.
BJP leaders have also been blaming the states for first demanding decentralisation then asking for centralisation of vaccine procurement.
The hypocrisy of India’s opposition can’t be starker! They first demanded that vaccine procurement be decentralised, states be given autonomy. Once it happened and people started questioning them, they started passing the buck!
Their contribution to fighting the pandemic is ZERO. pic.twitter.com/fL03mAYxXP
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) May 13, 2021
India has 28 states and eight union territories. Out of the eight UTs, Delhi and Puducherry have elected assemblies and Kashmir is under the President’s rule. BJP governs 12 of these directly and six others in coalition governments. For the Prime Minister to claim that the centre took the decision to decentralise on April 19 following requests made by states, the demand should have come from a majority of the states. But 18 assemblies have BJP in power or in coalition and the rest, barring two, did not demand decentralisation.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee wrote a letter to PM Modi on February 24, requesting that the state be allowed to purchase vaccines for inoculation ahead of the assembly elections.
West Bengal CM @MamataOfficial writes to PM @narendramodi for initiating a rapid vaccination process in West Bengal before elections are held.
Letter says, the West Bengal Government wants to provide vaccine free of cost to all the people. pic.twitter.com/2lyIgbBw8s
— Ayushman Kumar (@Iam_Ayushmann) February 24, 2021
Banerjee’s request, however, wasn’t mandated and two months later when the centre liberalised vaccination, she said that the announcement was “much-delayed” and appears to be “hollow, without substance and a regrettable show of evasion of responsibility”. On April 22, she tweeted that the union government should fix one price for the vaccine “irrespective of who pays – centre or state” to ensure every Indian is vaccinated for free.
On April 8, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope accused the centre of “discrimination” in the distribution of vials of Covaxin and Covishield. He alleged that BJP-ruled states were provided more doses. His allegation came a day after Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan rebutted Maharashtra’s claim of shortage of vaccine doses. Several states, BJP and non-BJP, had been complaining of a vaccine shortage. On April 29, Tope said that CM Uddhav Thackeray has said that the state government is ready to pay for vaccines but doses are unavailable.
Thackeray wrote a letter to PM Modi on May 8 which said, “The State of Maharashtra is willing to procure the requisite stock of vaccines in a single procurement if possible, so as to safeguard our citizens and to give a boost to India’s vaccination program. However, the producers do not have enough stocks. If the States are allowed to procure from other manufacturers as well, we would be able to cover a larger population in a shorter time and help reduce the impact of the possible third wave of COVID.”
This letter was written after decentralisation was announced.
CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray wrote to the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi regarding the supply of vaccination, technical glitches on the CoWin App & developing a state-level app for citizens’ vaccination registration. pic.twitter.com/oMOX7kfdrA
— CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) May 8, 2021
On May 14, Maharashtra Health Minister demanded that the union government float a “single global” tender for procurement of vaccines on behalf of states to avoid “unhealthy competition”.
Apart from this, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma told The Indian Express on April 16 that state governments must immediately be allowed to enter into contracts for the procurement of vaccines. DMK leader MK Stalin wrote to PM Modi on April 18 “to allow independent procurement of drugs, vaccines and medical equipment by state governments”. He had tweeted on April 21 that states must receive central funding to procure vaccines as per their requirements.
It is noteworthy that Sharma is a Rajya Sabha MP and does not hold office in any state government. MK Stalin assumed Tamil Nadu CM’s office on May 7.
Alt News looked at the demands made by the states before and after April 19, i.e., when vaccine procurement was centralised and after PM Modi decided to decentralise the same. None of the states/ UTs were demanding that they should be allowed to purchase vaccines. In fact, the states governed by opposition parties criticised the centre’s decision within days of the PM announcing decentralisation of procurement. The collective demand was that the central government takes the responsibility of procuring vaccines and allocates appropriate quantities.
Former PM Manmohan Singh addressed a letter to PM Modi on April 18, advising that the centre drafts a plan to supply vaccines to states, barring 10 per cent that can be retained for emergency use. Singh wrote that the government should indicate how vaccines will be distributed. He did not talk about the decentralisation of procurement.
Key to our fight against Covid19 must be ramping up vaccination effort. We must resist temptation to look at absolute numbers being vaccinated, focus instead on percentage of population vaccinated: Former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh writes to PM Modi on ramping up vaccination programme pic.twitter.com/ZD5SbQOE0u
— Congress (@INCIndia) April 18, 2021
However, on April 8, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had written another letter that said, “Give state governments a greater say in vaccine procurement and distribution.” The letter also stated, “Even though public health is a state subject, our states have been bypassed right from vaccine procurement to registration.”
#Congress leader #RahulGandhi writes to #PM #NarendraModi expressing concerns about #Covid19 vaccination program. The Congress leader also sought immediate moratorium on Covid19 vaccine exports in the letter to PM. pic.twitter.com/5GYuNtxR6z
— Mojo Story (@themojostory) April 9, 2021
This letter is being used by BJP leaders, including Union Minister Smriti Irani, to claim that Congress demanded decentralisation of procurement.
It must be pointed out that both Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi do not represent any state.
There are no reports prior to April 19 suggesting that state governments were asking the centre to let them directly purchase vaccines from manufacturers. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had written a letter to PM Modi on March 30, requesting that COVID vaccines be made available outside the government supply chain in open markets for those who can afford to buy.
PM Modi portrayed in his June 7 speech that the decision to centralise procurement was taken because states failed to implement inoculation programs after decentralisation was announced. But most non-BJP-ruled states had maintained that they wanted centralised procurement.
After decentralisation was announced on April 19, Chhattisgarh Health Minister said the next day that the availability of scarce resources like COVID-19 vaccines should not be decentralised.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan requested PM Modi to reconsider his decision and supply vaccines to states free of cost. Former Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja said that the Left would have nationalised healthcare if it was in power at the centre.
Maximum vaccination is required to crush 2nd wave of #COVID19. Requested @PMOIndia to reconsider new policy on vaccine distribution so that availability is assured & no additional financial burden is incurred, enabling States to perform constitutional obligation in health sector. pic.twitter.com/sEE6dpGzpE
— Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) April 20, 2021
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had tweeted on April 21, “I hope that PM Modi announces free vaccination for youth above 18 years.”
इसके लिए मैं उम्मीद करता हूं कि प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi जी 18 वर्ष से अधिक आयुवर्ग के लोगों के लिए भी फ्री वैक्सीनेशन की घोषणा करेंगे जिससे सभी नागरिकों को वायरस से सुरक्षा मिल सकेगी।
3/3
— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) April 21, 2021
Health Minister of Rajasthan Dr Raghu Sharma said during a virtual press conference on April 25, “…it is the responsibility of the centre to make sure that states get vaccine supply as per demand.”
Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh sought central government funding for vaccination during a virtual meet with the PM on April 23.
On April 25, five opposition-ruled states — Rajasthan, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Kerala — said that the rollout of vaccines for 18-45 years category from May 1 will be delayed since the manufacturers have made it clear that they can negotiate future orders only after meeting their prior vaccine commitment to the central government. Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singh Deo said, “Union government is trying to misguide the people and transferring the onus on the states.” Jharkhand Health Minister Banna Gupta stated the Modi government should have figured out the supply chain before announcing the third phase of the vaccine strategy.
Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who was Tamil Nadu Chief Minister till May 6, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 26 terming the centre’s policy in Phase 3 of COVID-19 vaccination throughout the country as “inherently unfair”. He requested the centre procure and supply the entire required quantity of COVID vaccine for administering all groups. Palaniswami’s successor MK Stalin who assumed CM’s office on May 7, wrote to the PM on May 12 that the centre should procure vaccines and begin a free, universal mass vaccination campaign across the country.
Prominent opposition leaders P Chidambaram from Congress and AIMIM chief Asaddudin Owaisi also supported the centralisation of procurement.
The Delhi government had on April 8 requested the centre to open vaccination for all age groups. The government did not talk about the decentralisation of procurement. On May 24, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia requested for centralised vaccine procurement and allocation policy.
There is no evidence to support Prime Minister Modi’s claim that states asked for decentralised procurement. Out of 30 elected assemblies, 18 are controlled by BJP either directly or through a coalition. Barring statements of two Chief Ministers, there are no reports of states wanting to purchase vaccines. Unless the union government’s decisions are based on cherry-picking statements of a few opposition leaders and completely ignoring its own state governments, the Prime Minister’s attempt to deflect the blame to the states is unfounded.
[Note: This report missed a portion of Rahul Gandhi’s letter to the PM which said that states have been overlooked right from vaccine procurement to registration. The portion has been added. MK Stalin’s statements, both before and after he took the office of Tamil Nadu CM, have also been added to the report.]
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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9th June 2021 / 11:41 pm / Last updated: 10th June 2021
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"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
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Half truths and whole lies - ten times PM Modi misled the nation in 2017 - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
10th January 2018 / 11:42 am
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a series of claims throughout 2017, many of which turned out to be either untrue or partially true. Here is a list of ten such claims made by the PM which could not withstand scrutiny.
1. Former PM Vajpayee was a passenger on India’s first ever metro
At a speech to mark the inauguration of the Magenta line of Delhi metro, PM Modi on December 25 said that former PM Vajpayee became a passenger on India’s first ever metro service when the Delhi metro was flagged off in 2002. The contention proved to be incorrect.
The first metro service to be launched in India was the Kolkata metro, the foundation stone for which was laid by former PM Indira Gandhi in 1972. The service was finally launced in 1984. Delhi metro was India’s 2nd metro service after Kolkata.
2. Linking Gujarat election to Manmohan Singh meeting Pak diplomat at Mani Shankar Aiyar’s house
In one of the rallies ahead of the Gujarat polls, PM Modi insinuated that a conspiracy was afoot by suggesting that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Vice-President Hamid Ansari and former Army chief General Deepak Kapoor had gathered at the residence of Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar at New Delhi on December 6 to meet the Pakistani High Commissioner. PM Modi’s suggestion, implying a link between the meeting and the Gujarat election had kicked up a storm.
Former Chief of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor who was also present at the meeting had said that the Gujarat election was not discussed in the meeting. After the election had concluded, Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister and Leader of the Rajya Sabha issued a clarification in the upper house that the Prime Minister did not question nor mean to question the commitment of former PM Manmohan Singh and former VP Hamid Ansari.
3. “We started the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme”
PM Modi while addressing a rally in Karnataka in October stated that it was his govt that had launched the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme. He added that the Govt had saved upto Rs,57,000 crore by eliminating middlemen and plugging leakages.
We started direct benefit transfer scheme. This resulted in money reaching to its rightful owner. We successfully eliminated middlemen: PM pic.twitter.com/TYjaZY1IGH
— ANI (@ANI) October 29, 2017
This claim too fell flat on its face, as the DBT scheme had been first launched in the year 2013. The Union Budget of February 2013 had announced that the scheme would be retrospectively effective from January 1, 2013. In fact, a tweet by the Prime Minister’s Office (@PMOIndia) of August 2017 itself stated how the DBT scheme had grown from 2013-14 to the present year.
4. Mani Shankar Aiyar’s statement on Mughal dynasty and Congress party distorted
On the eve of the Gujarat election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made yet another claim that turned out to be misleading. PM Modi referred to a statement by Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar wherein he claimed that Aiyar had compared the Congress party to the Mughal dynasty. In his characteristic style, the Prime Minister said that eminent Congress leaders were themselves admitting that the party was the family and the family was the party.
कांग्रेस को उनका “औरंगज़ेब राज” मुबारक.. pic.twitter.com/LMTNx5P64p
— Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) December 4, 2017
However, it turned out that Aiyar’s quote had been mischievously edited. The Congress leader was not comparing Rahul Gandhi’s election to the post of party president with Aurangzeb Raj as alleged by PM Modi and sections of mainstream media. He was actually drawing a contrast between the dynasticism of the Mughals and the democratic nature of the election within the party for the post of President.
5. More electricity supplied during Eid than Diwali in U.P
Ahead of the U.P assembly election, PM Modi at a rally in Fatehpur had suggested that the U.P govt then headed by the Samajwadi party had supplied more electricity during the festival of Eid than Diwali. PM Modi had said, “Ramzan me bijli ati hai toh Diwali me bhi ani chahiye; bhedbhav nahi hona chahiye” (If there is electricity during Ramadan then it must be available during Diwali too; there shouldn’t be any discrimination).
This assertion too turned out to be false as according to official statistics, the power supply on Eid (6 July 2016) was 13,500 MW per day while the power supply on Diwali (28 Oct to Nov 1, 2016) was 15,400 MW per day with a 24-hour supply on all 5 days. These statistics clearly showed that not only was the power supply not deficient on the days of Diwali, but in fact was more than Eid.
6. ISI link to Kanpur train derailment
150 people were killed when 14 coaches of the Indore-Patna express derailed near Pukhraya in Kanpur in November 2016. Addressing a rally in U.P in February 2017 ahead of the U.P assembly election, PM Modi made a startling claim that Pakistan’s ISI was behind the derailment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z4ZWpNXYkw
This claim was busted by none other than the then DGP of U.P Police Javeed Ahmed and DG Railways, U.P Police who stated on record that there was no evidence of the involvement of ISI in the train derailment.
7. Uttar Pradesh is number 1 in crime
Prime Minister Modi claimed that Uttar Pradesh had the highest crime rate among all the states in the country, with 24 rapes, 21 attempts to rape, 13 murders, 33 kidnappings, 19 riots and 136 thefts every day. This remark was made at an election rally in the state.
However, a simple fact check revealed that PM Modi’s remark was untrue and misleading. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), crime rate is calculated per 100,000 population and not on the basis of ‘per day’ measure which PM Modi referred to. While states with larger population record higher number of crimes in absolute terms, crime rate per 100,000 population is a better measure for comparing crime rate between different states. Dissecting the data on crime for 2015 which is the latest data available on the NCRB website, it was found that PM Modi’s figures were highly inflated. Contrary to what he claimed, the figures translated to ‘per day’ terms revealed that other states were ahead of U.P in terms of crime rate.
8. Insurance scheme to protect against weather-based uncertainties launched
“Humne aisi Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana laaye hai ki agar prakrutik karano se kisan buaai nahin kar paaya, to bhi usko bima milega. Aisi koi yojana dekhi hai?” (We started such a crop insurance scheme–named Prime Ministers’ Crop Insurance Scheme – where, even if natural reasons affect the crop at sowing, the farmer will be insured. Has anybody seen such a scheme before?) said Prime Minister Modi at a rally at Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh in February 2017.
PM Modi’s claim was misleading. As reported by Hindustan Times, the earlier insurance scheme for farmers had a sub-scheme named Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS). Weather-based crop insurance had been launched in India during the Kharif 2003 season on a pilot basis. WBCIS insured crops against the vagaries of nature such as drought, excessive rain and frost.
9. Maximum number of atrocities against Dalits in U.P
“Hindustan mein sabse jyada Daliton par atyachaar agar kahin hote hai, to us pradesh ka naam hai Uttar Pradesh” (If there is a region in India where crimes against lower castes are the highest, it is Uttar Pradesh), Prime Minister Modi claimed in the rally at Barabanki in U.P in February 2017. This claim is not true, according to this report by Hindustan Times. As pointed out above, crime rate is calculated by the NCRB per 100,000 population and not on the basis of absolute number of crimes reported. Insofar as crimes against Scheduled Castes (SCs) are concerned, U.P’s crime rate was 20 per 100,000 population. As many as 11 states registered a worse crime rate against SCs than UP, according to the NCRB data. Rajasthan had the highest crime rate against SCs with 57 crimes per 100,000 population.
10. Rahul Gandhi referred to ‘coconut juice’ and ‘aloo ki factory’
PM Modi in a rally in Uttar Pradesh on March 1, 2017 claimed that Congress President Rahul Gandhi had said he would help farmers in Manipur extract ‘coconut juice’ and sell it in London. He further said that Rahul Gandhi had claimed he would set up a potato factory (Aloo ki factory) for farmers
The truth is that Rahul Gandhi had not referred to coconut or ‘coconut juice’ but pineapple juice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3aP0u-GhTQ
With regard to PM Modi’s claim that Rahul Gandhi had spoken about setting up a potato factory, the latter had in fact referred to setting up a factory for making potato chips and not potato.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51XSyGF7q1o
Alt News will keep a close eye on statements emanating from the highest office in the country and will continue to diligently place the truth in the public domain without fear or favour.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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10th January 2018 / 11:42 am
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Hall of shame - Serial abusers, sexist bigots, rumour mongers followed by PM Modi on Twitter - Alt News
Sam Jawed
7th September 2017 / 11:13 pm
There was uproar on social media after it came to light that Prime Minister Modi follows the person who called the murdered journalist, Gouri Lankesh a ‘Bitch who died a dog’s death’. The Prime Minister’s twitter handle following an abusive troll? Those who have been around on twitter long enough will know that this is not the first time that this issue is being highlighted. The outrage builds up every few months yet the twitter handle of Mr. Modi continues to follow many serial abusers and rumor-mongers.
As of date Mr Modi has 33.8 million followers and he follows 1779 people. Of the ones he follows, many are government handles, ministers, Heads of States, senior journalists and other such profiles you would expect the Prime Minister of a country to follow. However, a handful of the 1779 are profiles that will make you squirm. Serial abusers, rumor-mongers, misogynists, handles brimming with communal venom… you will find them all there.
Let us take a look at some of these tweets of the people the Prime Minister of our country has handpicked to follow. Please bear with us, the list is long. It is a hall of shame.
For all that the “proud” nationalists may say about “sanskar” and rich traditions, when we review the handles followed by the Prime Minister, sexist tweets directed at women stands out as a prominent feature. The attack is always personal and the targets are often journalists who are seen as critical of the government like Barkha Dutt, Rana Ayyub and Sagarika Ghose.
Here are a few examples:
Here are some lewd jokes of Samir Varier, yet another person followed by Mr. Modi.
The abuse is often unprovoked. In this case, it is not sexist but this gentleman, whom Mr. Modi follows, doesn’t think twice before calling Rana Ayyub a terrorist and suicide bomber because she said her flight was running late.
Mahaveer who is also followed by Mr. Modi posted this picture of journalist Neha Dixit and her husband Nakul Sawhney asking whether payment was made in “cash or kind”.
Sonia Gandhi is also often a target of hateful misogynistic tweets
This is an old tweet of Alok Bhat, dating before 2014. Mr. Modi chooses to follow him as well.
Former Vice President Hamid Ansari was following the flag code when he was called an “asshole” and a “bastard” by Rahul Kaushik.
Here is Nikunj Sahu of BJP IT cell abusing Arvind Kejriwal
Here is another example of a twitter handle that is humbled to be followed by Narendra Modi
It is not just politicians of rival parties who are target of abuse but other twitter users as well. Here are a few examples:
When Mahaveer’s account was deactivated for abuse by twitter, it was BJP’s Giriraj Singh who stood by him to get his account reactivated.
Amitesh Singh who projected himself as a BJP youth leader and claimed to be related to a BJP politician was followed by PM Modi. He tweeted a call to “kill 3000 Muslims” in response to a rumor that was doing rounds on the internet. What followed was his arrest and a denial from BJP that he was associated with them. If he was not associated with BJP, why did Mr. Modi follow this 19 year-old? That is a question we never got an answer to.
The rumor which led Amitesh to tweet the threat was started by a handle that was also followed by Mr. Modi. The handle has been suspended by Twitter.
Who spread the rumor of doctor lynched by a Muslim mob? Handles followed by Mr. Modi. Every tweet in the picture below is from people followed by Mr. Modi.
The rumor that the murder of Swati in Chennai was started by Ramki. His claims were later proven to be fake but there was no retraction or apology.
This handle followed by Mr. Modi called for a boycott of Muslim businesses.
In this case UP government had to tweet to bust the communal rumor being spread by Ritu Rathaur, another profile followed by Mr. Modi. The police filed a case against her for “attempting to disturb communal harmony by spreading sensational and controversial posts on social media”.
Even funerals are not spared when it comes to spreading fake news. No national flag for MP E Ahamed’s funeral, asked Kiran Kumar. A screenshot of TV footage said otherwise https://t.co/jKlNRbU0aC .
Here is another rumor spread by Rishi Bagree
In this case an attempt to malign a UAE based business was led by Mahesh Vikram Hegde, one of the select few followed by the PM. The company filed a police case and the pictures were found to be photoshopped. Hegde is the founder of postcard news, a website that routinely spreads fake news.
Meena Das Narayan raised the ‘Hindus under attack’ alarm after the Kollam temple fire. She knew “for sure”. The fire was caused by pyrotechnics display that was held despite a ban on the same.
So why does the Prime Minister of India follow such people? Is it possible that his social media team is behind this and Mr. Modi is not really aware that his handle follows such profiles? In response to a RTI, PMO confirmed that “PM Modi himself tweets and posts content on his personal Twitter and Facebook accounts”. Mr. Modi is social media savvy and we have no reason to doubt the response of the PMO (:-P).
The other possible reason could be that these are like-minded individuals who are part of his core supporter group. He has personally met many of these individuals in specially organized events. All of them flaunt the selfie with him, stating, “proud to be followed by Narendra Modi”. This also makes it very difficult for him to unfollow them. A tweet by RS Prasad condemning the celebratory tweets on the murder of Gauri Lankesh had upset some of them. Imagine the backlash from his supporters if PM Modi was ever to un-follow any of them. They are already running a hashtag #IStandwithNikhil in support of the person who called Gauri Lankesh a ‘kutiya”.
Bowed down to media, secular and liberal bullies? We work for you tirelessly, selflessly. This is the reward? https://t.co/tlc03FBM5j
— Rita (@RitaG74) September 6, 2017
It is not that Mr. Modi has never un-followed anyone. After a massive outrage in 2014, he unfollowed a handle that had tweeted a morphed photograph of Gul Panag.
More recently he un-followed Jwala Gurunath after she had a spat with BJP Delhi spokesperson Tajinder Bagga.
Welcome to @narendramodi s #NewIndia .I get unfollowed by PM instead of getting justice.He makes molester spokie n unfollows victim
— Dr Jwala Gurunath (@DrJwalaG) March 26, 2017
“How can Narendra Modi be responsible for the tweets of people he follows?” ask many of his supporters. None of us are responsible for the tweets of our followers. But hey, he is the Prime Minister of the country and he has handpicked this select group to follow. Moreover, this issue has been reported many times, tons of people have raised it on social media and there is no way PM Modi is not aware of this issue.
“Who are you to tell the Prime Minister who to follow?” ask his supporters. Sure, it is his choice. He is free to follow anyone he likes, be they serial abusers tweeting lewd and sexist tweets, or rumor mongers and riot instigators. Including the person who described Gauri Lankesh’s murder as “A bitch died a dog’s death”. And the world shall know that this is his choice.
Nobody's cheerleader, I tweet at @samjawed65
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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7th September 2017 / 11:13 pm
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"author": "Sam Jawed"
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Handia-Varanasi six lane highway approved thrice in the past 5 years by 2 Governments! - Alt News
Alt News Desk
18th March 2017 / 12:30 am / Last updated: 12th July 2018
Official Twitter handle of the Prime Minister of India (@PMOIndia) on 15th March 2017 tweeted “CCEA chaired by Modi has given approval for development of the six laning of Handia-Varanasi section of NH-2 in UP”
According to a report by Financial Express, Narendra Modi on Wednesday ( 15th March 2017) approved a 2,147 crore project for the widening of Handia-Varanasi highway.
Important facts about Handia-Varanasi Highway project according to Financial Express :
According to Ministry of Road transport and Highways, The development of six lane of Handia-Varanasi will increase employment potential. It estimates that a total number of 4,076 man days are required for construction of one kilometre of highways. As such, employment potential of 3,00,000 (approx.) man days will be generated locally during the construction period of the project.
But according to Press Information Bureau (PIB), Cabinet committee on Economic Affairs ( CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Modi had already approved six lane Handia-Varanasi project 2 years back in 2015. Wonder what was the need for Prime Minister Modi to waste his precious time to approve it again in 2017 after U.P election results when he had already approved the same project in 2015.
According to the report by PIB dated 19th Feb 2015, the cost was estimated to be Rs. 2378.59 crore includes the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities. The main objective of the project is to expedite the improvement of infrastructure in the state of Uttar Pradesh and also in reducing the time and cost of travel for traffic, particularly heavy traffic, plying between Handia – Varanasi.
Oh Wait! Was this project approved even before 2015?
In 2012, under the purview of Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Economic Affairs, the 53rd meeting of the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC), chaired by Secretary, Economic Affairs, was held on July 16, 2012. There was a proposal from Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) for grant of final approval: Six laning of Allahabad-Varanasi Section from Km 630.000 to 785.859 of NH-2 Km (length of 72.398 kms) as six laned stretch in the State of Uttar Pradesh under NHDP Phase-V on BOT (Toll) basis. The PPPAC granted final approval to the project for six laning of Handia- Varanasi of Rs. 909.57 crore. The main object of the project in 2012 was to expedite the improvement of infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh and also to reduce the time and cost of travel for traffic, particularly heavy traffic, plying between Handia and Varanasi.
So, in the span of 5 years, UPA Govt has announced the six laning of Handia Varanasi once, and BJP Govt has announced it twice already.
Follow @free_thinker
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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18th March 2017 / 12:30 am / Last updated: 12th July 2018
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Hang Rapists, but will it reduce Rapes? - Alt News
Jaydip Sarkar
10th May 2017 / 5:02 am / Last updated: 10th May 2017
The rape and horrific injuries leading to death of Nirbhaya shocked the nation’s conscience. In a reactionary stance, an inquiry committee submitted its findings and recommendations within a month. The government agreed to only a few recommendations and dismissed others to come up with a new law that allowed rapists to receive the death penalty. The society felt relieved. Collective conscience was cleansed notwithstanding a few dissenting voices. Four years on, 4 of the 5 culprits have been sentenced to death by Supreme Court. India is at the dawn of a new epoch of safety for women. Who dare rape one if he has to pay with his life. Right? Wrong. Blaming and punishing the perpetrator alone will not address the underlying belief systems, based in a patriarchal culture that gives rise to various myths that trigger, promote and sustain sexual assaults and rape on women.
Myth #1: Law is the only solution
The biggest myth is that by tightening the law and invoking harsh punishments, the rape rate will do down. In fact the Nirbhaya case is misleading as very few victims of rape actually report it and even fewer get justice as Figure 1 tells us.
The truth is that for a small minority of victims actually go to police they find exclusion and persecution galore. From a refusal to write a complaint, focussing on victim’s caste, character and occasionally taking sexual advantage, the police make life more hellish. If a report is made, she goes for a medical exam where the doctor inserts two fingers into her vagina to determine if she is ‘habituated to sex’; an euphemism for ‘I think she is of “loose” character; hence her account cannot be relied upon.’ There is no medical basis to this ‘test’, but it’s still done. Once she crosses this ‘test’, samples send off for analysis will often be sent in an incorrect manner rendering them unsuitable for analysis. They are simply thrown away. At this point the prosecution’s case will fail. If it does reach the courts, the poor rape victim’s private life will be disrobed for public scrutiny and titillation, completing a cycle of victimisation by shunning, mocking or blaming her for the abuse.
Myth #2: Rape is men lusting for sex
Does anyone think that the Nirbhaya rape and killing was simply a case of lust? No, it was butchery of a defenceless woman by a pack of men who were enraged that she attempted to fight for her safety. Their sense of entitlement to her body was challenged and they avenged that ignominy, by behaving like predators. The rape of women whose faces are melted down with acid with permanent disfigurement, when they turn down advances by unsavoury characters, are not acts driven by love and lust. Similarly rapes by upper caste men on lower caste women, by police on tribal women, by senior upon junior officers in armed forces, media bosses upon interns, corporate barons upon secretaries and so on, are rarely due to love or lust. It is a primate display of power and control and naked entitled male chauvinism.
Myth #3: Rape is society’s problem, not mine
‘Rape cannot be prevented even if one deployed a cop in each home’, hurled Maharashtra’s ex-Home Minister R R Patil. Quite right too. In fact 42% of rapes in India are committed by people known to the victims, of which over 12% is by relatives like brothers, fathers and uncles, and by others on the promise of marriage. Rapists are notoriously common-place. One of the biggest misconceptions about rapists is that ‘they are not like us at all’. By saying this, the society’s men distance and absolve themselves of any responsibility since doing so helps them deny their own inherent violent sexual fantasies.
Myth #4: Rape is not part of our culture
A survey of more than 10,000 men carried out in six Asian countries revealed that more than 1 in 10 men admitted to forcing sex on a woman who was not their partner. Asked why, 73% said it was “entitlement” and 59% said “entertainment”. Five men convicted in the Shakti Mills gang-rape case of a photo-journalist in Mumbai in 2013 were conspicuous by how ‘common’ they were: swarthy, slight men with ordinary faces; the kind one might see at any bus stop or tea stall. The police said the men had committed at least five gang-rapes previously at the same spot because they were “bored” and wanted to “have fun”. Rape is now a common-place offence where ‘bored’ men, aroused by streaming porn videos in their palms , who after getting drunk, go out looking for deviant fun for free.
Myth #5: It is just a few misguided ‘boys’
Sample a range of quotes from political leaders across all party lines. Note how they fall over themselves in justifying, rationalizing and effectively condoning the act of rapists.
“Lingerie mannequins promote rapes. Skimpily-clad mannequins can pollute young minds. After the Delhi rape case, I felt something had to be done.” – Ritu Tawade, the BJP corporator who mooted the proposal to ban lingerie mannequins.
“To my understanding, consumption of fast food contributes to such incidents. Chowmein leads to hormonal imbalance evoking an urge to indulge in such acts. Hence, our elders too advised to eat light and nutritious food.” – Jitender Chhatar, Thua Khap Panchayat leader.
“Why do women need phones? My mother, wife and sister never had mobile phones. They survived without one.” – Rajpal Saini, BSP leader, explaining rape to the presence of mobile phones!
“The victim is as guilty as her rapists. She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop.” – said alleged rapist Asaram Bapu, self-styled godman, after Nirbhaya incident.
“Rape is mainly prevalent in urban ‘India’ due to Western influence and such crimes against women do not happen in rural ‘Bharat’.” – Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS chief who thinks its not in ‘our’ culture.
“We have no answer to this rising spate of crimes against women. Stars are not in position.” – Nanki Ram Kanwar, former Chhattisgarh home minister, blaming astronomy for rapes.
“And then the poor fellows, three of them have been sentenced to death. Should rape cases lead to hanging? Boys are boys, they make mistakes.” – Mulayam Singh Yadav, Samajwadi Party leader.
“Rape is sometimes right, sometimes wrong’ – Babu Lal Gaur of BJP, ex-home minister of MP.
“No one commits rape intentionally, it happens by mistake’ – Home Minister, Chhatisgarh, Ramsewak Paikra of BJP.
To change the culture that promotes misogyny and sustains the myths about rape, we need to bring about widespread changes in our society, families and as individuals.
So where does India go from here?
To be fair the rate of rape conviction in India is much lower than many other nations, 1.8 rapes per 1 lakh population (see Figure 2) compared to South Africa with a rate of 92 person per lakh population. India’s rape rate however is a grossly misleading statistic for reasons outlined in Figure 1. Moreover given India’s huge population, the absolute numbers are extremely high and increasing year on year according to National Crime Research Bureau, with only a slight dip in 2016 (see http://ncrb.nic.in/ for details). Law is not the panacea it is being made out to be. The police and courts, for various reasons, have summarily failed to ensure safety in the society for the common man. The situation of women is even worse.
This author’s experience in assessing and managing cases of sexual violence has led him to conclude that in India the factors driving a culture of sexual violence is an age-old, patriarchy-based, society-wide and deeply ingrained attitudinal problems. The Bollywood movie ‘Pink’ recently highlighted many of these aberrant societal attitudes but when it came to suggesting solutions, it remained firmly entrenched in the same social fabric. Hence out came a ‘Manual of Safety’ for women implying it’s her responsibility to ensure safety, albeit it was done with a strong dose of sarcasm. It too projected law and justice system as the only way to redress the situation, focussing on the individual culprits rather than the society that makes them so.
However it is not the job of a Bollywood flick to suggest solutions. Some solutions are suggested below that identifies tasks and targets not just at an individual level but what needs to be done at the family, community society and national level. Even if all of the suggested programmes are not carried out, key strategies can be adopted from the wide-list of approaches outlined here.
At an individual level
At Local Family/Colony level
Community/Society Level
Cultural/National Level
The answers to managing the rape epidemic in India therefore lies not simply in tighter and heavier punishments, but enabling the police and forcing the judicial system to overhaul an outdated and biased system that is stacked in favour of the culprits and to work on society’s deep-seated values and attitudes that has not changed with changing times. Most importantly it involves the coming together all of its citizens to bring together a raft of changes – nationally, regionally and locally – to deal with this scourge of our nation.
Dr Jaydip Sarkar studies criminal minds, behavioural patterns and society’s attitude and reactions to crime in order to advice police, lawyers, courts and policy-makers to manage the risks emerging to the society out of such crimes. He has special clinical interest in the assessment and management of sex offenders, both in secure care as well as community with a range of external stakeholders. He has been involved in the assessment of certain high-profile criminal cases in India and previously trained in London handling cases with the New Scotland Yard. He is currently based in Singapore where he works in prison, courts and secure hospital services.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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10th May 2017 / 5:02 am / Last updated: 10th May 2017
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Hans Raj Hans converted to Islam? AAP social media head tweets misleading video - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
3rd May 2019 / 12:42 pm / Last updated: 3rd May 2019
On May 2, Aam Aadmi Party conducted a press conference accusing BJP candidate Hans Raj Hans of concealing information about his conversion to Islam. AAP claimed that he was ineligible to contest the election from the North West Delhi which is reserved for the Scheduled Caste category. Hans is fighting the elections against Congress’ Rajesh Lilothia and the AAP’s Guggan Singh in North West Delhi.
Following the press conference, AAP social media in-charge Ankit Lal tweeted a video to support the allegation with a message, “Some bhakts claiming that Hans Raj Hans has not converted. How do they explain this then. Waiting for them to say that this is a deep fake. When they say that, I am ready to go in for a digital forensic analysis of this video.” In the video, Hans can be heard speaking in Urdu. Via his tweet, Lal suggested that this video was evidence of Hans Raj Hans converting to Islam.
Some bhakts claiming that Hans Raj Hans has not converted. How do they explain this then.
Waiting for them to say that this is a deep fake. When they say that, I am ready to go in for a digital forensic analysis of this video. pic.twitter.com/ly77bp5rVN
— Deshbhakt Ankit Lal (@AnkitLal) May 2, 2019
Spandan Srivastava and Mitalee Rishi, who are members of the AAP social media team, also tweeted the same video as Lal with a similar message. The text superimposed over the video tweeted by the duo reads, “Hans Raj Hans aka Mohammad Yusuf speaking on Islam”.
Alt News found that the video tweeted by Srivastava and Rishi of the Aam Aadmi Party’s social media team was edited and passed off with a misleading context to suggest that Hans was speaking about Islam. The video was edited to cut out the part where Hans talks about Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri and his teachings. On the other hand, Lal tweeted a full video, but with a misleading context. We found the same video uploaded on YouTube by a channel named Minhaj TV on February 19, 2018.
According to the caption and description of the video, Hans Raj Hans was giving tribute to the renowned Pakistani Islamic Scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri on the latter’s 67th birthday. Tahir-ul-Qadri is a Sufi cleric and a leader of the political party Pakistani Awami Tehreek (PAT). He is also the founder of the Minhaj-ul-Quran, International organization.
As far as the allegation on Hans Raj Hans’ conversion to Islam is concerned, Yuvraj Hans, son of Hans Raj Hans in 2014 had termed the news reports published by Pakistani media as “rumours”. While speaking to media, Yuvraj said, “Our family was completely disturbed after we came to know of the report by online news Pakistani portal and a TV channel that my father had converted his religion in Lahore. I was shooting at that time. I called up my father and he, too, was stunned at the news. We did not know how the footage got spread and who is behind this.” Moreover, it may be noted that the news reports circulating about Hans Raj Hans converting to Islam date back to 2014 and were based on Pakistani media reports.
In conclusion, AAP social media in-charge Ankit Lal tweeted a video of BJP candidate Hans Raj Hans falsely suggesting it as evidence of Hans having converted to Islam. Last week, Lal had tweeted an old and misleading video featuring former Delhi CM Sheila Dixit.
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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3rd May 2019 / 12:42 pm / Last updated: 3rd May 2019
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"author": "Jignesh Patel"
}
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Happy Kashmiri woman? BJP MP Vijay Goyal tweets poster carrying image from old blog post - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
10th August 2019 / 5:27 pm
The Delhi Commission for Women (DCM) has recently been reported to have rebuked BJP Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Goel for putting up posters of Kashmiri women inside his residence. On August 8, Goel had tweeted an image of a hoarding which carried a photograph of a woman in traditional Kashmiri garb. The hoarding flashed the catchphrase – “धारा 370 का जाना तेरा मुस्कराना .” This loosely translates to – “Article 370 gone and you’re all smiles.”
धारा 370 का जाना
तेरा मुस्कराना pic.twitter.com/enYlpUBmks
— Vijay Goel (@VijayGoelBJP) August 8, 2019
As it turns out, an old photograph from a blog post was lifted and affixed to the poster. A Google reverse-image search led us to rajeshpusalkar.blogspot.com – which is a personal blog maintained by one Rajesh Pusalkar. In a 2014 post, he penned details about his trip to Kashmir. The photograph of the woman in the BJP hoarding was picked up from this post. Going by the description of the image, it seems that the woman is not even a Kashmiri but a tourist who dressed up in traditional attire to take photographs.
Since Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its special status and statehood, Alt News has found several cases of misinformation where old visuals were used to portray the Kashmiri people in support of the dilution of Article 370. An old video of a BJP rally was passed off on social media as Kashmiri children singing in support of the government. An old clip from Bangalore was shared to claim that the Muslim community in Kashmir took out a procession chanting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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10th August 2019 / 5:27 pm
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"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
}
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Harassment of a minor girl in Zafarabad, UP, falsely attributed to members of Muslim community - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
6th July 2019 / 4:55 pm
A disturbing video of a man violently forcing himself on a woman in broad daylight while another is filming the sexual assault is being shared with the claim that both the men hail from the Muslim community. Khushi Singh, a Twitter user, posted the video with a message that reads, “Pure Horror Atleast 2 Peacefuls Beating a Girl, they trying to torn her Cloth, and this might ended into Gang Rape Location – Unknown Help to trace these B*stards Please don’t feel shame to RT”. Singh alleged that the perpetrators were Muslims by calling them “peacefuls”, a pejorative term commonly used on social media for the Muslim community. Singh’s tweet garnered more than 300 retweets and nearly 17,000 views at the time of writing this article. We are not posting the video here due to its graphic nature.
Alt News found that both the perpetrators did not hail from the Muslim community. The incident had taken place in the jurisdiction of Zafarabad police station in Uttar Pradesh and the men arrested were Hriday and Kallu.
In a reply to a tweet that carried a clip of the molestation, Jaunpur police posted a video statement issued by the City’s Superintendent of Police. Addressing the media, SP VK Mishra said, “A video had gone viral of a minor girl being beaten by a young man in a village that lies under the jurisdiction of Zafarabad police station. In the video, the man was brutally slapping the girl. Police had registered FIR against Chhattu alias Hriday, son of Kailash and Kallu, son of Gomti. The girl was herding goats when the duo arrived on a motorcycle and started harassing her. Both the men have been arrested.”
थाना जफराबाद अंतर्गत लड़की के साथ मारपीट व अश्लील हरकत की वायरल वीडियो के मुकदमें में नामजद दोनो अभियुक्तों की गिरफ्तारी के संबंध में जिलाधिकारी व पुलिस अधीक्षक जौनपुर की संयुक्त बाईट। pic.twitter.com/SJGCyFE4Kg
— JAUNPUR POLICE (@jaunpurpolice) July 1, 2019
Moreover, Uttar Pradesh.org, a UP-based news website also identified the accused as Hriday Nishad alias Chhattu Nishad and Sandip Nishad alias Kallu Nishad.
SP Mishra also gave a statement to ANI where he said, “A video has been made viral in which a Dalit boy is beating up and molesting a minor girl. We have taken cognizance of it and registered a case.”
In conclusion, a video of a minor being harassed in UP’s Jaunpur district was given a communal narrative to falsely suggest that the crime was committed by members of the Muslim community. Recently, an assault on a tribal woman in Madhya Pradesh was also shared with communal overtones.
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
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Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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6th July 2019 / 4:55 pm
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"author": "Jignesh Patel"
}
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Old, unrelated images used to build a fake narrative and shame the victim of Chandigarh stalking incident - Alt News
Pratik Sinha
7th August 2017 / 6:25 pm / Last updated: 7th August 2017
BJP Spokesperson Shaina NC, Prashant Patel, a Supreme Court lawyer, Rupa Murthy, an author of fake news site postcard.news, and Vivek Bansal, a BJP social media volunteer, are among many who circulated an old picture of the victim who was allegedly stalked by Haryana BJP Chief Subhash Barala’s son Vikas Barala. They are circulating this picture with the narrative that the victim is with the accused Vikas Barala in the said picture. Prashant Patel tweeted, “So called victim daughter of IAS from Chandigarh with Vikas Barala. This story is as true as like Jasleen Kaur of Delhi & of Rohtak Sisters.” Many others picked up that image and made it viral on social media with the aforesaid narrative narrative.
A Facebook page called ‘The Illogical Indian‘ put out the same picture with the title, “Chaste Girl with her Stalkers! #MediaHitJob?“.
A Facebook page called “Narendra Modi – a hope for better India” even put out a comparison by juxtaposing the accused’s picture with the image of the victim and her friends. Yet, something which was screamingly obvious to the naked eye, that the accused Vikas Barala is not in the picture did not seem obvious to these folks.
Alt News spoke to the victim and she stated that the image is many years old and the accused Vikas Barala is not present in the image. An old unrelated image was yet again used for victim shaming and spreading a false narrative. Ironcially, it was a Supreme Court lawyer who started the false narrative. Prashant Patel has been caught spreading fake images multiple times in the past.
However, the victim shaming wasn’t limited to this image. Kuldeep Barala, who has now deleted the following post, went on to claim that the victim herself was inebriated while she was driving according to his ‘sources’. To prove his point, Kuldeep Barala downloaded a picture from the victim’s Facebook album and used it as an attachment. The picture showed the victim sitting on a table with a few glasses of seemingly alcoholic drinks. Alt News spoke to the victim and she confirmed that the image is a few months old.
The strategy adopted here is similar to how a fake video was circulated by the Indian right-wing claiming that Gurmehar Kaur was drinking and having a merry time in a moving car. The idea is to character assassinate a woman by showing that she’s having a merry time as significant sections of the Indian society still look down upon women who drink. The idea is to portray that the woman lacks character and ‘deserves’ what she got.
Haryana BJP Vice President Ramveer Bhatti’s statement is also along the same lines, the narrative being, why did the victim stay out so late in the night.
And this mentality seems to pervade through the rank and file of the party in Haryana. The chief minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar, in his election campaign had said:
With multiple CCTV cameras along the route of stalking being non-functional, with the accused already out on bail, with senior BJP leaders in Haryana indirectly shifting the blame to the victim, will the victim get justice? Will the platforms like Facebook and Twitter get their act together and take action against those who are misusing old images and building a fake narrative against the victim? Or will the rich and powerful subvert justice yet again?
Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker.
Follow @free_thinker
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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7th August 2017 / 6:25 pm / Last updated: 7th August 2017
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"author": "Pratik Sinha"
}
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Haryana CM Khattar targets Rahul Gandhi using "52 children a year" clipped video - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
30th April 2019 / 4:15 pm
On April 28, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar addressed an election rally in Ratia in the state. During his speech, the CM spoke about a purported video of Rahul Gandhi which was “too difficult to even talk about”. Khattar alleged that the Congress president “insulted the honour of our mothers and sisters”. He cited a video where he claimed Gandhi said that women in Uttar Pradesh can give birth to one child a week or 52 children a year.
Given below is the verbatim of Khattar’s speech –
“अभी तीन दिन पहले एक ऐसी वीडियो देखी मैंने, मैं हैरान भी हुआ, दुख भी हुआ। कभी लगता है मुझे अपने मुँह से वो बोलना नहीं चाहिए। उदाहरण देना भी बड़ा कष्टदायक लग रहा है, हमारी माताओ और बहनों की उसमे इज़्ज़त बेइज़्ज़ती का सवाल भी है। उत्तर प्रदेश में जा करके भाषण दिया राहुल गाँधी ने। हो सकता है सोशल मीडिया के ऊपर हमारे कुछ मित्रों ने देखा भी होगा। बावन वाला किस किस ने देखा है? इतने सारे लोगो ने देखा है। शर्म आनी चाहिए उसको ऐसा वक्तव देते हुए। कहता है उत्तर प्रदेश की महिलाओँ में बड़ा पराक्रम है, बड़ी ताकतवर है, बड़ी रिकॉर्ड बनाने वाली महिलाएं है। और कहता है यहाँ हर महिला हफ्ते में एक एक बच्चे को जन्म दे सकती है, साल में बावन बच्चों को जन्म दे सकती है। ये बेहूदा वक्तव है हमारे देश का, जिसको कांग्रेस पार्टी अपने प्रधानमंत्री का नेता कहती है? (Just three days ago, I saw a video which shocked me and also made me very upset. Sometimes I think I shouldn’t utter those words from my mouth. Even giving this as an example is painful because it insults the reputation of our mothers and sisters. Rahul Gandhi went to Uttar Pradesh to give a speech. Maybe some of our friends on social media have already seen it. How many of you have watched the ’52’ video? So many people have seen it. He should feel shameful for giving such a statement. He said women in Uttar Pradesh have a lot of strength, they are powerful, record-breaking women. He said women here can give birth to one child a week or 52 children in a year. This man who gave such a disgusting statement is being pitched by the Congress party as the prime minister?)”
The video referred to by Manohar Lal Khattar was recently debunked by Alt News when BJP MP RK Sinha shared it on Twitter. A 7-year-old speech of Rahul Gandhi in UP’s Phulpur was lifted, clipped and circulated on social media.
In the original speech, Rahul Gandhi talks about Janani Suraksha Yojna under the National Rural Health Mission, where pregnant women get an incentive of Rs 1,400 for institutional delivery. In that context, the Congress president claimed that according to an RTI response, women with the same name were getting incentives every week due to corruption in the scheme. He can be heard making the statement at 5:25 minutes in the video posted below.
His exact words were – “हमने RTI मंगा, RTI में जो हमे रिपोर्ट मिली, यूपी में ऐसी महिलाएं है जो हर सप्ता एक बच्चा पैदा कर सकती है। ऐसी महिलाएं है जो साल में ५२ बच्चे दे रही है। एक ही नाम, १४०० रुपये हर सप्ताह उसके जेब में। और एक ही एक महिला नहीं, हज़ारो महिलाएं है। (We filed an RTI, according to the RTI response, UP has such women who are giving birth to a child every week, there are such women who are giving birth to 52 children per year, all have one name, 1400 rupees in their pocket every week, and there are thousands of such women.)
The part where Gandhi mentioned the RTI reply was conveniently clipped from the original video to circulate it with a false narrative.
A piece of misinformation, despite being debunked in the past, found a place in an incumbent chief minister’s election speech.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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30th April 2019 / 4:15 pm
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"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
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Haryana youth denies Bajrang Dal behind mob attack; false communal spin added online - Alt News
Archit
26th August 2021 / 8:29 pm
A set of three videos, in which a group of men assault a man with rods, is widely circulating on WhatsApp. The accompanying message reads, “This is the incident of Mewat in Haryana, some boys of Bajrang Dal are beating a Muslim boy, can one become a Hindu by forcefully saying Jai Shri Ram or one can become a Muslim by being forcefully called Allah Hu Akbar, let us stop our country from becoming Hindu rashtra gunda raaj. and give a rite to our future generations.” The video has been labelled ‘forwarded many times’.
The following screenshots are stills from the viral video.
The videos in question show the assault of 21-year-old Sahil Alvi at Haryana’s Yamunanagar district that took place on August 12. Sahil’s uncle Amir told Alt News, “This incident took place after Sahil and four others were returning from a court hearing on August 12. Sahil was the plaintiff in this hearing. The defendants are related to the men who attacked Sahil. This feud goes back several years. The group of men who attacked Sahil didn’t belong to one religion. Therefore, we can not say it was communal in nature.” Amir added that there was a point when one of the aggressors and Sahil were friends. The incident was also reported by Dainik Jagran and Zee Punjab Harayana and Himachal.
Sahil is currently admitted at the Vardhman Hospital Muzaffarnagar. Asma, his mother told Alt News, “After the incident, Sahil was admitted at Kohli Hospital, Yamunanagar and later transferred to Gaba Hospital. However, we decided to shift him to a bigger hospital in Muzaffarnagar in hopes of quicker recovery. Sahil has multiple fractures on his arms and legs. He has to undergo six operations. As of now, two operations have been done. All this will cost around seven lakhs.”
Alt News spoke with Sahil and he refuted the claim that the incident was communally motivated. He said, “The aggressors also included one Muslim individual. His name was Parvez.” However, he added the attackers often used Mulsim slurs while addressing him.
We also spoke with a Yanunagar-based journalist who requested anonymity, SHO Police Station Hamida, and Yamunanagar SP Kamaldeep. Each one of them refuted the social media claim that Bajrang Dal was involved. Furthermore, they stated that the incident was not communal.
Yamunanagar SP Kamaldeep said, “Bajrang Dal was not involved. Nor was this a communal incident. This is a case of revenge between two anti-social groups. As of now, three persons are arrested.” SHO of Hamida police station and the SP confirmed that Umit Gupta, Rajinder (Gullu), and Rajan (Chikli) were arrested. The readers should note these names are not listed among the seven suspects in the FIR but in the testimony section. (view PDF)
In an interview with Satya Khabar, Amir said that the police refused to file the case as a life-threatening attack despite Sahil being attacked with rods.
To sum it up, videos of the brutal assault of 21-year-old Sahil Alvi by a mob are being shared on social media. The claim that a Muslim man is being thrashed is true. However, Bajrang Dal was not behind the attack. As for the claim that the incident was communal, Sahil has refuted the allegation. Even his family and police have denied a communal motive.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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26th August 2021 / 8:29 pm
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"author": "Archit"
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Has CM of Andhra Pradesh appointed an evangelist to head the Tirupati Temple Trust? - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
17th June 2019 / 1:09 pm
How can this be allowed @HMOIndia? Sudha Murthy resigns from Thirupathi board. Jagan appoints his uncle YEHOVA VINCENT Subbareddy( YV SUBBARADDY) -a staunch Evangelist as chairman of TIRUPATI TUMALA BALAJI TEMPLE, richest Hindu shrine He works to spread more CHURCHES in Andhra.
The above message was tweeted by Madhu Kishwar, who has posted misinformation on several occasions in the past. Kishwar has alleged that Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy had appointed his uncle, allegedly “a staunch evangelist”, as the chairman of the Tirumala Tirupati temple trust, displacing author and chairperson of Infosys Foundation Sudha Murthy, who was a member of the board. Kishwar in her tweet claims that the full name of Y V Subba Reddy, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s uncle, is Yehova Vincent Subbareddy. Subba Reddy was recently appointed to the post.
How can this be allowed @HMOIndia? Sudha Murthy resigns from Thirupathi board. Jagan appoints his uncle YEHOVA VINCENT Subbareddy( YV SUBBARADDY) -a staunch Evangelist as chairman of TIRUPATI TUMALA BALAJI TEMPLE, richest Hindu shrine
He works to spread more CHURCHES in Andhra.
— MadhuPurnima Kishwar (@madhukishwar) June 11, 2019
Her tweet has been retweeted over 6000 times and ‘liked’ over 8400 times since it was posted on June 11. Earlier, the same claim had been made in a tweet posted by a user Ritu Rathaur, who is followed on the platform by the Office of Nirmala Sitharaman, and Union Minister Giriraj Singh.
So if sources are to be believed @ysjagan the newly appointed christian CM Of Andhra has made his maternal uncle a devout christian chairman of richest Hindu Temple Trust TTD
Hail Indian Secularism which allows governments to control & destroy Hindu Temples!@PMOIndia @HMOIndia
— Ritu (सत्यसाधक)🇮🇳 (@RituRathaur) June 5, 2019
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) is an independent trust established for the management of the Tirumala Venkateshwara temple in Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh.
Recently supreme court had commented that Hindu temples should be managed by Hindus only
Then how @ysjagan is appointing Xtian (Reddy is fakery) Subba Reddy as Chairman of TTD Board? @svbadri @csranga @Swamy39 @Ish_Bhandari @arvindneela @MRVChennai
What’s your comment? pic.twitter.com/GDRKvNDlkn
— Shakuntala Iyer (@shakkuiyer) June 6, 2019
The above user is followed on Twitter by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Y V Subba Reddy’s full name is Yarram Venkata Subba Reddy and NOT Yehova Vincent Subba Reddy, as claimed by Madhu Kishwar in her tweet. This was confirmed by Subba Reddy himself, who retweeted a tweet in response to Madhu Kishwar, in which a copy of his poll affidavit was attached.
In his defence, Subba Reddy tweeted a screenshot of an article in which he has been quoted as saying that he is a Hindu since birth.
pic.twitter.com/js6GyfRwCg
— Y V Subba Reddy (@yvsubbareddymp) June 12, 2019
Moreover, Andhra Pradesh police has been asked to take stern action against those spreading false propaganda against Y V Subba Reddy.
Interestingly, speculation about Y V Subbareddy’s appointment before his eventual confirmation, was followed by aggressive editing of his Wikipedia page, suggesting that he is a ‘converted Christian’. His page was later ‘protected’ due to ‘persistent vandalism’. More than 200 edits were made to the page before it was shielded from further alteration.
Author and chairperson of Infosys Foundation, Sudha Murthy has clarified that her resignation from the board of the TTD was not political.
In a conversation with The News Minute, Murthy said, “We were appointed by previous govt and it is not nice to continue without an invite. My decision was not political, it was just the decent thing to do.” She added, “My resignation has nothing to do with who becomes new TTD chairman. If the new government invites me, I will join”.
In conclusion, the claim that Y V Subba Reddy’s full name is Yehova Vincent Subba Reddy is outrightly false, and so is the implication that Sudha Murthy was edged out in order to make way for a Christian to helm the temple trust.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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17th June 2019 / 1:09 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/has-cm-of-andhra-pradesh-appointed-an-evangelist-to-head-the-tirupati-temple-trust/",
"author": "Arjun Sidharth"
}
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1,432 |
"HDK blames India for terror crisis": Times Now misquotes Karnataka CM on Pulwama attack - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
19th February 2019 / 10:18 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019
Karnataka CM, HD Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) blames India for ‘terrorism crisis’ #PulwamaPayback tweeted the popular English news channel Times Now, playing a sound bite of the Karnataka Chief Minister.
Karnataka CM, HD Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) blames India for ‘terrorism crisis’ #PulwamaPayback pic.twitter.com/di2vq2cCyy
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) February 19, 2019
“A befitting reply is not going to take away the sorrow of the incident, the govt has to take steps to ensure such an atmosphere doesn’t arise. When asked about chorus growing to declare Pakistan as terror state, hesitates to answer and says we have to solve the terrorism crisis on our country first.”
This is the message that played out on the channel below Kumaraswamy’s sound bite which is in Kannada. “Shocker from Cong ally and Karnataka CM”, “HDK blames India for ‘terrorism crisis'” and “Karnataka CM refuses to condemn Pak” were some of the titles used by the channel for this story.
According to Times Now, H D Kumaraswamy refused to categorically condemn Pakistan. Instead, he spoke about “terrorism crisis on our country first”, as reported by Times Now. Is this true?
Social media users who came across this broadcast by Times Now lashed out at the channel, saying that it had got its translation horribly wrong. According to them, Kumaraswamy had NOT “blamed India for terrorism crisis”, as reported by Times Now.
I’m calling you out @TimesNow for using the martyrdom of 40 of our Jawans in #Pulwama to spread the BJP propaganda. How low can you stoop to? Those who don’t understand Kannada, let me translate it for you, word to word : https://t.co/SFxQYBlIHR
— Waseem Ahmed ವಸೀಮ್ ಅಹ್ಮದ್ (@Waseem_Ahmed11) February 19, 2019
Complete bullshit. This is why I have dropped Times Now on TV and twitter.
This is not what HDK has said at all. Anyone who understands Kannada will know this.
At least hire a decent Kannada translator, shitheads . https://t.co/FJ7s75naKC
— Adit¥∆ M∆€∆£ (@jhunjhunwala) February 19, 2019
The correct translation of Kumaraswamy’s sound bite is as follows:
“Killing the Pulwama mastermind is a good thing but no matter what we do we can not come out of the grief of losing 40 of our Jawans. We need to work towards building an environment where unfortunate events like these don’t repeat. It’s Govt’s responsibility. “
“Announcing Pak as a terror nation is one part. The Important part is eradicating the activities of terrorists living in India. It can be done by gun or by bringing them into confidence. It’ll avoid more of our soldiers dying. Central govt should give more importance to that.”
The above statement was interpreted by Times Now as Kumaraswamy blaming India for terrorism instead of unequivocally condemning Pakistan. The channel misquoted the Karnataka CM, who tweeted later saying he had been misquoted as well as misunderstood, and that he had only reiterated the need for making the country stronger “along with destroying the enemies”.
Dear @timesnow, it is highly condemnable to misquote me on a such serious issue. You have not only misquoted, but also misunderstood what I said. I did not blame India; I said that along with destroying the enemies we also need to make our country stronger. https://t.co/7ocCHgw9An
— H D Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) February 19, 2019
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar…
In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin…
The video of a group of people stopping an e-rickshaw with BJP flags attached to…
Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile…
Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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19th February 2019 / 10:18 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/hdk-blames-india-for-terror-crisis-times-now-misquotes-karnataka-cm-on-pulwama-attack/",
"author": "Arjun Sidharth"
}
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You have to hear this heart wrenching yet powerful song on the practice of manual scavenging in India! NOW! - Alt News
Pratik Sinha
17th March 2017 / 4:56 am
The official song of the upcoming documentary film Kakkoos which is a film on manual scavengers was released on Youtube yesterday. The film has been directed by Divya Bharathi. This is a powerful song that captures the shameful practice of manual scavenging that is still prevalent in India, a profession that has been primarily carried out by Dalits and pushed down by the caste hierarchy in Hindu society. We have jotted down the English lyrics of the song that appear in the subtitles below the video.
Direction – Divya
Cinematography – Palani Kumar & Gopalakrishnan
Editing – M.K. Pagalavan
Music – R.Prabakhar
Lyrics – R. Thanikkodi
Singer – Saravanan
To your conspiracy of silence on the septic tank deaths
Are you there to poop
Tell us
Are we here to clean
come and clean
Are you there to poop
Tell us
Are we here to clean
come and clean
If an animal poops, no other animal cleans
Oh fool with six senses why did this not reach your brain
we die in shit pits. you have no guts to question
Now we have to pour it on you. Nothing wrong in that
Are you there to rule
Tell us
Are we here to die
come and clean
Are you there to rule
Tell us
Are we here to die
come and clean
..
Oh men and woman
you move away closing your nose
hundres of stories of how we die
of suffocation prevails here
getting sick, getting rotten
we eat our food
If you feel nauseous on hearing
this screw yourself up
whatever food crosses throat
becomes shit
you talk about social service
when will you clean this
do you have brain
or shit works on your head
we are going to poop
on the justice that ignores this
are you here to rule
Tell us
Are we here to die
come and clean
are you here to rule
Tell us
Are we here to die
come and clean
..
oh people who walk on fire pit
as flower for the gods
why don’t you pray to get into
this shit pit
we rise before even
the flies and clean
we will rise up and raise our
voice oh stinking society
we will rise up and raise our
voice oh stinking society
life or death everyday
that’s our life says everyone
we sweep the deat
and life above our heads
we will tear the “MANU” who said this fate,
and clean our ass with it
we will call your gods
to clean the shit
we will call your gods
to clean the shit
are you here to poop
Tell us
Are we here to clean
come and clean
If an animal poops, no
other animal cleans
Oh fool with with sex senses why
did this not reach your brain
we die in shit pits. You
have no guts to question
Now we have to pour it on you.
Nothing wrong in that
Are you there to rule
Tell us
Are we here to die
come and clean
Are you there to rule
Tell us
Are we here to die
come and clean
come and clean
come and clean
come and clean
come and clean…
Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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17th March 2017 / 4:56 am
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/hear-heart-wrenching-yet-powerful-song-practice-manual-scavenging-india-now/",
"author": "Pratik Sinha"
}
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Himanta Biswa Sarma credits PM Modi for the depiction of Bihu Dance on Air India, what's the truth? - Alt News
Alt News Desk
27th August 2017 / 3:52 am / Last updated: 27th August 2017
“Neglected over decades, @narendramodi ji @BJP4India have restored pride of Assam. Tail of @airindian plane portrays graceful Bihu dance.” was the text of the tweet by Himanta Biswa Sarma which has now been deleted. Formerly with Congress for over a decade and a half, Himanta Biswa Sarma shifted his allegiance to BJP before Assam Elections in April 2016. BJP won the election and Hemant Biswa Sarma currently serves as the Minister of Education, Health and Finance. Mr Himanta tweeted a picture of of the tail end of a Air India Express plane which had a colourful depiction of Bihu dance and credited Mr Modi for introducing this particular symbolism. What’s the truth?
Within minutes of Himanta Biswa Sarma publishing the above tweet, Twitter users let him know that the Bihu dance depiction on Air India has been around well before 2014.
This Bihu picture over Air India express aircraft's tail have been there for quite sometime now. It has been there before 2014 too.
— Ahiron|অহিৰণ (@ahiron7) August 26, 2017
Another Twitter user Raju Das tweeted an article which conclusively showed that the Bihu depiction has been around since atleast 2009.
Yes your are right, it is there from 2009. https://t.co/Kjc1XKMdxU
— Raju Das | ৰাজু দাস (@rajudasonline) August 26, 2017
The aforementioned article on bangaloreaviation.com website is dated 24 December, 2009, and talks about the unique tail art on Air India Express. The article states, “VT-AXU features two dances. The Garba from the western state of Gujarat and Bihu a folk dance from the north-east Indian state of Assam.”
We searched some more and found a picture of a plane with the Bihu tail art dated back to September 2008 on the planespotters.net website. The picture was clicked by one Sean D’Silva at Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on 17 September, 2008.
Clearly, this particular tail art on certain Air India Express planes has been around for a very long.
How did the Minister end up posting this tweet? The picture that Mr Himanta tweeted was being shared on social media all day yesterday. He probably received it via one of his social media accounts or WhatsApp and tweeted it without fact-checking. The following post with the same picture was published at 11:43 am, a good 9 hours before Mr Himanta tweeted the picture.
Good morning & have an amazing weekend dear friends. Proud to attach this picture of bihu dance on an Air India flight tail…
Posted by Arabinda Sarma Siddhanta on Friday, August 25, 2017
Himanta Biswa Sarma probably saw the responses to his tweet and deleted the tweet. Later, he put out another tweet with the same image but a different textual description.
It is indeed nice to see portrayal of graceful #Bihu dance of #Assam displayed on @airindiain. Helps reinforce diversity of Indian culture pic.twitter.com/XlX8hHvPZT
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) August 26, 2017
In just the last week, Piyush Goyal posted a 8 year old image of unknown origins and claimed that it was a picture of LED lit Indian street. Thereafter, Chhhattisgarh Minister Rajesh Munat posted a picture of a Vietnamese bridge and claimed that its is a bridge in Raigarh. There’s an urgent need for ministers, politicians, MPs and MLAs to start employing fact-checkers in their teams to avoid such embarrassments.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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27th August 2017 / 3:52 am / Last updated: 27th August 2017
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{
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/hemanta-biswa-sarma-credits-pm-modi-depiction-bihu-dance-air-india-whats-truth/",
"author": "Alt News Desk"
}
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1,436 |
Here's why Gauri Lankesh's Facebook post about 'free sex' is viral - Alt News
Sam Jawed
12th September 2017 / 2:55 pm / Last updated: 25th May 2018
All hands on deck to malign and mock the Gauri Lankesh. “Wah Wah read and share” tweeted BJP MP Paresh Rawal about a Facebook post of Gauri Lankesh. “She called our mother a sex slave” claimed the Postcard News article about the same post that has been shared more than 60,000 times. Along with online celebrations of her murder, came these veiled social media attacks on Lankesh. “Yet we should condole her death?” asked Postcard News in an attempt to justify the celebratory posts. Others like Paresh Rawal may not have asked the question directly but circulated her old posts that they found objectionable. What is this post on “free sex” that has offended the so-called nationalists? Let us take a look at what Gauri Lankesh had said, its context and how it is being interpreted in a twisted manner after her death.
Wah wah ! Read n spread ! https://t.co/7pJpnUBBZe
— Paresh Rawal (@SirPareshRawal) September 9, 2017
To understand the context of the “free-sex” post of Gauri Lankesh, one has to go back a long time.
The term “free sex” was used as a slur by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy against Kavita Krishnan of CPI(ML) on national television way back in 2013.
@annavetticad Sexist hate-speech started on TV itself by @Swamy39 who attacked me as a woman, Leftist who has 'free sex'. Trolls echoed it.
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) December 6, 2013
Since then, Swamy has used it several times and each time it has proven to be a cue for the online troll army to attack Krishnan. In 2016, reacting to a news item about barring a woman in a short dress from an Indigo flight, Kavita Krishnan had tweeted, “Stop this kind of sexist idiocy @IndiGo6E Length of our skirts none of your business!”
Stop this kind of sexist idiocy @IndiGo6E Length of our skirts none of your business! #DressCodes #moralpolicing https://t.co/0qQLZxlTXJ
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) October 29, 2015
This was a time that several voices were being raised about moral policing and misogynistic comments by fringe elements associated with the right-wing. There was nothing unusual about Krishnan’s post but it elicited an unusual unprovoked reaction from Swamy. For him it was an attack on middle class values and he referred to Krishnan as a “free sex Naxalite”.
@RuthlessDimple : These free sex Naxalites will defend passengers on flight wearing bikinis to rubbish "middle class" values.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) October 29, 2015
The label “free sex” led to a lot of debate about what is free and what is un-free i.e. paid or forced. In response, Kavita Krishnan had maintained, “One can only pity…. who fear ‘free sex’ – un-free sex is after all nothing but rape” and was extensively trolled for saying so.
It was Kavita Krishnan’s mother who silenced the trolls with her gutsy reply. It was about consent. It was about free choice. “Never un-free never forced”
Gauri Lankesh’s Facebook post was in support of Kavita Krishnan and her mother. At no point has she called anyone’s mother a “sex slave” as claimed by Postcard News. This brings us to the question, what is the outrage about? What did BJP MP Paresh Rawal find so objectionable? Is it because a woman spoke about the right of every woman to consent and free choice? If free sex is consensual sex, what is the opposite of free sex? Maybe those maligning Gauri Lankesh can explain it better to us.
Nobody's cheerleader, I tweet at @samjawed65
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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12th September 2017 / 2:55 pm / Last updated: 25th May 2018
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{
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/heres-gauri-lankeshs-facebook-post-free-sex-viral/",
"author": "Sam Jawed"
}
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1,437 |
Highway in Turkey passed off as Mumbai-Goa national highway built by Modi government - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
29th January 2019 / 4:29 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019
ये स्वीडन , स्विजरलैंड या यूरोप का नहीं बल्कि भारत का चित्र है मुंबई-गोवा राष्ट्रीय महामार्ग NH66 कशेडी घाट मेरा देश बदल रहा है , ….!
राष्ट्र नायक मोदीजी को धन्यवाद (This is not Sweden, Switzerland or Europe but India. Mumbai-Goa National Highway NH66 Kashedi Ghat. Mera Desh Badal Raha Hai- Thank you to nation builder Modi ji- translated).
A photograph of a magnificent looking road has been shared on social media with the claim that it is the outcome of the developmental efforts of the Modi government. The above message has been posted on the Facebook group RSS and has been shared over 700 times so far.
The same photograph has been posted with a slightly altered narrative which reads, “उत्तर के एक्सप्रेस वे ओर पूर्वोत्तर के डबलडेकर पुलों के बाद अब पश्चिम भारत मुंबई-गोवा NH66 कशेडी घाट !! बताने की जरूरत नही है किसने किया …क्यो की वो तो यही कहेंगे मोदी ने क्या किया है” (After expressways of the north and double-decker bridges of the east, now the western India Mumbai-Goa NH66 Kashedi Ghat!! Needless to state who did this…because they will keep saying what has Modi done- translated).
Apart from groups on Facebook such as Vote For BJP, Sangha Mitra and Namo Fan, Alt News found that this image has been shared mostly by individual users on Facebook and Twitter.
Alt News used the Google reverse image search tool and found that the photo does not represent any road in India. It is from Turkey.
The photograph is of the Mersin-Antalya highway. Mersin and Antalya are cities dotting the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The video posted below shows this highway passed off as National Highway 66 from Mumbai to Goa.
This is an oft-used tactic for showcasing Modi government in positive light vis-à-vis infrastructural development. Earlier, a photo of a newly constructed road in Indonesia was shared as road development by the Central government.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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29th January 2019 / 4:29 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/highway-in-turkey-passed-off-as-mumbai-goa-national-highway-built-by-modi-government/",
"author": "Arjun Sidharth"
}
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1,438 |
Hijab row: BJP leaders falsely claim bombs hurled at Murshidabad school during protest - Alt News
Kalim Ahmed
16th February 2022 / 10:36 am
On February 12, it was reported that a school in the Suti area of Murshidabad district, West Bengal was vandalised after the headmaster allegedly asked girl students not to come to school wearing hijab/burqa.
The discriminatory policy began in Karnataka where several educational institutions have barred students from entering campuses wearing hijab/burqa. The matter is now sub-judice in the Karnataka High Court but the issue has spread to other states of the country.
BJP West Bengal MLA Sukanta Majumdar, BJP Delhi VP Sunil Yadav and BJP UP spokesperson Prashant Patel Umrao claimed that protesters in Murshidabad hurled bombs at the school that disallowed students from entering the premises wearing hijabs.
Network18 editor Aman Chopra and ABP News editor Manogya Loiwal also promoted the claim.
Pro-BJP propaganda outlet OpIndia published an article where the claim was made. Incidentally, OpIndia has quoted a report by India Today, but this report does not state that bombs were hurled during the protest in Murshidabad.
We checked for various news reports in both English and Bangla to see if there are reports of bombs being hurled at the school but there were none.
Alt News reached out to a local journalist who was present on the ground during the protest. The reporter also stated that no bombs were hurled at the school. The headmaster on Friday asked a few girls to not wear hijab/burqa to school and the next day locals, including guardians of the students, gathered around the school. The situation soon turned intense and people started vandalising the school building. After the police arrived at the site, protestors began hurling stones at cops and demanded that the headmaster should be handed over to them. The police responded with mild lathi-charge and tear gas, said the reporter. The situation was subsequently brought under control and 17-18 people were arrested.
We also spoke with Suti Block 1 BDO (Block Development Officer) HM Riajul Haque who told us that the reports of bombs being hurled are not true. He said that he was protecting the headmaster during the violence, and the other staff members were being protected by the local police. Stones/bricks were hurled at the school but there were no bombs. The police arrested 18 people. He also informed that there was no instruction by the education ministry to ban hijabs in educational institutions and the headmaster acted on his own. A report will be sent to the higher administration based on which a decision will be made regarding the headmaster, he furthered.
Hence, reports of bombs being hurled at a school in Murshidabad are not supported by grounds reports and the local administration’s statement. While the school was vandalised and locals resorted to stone-pelting, no bombs were used in the violence.
Kalim is a journalist with a keen interest in tech, misinformation, culture, etc
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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16th February 2022 / 10:36 am
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{
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/hijab-row-bjp-leaders-falsely-claim-bombs-hurled-at-murshidabad-school-during-protest/",
"author": "Kalim Ahmed"
}
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Himalaya Drug Co targeted with misleading claims related to Halal certification - Alt News
Kalim Ahmed
4th April 2022 / 4:54 pm / Last updated: 4th April 2022
In the past couple of months, India has witnessed waves of hateful, anti-Muslim propaganda become a part of everyday discourse. Conspiracy theories by far-right Hindu outfits attempt to sow seeds of fear against the Muslim community. After “love jihad” and “thook jihad”, the narrative has shifted against “Halal”.
A nationwide campaign for a ban on Halal meat and food products by Hindu Janajagruti Samiti has resulted in two emerging narratives — the sale of Halal meat is a step toward making India an “Islamic state” and companies carrying Halal products, especially those that have Muslim founders, are “anti-Hindu”.
On March 30, Harinder S Sikka, Group Director of Strategic Business at Piramal Enterprises, shared a photo of an alleged ‘Halal policy’ document displayed at Himalaya Company’s Pune factory. Along with the photo, Sikka shared his own interpretation of the policy. While promoting a boycott of Halal, he insinuated that a company holding a Halal certificate meant that its workforce is Muslim and it uses beef extracts in the products.
Soon after this tweet, Rashmi Samant, a former president of Oxford University Students’ Union, tweeted the same document saying, “I like my products cruelty free. So no Himalaya until it says no Halal”. Atul Mishra, the founder of The Frustrated Indian, tweeted the document while questioning Himalaya about its Halal certificate.
Other right-wing personalities, such as actor and BJP MP Paresh Rawal and BJP leader Amar Prasad Reddy, also called for a boycott of Himalaya and Halal products.
The attack on Himalaya Company and its subsidiaries is not new. For the past two years, consistent disinformation campaigns have been used against the company with various false claims.
In 2020, a viral message claimed that Himalaya’s founder funds terrorist groups. That same year, another video was viral where it was claimed that post-Babri judgement, the founder of Himalaya asked Muslims to take control over the judiciary, police force, etc. Last year, there were at least three instances of recurring pieces of disinformation used to target the company, including selectively targeting Himalaya for using gelatine in capsule tablets in the past. Alt News has debunked multiple cases of false news related to Himalaya that can be read on our website in detail.
Himalaya is now being targeted for its Halal policy despite the fact that a majority of FMCG companies also get the certification.
What are Halal and Halal-certified products?
According to Jamiat Ulama Halal Foundation (JUHF), which provides halal certification to Indian brands, ‘Halal’ is an Islamic term that means lawful, permissible or legal. BBC defines Halal food as food that adheres to Islamic dietary standards.
Alt News reached out to Wasim Akhtar Shaikh, the Halal coordinator and Shariah Auditor at JUHF, who told us, “Halal is an Arabic word that means permissible and permissible means a lot of things. It can mean something you can wear or something you can drink, things you are allowed to say, etc. Halal is not limited to eating and drinking, it simply means it is permitted in Islam. There is also an opposite word to Halal called ‘Haram’, which means unlawful or prohibited.”
He further added, “When it comes to food, Halal can be divided into two parts — Halal food and Halal meat. Again, Halal food means food that is permissible and Halal meat means, animals that can be eaten in Islam. It can be a goat, chicken, camel, etc. These permissible animals are simply slaughtered in the Islamic way by reciting the Shahada, there’s nothing additional in it. By eating Halal meat one will not become Muslim, it is a myth.”
“Now, if the product is a medicine or a cosmetic cream and is Halal-certified, it means that this product does not contain any non-Halal/Haram items. A non-Halal item can be pork, pork extract, or alcohol. These items are not permissible in Islam hence, they’re not considered Halal. Again, it is a myth that Halal means only Muslims have made this product, or there is some meat in it. Take the example of rice, they’re produced by our farmer brothers. It is completely a vegetarian item considered Halal by us. Why? Because it does not have any non-Halal items added to it and it is permissible to eat rice in Islam,” he concluded.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations also explains the meaning of Halal and the nuances involved with it. We recommend that our readers read the full text for a better understanding of the term.
Is Halal certification limited to Muslim-owned businesses?
On the website of Jamiat Ulama Halal Foundation, one can check the ‘Halal status‘ of various companies. It has big household names such as Adani Wilmar Ltd, Parle and Tata Consumers Product on its list. These products range from castor oil to biscuits to even tea leaves. Therefore, the claim that only Muslim-owned companies or companies that have only Muslim employees have Halal-certified products is ludicrous and certifiably false. Halal is a food standard certificate that helps Muslims to figure out whether a food product is permissible for them to eat. Halal simply means what is permissible for Muslims. It doesn’t mean that it is non-permissible for non-Muslims.
Large companies export their products to hundreds of countries across the globe and are required to comply with the rules and regulations of the importing countries. In most cases, Halal certification is obtained to expand the business to OIC countries and Gulf nations. Just in 2015, Saudi Arabia’s import value of Halal foods amounted to 21.54 billion US dollars, followed by Malaysia with 14.96 billion US dollars worth of Halal food imports. The global Halal market is big and is attractive for Indian companies. This has been very clearly highlighted in the statement issued by Himalaya regarding the recent misleading campaign against its products.
pic.twitter.com/9iCRhuQUbc
— Himalaya Wellness Company (@HimalayaIndia) April 1, 2022
Himalaya is not the only target
In 2021, another Muslim-owned business, Bengaluru-based iD Fresh Foods, became a victim of a malicious campaign. Social media forwards claimed that the company “only hires Muslims” and is “halal-certified”. Despite multiple clarifications from iD Fresh Foods, it continues to remain a target. Earlier in March, in order to counter disinformation campaigns, the company started sharing live video feeds from its factory in Bengaluru.
However, the ones facing the brunt of the hateful campaigns are economically backward Muslim business owners. Recently. the Karnataka government banned Muslim vendors from temple fairs by citing the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act, 2002. This was after far-right Hindu groups demanded a ban.
Similarly, in their latest campaign to ban halal-certified products, Hindutva outfits physically attacked a Muslim meat seller in Karnataka’s Shivamogga district. In Jan 2021, a Muslim shoe seller was detained after members of a right-wing group accused him of selling ‘Thakur’ shoes. In October last year, in Gujarat, 100-odd people protested against the inauguration of a hotel because the owners were Muslims.
In August 2021, two Muslim brothers who ran a roadside food stall in Agra were harassed and their stall was vandalised. That same month, a Muslim bangle seller was thrashed by locals for allegedly concealing his identity while selling bangles. He was later booked under harassment charges.
Kalim is a journalist with a keen interest in tech, misinformation, culture, etc
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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4th April 2022 / 4:54 pm / Last updated: 4th April 2022
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Hindu beaten in Bengal for hoisting saffron flag? Old video from UP shared with false claim - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
17th May 2019 / 4:09 pm
The claim that a Hindu youth was beaten in West Bengal for hoisting a saffron flag atop his house is viral across social media platforms. A video of a young man tied to a tree and thrashed by a group of people is shared to support this narrative widely circulated with the caption, “This is the position of Hindus in West Bengal. This Hindu boy hoisted saffron flag atop his house. Forwarded by LT Col Dilip Kumar Havanur.”
This is the position of Hindus in West Bengal. This Hindu boy hoisted saffron flag atop his house. Forwarded by LT Col Dilip Kumar Havanur.
Posted by Rajesh Jain on Wednesday, 15 May 2019
The same post has also been shared by a few individual users in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil.
It is viral on Twitter as well.
This is the position of Hindus in West Bengal.This Hindu boy hoisted saffron flag atop his house. @MamataOfficial The day is not too far when every Hindu will be crucified like this boy.#SaveBengalSaveDemocracy #BattleForBengal @TajinderBagga @KapilMishra_IND @MODIfiedVikas pic.twitter.com/PbrWyoERiZ
— Real Chowkidar Deepak Kapur™ (@realkapur) May 16, 2019
From what it seems, the clip is also doing rounds on WhatsApp.
Alt News found that the same clip was viral last year as well with the identical claim that a Hindu youth was attacked in Bengal for hoisting a saffron flag atop his house. If one carefully listens, the mob can be heard conversing in Hindi, with the dialect of speech resembling that of people from Hindi-speaking states in Eastern India.
The video actually depicts a case of flogging in UP’s Deoria. The police arrested six people for beating an 18-year-old after tying him to a tree. “The victim was assaulted as [he] had reportedly asked one of the accused to return Rs 1,500 he had lent, they [police] said,” according to The Indian Express.
The incident had reportedly occurred on March 31, 2018, after which the same clip which is now viral with a false narrative was circulating at the time.
West Bengal has been a prime target of misinformation in the ongoing election.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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17th May 2019 / 4:09 pm
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"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
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Hindu devotional song added to 'Britain's Got Talent' performance from 2014 - Alt News
Aritraa Dey
25th April 2022 / 6:44 pm
A video that portrays two caucasian boys purportedly singing a Hindu devotional song is circulating online. The song is claimed to be the title track of the show ‘Ramayana’. It has been shared along with the viral text, “In an American show like Indian Idol, two American kids sang the title track of the Ramayana serial and brought tears to everyone’s eyes.”
[Translated from “Indian idol जैसा अमेरिकन show में अमेरिकन बच्चो ने रामायण सीरियल का टाइटल song गाया और सब की आँखों ने अश्रुधारा आने लगी” ]
Indian idol जैसाअमेरिकन show में अमेरिकन बच्चो ने रामायण सीरियल का टाइटल song गाया और सब की आँखों ने अश्रुधारा आने लगी …..
जय श्री राम 🙏
Posted by Ravi Kant on Saturday, April 16, 2022
Multiple Facebook accounts have posted this video. On Twitter, relatively fewer instances of this video can be found.
Indian idol जैसाअमेरिकन show में अमेरिकन बच्चो ने रामायण सीरियल का टाइटल song गाया और सब की आँखों ने अश्रुधारा आने लगी ….. pic.twitter.com/6kZkpV9L5q
— 🇮🇳Mamta Mishra🇮🇳 राष्ट्रहित सर्वोपरि (@Mamta0Mishra) April 16, 2022
The first red flag that gives away the claim is the fact that a woman’s vocals can be heard while the ones singing are boys. Furthermore, the song has chorus singers but they cannot be spotted on the stage.
Where is the video from?
On performing a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes, we found the actual video on YouTube. The video is from the UK-based reality show ‘Britain’s Got Talent’. It was aired in 2014. The song is an original composition that has an anti-bullying message. The viral video is clipped from 7:10 minutes into the broadcast.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7BScd3vRC4?start=430]
The boys are singing in English. In the video shared on social media, an audio track has been dubbed over the original song.
Is the dubbed song the title track of the Hindi serial ‘Ramayana’?
The claim alleges that the title track is from ‘Ramayana’, a 1987 show directed by Ramanand Sagar. In order to identify the song, we used Apple’s song identification tool ‘Shazam’. The song title is ‘हम कथा सुनाते राम सकल गुणधाम की‘.
Next, we looked up ‘Ramayana’ on YouTube and found that the title track of the show is not the same as the viral song.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIh99bkSc_w]
To sum it up, the video does not show two American boys singing the title track of ‘Ramayana’ which is a Hindu devotional song.
Writes. Fact Checks. Sleeps.
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25th April 2022 / 6:44 pm
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"author": "Aritraa Dey"
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Hindu khatre mein hai? How the fake news ecosystem targets minorities to create a fear psychosis - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
8th July 2018 / 9:52 am / Last updated: 9th July 2018
Social media has become a convenient medium for purveyors of misinformation. Fake news has grown manifold, a large proportion of which is dominated by information which is communal in nature and inciteful in tone, seeking to divide on religious lines. Alt News has observed that in the past few months, a systematic, synchronised and organised attempt is underway to target Muslims and Christians and paint both communities as criminals and morally bankrupt while constantly painting the Hindu community as a victim. This has been sought to be achieved by weaponising misinformation and targeting the minority communities through distortion and lies.
1. Fake news of 9-year old rescued from being sexually assaulted by ‘Sajid’
“A 9yr old girl was saved 4m rape by alert people. Guy, who was caught with kid, is Sajid. M/s @Uppolice please arrest this guy Sajid & make him spend some time in jail!” This message was circulated along with a video in which a girl child is seen crying and a young man is thrashed by passers-by. Those who are shared it claimed that the girl was about to be sexually assaulted by the perpetrator whose name is Sajid, but was rescued in time. his video has been tweeted by an account named Kunvar Ajaypratap Singh(@sengarajay235) who is followed by PM Modi. Another Twitter user @goyalsanjeev who is followed by the office of Piyush Goyal also tweeted it.
The perpetrator’s name is not Sajid but Gokul Ramdas. This was confirmed to Alt News by the inspector of Jinjhana police station who confirmed that the claims floating on social media with regard to this incident are false.
Mahesh Vikram Hegde, founder of Postcard News was among those who tweeted a set of statistics according to which he claimed 95% of perpetrators of rape in 2016 were Muslim, and 96% of the victims were non-Muslim women. Hegde is followed by PM Modi on Twitter. This message was shared widely across social media platforms.
The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) which is the nodal agency for recording crime in India, in a conversation with Alt News called this claim false and malicious. It categorically stated, “It is totally wrong data & complete misrepresentation of facts as NCRB does not collect data on the religion of accused & victims. It is malicious propaganda, which needs to be countered by the law-abiding citizens. Concerned officials have been advised to initiate legal action.”
A minor girl was reportedly gangraped and the incident filmed by the perpetrators in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The incident occurred in the beginning of July 2018 in Lucknow. Soon, social media was abuzz with the claim that the two accused in the incident are named Khalid and Irfan, and that they have been arrested. मंदसौर के बाद लखनऊ में नाबालिग बच्ची से दुष्कर्म… आरोपी खालिद और इरफान गिरफ्तार… वीडियो भी बनाई (After Mandsaur, minor girl raped in Lucknow. Accused Khalid and Irfan arrested… they also made a video- translation), said the message.
The claim that the two accused in the case are Khalid and Irfan is a lie. SSP Lucknow, Deepak Kumar has stated that the two accused in the case are Bhola Chandrakar and Kushmesh Kanaujiya. According to reports, the accused Chandrakar hails from Chhattisgarh while Kanaujiya is from Sitapur district in UP. The duo was caught while trying to escape after the victim raised an alarm.
The brutal rape of an 8-year old in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh in June 2018 was given a brazenly communal spin on social media. Thousands of users shared a message according to which members of the Muslim community rallied on the streets of Mandsaur demanding that the perpetrator of the crime be released because the Quran sanctions rape of non-Muslim women. This claim had appeared in the form of an article by a website IndiaFlare.
The above picture is photoshopped. While the image is indeed of Mandsaur, the rally was in support of the victim and demanded the harshest punishment for the accused. The article also wrongly claimed that no Muslim groups had descended on the streets in solidarity with the victim.
In June 2018, a photograph was shared widely on social media. It showed a teacher apparently demonstrating to students via the black board how Islam is a superior religion to Hinduism.
As expected, this photograph turned out to be photoshopped. It is a photo from a madrasa named Darul Uloom Husseini in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. Many news organisations had reported the story and carried the photograph in April 2018, out of which an article from Outlook reported, “This Madrasa has become a center for modern education, where along with Arabic and English, Sanskrit is also taught (translated from Hindi)”. It further states, “The specialty of this Madrasa is that Sanskrit is being taught by a Muslim teacher. Probably, this is the first time ever that Sanskrit is also being taught in Madrasa”.
“If Dont Wear A Burqa This Is The Way A Women Is Punished By Cutting Her Hairs With Daughter In Her Lap. And These Cowards Say They Will Conquer The World? These Moron Mujahids Are The Most Cowards Creatures On Earth,They Can Only Torture Helpless Humans. They Cant Face Real Men” tweeted a social media user Singh Singh(@HatindersinghR) on June 26, 2018, with an attached video. The tweet claimed that a woman’s hair was chopped off because she refused to wear a burqa and the video showed a man cutting a woman’s hair.
Alt News tried to find out the truth of this claim. Googling the key words “man cuts off woman’s hair” threw up a list of articles, out of which an article which was posted by Daily Pakistan. It stated that this is allegedly a video of a husband who is cutting his wife’s hair for cheating on him with his nephew. On further investigation, Alt News found that this incident had been reported by a number of websites in Portuguese. It has been claimed that the incident took place over an extra-marital relation. There is however no reference to the claims made in the tweet- that this couple is a Muslim couple and that her hair was chopped off because she refused to wear a burqa.
“Hindustan ka sher jisne As*** ka badla lia” A malicious Facebook post by one “Rajiya Bano” cheered the accused of the horrific Mandsaur child rape case suggesting that he had avenged the rape of the Kathua victim that had rocked the country a few months ago. The post suggested that the scores were settled as the victim in the Mandsaur rape case was a Hindu and the alleged rapist, a Muslim; in revenge for Kathua where it was the other way round.
Alt News found out that this is a fake profile. For example, the university that Rajiya Bano claims to be teaching in, is not in Pakistan but in the Philippines. Moreover, a Facebook post of May 2018 exposed the identity of this Rajiya Bano. The replies to a post that asked “Kya haal hai doston” post had comments inquiring why has this person changed the name. In one of the comments, the person is addressed as “Sharma Ji”, while in another comment this person is addressed as “Pawan”.
Assembly election in Karnataka took place in May 2018. The run up to the poll saw a flurry of misinformation which continued unabated after the election ended and the new government was formed. In all of these instances, Muslims and Christians were projected as aggressors and schemers who enjoyed the support and patronage of the Congress party and the Congress-JDS government in the state.
‘Bangalore Congress candidate (chamarajpet) Zameer Ahmed promises unending bloodshed of Hindus if Congress is voted to power and when he becomes minister’. This provocative message accompanied a video that was circulating widely on social media prior to the election. In the video, Congress candidate for the Karnataka assembly election Zameer Ahmed Khan is seen addressing citizens in Urdu on his campaign trail. The video along with this message was posted on Twitter by a user Kamal Lochan Mahanta. Mahanta according to his Twitter profile is a self-proclaimed Hindu nationalist residing in Chicago who is ‘blessed to be followed by PM @narendramodi’.
As can be seen and heard in the video posted above from 00:51 to 1:00, Zameer Ahmed Khan is saying, “लिखवा लेना, मेरे को मिनिस्टर बनाया तो 5 साल के अन्दर ऐसे ऐसे कारनामे करके दिखाऊंगा गिनीज रिकॉर्ड में नाम आएगा” (Take it in writing, if I am made a minister, in five years I will do such work that my name will appear in the Guinness record. (approximate translation). Instead, what was claimed is that the Congress candidate is promising bloodshed of Hindus if Congress comes to power and he becomes a minister. This was shared widely on social media by BJP supporters.
Social media was abuzz with the claim that the Pakistani flag was waved at a rally by the Congress party in North Belgaum. This message along with a video of the rally in which a green coloured flag can be seen, was spread on multiple platforms- Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=i7j20M-S5DE
The flag that was waved at this rally was NOT the Pakistani flag. This is in fact the flag of IUML (Indian Union Muslim league), which is different from the flag of Pakistan. The Pakistani flag has a white band on the left side. Also, there is a difference in the colour and the angle of the crescent in both flags. Very often, the Pakistani flag is also confused with the banner of Islam.
“Lo Behold! #Church allegedly behind the divisive scheme of separating #Lingayats from #Hindus. A leaked of email supposedly sent by SecGen CBCI to Archbishop Bangalore….this says much”. Along with this message, an email was circulated allegedly written to Archbishop, Bengaluru by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India celebrating the granting of separate religious status to Lingayats and urging him to work hard for the “rich harvest of souls in Karnataka.” BJP MP Subramaniam Swamy was among those who had retweeted this message.
Alt News had reported how this is a fake email. Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Secretary General, Catholic Bishops Conference of India dismissed the claims as fake and diabolic. In a clarification, Mascarenhas stated, “a very malicious fake letter is being circulated in social media and in Karnataka on the eve of the elections”. He added that “the false letters makes wild allegations about the Church involvement in the Lingayat issue”.
The wave of misinformation with regard to Karnataka continued even after the assembly election ended. It was the newly formed Congress-JDS government in the state which became the target and minorities were the prop.
(Whoever thinks Congress should return in 2019 should see this video. Not a month has elapsed since the govt has been formed and muslims are beating Hindus and the police in a muslim bazaar- translated). This message was circulated in June 2018 along with a video that showed a group of men thrashing a biker, which then led to a violent ruckus. It was claimed that this is the state of affairs in Karnataka ever since the Congress-JDS government assumed power in the state.
जिस भड़वे को लगता है कि देश में 2019 में कांग्रेस आना चाहिए
कांग्रेसी चमचे को ये वीडियो देख लेना चाहिए
कर्नाटक में 1महीना भी नही हुआ है सरकार बने और ये हालात है
वीडियो में मुस्लिम बाजार में मुस्लिमो ने हिन्दू और पुलिस को कैसे दौड़ा दौड़ा कर पिट रहा है
भारत में सुरक्षित रहना है😂 pic.twitter.com/FIz5BpnNGd
— Sunilkarmunge🆎 JaiHind #NAMO🚩 (@sunilkarmunge21) June 12, 2018
Alt News found that the video is from Ranchi, Jharkhand. The clash took place after members of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) allegedly raised provocative slogans during a bike rally that they had held to celebrate four years of BJP government at the Centre, according to a report by The Pioneer. BJYM is the youth wing of the BJP.
“Hey kannadiggas this is the extensive work done by missionaries in Karnatka. Wat is ‘Lingayat Cotholic’. These bloody missionaries are fooling innocent n poor hindus..N they r falling for few money..@SushmaSwaraj hope u r not approving visas 4 these anymore…“Along with this message was a photograph of a church with the name of the church being ‘Lingayath Catholic Church‘. The text under the name of the church read “Estd: April 16, 2018 Bangalore, Karnataka“. This was circulated widely on social media.
The image that was passed off as a ‘Lingayath Catholic Church’ established in April 2018 in Bangalore is actually a church in Dahanu, a coastal town in Thane district in the western part of Maharashtra. The photograph of the church had been photoshopped.
“कर्नाटक में हिन्दू कार्यकताओं को मारा जा रहा है… केंद्र मौन क्यों???” (Hindu workers are being beaten in Karnataka…why is the centre quiet?- translated). A video circulating on Facebook showed at least four men mercilessly flogging a man outside a shop. It was claimed that the Congress-JDS government was turning a blind eye to assaults on Hindus across the state.
Alt News discovered that the said incident had occurred in Bengaluru and was the outcome of personal enmity. There was no truth in the claim that it represented a general assault on Hindus in the state.
Over the past few months, numerous posts have sought to portray Hindus at the receiving end of aggression, intimidation and assault by minorities. The Muslim community is the primary target, although Christians too have been targeted.
In the aftermath of the impressive victory of Begum Tabassum Hasan, candidate of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) from Kairana, UP in the bypoll held in May 2018, a quote ascribed to Hasan spread like wildfire on social media and WhatsApp. According to this quotation, Hasan had said, “ये अल्लाह की जीत है और राम की हार” (This is the victory of Allah and defeat of Ram- translated). This was tweeted by at least three people on Twitter who are followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Alt News contacted Tabassum Hasan who clarified that she has not made any such statement in any capacity whatsoever. However, the damage was done as thousands of social media users had already shared this fake quotation once it was uploaded.
“Muslims violence in Birmingham during Ramadan!!! They want to close the road to eat on the roads”. This message was shared along with a video that shows rioters attacking cars on a street. It was claimed that the incident occurred in Birmingham, U.K when members of the Muslim community resorted to vandalism as they wanted to ‘eat on the roads’, in a reference to the practice of breaking fast during Ramadan. The video circulated on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
Alt News found that the incident in question occurred not in Birmingham, U.K but in Basel, Switzerland. Also, it has nothing to do with Islam or Muslims. The vandalism on display is in relation to a football match between Basel and Lucerne football clubs, and the violence took place on May 19 at Birsstrasse, Basel.
“A bus full of Muslims from West Bengal ( Didi’s Raj ) reached Punjab ( Capt. Amarinder’s Raj) with a Pakistan flag hoisted on the bus. Just listen what the Punjab police did when they saw the Pakistan flag”. A video was viral on social media with the aforementioned message. In this video, an elderly person is seen being abused. According to those who are abusing him, it is because he has hoisted a Pakistani flag on a bus. Twitter account @ExSecular was among those who shared this video. This user is followed on Twitter by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
See below a tourist bus came from West Bengal of ‘Didi’. It was full of ‘M’s’. A Pakistan flag was placed on the front.
When it reached Punjab, it was ‘suitably’ treated by the public there pic.twitter.com/d6yNuTlMjG
— नारदमुनि (@NaMuGC) June 3, 2018
The flag on display in the video is not the flag of Pakistan. It is a generic flag that is used as a religious symbol by the Muslim community in the subcontinent. Also, the incident took place in Haryana in March 2018.
In May 2018, a picture circulated on social media in which a group of men is seen offering namaz(prayer) on a railway track. Along with this picture was text which said ‘Rail route blocked for Namaz. Sad that students who were travelling in this train got delayed and couldn’t appear for the NEET exams (translated).’ The text was in Tamil language.
pic.twitter.com/MDKEYU28QC
— जेगनाथन जी Jaganathan G ஜெகநாதன் ஜி (@yogees46) May 8, 2018
This image is not from Tamil Nadu and has nothing to do with the NEET exam. It was clicked in New Delhi in June 2017. Anindya Chattopadhyay who is a photojournalist with Times of India took this photograph of devotees offering the Alvida Namaz (last prayer of Ramzan) at the New Delhi Railway Station which was published by Times of India on June 23, 2017.
In May 2018, a video of a young woman speaking to reporters circulated in large numbers on social media. In the video, the woman alleged that she was gang raped inside a madrassa, and was pressured to convert to Islam by her captors who abused her and her faith. A number of right-wing accounts and pages shared this video.
मदरसे में रेप
मेरठ के मदरसे में इस हिन्दू बेटी से कई महीनो तक हुआ बलात्कार पर हमारा सारा मीडिया मौन ऐसा क्यों ?
कोई पत्रकार इस पर नहीं बोलता, इस पर कोई बहस नहीं क्योंकि मामला मदरसे का है और मौलवी का है, अगर किसी मंदिर का होता और साधू संत का तब सारा मीडिया अगले 6 महीने तक समाचार चलाता और बताता की सारे साधू संत रेपिस्ट होते हैं मंदिरों को बंद करो
Posted by We Support RSS on Saturday, April 14, 2018
Alt News fact checked this claim and found that this particular case is not a recent incident but dates back to August 2014 when news had emerged from Meerut that a woman was allegedly gang-raped and forcibly converted. It was alleged that the crime had taken place inside a madrasa. In an interesting turn of events however, later that year, the young woman who had alleged rape and forcible conversion withdrew the case. She stated that no such crime had been committed on her and that she had gone to her beloved, who belonged to another faith, of her own accord. Later in 2015, the woman married the accused.
The above compilation chronicles the instances of fake news that plagued social media over the past two months. Alt News has observed that this trend however goes back to January 2018 when some instances were sought to be communalised in a manner similar to the above instances which occurred later. These trends have continued to play out on social media.
In January 2018, during the ongoing protests against the movie Padmavat, a school bus was attacked in Gurugram. A video of this attack went viral which showed young kids cowering in fear as the bus was pelted by stones and caused huge outrage across the nation. Along with this video, a message began to circulate on social media which read, “in the stone pelting case on a school bus in Gurgaon, Karni Sena’s Saddam, Aamir, Nadeem, Firoz and Ashraf have been apprehended”. (translation) Among prominent accounts, at least three accounts whom PM Modi follows on Twitter (Jay @Saffron_Rocks, Jitendra Pratap Singh @jpsin1 and Kunwar Ajaypratap Singh @sengarajay235) circulated this message.
To fact check this claim, Alt News had spoken to the Commissioner of Police, Gurugram who had stated that the information that is being circulated on social media is absolutely false and that none of the names of the accused as being circulated on social media matches with the actual names.
This was among the earliest instances wherein Muslim names were ascribed to the perpetrators of violence, and this trend has followed thereafter.
Over 100 people were arrested after communal violence erupted in Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh on January 26, 2018. Following a scuffle over the unfurling of the tricolour, clashes broke out between two communities in which a youth, Chandan Gupta was killed, shops were gutted and buses set on fire. On social media, reports began to spread that apart from Gupta, another youth, Rahul Upadhyay had been killed in the violence. Among those who posted it was Abhijit Majumder, the then managing editor of Mail Today.
The language and tone of these tweets were inflammatory and communal in nature, suggesting that Hindu youth were being killed in clashes at the hands of Muslims. This report however turned out to be completely false. The U.P police had issued an official statement, saying Upadhyay is alive and four people have been arrested for spreading false rumours.
‘Head cut open’, ‘castrated’ and ‘boiling oil poured on face’ are some of the provocative messages that did the rounds on social media to describe 21 year old Paresh Mesta’s death in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka in January 2018. Mesta’s decomposed body was found in a lake in Honnavar town, days after he had gone missing following communal clashes in the region. The lead in this matter was taken by BJP MP from Karnataka Shobha Karandlaje. It was also shared by the fake news website Postcard News.
SP under #SiddaramaiahRule has declared this as ‘Samaanya Saavu’
Hindu boy 21 yr old Paresh Mesta goes missing.when he was found, he was mutilated,castrated.burnt by boiling oil poured over his head & his head split dastardly with a weapon. pic.twitter.com/tmxkK6r2GS
— Shobha Karandlaje (@ShobhaBJP) December 10, 2017
These inciteful claims were a malicious concoction. This was confirmed by Department of Forensic Medicine, Manipal which conducted the post-mortem and released a document which gave a point-by-point rebuttal of each of the allegations of torture and mutilation of Paresh Mesta.
The modus operandi has now become predictable, and operates on the basis of a few set templates- Muslim names ascribed to perpetrators of violence, morphed pictures, forged letters, videos circulated with different context, and sheer rumour mongering. Almost every single day, a fresh claim is circulated and shared widely on social media platforms. While this trend peaks during the election cycle, it generally continues unabated. With a number of assembly elections coming up in the next few months and the general election of 2019 not far away, the trend as highlighted in this article shows that targeting of minorities through misinformation is going to be a significant electoral strategy over the next year, with constant polarisation on a daily basis being the primary objective.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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8th July 2018 / 9:52 am / Last updated: 9th July 2018
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"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/hindu-khatre-mein-hai-how-the-fake-news-ecosystem-targets-minorities-to-create-a-fear-psychosis/",
"author": "Arjun Sidharth"
}
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