On Monday (March 20) morning, ‘journalist’ Saba Naqvi courted controversy after she inadvertently posted the screenshot of a ‘Congress toolkit’ targeting the ruling BJP government.
As part of the propaganda, Naqvi was supposed to post only the graphics and links shared with her by Congress IT Cell. Instead, she included the entire email transcript (archive), containing the propaganda material.
Saba Naqvi, who poses as a ‘neutral journalist’, inadvertently exposed how she shares tweets at the behest of the Congress party. This has left netizens wondering whether her criticism of the government is at all organic or sponsored by rival Opposition parties.
It must be mentioned that the graphic posted by Saba Naqvi was originally designed by cartoonist-turned-propagandist Satish Acharya. “You can’t speak,” he had tweeted on Saturday (March 18) in the hopes of deviating public discourse from the anti-India tirade of Rahul Gandhi in the United Kingdom.
You can’t speak… #ParliamentSession #RahulGandhi pic.twitter.com/9O3UHBZFWW
— Satish Acharya (@satishacharya) March 18, 2023
Interestingly, the ‘toolkit’ was published in its entirety by Congress sympathiser, Sukla Sen, on his Facebook profile. It included captions and relevant links for friendly journalists and activists to share on social media and rationalise Rahul Gandhi’s anti-India remarks in the process.
The captions included, ‘Storm over Rahul Gandhi Speeches in London: An Updated Account’, ‘Arun Jaitley testifies on the campaign against Emergency on foreign soil’ and excerpts from the speech of the Congress scion.
The IT Cell of the grand-old party relied on whataboutery and false equivalence to justify Rahul Gandhi’s demand for foreign intervention in the internal political affairs of India.
Reportedly, Sukla Sen is a Mumbai-based activist and the founding member of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP). One of the demands of the organisation, founded in the year 2000, is the rollback of the nuclear weapons programmes of India and Pakistan.
The Congress sympathiser is also the author of several propaganda pieces, across several publications. He has cast aspersions on the Rafale Deal, tried to downplay BJP’s landslide victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and fear-mongered about the BJP as early as 2009.
The toolkit controversy and its origins
The monicker ‘toolkit’ has become a shorthand for the systemic targeting of India and its institutions by a vicious cabal of journalists, activists and politicians.
It was first popularised by infamous climate activist Greta Thunberg, who inadvertently revealed the sinister global campaign in a tweet during the anti-farm law protests in India in February 2021.
The document shared by Greta Thunberg listed a series of actions that people across the world could take to pressurise the Indian Government over the cause of agitating farmers.
As part of the plan, celebrities including Rihanna, Mia Khalifa and Canadian MP Jagmeet and others came forward in support of the anti-farm law protests. The ‘toolkit’ shared by Greta Thunberg has made it clear that it was part of a larger conspiracy to cause unrest in India.
Later, in May 2021, a Congress toolkit began doing the rounds on social media, which suggested ways to paint the Kumbh Mela as a ‘Covid-10 super-spreader.’
