The Ashoka University has announced that it is withdrawing tweets and posts where they had introduced Nidhi Razdan as an associate professor at Harvard University “pending further cross-verification”. Nidhi Razdan had earlier revealed that she fell victim to a phishing attack and she was never really offered a job at Harvard.
Ashoka University is withdrawing tweets related to Nidhi Razdan
The Kautilya School of Public Policy (KSPP) has also appeared to have quietly edited their website to remove the Razdan’s Harvard links.
Kautilya School of Public Policy has edited their website regarding information about Nidhi Razdan
People on social media have also pointed out that the KSPP and those associated with it have quietly deleted their tweets and posts where they introduced Nidhi Razdan as an Associate Professor at Harvard.
Got it. It was @KautilyaSPP. All old tweets deleted now though.
Twitter had erupted after Nidhi Razdan revealed that she had fallen for a phishing attack and that Harvard University had not really offered her a job. Following the revelation, Joshua Benton, senior director and former Director of the Nieman Journalism Lab of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, clarified that Harvard University does not have a school of journalism or department of journalism and has no professors either.
As early as September 2020, a Twitter user had pointed out that the course does not appear on Harvard’s course list. Following the revelation, netizens had reacted to the matter questioning how she had fallen for the phishing attack.
Twitter had erupted after Nidhi Razdan revealed that she had fallen for a phishing attack and that Harvard University had not really offered her a job. Now, Joshua Benton, senior director and former Director of the Nieman Journalism Lab of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, has had his say on the Nidhi Razdan phishing attack. He has clarified that Harvard University does not have a school of journalism or department of journalism and has no professors either.
Wow — this is awful.
For the record, @Harvard has no school of journalism, no department of journalism, and no professors of journalism.
The Nieman Foundation, which Joshua Benton has referred to in his tweet, offers fellowships related to journalism. According to its website, the fellowship is for “individuals with a specific project to enhance journalism who would like to spend up to 12 weeks at Harvard advancing their idea.” “Following their work on campus, our fellows have gone on to assume senior leadership positions in newsrooms, produce groundbreaking journalism in every medium, launch entrepreneurial projects, and win the industry’s top honors,” it adds.
The Nieman Foundation has three initiatives: Nieman Lab, Nieman Reports and Nieman Storyboard. Nieman is located at Harvard’s Lippman House which “is the convening center every year for dozens of seminars, master classes, conferences and awards ceremonies. These bring together not only our fellows but the broadest-possible array of those practicing, celebrating, challenging and advancing journalism.”
Joshua Benton also pointed out that the Harvard Extension School only offers a Masters of Liberal Arts degree with a focus on journalism. Furthermore, it does not have full-time professors of its own. All the courses are taught by adjuncts and working journalists, he said.
And you don't get an actual degree in journalism — you get a "master's of liberal arts" with a journalism focus
According to the website of the Harvard Extension School, “The Master of Liberal Arts, Journalism degree field consists of 12 courses (48 credits), with one required on-campus course.” The course is customizable and includes Proseminar, Feature Writing, News Reporting among others.
It is pertinent to mention here that as early as September 2020, a Twitter user had pointed out that the course does not appear on Harvard’s course list.
Some regions in China have again reported fresh coronavirus cases, causing the communist government to impose lockdown orders.
In what seems to be a second-wave of the Covid-19, several fresh cases have been reported from Shijiazhuang in Hebei province. Following the outbreak, the Chinese authorities have begun to construct large designated quarantine areas for medical observation amidst rising cases.
Reportedly, China has started construction of a medical isolation centre in Hebei province to help contain a severe COVID-19 outbreak. Covering an area of about 33 hectares, the centre will reportedly be used to isolate close contacts and secondary close contacts of confirmed coronavirus patients, according to the Chinese government mouthpiece Global Times.
Race against time! 33 hectares of wasteland was leveled overnight to build a centralized quarantine point with 3,000 rooms for epidemic control purposes in #Shijiazhuang, North China’s Hebei Province. pic.twitter.com/k59GWOvY4H
As per reports, China has transferred more than 20 thousand people to these makeshift centres at Shijiazhuang in Hebei province after fresh cases emerged in the North China province.
In addition to the existing centre, a total of 3,000 makeshift wards are expected to be built in the centre, which will have room for several thousand people. More than 28 million people are already under lockdown in both Heilongjiang and Hebei provinces due to a recent surge in COVID-19 cases there.
The outbreak in China’s North and North-East is said to have originated in the coastal city of Dalian, where a series of local transmissions at the start of the year were traced back to infected cargo from Russia.
Meanwhile, China has reported the highest number of daily COVID-19 cases in more than 10 months on Friday, with a total of 144 new cases recorded on January 14, up from 138 cases a day earlier. China also recorded death in Hebei province yesterday, marking the first death from COVID-19 since mid-May.
Feng Zijian, deputy director of the China Centre for Disease Control (CDC), warned that the Hebei outbreak had been spreading faster than previous ones. The medical experts are also worried that the incubation period for the new strain is longer than previous outbreaks, with infections detected even after the recommended 14 days of isolation.
In what has come as very shocking news, former NDTV anchor Nidhi Razdan today informed that she was conned into believing by scamsters that she has been offered a teaching facility at Harvard University. She took to Twitter today to inform that after contacting the university, she came to known that she was never offered a job there, and she fell victim to a sophisticated version of Nigerian prince email type scam.
On June 13 last year, Nidhi Razdan had announced on Twitter that she is going to join Harvard University as an Associate Professor of Journalism later that year. Consequently, she had announced that she is leaving NDTV after a long career in the controversial news channel. But now she claims that she was the victim of an elaborate phishing scam where she was conned into believing that she was offered a job in the university.
Although anyone can be victim of such scams, the incident does raise some questions. The scam didn’t involve monetary transaction like most online scams are, it was about offering someone a fake job. And it is intriguing how a well-connected person like Nidhi Razdan fell prey to it.
An interview is a basic prerequisite in any such recruitment. Assuming that physical interview was not possible during the pandemic, a video interview must have happened. If it happened, who took it? Did someone impersonate some senior official at Harvard and Nidhi Razdan didn’t recognise that? These questions need to be answered. And if no video interview was taken, it should raise doubt in anyone’s mind.
Before appearing for a job interview, a standard procedure is to study about the employer, visit its website, read the detail of the recruitment procedure, read about the interviewer etc.
According the recruitment process of Harvard University uploaded on its website, the process starts with reviewing resumes, after which selected candidates are screened through telephone. Candidates who clear this step are then called for an interview before an interview team. After the interview, reference check of the selected candidates are done, and only after that, the candidates are selected for the position.
Assuming that physical interview was not done due to Coronavirus pandemic, it must have been replaced with video interview. Had she studied the recruitment process, she should have felt something was not right when it was not done at all.
According to Forbes report on recruiting professors at top universities like Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, and MIT, candidates have to give a one hour seminar, attend a dinner with several faculty, and have a series of 30 minute to one hour meetings with individual faculty. Absence of any of these should have sounded alarms in her mind.
Nidhi Razdan has been a journalist with NDTV for a long time. Being a Delhi based journalist, she is also well connected to several politicians and bureaucrats. As a result, she must have known people who had studied or worked in Harvard, and could have just talked to such people to confirm the same before taking an important decision like quitting NDTV.
According to some reports, she had already moved to Boston to join Harvard. In fact, in September last month, she had said that she is teaching at Harvard, while replying to a Twitter user. This raises another question, how she was already ‘teaching at Harvard’ if the very job she was offered was fake? Does it mean she lied that she was teaching at Harvard when her job was not confirmed? Or was she teaching in some fake university in USA like a Bollywood slapstick comedy?
After she had left NDTV, the channel had taken her comments in its news reports on various issues. In those reports, the channel has identified her as Associate Professor of Harvard. It is very baffling how both Nidhi Razdan and NDTV claimed that she was working at Harvard when she was not. It shows that kind of due diligence, rather the lack of it, the former journalist and the channel used to employ in reporting stories.
Assuming that she had already moved to USA to join her ‘new job’, the question of her visa also arises. Without a letter confirming the appointment at Harvard, she won’t get a proper visa to move to USA to work there. If she indeed got a proper visa like H1B, L1, J1 etc, this means she was given a fake offer letter which even conned the US consulate officials in India, pointing towards involvement of a big ring behind the scam.
If she didn’t have a proper work visa and went to USA, assuming she went there, she may have gone on a tourist visa. That will be violation of US Visa rules, as vising on tourist visa with the intention of joining a job there is not allowed.
Although it is unfortunate that she was scammed like this, the incident does question the kind of decisions she made, and the kind of due diligence she had taken before making those decisions.
The rampancy of corruption in Rajasthan could be gauged from the fact when chief minister Ashok Gehlot was speaking at the Collector Conference on the need to take strict action against corruption, an SDM who was attending the meeting was seeking bribes on the phone.
Two SDMs and an associate of the former SP of Rajasthan’s Dausa district were caught red-handed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau on Thursday while taking bribes. Mobiles phones of the officers and the former SP were confiscated by the ACB officials.
Interestingly, the SDM had apparently received a phone call where she sked a bribe worth Rs 10 lakhs from a construction company. She was in a conference where chief minister Ashok Gehlot was speaking against corruption. In the meeting, the Rajasthan government had decided to establish a special cell under the personnel department to keep a tab on corrupt and negligent officials in government departments.
In the video conference with district collectors, the CM emphasised that providing transparent, accountable and good governance is his government’s priority. He also announced that a cell will be formed to look into complaints of indiscipline and corruption against government officials and those who are found guilty will be severely punished.
Two SDMs and a former SP caught red-handed receiving bribes
The case pertains to a national highway project that is passing through the Dausa district of Rajasthan, where land acquisition is currently underway. Two SDMs from Dausa district, Pinky Meena and Pushkar Mittal were entrusted with the task of acquiring land for the construction of the highway. The company was embroiled in a lawsuit due to disputes over the land acquisition. The matter was presided over by SP Manish Agarwal but he was removed after allegations of corruption surfaced against him.
However, despite Agarwal’s removal, his tout Neeraj was allegedly pressurising the company to pay bribes for the acquisition. Apparently, Neeraj had sought Rs 30 lakh from the company. Neeraj is also arrested by the ACB.
Besides, Bandikui SDM Pinky Meena, while attending a meeting with the CM, had reportedly asked a company staffer to pay Rs 10 lakhs to the liaisoning officer. “Give the money to the liaising officer. I will collect the money from him after the meeting,” the SDM allegedly said.
Following the meeting, as the SDM was about to collect the money from the liaising officer, the ACB officials, already waiting in the lurk, caught her red-handed taking bribes.
Similarly, Pushkar Mittal, SDM of Dausa, had asked the company officials to send the money at his residence. The Anti Corruption Bureau team, already keeping an eye on the SDM, reached his residence as the company officials were paying money to the SDM and caught him red-handed.
According to the ACB officials, spooked by the arrests of the SDMs, the IPS officer Manish Agarwal escaped to his hometown in Jaipur. A separate ACB team is sent to Jaipur where the officer will be interrogated with respect to the bribery case.
Nidhi Razdan, who was working as a news anchor at controversial far-left news outlet NDTV, on Friday claimed that she was the victim of a phishing attack and that Harvard University never offered her a position as an associate professor in journalism.
Razdan, who was boasting of being an Assistant Professor at Harvard University all along, faced reality recently after it was revealed to her that she was not at all considered as a faculty at the prestigious university and somebody had lied to her about the same.
Ever since the news about Nidhi Razdan allegedly being the victim of the phishing scam broke out, netizens have taken to social media to debate about the reasons for Razdan’s massively embarrassing situation. Several people highlighted the inconsistencies in her claim that she was cheated by some people for almost seven months, while some said that the far-left news anchor who has been caught several times peddling fake news did not deserve Harvard university in the first place.
How social media is reacting to the Nidhi Razdan fiasco
Senior Journalist Soumyadipta took to Twitter to question the intellect of Nidhi Razdan as he asked how could she, who worked at NDTV for over 21 years, not perform proper checks with Harvard University before moving to the US. Raising suspicion on Nidhi’s claims, the journalist questioned her claims saying how could she not verify the claims before claiming to be a victim of a phishing attack.
I am not being able to comprehend this! Nidhi Razdan, a journalist, says that she left her job with NDTV after 21 years without properly checking with Harvard University and many months later, realised that it was a phishing attack. Harvard never really offered her a job. Really? https://t.co/HURbxfy1C8
Another user also raised doubts over her claims saying that her theories look improbable. Rosy, the Twitter user, said how could Nidhi Razdan who claims to be a journalist did not check with the authorities at Harvard or receive proper verbal communication confirming the appointment before quitting her job at NDTV. All this just does not add up, she said.
This seems quite improbable. How could a journalist of her standing as Nidhi Razdan not have checked with the Authorities at Harvard – Proper verbal communication confirming appointment – before quitting her job at NDTV? All this just doesnt add up. #Harvard#NidhiRazdanhttps://t.co/I553Fwzu6e
Social media users remembered how Nidhi Razdan not only become a victim of phishing scam but also highlighted how she tried to unethically proclaim herself to be an Assistant Professor at Harvard University. NDTV had even gone to the extent of inviting Nidhi Razdan to its panel discussion by wrongly referring to her as an Assistant Professor at the Harvard.
Rajesh Juyal also had an interesting point to make. According to Juyal, the alleged phishing attack on Nidhi Razdan was nothing but controversial news anchor getting the taste of her own medicine and termed it as ‘Tit for Tat’ for spreading fake news and building false narratives solely to defame Prime Minister Modi.
NDTV is known for spreading fake news/building false narratives solely to defame Modi. Tit for tat, ex NDTV journalist Nidhi Razdan got the taste of her own medicine. https://t.co/Hv7wj6dqgo
Another social media user who goes by the name ‘Un-bhadralok bangali’ said Nidhi Razdan’s tweet was nothing but a piece of art and the greatest trick one ever pulled off. He called the plan to trap Nidhi Razdan was just ‘brilliant’ and added that whoever did that deserves massive respect.
He also added that the alleged conning of Nidhi Razdan showed the level of intellect of such journalists.
Read Nidhi Razdan’s latest tweet. This is a piece of art and the greatest trick one ever pulled off.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Who ever did that deserves massive respect.????? Also shows the level of intellect of these journalists. In the mud totally.
Anna, a social media user, made some interesting observations pertaining to the entire fiasco saying that there were no interviews, phone calls from Harvard and despite that Nidhi Razdan claimed that she got a job offer from Harvard University. He asked whether Nidhi Razdan’s claim were just like NDTV’s Prime Time show.
– No Interviews – No Phone Calls – No Proofs – No Cross-Checks
In a terse statement on Twitter, she said, “I have been the victim of a very serious phishing attack. I’m putting this statement out to set the record straight about what I’ve been through. I will not be addressing this issue any further on social media.”
Nidhi Razdan said, “I had been given to believe that I would be joining the University in September 2020. While I was making preparations to take up my new assignment, I was later told that due to the ongoing pandemic, my classes would commence in January 2021. Along with these delays, I began noticing a number of administrative anomalies in the process being described to me.”
I have been the victim of a very serious phishing attack. I’m putting this statement out to set the record straight about what I’ve been through. I will not be addressing this issue any further on social media. pic.twitter.com/bttnnlLjuh
“At first, I had dismissed these anomalies as being reflective of the new normal being dictated by the pandemic, but recently the representations being made to me were of an even more disquieting nature. As a result, I reached out to senior authorities at Harvard University for clarity. Upon their request, I shared some of the correspondence that I believed I had received from the University,” the statement added.
However, she realized that she had been conned after receiving replies from Harvard University. She said, “I did not, in fact, receive an offer by Harvard University to join their faculty as an Associate Professor of Journalism. The perpetrators of this attack used clever forgeries and misrepresentations to obtain access to my personal data and communications and may have also gained access to my devices and my email/social media accounts.”
Nidhi Razdan said that she has informed the police and authorities at Harvard University of the matter. A police complaint has been filed, however, it is unclear whether she suffered financial losses due to the scam. But it does appear that she left her job at NDTV because of the ‘job offer’. However, that is not yet confirmed. She said, “I hope that the police are able to get to the bottom of this attack on me at the earliest and help me bring this unsavoury incident to a swift end.”
Days after the body of a 22-year-old medical student named Puja Bharti Purve was recovered from Patratu Dam near Ranchi, the police have revealed that they have written to Facebook to retrieve her deleted account, reportedJagran. She was a resident of Godda and a student at the Sheikh Bhikhari Medical College in Hazaribagh.
As per reports, the Facebook account of the victim was found to be deleted. In order to widen the scope of the investigation and gather information related to the case, the police officials have written to Facebook to share the data of her account with the investigative team. It must be mentioned that no official statement has been made so far in this regard.
Amidst social media outrage, the police have intensified their probe in the case. The cops interrogated the students who stay at the medical college hostel. The investigative team is gathering information about the victim from her hostel mates. Ever since the gruesome murder, an atmosphere of fear and anxiety has gripped the hostel campus.
BJP slams DGP, demands arrest of culprits
While questioning the failure of the Jharkhand police to make any arrests in the case, the BJP has warned that it will hit the streets to protest in case the culprits are not arrested soon. “The fear of the law has ended among criminals,” the party said. The BJP also took potshots at the DGP and urged him to stop acting as the ‘government mouthpiece’ and instead focus on maintaining law and order in the State of Jharkhand.
Autopsy report reveals that Puja Bharti died of drowning
The autopsy, conducted under the supervision of a three-member medical board, has confirmed that Puja died due to drowning. During the post-mortem, the doctors did not find injury marks on her body or private parts. The police have sent the victim’s undergarments, vaginal swab, nail clippers, ropes and other items to the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFL) to probe the angle of rape, as per a report in Jagran.
As per the CCTV footages and police investigation so far, Puja left her home in a normal condition and did not return even after 6 pm on Tuesday, when the main gate is closed. She had boarded an AC bus from Hazaribagh and arrived in Ranchi, although the bus driver failed to identify the exact location where he dropped her. The victim’s body was recovered from the dam, with her hands and legs tied up.
Reportedly, the victim had a second phone, which has been missing ever since the incident. The investigating team is of the view that the phone would help solve the mystery in the case. As such, the cops are scanning the ‘call drop’ records in the area, where Puja was found dead. The case is being investigated by 17 teams from 3 districts, namely, Hazaribagh, Ranchi and Ramgarh.The Patratu police station has lodged a case of murder against unidentified people.
Nidhi Razdan revealed on Friday that she fell victim to a phishing scam and confirmed that she was never offered the job of an Associate Professor of Journalism by Harvard University. She said that she has filed a police complaint over the matter and informed the authority at Harvard as well.
As it turns out, a person on social media had sounded off the alarm as early as the 5th of September, 2020 that the course she Nidhi Razdan was supposed to teach does not on the course list of the Harvard University. Furthermore, her name does not appear among the faculty either.
The user had said, “Is it because website is not updated or is she teaching in the spring term or change of mind by Harvard?”
That should have sounded the alarm bells for Nidhi Razdan, and ideally, she should have confirmed it herself but some reason, she did not and eventually, had to pay the price for it. The circumstances of the whole event are still unclear and it appears unlikely that the ex-NDTV ‘journalist’ will provide more information regarding the matter any time soon. But it certainly appears to be an embarrassment that could have been avoided.
Meanwhile, social media has erupted with laughter and humour and memes over the whole matter. Nidhi Razdan has said that she will not be discussing the matter further on social media.
‘Comedian’ Munawar Faruqui, who has been in judicial custody for the last two weeks for mocking Hindu God and Goddess, will have to continue to remain in jail as the Madhya Pradesh High Court today adjourned his bail hearing until next week.
Indian Express journalist Iram Siddique took to Twitter to inform that the bail hearing at High Court in Indore was adjourned as police failed to produce his case diary. Faruqui’s advocate, Anshuman Shrivastav alleged that it appears to be a tactic by police to harass his client.
Advocate Anushman Shrivastav further agrued before the court that the police should be ordered to get the diary and matter be heard in the second half. However, the court scheduled the hearing for next week.
Comedian Munawar Faruqui’s bail hearing at High Court in Indore was adjourned as police failed to get case diary. Faruqui’s advocate, Anshuman Shrivastav alleged that it appears to be a tactic by police to harass Faruqui. The bail plea will now be heard next week. @IndianExpress
‘Comedian’ Munawar Faruqui had moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking bail after the magistrate’s court as well as the sessions court had rejected his bail plea on January 5 (Tuesday) and 2 (Saturday) respectively.
His bail pleas were not only rejected but, Chief judicial magistrate Aman Singh Bhuria also extended Faruqui’s judicial custody till January 27.
Hindu activists handed over Munawar Faruqui to the police
Eklavya Singh Gaur, an activist and the chief of Hindu Rakshak Sangathan, had filed the complaint after watching the show. They had filed the complaint after they heard the “indecent” comments, leading them to force the organisers to stop the program.
The Hindu activist Gaur had also submitted video footage of the show. Gaur had said he and his friends went to watch the show where Faruqui was performing as the main comedian.
“The show mocked Hindu deities by passing indecent comments. The Godhra incident and Union Home Minister Amit Shah were also mentioned inappropriately. We shot a video and stopped the show by taking the audience out of the cafe. Then we caught the comedians and organizers of the show and took them to Tukoganj police station,” the Hindu activist said.
Gaur also said that no physical distancing was maintained at the venue and the show had no permission from authorities. At least 100 viewers were sitting in the small hall of the cafe, he said. Gaur denied media reports that Faruqui was beaten up by the activists of Hind Rakshak.
Faruqui on 2002 Godhra Carnage, Amit Shah and Hindu Gods
Munawar Faruqui, during a show in April last year, had ridiculed the 2002 Godhra carnage where 58 Hindus returning from Ayodhya were burnt alive by a Muslim mob. In a show, Faruqui had referred to the carnage as a fictional film ‘directed’ by Amit Shah and ‘produced’ by RSS.
A complaint was also filed against Faruqui after he had used Bollywood songs to make crass, disrespectful remarks on Hindu gods and belief system. He also pointed out how he mocked the brutal massacre of Hindus in the Godhra carnage by claiming, “Marney ke baad jaltay hai na? (Hindus get burnt anyway after death).”
Nidhi Razdan, formerly with NDTV, has revealed that she was the victim of a phishing attack and the Harvard University never offered her a position as an associate professor in journalism. In a terse statement on Twitter, she said, “I have been the victim of a very serious phishing attack. I’m putting this statement out to set the record straight about what I’ve been through. I will not be addressing this issue any further on social media.”
Nidhi Razdan said, “I had been given to believe that I would be joining the University in September 2020. While I was making preparations to take up my new assignment, I was later told that due to the ongoing pandemic, my classes would commence in January 2021. Along with these delays, I began noticing a number of administrative anomalies in the process being described to me.”
The statement by Nidhi Razdan
“At first, I had dismissed these anomalies as being reflective of the new normal being dictated by the pandemic, but recently the representations being made to me were of an even more disquieting nature. As a result, I reached out to senior authorities at Harvard University for clarity. Upon their request, I shared some of the correspondence that I believed I had received from the University,” the statement added.
However, she realized that she had been conned after receiving replies from the Harvard University. She said, “I did not, in fact, receive an offer by Harvard University to join their faculty as an Associate Professor of Journalism. The perpetrators of this attack used clever forgeries and misrepresentations to obtain access to my personal data and communications and may have also gained access to my devices and my email/social media accounts.”
Second part of the statement by Nidhi Razdan
Nidhi Razdan said that she has informed the police and authorities at Harvard University of the matter. A police complaint has been filed, however, it is unclear whether she suffered financial losses due to the scam. But it does appear that she left her job at NDTV because of the ‘job offer’. However, that is not yet confirmed. She said, “I hope that the police are able to get to the bottom of this attack on me at the earliest and help me bring this unsavoury incident to a swift end.”
