MHA takes cognisance of complaint against The Wire’s founder being invited to address IAS officers

The Narendra Modi government has taken cognisance of a strong objection against the decision to invite Siddharth Varadarajan, the founding Editor of Leftist propaganda website The Wire, to speak at the prestigious Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy of Administration (LBSNAA). The Home Ministry has assured that it would be very careful in the future before inviting such people at prestigious governmental institutions and events.

According to a report by MyNation, the organisation Legal Rights Observatory (LRO) had questioned the rationale of inviting Siddharth Varadarajan to speak in such institutions and government events. The LRO had registered its complaint to both Home and Defence Ministry regarding the invitation to a person who has allegedly professed anti-India stand and sympathises with the violent Naxal movement.

Siddharth Varadarajan, an American citizen and husband of DU professor Nandini Sundar, who herself is accused of murdering a tribal in Chattisgarh Sukhma, have often known to have taken anti-India and often abused Indian armed forces. Varadarajan, who runs a website called ‘The Wire’ which is notoriously known for publishing fake news and anti-Indian propaganda, has been caught pants down several times for spreading misinformation on social media.

The Defence Ministry had also ordered Director General of Military Intelligence (DGMI) to probe against the decision to invite Varadarajan to speak at LBSNAA at Mussoorie to address the IAS officer trainees, the My Nation report claimed.

The Union home ministry’s left-wing extremism division said, “We have received your complaint regarding inviting people at IAS training academy. We assure you to take precaution in future in this regard.”

Meanwhile, LRO, a Delhi based legal organisation has called Varadarajan as an “active Maoist cadre” and also accused him as one of the main accused in the Shamnath Baghel murder case in Chattisgarh’s Bastar, along with his wife, Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar.

In its letter to the Defence Ministry, protesting against the decision to invite a person who has consistently abused the country and its armed forces, has highlighted some facts associated with the left-wing scribe Varadarajan. Following are the details LRO has written in its complaint to the ministry.

1. Mr Siddharth Varadarajan is the husband of Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar who is main accused and conspirator in Shamnath Baghel murder case of Bastar in Chhattisgarh state. At present, her arrest is pending due to interim order by Hon Supreme Court of India. The deceased Shamnath Baghel was social worker from Maoists — Naxal infested region of Chhattisgarh and he was peacefully and democratically opposing violent communist Maoist insurgents unleashing terror in the region. As per FIR registered against Siddharth Varadarajan’s wife Nandini Sundar (case number: IA 14-2016 filed Nov 10th 2016 in WP Civil 250-2007), Nandini hatched a conspiracy to kill Mr Shamnath Baghel. After registering FIR, Nandini approached Hon Supreme Court to quash said FIR, but the court refused to do so citing evidence produced before the court.
2. Surrendered Naxal-Maoist commander Podium Panda confessed in a press meet in Raipur and then before the high court that he had accompanied Nandini Sundar many times to meet top Maoist commanders in deep jungles of Bastar.
3. The Wire, a website run by Siddharth Varadarajan, always publishes malicious news reports levelling baseless allegations of rapes, molestation, staged encounters against security forces engaged in anti-Naxal ops. That proves he is not a journalist but an active Maoist cadre and inviting him in public programme is a brazen act of promoting violent Maoist terrorist ideology.
4. Siddharth Varadarajan’s website The Wire and Nandini Sundar both published mischievous allegations of rape on the minor girl against CRPF commando in anti-Naxal operation, but the medical test proved allegations wrong and the said victim girl too clarified that no one raped her. Nandini Sundar deleted the controversial tweet but The Wire still has the same report on its website.

Siddharth Varadarajan has often been found resorting to lies and propaganda to further their ideological agenda has been schooled by the social media users several times. Varadarajan’s controversial media portal ‘The Wire’ had also run a series of allegations with glaring loopholes and inconsistencies against the BJP President Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah over his business dealings. In response to the allegations, Jay Shah had slapped Rs.100 crore defamation case against ‘The Wire’.