On Saturday (4th May), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) attempted to cast aspersions on Indian democracy and the integrity of the ongoing elections by trying to build a case for a Congress worker named Arun Reddy.
Reddy, who runs the propaganda X (formerly Twitter) handle ‘Spirit of Congress’ was arrested on Friday (3rd May) night for disseminating a maliciously edited video of BJP leader Amit Shah and falsely claiming that he promised to end reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs.
Through a propaganda piece (archive), BBC came to the rescue of Arun Reddy and elevated his stature from a mere Congress worker to the Chief Minister of the state of Telangana.
The article was dubiously titled ‘India elections: Telangana Chief Minister Arun Reddy held over edited video’. From the very onset, BBC tried to give the impression that the arrest of the Congress worker was an act of ‘political vengeance.’
It claimed, “Police in India have arrested the social media head of one of the country’s main opposition parties over a doctored video of the interior minister.“
“The Congress says Mr Reddy was not involved, and accused the authorities of clamping down on rivals as the country votes in a national election,” the national broadcaster of the UK further added.
BBC claims Arun Reddy is Telangana CM
The BBC article then went on to point out how Amit Shah is a heavyweight politician, insinuating that Arun Reddy has been arrested for messing with the ‘second most powerful man after Narendra Modi.’
In its desperation to cast aspersions on India’s democracy and integrity of elections, the British Broadcasting Corporation passed off the arrested Congress worker as ‘CM of Telangana.’
It wrote, “The doctored video in question showed Mr Shah giving a campaign speech promising to end help for Muslims in the southern state of Telangana, where Arun Reddy is chief minister.“
Later in its article, the BBC quoted a Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed to claim that Arun Reddy is not involved in any doctored video.
BBC attempts to do ‘course correction’
The BBC later tweaked its headline to refer to Arun Reddy as ‘top India opposition official,’ which too is a misleading description of the arrested Congress worker. A few hours later, it changed the headline again to ‘India opposition official’.
As expected, the propaganda news outlet however did not bother to cite an apology or issue any clarification for its outrageous and misleading claims.
Nonetheless, the BBC continued to reiterate its dubious narrative about the state of India’s politics under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
To further amplify the ‘Darr ka Mahol’ narrative, it claimed, “Mr Modi has promoted a brand of muscular Hindu nationalism since coming to power a decade ago. He is expected to win a third term.“
In recent times, several Western propaganda news outlets such as the BBC, The Guardian and ABC News have upped their ante in peddling disinformation in the hopes of influencing the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.