Author: Archit Mehta

‘Flood Jihad’: How Media Outlets Communalised Silchar Floods

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.

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. A 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.

From man-made disaster to ‘flood jihad’

Around July 5, a section of the mainstream media reported the alleged breach as ‘flood jihad’. NewsX conducted a primetime debate regarding flooding in Silchar. The panellists were former diplomat Bhaswati Mukherjee, former home ministry official R.V.S. Mani, Aurelius Corporate Solutions founder Sumit Peer (as a political analyst), and editorial director at iTV Network (the parent company of NewsX) Madhav Nalapat. All panellists, including the anchor, were of the opinion that “flood jihad” took place.

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.

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)

NewsX and others communalise Silchar floods

Two days after NewsX and other media outlets dubbed the alleged Betukandi embankment breach as “flood jihad”, chief minister 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.”

Also read: Assam Floods: The Shameful Annual Lack of National Media Coverage

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…”

On July 4, SP Kaur told The 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.”

The 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 The 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 Scroll.in said it was not unreasonable on the part of residents to breach the embankment. The official added, “If your house remained underwater, 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 chief minister 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 programme. Alt News debunked six falsehoods in the one-hour-long broadcast. Sudarshan News’s broadcast was termed 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 out 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 chief minister and SP have refuted any communal angle to the incident.

Archit Mehta is a senior fact-checking journalist at Alt News, where this article was originally published.

Fact Check: Tricolour Was Not ‘Removed’ to Install Saffron Flag in Karnataka College

Violence broke out in the Shivamogga district as the row over hijab spread. But the claim that a mob of saffron-clad students removed the national flag is untrue. The flagpost was empty.

Since the last week of December, six female students belonging to the Government PU College for Girls in Udupi were not allowed to attend classes wearing hijab with uniforms. On January 7, after days of protests, the young women were allowed to enter the college but made to sit in a separate classroom and disallowed from taking the lessons. The discrimination and the protests that followed soon spilled to other districts in the state.

Violence broke out in the Shivamogga district on Tuesday as the row over hijab spread to the district. A group of saffron-clad students hoisted a saffron flag on a flag post at Government First Grade College (GFGC). There were reports of stone-pelting and the subsequent imposition of Section 144.

Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar claimed that the Indian national flag was replaced with a saffron flag by “anti-national elements allied with BJP”.

Also read: ‘Saffron Controversy, Not Hijab Controversy’: Muslim Women Protest Across Karnataka

India Today published a report that similarly claimed, “Karnataka hijab row: Student ‘replaces’ tricolour with saffron flag in Shimoga” but later published a follow-up that said the flagpost was empty.

Several Twitter and Facebook accounts have made similar claims. Using the social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle, we found that this claim has been made on multiple high network FB pages such as Mahua Moitra Fans [over 4 lakh followers], The Logical Indian Citizen [over 1 lakh followers] and Beef Janata Party [over 3 lakh followers]. This PDF documents more such pages.

Video verification

It must be noted that in the viral videos of the incident, the student cannot be seen removing the national flag. (1, 2) The videos were shot after he had climbed the flagpost and was in the middle of hoisting the saffron flag. This itself raises doubts about the claim that the national flag was replaced since video evidence of the same is lacking.

ANI’s correspondent Uday Kumar who was reporting the violence from Shivamogga told Alt News that the saffron flag was hoisted on an empty flagpost.

Alt News spoke with another reporter from Shivamogga who was present at the GFGC campus when the incident took place. The reporter did not wish to be named but informed that the saffron flag was installed at around 10:15 am and subsequently removed. He also stated that the flagpost was empty prior to the hoisting of a saffron flag.

We then spoke with Dhananjay BR, principal of the GFGC, who said, “The national flag was removed from the flagpost on January 26 itself and kept in a box as per protocol. Since then, the national flag has not been hoisted.”

Times Now principal correspondent Deepak Bopanna also tweeted that Dhananjay said that the Indian flag was removed from the flagpost on Republic Day.

In a statement to ANI, Shivamogga SP BM Laxmi Prasad refuted social media claims and stated that a saffron flag was installed on an empty flagpost.

Alt News also found other videos from the college. Below is one which was shot minutes before the saffron flag was installed. The flagpost is clearly empty in this video. A person behind the camera can be heard saying that the police isn’t preventing the mob from bringing the saffron flag.

There have been several reports of discrimination against female Muslim students wearing hijab in colleges across Karnataka. The students were also met with unprovoked aggression from Hindu students aligned with right-wing groups. There are reports and videos of female Muslim students being heckled amid chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’. But the claim that a mob of saffron-clad students removed the national flag at a college in Shivamogga and installed a saffron flag is untrue. The flagpost was empty.

This article was originally published on Alt News.

Fact Check: Fake Poster Claims Akhilesh Yadav Said SP Will Build 2,000 Mosques

A similar claim was earlier viral in which a fake tweet showed Yadav promising the re-construction of the Babri Masjid on land allocated for the Ram Mandir if SP is voted to power.

A poster claimed to have been made by the Samajwadi Party (SP) is widely shared on social media.

The poster attributes the following quote to SP president Akhilesh Yadav:

“In western UP and Purvanchal, 2000 new mosques will be built. In Ayodhya, 1000 crore rupees will be given for Babri Masjid. Ayodhya’s name will be changed. Reservation for Dalits and other backwards classes will be reduced while for Muslims it will be increased to 30%. Love Jihad law will be repealed. This is a promise to Muslims.”

The poster is viral ahead of upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh.

This screenshot has been widely shared on Facebook.

It was also posted on Facebook pages I Support Modi Ji and BJP [over 6 lakh followers]; हिन्दू सनातन संघ [over 22K followers]; and NaMo Always [over 35k followers].

Morphed image

The quote attributed to Yadav is so controversial that if he had indeed made such comments it would be breaking news. But no news channel has reported on the alleged statement.

Abdul Hafiz Gandhi, National Spokesperson of Samajwadi Party, told Alt News, “The graphic is completely fabricated. It is neither made by our team nor Akhilesh Yadav has ever said this. It is a coordinated attempt to mislead a specific section of voters. Furthermore, the party is yet to disclose our manifesto.”

Alt News rummaged Samajwadi Party’s Twitter accounts and found a graphic similar to the viral image. To view other posters by SP visit these links — Facebook, Twitter.

The photo of Yadav in the viral image is his latest Twitter profile.

A morphed poster attributes a false quote to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. It portrays that he said his party will build mosques and allocate money for the construction of Babri Masjid. A similar claim was earlier viral where a fake tweet portrayed Yadav promising the construction of Babri Masjid on the land allocated for the Ram Mandir if SP is voted to power.

This article first appeared on Alt News. Read the original here.

Fact-Check: Did Shah Jahan Chop off the Hands of Taj Mahal Workers?

The claim that Shah Jahan chopped the hands of those who built the Taj Mahal is a well known urban myth. However, it’s being used by news channels to compare PM Modi with Mughal rulers.

On December 13, Kashi Vishwanath Dham was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi. He showered flower petals on sanitation workers at Kashi Vishwanath Temple as a gesture of gratitude for keeping the temple clean. While covering this event, News18 anchor Amish Devgan compared the prime minister with the 17th century Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. He claimed that while Prime Minister Modi showered flower petals on sanitation workers, Shah Jahan had chopped the hands of those who built the Taj Mahal.

This claim was repeated by Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar in Gujarat. “Taj Mahal workers’ hands were chopped off, and then there is PM Modi who showered flowers on the workers behind the development of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor to express his gratitude,” he said in Gujarati.

BJP leader Vinay Tendulkar made a similar claim on Twitter.

Alt News found that one of the oldest instances of this claim by a verified media account was by the UK-based Wired in 2010. Six years prior to this, UK’s leading news portal The Guardian also made the same claim.

The amplification of an urban myth

The claim – Shah Jahan chopped the hands of those who built the Taj Mahal – is a well known urban myth. Alt News spoke with historian S Irfan Habib who said, “I can state that there is neither any evidence to back this story nor any credible historian has ever made this claim. It is worth noting that this urban myth goes back to the 1960s and I heard it through word of mouth. However, there is one notable difference. Today, there is a communal spin to the myth, while back then it was more like a jibe on Shah Jahan.”

Also read: PM Modi Must Realise That a Diarchy Is as Big a Threat to Democracy as Dynastic Politics

On Google Books, we found ‘Journal of Historical Research’ published by the Department of History, Ranchi University in 1971. It addresses the story as an urban legend.

In 2017, The Times of India debunked multiple myths related to the Taj Mahal, including the one at hand. “This story contrasts with available evidence and a vast settlement called Taj Ganj that still exists today. It was set up by Emperor Shah Jahan to house the thousands of masons, artisans and other workers who had assembled from the distant parts of his empire. The descendants of those workers still live there and practise the skills of their forefathers,” the article said. It was authored by journalist Manimugdha Sharma.

India Today had published a listicle on Shah Jahan in 2016 where this claim is again referred to as a myth.

That same year, Pakistan-based news outlet Dawn published an article about New York-based Rajiv Joseph’s play ‘Guards At The Taj’ which is based on the same myth. The article states, “The story about Shah Jehan ordering the amputation of 40,000 hands has entered folklore. Even though no contemporary account confirms this incident, the fact that it is still widely believed is proof of the unchecked power wielded by the Mughals, as well as by other monarchs of that period.” The Hindustan Times also published a report on this play.

More crucially, no such information is stated on the official website of the Taj Mahal as of December 2021. However, the website Taj Tours published a blog addressing this myth. The blog hypothesised how the myth came about, “In reality, Shah Jahan imposed a moral boundation on his workers that they cannot work for any emperor. In modern time, we call it as a contract between the emperor and his workers. So, the saying “hands of the workers were amputated” came into being as these workers could not seek new work from any other emperor.”

Manimugdha Sharma, who has authored multiple articles regarding misinformation targetting the Taj Mahal, refuted any historical basis for this claim while speaking to Alt News.

News18 anchor Amish and BJP leader NS Tomar amplified decades-old urban myth targetting Shah Jahan. There is no evidence that Shah Jahan cut off the hands of the workers who built the Taj Mahal.

This article was originally published on Alt News.

How Disinformation Led to Right-Wing Groups Attacking a Missionary School in MP

A YouTube channel called ‘Aayudh’ uploaded an “exposé” video insinuating that eight students who worship Hindu gods were made to partake in a sacrament, a Christian religious ritual, in the school.

On December 6, members of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal vandalised St Joseph Senior Higher Secondary in Madhya Pradesh’s Ganj Basoda, claiming that the school “converted” Hindu students to Christianity. As per a Hindustan Times report, MP police registered a case against four identified VHP members and 50 unidentified members of Bajrang Dal.

B.B. Sharma, sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP), Ganj Basoda, told HT that cases under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with a deadly weapon) and 427 (causing damage to the amount more than ₹50) were registered.

The HT report also said that the Hindu groups were inspired by a YouTube video that alleged that eight Hindu children were converted to Christianity in the school premises.

Reporting on the same incident, The Indian Express wrote, “The incident occurred at around 12:10 pm, when around 300 people gathered outside St Joseph High School to protest — while the school was conducting exams for Class 12 students. The mob soon turned violent and broke into the school premises, damaging property. School principal Brother Anthony Tynumkal told The Indian Express that the mob was armed with iron rods and stones, and chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ while damaging school property.”

The very real consequences of disinformation

The YouTube channel in question goes by the name “Aayudh”. It uploaded an “exposé” video insinuating that eight students who worship Hindu gods were made to partake in a sacrament, a Christian religious ritual. The channel implied “forced religious conversion”. This video was presented by Sourabh Kumar. He alleged a religious conspiracy for mass conversions in the school.

At the 1:39 mark, a clipping of a publication titled “Sagar Voice” is displayed. The headline of one of the articles in the publication reads “First Holy Communion at Ganj Basoda”. The article carries a photo of a group, including the eight children, dressed in white. It says that the priest of Ganj Basoda, Parish Fr Jose Lee Cyrakkove, was present during the sacrament.

Alt News spoke with Fr Jose Lee. “Sagar Voice is a publication that shares updates related to Church-related activities in MP’s Sagar diocese. As mentioned in the article, eight children participated in Holy Communion and it took place at St Joseph Church Ganj Basoda in Vidisha district of MP on October 31. Holy Communion is a sacrament that is given only to Christians and takes place in the presence of the children’s parents. It’s worth noting that none of the children who participated in the sacrament attend the school that was vandalised. While I’m still trying to understand why the violence took place, I hope the authorities will take cognisance of the incident.”

The video ends with an excerpt from a Hindi poem titled “Power and Forgiveness”, by the renowned Hindi-language poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar. Its English translation can be read here. The poem was recited to advise Hindus to “not tolerate atrocities”.

On December 4, a day after the YouTube video was uploaded, Ganj Basoda-based right-wing outfit Ahirwar Samaj wrote a letter to the Vidisha district collector, informing him of the alleged conversions. The letter also claims that eight Hindu children were converted to Christianity in St Joseph Senior Higher Secondary.

The letter threatens that “violent protests” will be carried out by Hindu groups if FIR is not filed against the “accused” and strict action is not taken within seven days.

Violation of YouTube’s policy on hate speech?

YouTube’s policy on hate speech does not allow targeting individuals or groups based on a plethora of identities, including religion. While Aayudh’s video does not use racial slurs, abuse or openly incite violence, context matters. And YouTube also believes so.

“Consider the intention of your video — is it to inform and educate or to shock and incite?” is a question on the “do’s and don’ts” on the “importance of context” page of YouTube guidelines. Under “what you shouldn’t do”, YouTube says that content creators should not try to “shock or disgust” their viewers.

Since no social media platform has a policy against disinformation, one can only analyse disinformation shared with the intent to spread hate or fan hate/ violence from the lens of the platforms’ existing policies.

There was no purpose of the video other than targeting the minority Christian community in India using disinformation.

On December 6, the day the violence took place, Aayudh uploaded a “ground report” where its reporter took credit for the channel’s reportage on the alleged conversions that led the Hindu community to take to the streets. In another video uploaded the next day, the channel again accused the school of running an “illegal conversion racket”.

Several other right-wing channels have also amplified the false “conversion narrative”, including Sudarshan News. The disinformation led to violence when Class XII students were giving a mathematics exam and barely escaped the attack. “Ek dhakka aur do, St Joseph tod do” (Give it another push, bring down the Babri mosque) was one of the slogans raised during the attack. This was also a signature tune used to egg the mob in the run-up to the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

Alt News has emailed YouTube about Aayudh and if the channel will be suspended. This article will be updated with YouTube’s response.

This article was originally published on AltNews.

Lauding Govts’ Bundelkhand Project, BJP Leaders Share Photo of AP-Telangana Dam

BJP legislators and other rightwing leaders all tweeted photos of the Srisailam dam, claiming it was part of a project inaugurated in UP by PM Modi.

In a three-day visit from November 19 to 21, to Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated and launched infrastructure projects worth more than Rs 6,000 crore in the Bundelkhand region.

On November 19, BJP MLA Dr Avadhesh Singh posted an image of a dam and claimed that Bundelkhand will get such irrigation projects. He wrote, “Bundelkhand which was traditionally used by politicians for their personal benefits is today witnessing a sea of change.” It’s worth noting the text over the dam’s image reads “Bundelkhand’s gift” (translated from बुंदेलखंड की सौगात).

BJP MLA Ravindra Nath Tripathi and Suresh Kumar Khanna, BJP member Anil Kumar, and Hindu Yuva Vahini Gujarat in-charge Yogi Devnath also shared the same image.

Image verification

Alt News performed a reverse image search and found that the image in question was published by Deccan Chronicle in 2014. As per the report, the image shows the Srisailam Dam. This is constructed across the Krishna River in Nagarkurnool district in Telangana and Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh.

The image shows the comparison between the viral image and the image in Deccan Chronicle. Both images are identical.

On November 19, the PM India website stated in a press release. It stated that the projects announced by PM Modi include: Arjun Sahayak Project, Ratauli Weir Project, Bhaoni Dam Project and Majhgaon-Chilli Sprinkler Project.

To sum it up, several BJP leaders posted a photo of Srisailam Dam and claimed that it is a gift for Bundelkhand.

This article first appeared on Alt News. Read the original here.

Claim of Janmashtami Being Celebrated for First Time in Kashmir in 32 Years Is False

Several news outlets and prominent persons, however, claimed as much without fact-checking.

On the occasion of Janmashtami this year, several social media users tweeted visuals of celebrations at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk in Kashmir.

Gujarat in charge of Hindu Yuva Vahini Yogi Devnath tweeted that this happened after 32 years and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah. His tweet got over 4,000 likes,

Sudarshan News head Suresh Chavhanke, along with rightwing propaganda website OpIndia, and news outlets Zee News, News18, Nai Dunia, VTV Gujarati and RSS mouthpiece Organiser made the same claim.

In PM Modi’s Varanasi Speech, a Mix of False Claims, Half-Truths and Exaggerated Praises

On July 15, the prime minister inaugurated various development projects in UP and praised chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s governance.

The Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly elections will be held between February to March next year. Campaigning for the polls has begun and it is not unusual for the incumbent government to make assertions about the milestones it has achieved in the past years. On July 15, PM Narendra Modi inaugurated various development projects in UP and praised chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s governance.

During the length of the 30-minute speech, the prime minister made various claims and among them were false or misleading statements. There were also instances where the PM presented his favourable opinions about BJP’s governance as facts.

Analysis of PM Modi’s speech in Varanasi

Claim 1: UP conducts the highest COVID-19 tests

Between 7:15 to 7:42 in his speech, the Prime Minister said, “Today UP is the state that conducts the highest testing and vaccination in the country…”

According to COVID19India.org, Uttar Pradesh has conducted the maximum number of tests. But UP is also the most populated state in the country.

Similarly, UP has administered the highest total number of COVID vaccine doses (first+second dose), as per the latest (July 26) data of the MoHFW. But when the data is analysed as a percentage of fully vaccinated people per lakh, a different story emerges.

Alt News calculated the number of fully vaccinated people per lakh of population in each state based on the number of Aadhaar cardholders.

As per this data, UP has 3,516.89 fully vaccinated people per lakh population. It is the second-lowest and significantly behind the national rate of 7,575.84. (view spreadsheet)

While the above statement could be directly countered with data, PM Modi made other misleading remarks that ignored the ground reality. While he praised CM Adityanath’s handling of COVID, terming it as “meritious”, the prime minister omitted to mention the thousands of dead bodies found floating on the Ganges or cremated along its banks when the second wave was at its peak.

Claim 2: Increase in medical colleges under Yogi

The prime minister also claimed, “Until four years go Uttar Pradesh had only a dozen medical colleges. Now they have increased by 4 times…”

CM Adityanath took oath as Uttar Pradesh chief minister in March 2017. As per MoHFW data, UP had 38 colleges in 2016.

In 2021, this increased to 57 which is not even close to a four-fold increase. A four-fold increase would mean that UP would have now had 152 colleges.

Claim 3: Jal Jeevan mission project is progresing rapidly

Halfway through his address, PM Modi said that the government is working rapidly to provide clean water to every household. He was referring to the BJP government’s 2019 flagship initiative Jal Jeevan Mission to provide tap water connection to every rural home by 2024. According to the data on the JJM website, in the past two years, the share of households with tap water connections in UP has risen from 1.96% to 11.99% of the total number of households. But in the same time period, the number of households with tap water connections in Bihar has increased from 1.84% to 85.74%. In absolute numbers, Bihar has added 1,44,15,050 (highest) connections as compared to UP’s 26,32,761 (fourth highest).

Claim 4: UP is safe for women under Yogi’s tenure

PM Modi also applauded the “rule of law” in Uttar Pradesh. “Parents used to live in fear and uncertainty about the safety of their daughters. This has changed. Those who harass our sisters and daughters know they can not escape the law and order,” he said, ironically only months after the Hathras gang rape that brought widespread criticism for the state government’s handling of crime against women, especially Dalit women.

The 2017 Unnao rape case had also revealed UP’s mishandling of sexual crimes. It took two years to punish BJP leader and MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar accused of raping a minor and only after she tried self-immolation outside the CM’s residence and her father died in judicial custody.

According to the latest data (2019) on the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), UP is the largest contributor (14.7%) to crime against women in the country. The data from the previous report also indicates the same.

As per the report, UP’s conviction rate of crimes against women is fourth-highest at 55.2. However, Mizoram which tops in this metric has a conviction rate of 88.3 followed by Manipur (58) and Meghalaya (57.3) [view PDF].

The total number of cases of crimes against women in UP is 199,553, the third-highest in the nation after West Bengal (263,854) and Maharashtra (220,435). [view PDF]

Alt News studied the latest NCRB data found that the following stats indicate an alarming situation in UP:

  1. UP has the most number of rapes in custody (22): 10 by a public servant and 12 by a management/staff of jail/remand home/place of custody (view PDF)
  2. The rate of dowry deaths is highest in UP at 2.2 per lakh people. It is twice as much as the national average. (view PDF)
  3. UP had most instances reported on miscarriage and acid attack in the country. (view PDF)
  4. UP and Maharashtra have the highest rates of total crimes (ROTC) against women in metropolitan cities with populations over two million. But UP has a much higher ROTC in all three cities as compared to Maharashtra. Further, Lucknow has the second-highest ROTC. The highest is in Jaipur, Rajasthan. (view PDF)
  5. UP ranks second in the country when it comes to cases registered for the total number of rape and gang rape. First is Rajasthan. (view PDF)

The prime minister praised the UP government on several counts, exaggerating its achievements and presenting his opinion of CM Adityanath’s governance as facts. He disregarded COVID deaths and oxygen shortage in the state, instead praised the CM’s work without presenting accurate data. UP contributes the most to crimes against women, yet the PM said that women now “feel safe” in the state.

This article was first published on Alt News.

Adityanath Misleads Modi, Shah on ‘Harvard’ Study Praising UP Government

Document handed over by embattled UP chief minister still carries Harvard logo even though institute publishing the report had removed it since it was improperly used.

There have been reports of a growing political tussle between the Central government and the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh which will go to poll next year. Speculations of a rift are circulating amid Prime Minister Modi’s mishandling of COVID-19 and Adityanath facing flak over the rising number of dead bodies found in Ganga.

The UP chief minister has dismissed rumours of BJP’s unhappiness with his leadership. On June 10, he met home minister Amit Shah in Delhi. A photograph from the meeting showed Adityanath handing over a book to him titled ‘कोविड-19 एवं प्रवासी संकट का समाधान: उत्तर प्रदेश पर एक रिपोर्ट’’ (‘COVID-19 and the Migrant Crisis Resolution: A Report On Uttar Pradesh’).

The next day, Adityanath presented the book to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind and BJP President JP Nadda. The photo with Nadda shows an English version of the same report – “COVID-19 & The Migrant Crisis Resolution: A Report On Uttar Pradesh”.

News agency UNI reported, “As a testimony of some excellent work in tackling probably the biggest migrant crisis in about a century, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath handed over a copy of the book to Prime Minister Narendra Modi released on the study conducted by Harvard University.”

“In fact, CM Yogi presented three books to PM Modi, one regarding the study of Harvard University, another the similar study by John Hopkins University and the third one by the suggested model of ascertaining Gross Domestic Product at the district level,” the report added.

The Daily Pioneer reported the same on June 12.

The study is not by Harvard

The book handed over by Adityanath to the home minister is the Hindi translation (‘कोविड-19 एवं प्रवासी संकट का समाधान: उत्तर प्रदेश पर एक रिपोर्ट’) of the study ‘COVID-19 & The Migrant Crisis Resolution: A Report On Uttar Pradesh’. The cover page of the book has two logos – Institute For Competitiveness (IFC) and Microeconomics of Competitiveness (MOC), an affiliate network of Harvard Business School.

Back in April, the same study was hailed by certain news outlets as Harvard University lauding the Yogi Adityanath government for handling the migrant crisis more effectively than other states. Alt News had revealed that the study was not prepared by Harvard University but IFC.

The study was shared on a WhatsApp group ‘State Media 1’ where the UP government communicates with journalists. This time as well, the study was misrepresented as a Harvard study and shared on the same group.

According to IFC’s website, it is “the Indian knot in the global network” of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness (ISC) at Harvard Business School. IFC doesn’t refer to itself as a part of Harvard Business School. ISC prospectus lists IFC as an affiliate of MOC, which is essentially a Harvard course on competitiveness and economic development. It was developed by Professor Michael Porter and the staff and affiliates of ISC.

Amit Kapoor, honorary chairman at IFC, had told Alt News over an email conversation, “It is not accurate to refer to a study by an MOC affiliate as a Harvard study.” Kapoor also informed, “Contrary to media reports, our study doesn’t conclude UP government handled the migrant crisis more effectively than other states. The document is not a comparative statement on the handling of the crisis by different states. It is documentation pertaining to the effort of the Uttar Pradesh government and extracting insights from the same.”

Also read: We Know the ‘Harvard’ Study on UP is Not from Harvard. It’s Also Not Much of a ‘Study’.

“The document was for internal consumption and was not intended to be made public. In addition, as you note, the study/document was not projected as a Harvard study anywhere in the document, rather as a work of the Institute For Competitiveness. The interpretation was unexpected. The logo from the report will be removed to correct the interpretation and to not project anything wrong,” he continued.

But after the study was handed over to the Prime Minister, the President and home minister still carried the logo, Alt News contacted Kapoor for clarification. “As stated earlier, the report was meant for internal use and not to be released in public. To your question, IFC did remove the MOC network logo from the report, which I am also attaching in the email. This report had not yet been released by Institute For Competitiveness in the public domain and the document is for limited internal circulation. These reports being shared have not been printed or published by Institute For Competitiveness.”

It is noteworthy that the document does not carry a disclaimer stating that it is only meant for internal use.

What did the Johns Hopkins study say?

UNI reported that another “similar study” by Johns Hopkins was also presented to the prime minister. Two months ago, Newsroom Post, Web Dunia and The Pioneer wrongly hailed Uttar Pradesh as a ‘topper’ in COVID-19 management, citing a report by Johns Hopkins. Dr David Peters, a professor at the university’s Department of International Health and one of the authors of the study, had refuted claims made by Indian media.

“The case study covered activities in UP from January 30, 2020, to January 15, 2021, and aimed to document the range of actions taken in Uttar Pradesh in response to COVID-19 and to identify lessons for how to respond in resource-constrained settings. As you can see in the report itself, the case study did not make comparisons to other countries or states, nor make claims about which states or countries are top performers,” he told Alt News.

In April, two studies were incorrectly projected by the media as studies by Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University lauding the UP government for managing the migrant crisis and COVID-19 better than other states. These claims were further amplified on social media and WhatsApp.

The study that was falsely attributed to Harvard especially gained a lot of traction with even prominent journalists tweeting about it. However, neither the claims nor the attribution was correct.

Despite clarifications published two months ago, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath presented these studies to the Home Minister, the President and the Prime Minister. The false claims were also repeated on a WhatsApp group where the UP government communicates with journalists.

This article was originally published on AltNews.

Rightwing Twitter Users Post Hollywood Actors’ Images to Question Sonia Gandhi’s ‘Morality’

Photographs of Hollywood actresses have repeatedly been shared with sexist comments to target the Congress leader.

On December 9, the president of the Indian National Congress Sonia Gandhi celebrated her 74th birthday. Several politicians extended best wishes to her and prayed for her health on Twitter. At the same time, an all too familiar section on the platform, juxtaposed images of Gandhi and Hollywood stars to trend the hashtags #अंतरराष्ट्रीय_बार_डांसर_दिवस (International Bar Dancer Day) and #BarDancer.

Twitter user @Brand_vrai (archived link) shared a collage while using #BarDancerDay multiple times. This tweet gained over 900 retweets.

Twitter users @6OWwcX17fWGrqeD, @avinash0785 and @doctorrichabjp posted a photo montage. On the left is a recent image of Gandhi, while on the right are three black and white images of women. As per the claim, the black-white images depict Gandhi in 1970. Twitter user @doctorrichabjp wrote, “Happy Birthday to the lady who went from wearing skimpy clothes to the most expensive ones.”

Also read: ‘Disinformation Op’: India Responsible Democracy, Doesn’t Practice Such Campaigns, Says MEA

(Translated from: सबसे छोटे कपड़ो से सबसे महँगे कपड़े वाली देवी को जन्मदिवस की शुभकामनाएं)

Sexist targetting of Gandhi using photos of Hollywood actresses continues

This is not the first time that Gandhi has been targetted with images of Hollywood actresses. In March 2019, Alt News reported that a photograph of Marilyn Monroe was morphed with Sonia Gandhi’s face, calling her a “bar dancer”.

Image posted by Twitter user @Brand_vrai

 

Image on the left: The woman in this image is indeed Sonia Gandhi. It was published in 2014 by India TV.

Image on the right: This image is available on stock images website Alamy. As per the caption, it shows a US-based couple in the 1950s. Readers should note Gandhi was born in 1946.

Images posted by Twitter user @doctorrichabjp

 

Image in the centre: The woman in this image is Swiss actor Ursula Andress. The image is from the sets of the 1962 James Bond film Dr. No. We found this image on Internet Movies Database (IMDb).

Image on top left: This image is also of Andress. We found it on Russia-based celebrity photo website, The Place.

Image on the bottom left: This is a photograph of Marilyn Monroe that was morphed with Sonia Gandhi’s face.  It is being shared on social media since 2015 with the claim that Gandhi was a “bar dancer”.

Alt News has debunked this misinformation every year since 2018. Photographs of Hollywood actresses are used to question Sonia Gandhi’s ‘morality’. The viral claims not only target Gandhi but the actresses too whose jobs are looked down upon and used for cheap political propaganda.

This article was originally published on Alt News.