In the last week of February 2022, several videos emerged on social media where faculty of UPSC training centres were feeding left-leaning and Islamist propaganda to their students. OpIndia published multiple reports on the issue, especially about Delhi based Vision IAS, where a faculty named Smriti Shah’s videos went viral. Recently, a whistle-blower, who took admission at Vision IAS, contacted us and informed us how the faculty has been feeding propaganda to the UPSC aspirants.
Sagar (we are using a pseudo name for the whistle-blower) told us how he found several training sessions by Smriti Shah problematic as she repeatedly mocked Hinduism and Hindu Gods. He sent us multiple videos of training sessions held by different teachers, which we are still scanning. In this series, we have extracted specific portions of the sessions where Shah subtly implanted the propaganda while teaching different topics.
Process of correcting history books deemed wrong
Shah conducted lectures on multiple topics, out of which several sessions were on Ethics. In session three of Ethics, she talked about how the content of education should be without any ideological colouration, however, she doesn’t seem to follow her own advice. She mentioned how NCERT books are undergoing a change as a part of correcting History books, to give more space to historical figures and events that happened before Mughals came to India.
Visibly pained by the fact that ancient Indian history is being included, and the period of Mughals is being reduced to have a balanced perspective of Indian history, she said, “If your NCERT content undergoes a change and it is being projected as everything about ancient Indian history, it is being glorified, and medieval Indian history has been undermined. You are distorting the history to satisfy your own ideological bias.”
Vision IAS | Smriti Shah | Process of correcting history books deemed wrong from OpIndia Videos on Vimeo.
She further said, “What kind of society are you going to create when you have projected that ancient Indian history is Indian history whereas medieval Indian history was nothing but invasions and exploitation which happened. You want to create a certain religious ideology in your country. And accordingly, you are distorting the content of NCERT on how to challenge democracy, secularism, demonetization, all that has been removed from the content of NCERT. So what you are doing now is that the content of education is not driven by the scientific temper but ideological colouration.”
While Shah, unfortunately, did not explain whether demonetization was a part of ancient India or medieval India, her hypocrisy was very much visible. She was pained by the fact that more space was given to the ancient history of India, which the content creators of NCERT ignored for decades. The older generations do not know much about the Hindu kings that ruled the region before the Islamic invasions began. They do not know what atrocities native Indians faced at the hands of the invaders. All they know is the highly glorified history of the invaders who came to plunder the land.
Unnecessary bashing of Ambani-Adani
For some reason, the left-leaning section of the society has deep-rooted hate for Ambanis and Adanis. The case is the same with Shah. In the same session, she talked about the role of media in spreading propaganda on the behest of corporate houses and the government. She said the media is not giving the correct information. According to Shah, because the media has failed to show how corporate houses survived the pandemic, but the middle and lower class is suffering, no one is questioning the corporate houses and the government.
Vision IAS | Smriti Shah | Targeting Ambani Adani from OpIndia Videos on Vimeo.
In this context, she openly targeted Ambani and Adani groups. She said, “Nobody is talking about the farmer crisis. Nobody is talking about how the economy has gone down. Nobody is talking about it. As a result, we think that maybe this is God’s act. It is an act of God that the economy has taken a downturn. None of us is questioning the government. None of us is questioning corporate sectors. Why? Because we believe all of us are equally deprived because there has been an act of God which is nothing but this pandemic.”
She added, “But when you are told that the others are gaining profit and it is only you who are suffering. Do you realize rich people have been able to sail through? Ambani Adani, all of them are growing at a different rate. Then you will be made to realize that approximately one per cent of rich people have more than 40 per cent of the national wealth or assets. When we discuss these topics, then you will realize something wrong is happening to us. We should raise our voices. So media is playing the role of social management tool. They are under the influence of either politicization or corporatization of media. More than half of them are owned by business houses. Who has invested in Network 18? Media has become a tool in the hands of corporate houses and political parties to serve their vested interests.”
Here, in this clip, Shah repeated the same anti-corporate line that the Indian left continues to repeat. Vilifying Indian businesses is a favourite pass time for the left. Tata and Birla were the targets once upon a time, now it is Adani and Ambani. Contrary to her thought process, these corporate houses, including Ambani and Adani, opened their wallets to help the government and the people of India during the pandemic.
These much-vilified corporates were setting up hospitals, providing Oxygen for patients, helping feed the poor. All these corporate houses provided employment, kept the wheels of the economy running, and helped the country survive the pandemic. Someone should ask her whether India would have been able to develop a vaccine without corporate houses. If she thinks SII is not a corporate house, then it is a whole different case.
Bizzare statement on Muzaffarnagar riots
Talking about the role of social media in spreading fake news, she alleged that the Muzaffarnagar riots happened in 2013 because it was given a communal colour on social media. She said, “It was a case of eve-teasing. A girl was eve teased by a boy. However, it was presented as a Hindu girl who has been eve teased by a Muslim boy. The communal colour was given to the case which resulted in riots.”
It is very important to mention here that the riots broke out in 2013 due to the events that followed the incidents of eve-teasing of a Hindu Jat girl by a Muslim man who got killed when the girl’s brothers Sachin and Gaurav went to confront him.
Vision IAS | Smriti Shah | Muzaffarnagar riots from OpIndia Videos on Vimeo.
In retaliation, both Sachin and Gaurav were mob lynched by seven men, named Muzassim, Muzammil, Furquan, Nadeem, Jehangir, Afzal and Iqbal. This incident led to one of the bloodiest communal clashes in Muzzafarnagar, killing at least 60 and leaving around 55,000 homeless.
The Sessions Court in 2019 had declared the seven accused guilty in Kawal double murder case. They were charged under sections 147, 148, 149, 302 of the IPC. The seven had slaughtered Sachin and his 17-year-old cousin Gaurav by hitting them with rods and had brutally crushed their faces with heavy stones. The issue had a communal colour from the very beginning. OpIndia recently met the family of Sachin and Gaurav. Details can be read here.
‘Ram Rajya has nothing to do with Lord Ram’
During the first training session on Ethics, Shah claimed that the concept of Ram Rajya has nothing to do with Lord Ram. She said, “In general, the best thing about following ethics is, first of all, the incidents of social strive would be less. The social conflict in the society would be less. Because you are also following a set of ethics, and I am following the same prescribed set of ethics. So in that situation, the chances of a conflict between us would be less.”
Vision IAS | Smriti Shah | Claims Ram Rajya has nothing to do with Lord Ram from OpIndia Videos on Vimeo.
She added, “That is why we always talk about creating a virtuous society. The concept of Ram Rajya has nothing to do with Lord Ram, to be very precise. The idea of Ram Rajya was to construct a virtuous society. A society in which every individual is ethical in their action. Automatically the incidences of crime, the incidences of conflict, [and] incidences of chaos would come to an end, and you will establish a peaceful society. You will establish a society where there exists harmony and tolerance towards each other’s diversity.”
The whole concept of Ram Rajya is based on the life of Bhagwan Ram as a king. How can someone with so much “knowledge” like Shah cannot see that in the word “Ram Rajya” there is literally the name of Bhagwan Ram!
‘Valmiki was a dacoit’
In the same session, Shah called Maharishi Valmiki, who wrote Ramayana, a dacoit. She was talking about how education plays a role in building ethics in an individual. She said, “Value-based education is the need of the hour. Because right from childhood you have to give right kind of value system because more or less values remain permanent and it is very challenging to change. However, I will not say it cannot change.”
Vision IAS | Smriti Shah | Called Maharishi Valmiki a dacoit from OpIndia Videos on Vimeo.
She added, “It can change, but it will be a taxing job. So how it can change, the environment goes under a change. If all of a sudden some enlightenment happens. For example Valmiki, he was a dacoit. But his circumstances changed, and later, he was the one who wrote Ramayana.”
The Valmiki Samaaj, especially those who live in Punjab, disagree with the part of the story that he was a dacoit at any given time. In fact, Punjab and Haryana High Court had delivered a judgment in 2010 stating he was never a dacoit.
Whitewashing the problematic Tanishq ad
In a clip from the fourth session of Ethics, Shah ranted out her frustration over the fact that a problematic ad by Tanishq was taken down after public protests. The particular ad had promoted a Hindu woman being married into a Muslim household. The Hindu outfits raised objections against the ad due to the fact that cases of Love Jihad are on the rise in India and this ad seemed to promote it.
Vision IAS | Smriti Shah | Whitewashes problematic Tanishq ad from OpIndia Videos on Vimeo.
She was talking about how accepting is a society to changes. Pointing out that there was no use of policies if the society is not ready to accept the change, she said, “Tanishq ad was taken down. Those people came, right? Those who protested against Love Jihad? What did we do? They had to remove the ad.”
She added, “On one hand, you talk about unity in diversity and cultural integrity. Then-government allowed inter-religious marriages in the constitution. But did society change? Even today, inter-caste marriages do not happen. Honor killing is common. They call it Love Jihad. Moral policing happen. What have we done? Nothing.”
She further pointed out the role of NGOs, civil societies and pressure groups in “bringing change to the society”.
Though no one should have a problem with that when it comes to interfaith marriages, if the male from a particular community hides his identity and presents himself as a Hindu to lure a Hindu girl and marries her without revealing his true identity, should it be acceptable in the society? Marriage based on lies that have led to Hindu women being tortured and even murdered should be acceptable? These are the questions that should be asked to these faculty members.
OpIndia is scanning through the videos we have received and will soon publish the next report in the series.
