A BJP woman Panchayat candidate Shakuntala Haldar and her husband Chandra Halder were found dead in Kankasa village of Kultali, West Bengal, on April 6, under mysterious conditions. According to reports while Shakuntala Halder was found lying dead on the bed in her house, her husband was found hanging from a mango tree in the backyard of the house.
BJP West Bengal took to Twitter today to reveal that the couple was brutally murdered in West Bengal. “Shakuntala Haldar, a BJP candidate for panchayat polls and her husband Chandra Haldar were brutally murdered in Kultali, West Bengal. The world may be busy fighting Corona but political killings are still continuing in West Bengal”, tweeted BJP Bengal.
Shakuntala Haldar, a BJP candidate for panchayat polls and her husband Chandra Haldar were brutally murdered in Kultali, West Bengal.
The world may be busy fighting Corona but political killings are still continuing in West Bengal. pic.twitter.com/CA22Dcrd0Q
The West Bengal police have started probing the incident as the dead bodies have been sent for postmortem.
On Tuesday morning, the locals saw the body of Chandra Haldhar hanging on a mango tree in the backyard of the house. Then the neighbours went to the house and saw that his wife Shakuntala was lying on the bed. Villagers reported the incident to the police station.
Some people are of the view that the couple committed suicide, however, there are many who opined that there is a political reason behind this incident.
Though the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc in the country, politically motivated attacks and murders in TMC ruled West Bengal continue unabated. Earlier this week, another BJP member was attacked in West Bengal by TMC workers over a local issue.
A doctor in West Bengal who had raised concerns on social media over the lack of PPE for medical staffers handling coronavirus cases in the state was allegedly targeted and victimised by the state administration and police.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee besides being criticised from playing politics over an issue as serious as this pandemic has also been in the middle of a controversy where she is being accused of mishandling the pandemic, hiding facts and figures in connection with the coronavirus cases.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that as of 12 pm on the 6th of April, there were only 61 active Coronavirus cases in West Bengal, of which 55 were from 7 families. However, as per the Ministry of Family and Health Welfare, there are currently 67 active cases excluding the 10 cured and 3 deaths.
A report by the state home department of Maharashtra has revealed that the Cyber department has registered 113 FIRs for spreading misinformation and spreading communal/casteist hatred on social media amid the nationwide lockdown across the country due to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
A total of 113 FIRs have been registered by Maharashtra Cyber department during the #coronaviruslockdown period for spreading misinformation and for spreading communal/casteist hatred on social media, according to a state Home Dept report
As the masses are staying indoors amid the lockdown, people are sticking to social media where they get enough and explosive pieces of information to pass time. The government had already declared that the rumor-mongering especially related to Wuhan coronavirus during lockdown will be punished. However, it’s still not yet clear precisely what kind of posts will be regarded as ‘spreading hatred’ considering the fact that ‘secular’ governments use such laws to silence criticism of Radical Islam.
Earlier on Tuesday, an FIR was lodged against the members of Tablighi Jamaat for fleeing quarantine and violating official preventive orders in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan Police station but only 10 of them could have been successfully traced. Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that about 50 Tablighi Jamaat meet attendees in Maharashtra are on the run and their phones are switched off. He asserted that Fifty people who returned to Maharashtra from Tablighi Jamaat are missing. They are being searched. Out of 1400 people who returned from Tablighi Jamaat, 1350 people were tested. 50 people are still hiding and their phones are switched off.
As per Union Home Ministry, 4421 people in India have been contracted the novel coronavirus while 114 have succumbed to the disease and 326 have recovered. Maharashtra is the worst-hit state by the pandemic with the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country with the tally of affected at 868 and 48 fatalities as of the time of writing this report.
The Taiwan cabinet has asked its government agencies to stop using Zoom Video Communications Inc’s conferencing app and other video software “associated security or privacy concerns”. An advisory was issued by the Taiwan government on Tuesday proscribing the country’s government agencies from using Zoom while urging the usage of alternative apps from Google and Microsoft.
Several organisations across the globe have been using the services of Zoom to hold meetings as the coronavirus pandemic has rendered much of the world paralysed and penned in their respective houses. However, the video conferencing app has also been under the fire lining of critics who have criticised it for its security and privacy issues.
Zoom’s daily user base shot up to more than 200 million in March as the lockdowns induced by coronavirus pandemic forced the employees and workers to switch to work from home.
The announcement to ban the use of Zoom by the Taiwanese government said, “The Executive Yuan’s Department of Cyber Security (DCS) today formally issued an advisory to all government organisations and specific non-government agencies that should it become operationally necessary to engage in video conferencing, the underlying video software to be used should not have associated security or privacy concerns, such as the Zoom video communication service.”
In addition, the DCS added that if it is absolutely vital for the organisation to use non-domestically produced software for international communication, then they should resort to more reliable options offered by the likes of Google and Microsoft, who are providing much more secure services for free amid the current pandemic. It suggested considering these options before evaluating the associated data security risks.
Besides Taiwan, the governments of other countries have also forbidden their agencies from using Zoom. The New York City officials have restricted the usage of Zoom by schools for remote teaching and Australia’s Defence forces and its MPs are barred from using the services provided by Zoom.
Acknowledging the security concerns with his services, Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan has apologised for the company’s privacy and security flaws and assured that they are looking into each and every one of them and addressing them as expeditiously as they can.
Soon after the usage of Zoom increased multifold in the wake of coronavirus lockdown in most part of the world, “ZoomBombing” became an issue as people started using the software’s screen-sharing feature to interrupt meeting with inappropriate content, including violent images and pornography. According to The Intercept, Zoom video calls are not end-to-end encrypted as the company claimed and are linked to China. A few days ago, Citizen Lab researchers discovered that some of the calls through the service were routed through China.
A few days ago, a doctor at AIIMS was found infected with the novel Wuhan coronavirus. His wife was in her ninth month of pregnancy. The woman doctor and her brother were also found infected from the coronavirus. It is now being alleged that the doctor’s identity has been withheld because he is a Muslim. The employees working at the AIIMS are resentful as to why the doctor hid his illness. The Doctor is a resident of Malviya Nagar where he used to frequent to the mosque nearby. It is being speculated that perhaps he picked up the infection from the mosque after coming in contact with one of the infected Tablighi Jamaat attendees visiting the mosque.
Despite the overt symptoms, he kept going to the mosque daily and also boarded the institute bus to come to the AIIMS. Media reports claimed that the doctor would have caught the infection from his patients but this is not the case since he was not involved in the treatment of coronavirus infected patients. There is seething anger amongst the hospital staff who feel that the doctor was deliberately trying to spread the malady to others. All the employees who travelled with him on the bus, along with the driver of the bus have been quarantined. According to people, being a doctor and despite knowing the gravity of the disease, he allowed the contagion to spread.
One of the nurses working in AIIMS claimed that despite the doctor’s apparent mistake, he is being made a hero by the media. Media reports have attributed the source of his contagion to his treatment of sick patients. However, this has not been the case. The nurse did not reveal the doctor’s identity but said that he is a senior resident in the Physiology Department. On the condition of anonymity, one of the medical workers employed at the AIIMS said:
“In view of the coronavirus outbreak, all the necessary precautions and social distancing measures were taken even on the buses. People were seated far and wide, so fewer people used to go. The doctor was aware that he had the contagion. But he hid this information and kept coming to the hospital on the same bus. There was also a WhatsApp group of people who came on the bus. When his infection was confirmed, people started asking him on Whatsapp why did he come on the bus and he kept apologising to them.”
The hospital staff is thoroughly miffed with the doctor for deliberately concealing his illness and jeopardising their lives. According to our sources in AIIMS, the matter has been referred to director Randeep Guleria and the hospital staff expects that an exemplary action will be taken against the culprit by the director. The staff believes that an action against the doctor is in order as the AIIMS has very strict rules and regulations regarding infectious diseases. All the employees have to mandatorily abide by them. Negligence has no place and someone who is found guilty of it is punished according to the hospital rules.
#Update: A resident doctor of AIIMS who was tested positive for COVID19 earlier today, his 9 months pregnant wife (a doctor posted at Emergency) has also been tested positive. She has been isolated and her delivery will take place at AIIMS. https://t.co/2e6lZ3NBua
It is being bandied about by several media outlets that since the infected doctor has no travel history, he was infected with the coronavirus while treating the patients. It is being claimed that the infection was passed on to the wife through the doctor husband, after which all the people suspected to have come in contact with both have been quarantined. The doctor was initially admitted in the Emergency ward. After several tests and medical examinations, the doctor was admitted to the private ward.
The Shia Central Waqf Board of Uttar Pradesh has decided to shut all the graveyards amid the forthcoming occasion of Shab-e-baraat in view of the lockdown imposed due to the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic in the country. Shab-e-Barat will be celebrated between the 8th of April and 9th this year.
Shia Waqf Board chairman Syed Wasim Rizwi said, “In view of the lockdown, the board had earlier closed down its mosques for namaaz. We have directed all the concerned to ensure that Kabristan should not be open for common people on Shab-e-baraat on April 9.” He said that employees living in graveyards have been told to clean graves and light a lamp on every grave on that day.
Muslim religious leader Syed Umer Ilyasi has also appealed to all the Muslims to remain inside their homes on the occasion of Shab-e-baraat as the 21-day lockdown is still in force in the entire country. He further said, “All of you know that there is a lockdown going on due to the spread of deadly coronavirus, hence I would request all my Muslim brothers and sisters to remain indoors on Shab-e-baraat as well.”
The Uttar Pradesh police had also appealed to Muslim leaders to stay at home and not step out on the occasion of Shan-e-baraat as the deadly contagion disease is expanding rapidly. Meanwhile, authorities in other parts of the country have made similar appeals and issued orders to the Muslim community to stay indoors on the occasion. Shab-e-Barat is an occasion that is celebrated as the night of forgiveness. It is considered to be an occasion when Allah forgives sinners.
Hyderabad YouTuber Shahrukh Adnan has denied that he put out the hate message after the Prayagraj murder where a man was shot dead in Prayagraj over remarks made against the Tablighi Jamaat’s role in spreading the Wuhan Coronavirus. On Tuesday, social media posts where one ‘Shahrukh Adnan’ was seen the brutal murder.
Viral social media post where one ‘Shahrukh Adnan’ was celebrating the Prayagraj murder
‘Shahrukh Adnan’s Facebook profile screenshot which went viral.
However, after the screenshot went viral, a Twitter account which allegedly belonged to the YouTuber also changed the handle, casting aspersions. In the post, ‘Shahrukh Adnan’ warns the ‘Bhakts’ of consequences if they speak up against Tablighi Jamaat. When OpIndia searched for the Facebook ID from which above comment was allegedly made, we found that it does not exist. Hence, it may have been either deleted or deactivated.
We searched for him on other social media platforms and came across a Twitter profile which was deleted.
Shahrukh Adnan’s Twitter Account ‘does not exist’
However, another Twitter handle identifying himself as ‘Shahrukh Adnan’ also regularly shares the YouTube videos of the Hyderabad vlogger.
‘Zaalim Aadmi’ identifying himself as Shahrukh Adnan tagging ‘Shahrukhkadnan’ in tweet, which got deactivated on Tuesday.
As can be seen, as back as 2016, the ID @shahkrukhkadnan, which was ‘deactivated’ on Tuesday after the social media post went viral, was identifying himself as the YouTuber. This made many wonder on social media if the account was deactivated after the post of Facebook user identifying himself as ‘Shahrukh Adnan’ went viral.
In the incident to which ‘Shahrukh Adnan’ was referring to, a 30-year-old man named Lotan Nishad was shot dead by one Mohammed Sona in the Bakshi Moda area in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh for accusing the Islamic Missionary Movement, Tablighi Jamaat, of endangering the lives of other people. Nishad was shot while he sitting at a tea shop, and he died on the spot. Lotan Nishad was sitting at a tea shop in the village at around 9.30 am. While reading the morning newspaper, he got into a verbal confrontation, over the role of Tablighi Jamaat in transmitting the Wuhan Coronavirus, with some people sitting there. Mohammad Sona, who was present there, began assaulting the victim. After sometime Sona brought a gun and fired at him from close range. Nishad fell on the ground and started bleeding.
The above Facebook profile, which now stands deleted, did not stop with the initial remarks he made in connection with the murder of the man at Prayagraj. He wrote in the comments section that ‘Bhakts’ were not even safe in Uttar Pradesh, then they should wonder what will happen to them in Hyderabad, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam. The places he mentioned have a significant Muslim population and religious persecution of Hindus is quite prevalent.
‘Shahrukh Adnan’ threatening others.
However, now the YouTuber Shahrukh Adnan has now claimed that this is not his profile and that someone else has created it to malign him. He has also claimed that he has asked Hyderabad police to look into it.
The Police and administration across the country are appealing to Muslims across the country to adhere to the nationwide lockdown enforced to combat the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic ahead of the Shab-e-Barat, an Islamic festival. Authorities are going the extra mile to remind Muslims that the lockdown is in force even during the festival. This year, it will be celebrated between the 8th and 9th of April.
The Delhi Police announced that “Meetings were held with the religious leaders/Imams to persuade people not to come out of their homes on Shab-e-Barat and observe this ocassion solemnly.” An appeal was made to people to not come out of their homes on the said occasion.
Similarly, Srinagar District Magistrate Shahid Iqbal Choudhary on Tuesday barred all religious gatherings on the occasion of the upcoming Shab-e-Barat in view of the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic. Karnataka State Board of Auqaf has suspended the annual Shab-e-Barat as well. As per the directives, there will be no Islamic rituals in Qabriathans (graveyards) and dargas and the gates of all these places will remain closed.
Shab-e-Barat is an Islamic festival which is celebrated as a day of forgiveness or atonement. It is believed that on the night of the festival, Allah forgives sinners if they pray. It is observed on the intervening night between the 14th and 15th day of the eighth month of the Islamic calendar. On the day, Muslims gather in Mosques and visit the graves of their departed family and loved ones. Mosques and graveyards see large crowds on the occasion of this festival.
Shab-e-Barat is also widely known as Bara’a Night and Mid-Sha’ban. In the Arab world, it’s referred to as Laylat al-Bara’at. Muslims believe that on Shab-e-Barat, Allah writes their destinies for the next year, taking into account their past deeds. Thus, the night is spent begging for mercy for past sins. It is also a common practice to ask for forgiveness on behalf of the deceased. Some fast on the occasion while others offer food and gifts to their neighbours and the poor. Shab-e-Barat is also celebrated as the birthday of Muhammad al-Mahdi, the twelfth imam of Shia Muslims. Shia consider him to be the saviour of mankind. Shias burst firecrackers to celebrate his birthday.
Celebrations will have to be muted this year due to the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak. Significant sections of the Muslim community have demonstrated remarkable callousness towards the pandemic, as evidenced by the conduct of the Tablighi Jamaat and the statements by Muslims on TikTok, the video sharing app. The predominant sentiment appears to be that Allah will protect them from the virus or it is a conspiracy against Islam. Some have even dubbed it Allah’s NRC. Under such circumstances, it remains to be seen the extent to which Muslims adhere to the lockdown norms on the occasion of their festival.
An FIR has been lodged at Vartak Nagar police station against Maharashtra cabinet minister Jitendra Awhad by a resident of Thane, alleging that two police constables and goons allegedly associated with Maharashtra minister and NCP strongman Jitendra Awhad had badly assaulted him. As per the complaint filed, the young man had opposed NCP leader Jitendra Awhad’s call to boycott PM Modi’s request to light a lamp for 9 minutes at 9 PM on April 5.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had requested the citizens of the country to light a lamp at 9 PM for 9 minutes on April 5 as a mark of support and solidarity for those carrying out the fight against the menace of coronavirus in the country. However, following PM Modi’s call to galvanise people into expressing their gratitude towards the doctors, healthcare workers and doctors battling coronavirus, some opposition leader expressed their protests against his call. Maharashtra cabinet minister Jitendra Awhad also criticized PM Modi’s initiative on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms and asked people to boycott PM Modi’s request. Following his reaction, the victim posted an offensive post on social media opposing Awhad’s call to boycott PM Modi’s request.
Social media post by a user which invited Jitendra Awhad’s wrath
As per the FIR, around 11.50 pm on April 5, two policemen came to his house. The policemen asked him to come to the police station. The victim was not informed of why he was being taken to the police station. Why the victim’s wife enquired why is her husband being taken to the police station, the policemen responded that it is general interrogation and they would return him within 10 minutes.
Thereafter, the policemen took the victim in their white Scorpio to NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad’s Nath Bungalow situated near Viviana Mall. He was frisked and the policemen had taken away his mobile phone.
The victim claims that Jitendra Awhad was present at his bungalow and a posse of 15-20 goons was already there to beat him up. He was then mercilessly assaulted by the goons under the watch of Awhad until their wooden sticks broke off, the victim has alleged in the FIR.
After that, Awhad approached the badly injured victim and questioned him why did he make the offensive post. The young man then apologised to Awhad and said that out of enthusiasm, he uploaded the post. Awhad then called up the young man’s house and asked his wife to remove the contentious post.
However, the young man was still not released even after apologising. He was beaten again and a video of him admitting that he had made the post by mistake and is apologetic about it was recorded. The policemen later took him to the hospital for treatment, the complaint alleges.
After being treated at the hospital, the young man went to the Vartak Nagar police station where the police lodged a complaint against unknown assaulters. At the same time, a case has been booked against the victim under the IT act.
However, NCP leader and Maharashtra cabinet minister Jitendra Awhad defended himself by posting a tweet sharing the offensive post uploaded by the victim and asking a Twitter user if would tolerate such things done to him or one of his family members. In fact, he posted the same offensive image, which was morphed to depict Ahwad setting his buttocks on fire, and asked if such offensive images are to be tolerated.
However, Twitter users were unsparing in criticising Awhad for his manifestly lawless behaviour. One Twitter user shared the badly bruised image of the victim asking if this is not lawlessness then what is.
If this is not the lawlessness then what it is please answer to the residents of Maharashtra….. pic.twitter.com/KxP21bP2Fx
Another Twitter user mocked Awhad by sharing the same offensive picture with an insightful remark that what is depicted in the picture is scientifically impossible.
It is notable here that PM Modi’s call to the Indian citizens to switch off all lights at their homes on 9 pm on Sunday, 5th April, for 9 minutes and light a candle or diya to show solidarity against the pandemic had received widespread support across India.
Just as strategists and experts had started believing that India may have flattened the Wuhan Corornavirus curve with the strict 21-day nationwide lockdown, the Tablighi Jamaat super spreader caused a Coronavirus explosion in India and pushed back our efforts in fighting the pandemic. Prior to the Tablighi Jamaat catastrophe, the number of confirmed cases in India were doubling in 7.4 days, however, the Tablighi Jamaat event had resulted in doubling them in 4.1 days.
India, after a spike in cases due to Tablighi Jamaat cases, for the first time in a while has seen a decline in the number of new cases in the last 24 hours, once again providing a glimmer of hope.
According to the numbers provided by the joint secretary (health) Lav Agarwal on April 7 (Tuesday), India reported 354 cases in the last 24 hours. “Till now 326 persons have been discharged after recovery. Till now there are 4,421 #COVID19 positive cases in the country, including 354 cases in the last 24 hours”, Luv Agarwal was quoted by ANI as saying.
Till now 326 persons have been discharged after recovery. Till now there are 4,421 #COVID19 positive cases in the country, including 354 cases in the last 24 hours: Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry pic.twitter.com/fIW5i0o9JZ
This is a remarkable decline from the 693 cases in the previous 24-hour window. On April 6 (Monda), Lav Agarwal was quoted by ANI as saying: 693 new #COVID19 cases have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number to 4067 in India out of which 1445 cases are related to Tablighi Jamaat. 76 per cent of cases have been reported in males & 24 per cent in females: Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry.
693 new #COVID19 cases have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number to 4067 in India out of which 1445 cases are related to Jablighi Jamaat. 76 per cent cases have been reported in males & 24 per cent in females: Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry pic.twitter.com/gV8OtOs664
Recently, economist Shamika Ravi, who is currently the Director of Research at Brookings India and former member, PM’s Economic Advisory Council, in a series of Tweets shared some graphical representation of statistical data showing a welcome turn in the Coronavirus growth rate in India where the curve seems to have flattened. She believes that even though it is a little too early to comment, but, if this trend continues, it will soon bring some relief for India.
The Indian authorities have been putting in tremendous amount of efforts to battle the pandemic especially after the Tablighi Jamaat event emerged as a super-spreader of the infection. According to latest numbers, more than 25,500 Tablighi Jamaat members and their contacts have been quarantined in the country till now after the Union and state governments conducted a “mega operation” to identify them, a senior Union Home Ministry official said on Monday.
The live cases of COVID-19 linked to Tablighi Jammat were reported in Andaman and Nicobar, Delhi, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
During the daily briefing, Joint Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava revealed that 1,750 foreign-based members of the Jamaat, out of the total 2,083, have been blacklisted till now by the Indian government.
The Union Home Ministry on Thursday blacklisted and cancelled the tourist visas of 960 foreign Tablighi Jamaat members for violating visa conditions by engaging in missionary activities while in India.
A couple of days ago, the role of Tablighi Jamaat in the spreading of the Wuhan Coronavirus across numerous states of India had come to light. Muslim clerics of Tablighi Jamaat organised a congregation, which was roughly attended by 1500 people both from various parts of the country as well as from abroad, in violation of the government’s lockdown orders, providing a conducive environment for the novel coronavirus to proliferate.
Ever since Tablighi Jamaat’s role as the super-spreader of the Wuhan coronavirus in India came to the fore, online crusaders such as Dhruv Rathee, along with self-proclaimed fact-checkers like Alt News, have gone overboard in declaring their innocence. Conspiracy theories and insidious fact-checks are being purveyed by them to slander the establishment while downplaying Tablighi Jamaat and other Muslim individuals’ culpability in the spread of the infection.
Freelance ‘journalist’ and Pro-AAP blogger Dhruv Rathee, who portrays himself to be a polymath, although a ludicrous one, and whose source of information is often limited to his own misconceived intuitions, recently uploaded a Facebook post with a list of 8 fact-checks done by propaganda portals in the last few days.
Cyber warrior Dhruv Rathee’s Facebook post containing so-called ‘fact-checks’ by propaganda portals
Let’s get to the truth of these purported fact-checks one by one-
Fact Check no. 1: ‘Muslim man spitting on fruits to spread Corona’
In his Facebook post, online crusader Dhruv Rathee has shared the link of ‘The Quint’, the platform which transformed an engineer into a doctor and peddled fake news about coronavirus spread in the country. This fact-check published by The Quint “attempts” to prove that the man named Sheru Mian was not spitting on the fruits. By sharing this link, Rathee has implied that Sheru Mian did not spit on the fruits and is being unfairly targeted by the people.
Here is the screenshot of the relevant portion from The Quint’s ‘fact-check’ report shared by social media warrior Dhruv Rathee. It is pertinent to note that the article clearly states that the investigation on whether Sheru Mian is guilty of putting saliva on the vegetables still ‘underway’. Yet, Rathee attempted to portray it as if Sheru Mian is innocent and is being vilified only because he is a Muslim.
Screenshot of the inconclusive report published on The Quint
A bland report about the developments happened in Sheru Mian’s case was deviously twisted by Dhruv Rathee to convey that a fact-check has been done by The Quint on the matter.
Notwithstanding the police verification which concluded that the video of Shru Mian was authentic, habitual fake news peddler Alt News appeared so desperate to shield Sheru Mian that instead of focusing on his criminality of applying saliva on the vegetables, they seemed keener on contriving a “fact-check” and harping on the date and time when the video was uploaded.
AltNews watering down Sheru Mian’s deeds
Amidst the gloomy scenario, where people are already panic-stricken because of the enigmatic nature of COVID-19, the video of the vegetable-seller spitting on his vegetables only added to their apprehension. Fact-checkers were visibly perturbed that people had informed the police about Mian’s misdoings. In their so-called fact-check, Alt News alleged that the video of a Muslim vegetable vendor spitting on the vegetables was not from April but from February, as if spitting on the vegetables in February was totally in accordance with the prevailing societal norms.
The question here is, what was the fact-check in this article? Firstly, it is astoundingly ludicrous to premise one’s fact-check not on the event itself but the date and timing of the event. The police and other media had clearly verified that Sheru had indeed spit on the food and the video was totally authentic. However, after first contesting the veracity of the video, the likes of Dhruv Rathee, The Quint and the self-proclaimed fact-checker Alt News went on to question the date and time of the video.
They had no qualms if the person spat on the vegetables and fruits. They were primarily concerned with exculpating the Muslim vegetable vendor. Fact-check as to when and where the incident happened held more importance than the unscrupulous act committed by the man. They were preoccupied with their propaganda of salvaging Muslims, regardless of their culpability. If a Muslim is seen committing a depraved act in a video, the emphasis is placed on fact-checking extraneous minutiae such as whether the video is from Italy or China or if it’s from January or March. The debased nature of the act committed by the perpetrator is inconsequential to their fact-checking.
Fact Check no. 2: ‘Muslims licking utensils to spread Corona’
Self-proclaimed fact-checker which regularly likes to water down crimes committed by Islamists, Alt News, recently fact-checked a video that showed some Muslims licking utensils. Alt News claimed in their article that it is an unrelated and old video meant to maligns the Muslims. The article said that the video showing Muslims licking last remaining morsels of food in the utensils is from July 2018 which is being bandied about in recent times to whip up anti-Muslim sentiments.
AltNews fact-checking licking plate viral video
However, one must realise that there have been several instances such as a Maulvi praying for the death of 50 crore Hindus, a video of a Muslim man licking currency notes with the ulterior aim of infecting others of coronavirus, videos of radical Muslims discouraging others from maintaining social distancing and many other videos which have raised a general suspicion against the Muslim community. The emergence of Tablighi Jamaat as the newest and pernicious cluster of coronavirus has only added to the misgivings. In fact, an account of the habits espoused by Tablighi Jamaat members at Markaz Nizamuddin has served to amplify the suspicions against them. Tablighi Jamaat members performed ‘Wudu’, ceremonial washing of hands and legs from the same pool of water at Markaz. A group of 30-40 members ate from the same plate, escalating the chances of virus transmission.
AltNews ‘fact-checking’ viral video of Muslims eating from same plate and licking
The video exemplified the unhygienic practices followed by Muslims which has resulted in the disproportionate increase in the number of coronavirus cases in the country. However, slanted ‘fact-check’ were so engrossed in their Muslim salvation that they couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Dhruv Rathee, who hails himself as a fact-checker, deliberately missed the nuance and continued peddling propaganda by the fake-news peddler Alt News.
Fact Check no. 3: ‘Muslims sneezing in unison to spread Corona’
While claiming that the news about Muslims sneezing in unison to spread coronavirus is fake, online crusader Dhruv Rathee cited a dubious website ‘The Logical Indian’. In the fact-check, the website said that the charge against Muslims of sneezing to spread coronavirus is patently false.
The Logical Indian giving clean chit to Jamaatis
However, contrary to this assertion, if the news is to be believed, malevolent Jamaatis are indeed trying to disseminate the infection deliberately. Earlier, when the officials were shifting the Tablighi Jamaat members from Markaz Nizamuddin to containment facilities, many Tablighi Jamaat members, suspected of suffering from COVID-19 were found spitting on the roads of Delhi.
Tablighi Jamaatis deliberately trying to spit on walls to spread coronavirusHow Islamists urged people to spread coronavirus.
In a TV interview with India TV, Dr Aarti Lalchandani, the principal of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College, who is tending the corona patients of Tablighi Jamaat in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, claimed that many of the Jamaat members were stubbornly refusing to cooperate with the medical workers and spitting at different places in the hospital. Other reports from quarantine centres in Delhi have claimed that Tablighi Jamaat members spat not only in the containment facilities but also on doctors, nurses and attendants. However, according to Dhruv Rathi and the team of Alt News, whose expertise in fact-checking is only limited to reverse image-search, such intentionally perversely spiteful behaviour of Tablighi Jamaat members did not amount to spreading coronavirus.
Fact Check no. 4: Dhruv Rathee accused ANI of running fake story of Hindus in Karachi being denied rations
Propagandist Dhruv Rathee rubbished the ANI report of Hindus in Karachi being denied rations as fake by citing a Pakistani news media outlet. So intense is Rathee’s hatred for India that he places for more faith in obsequious news agencies of Pakistan instead of believing independent Indian news outlets. Rathee bases his belief that the news reported by ANI is false, on assertions made by Karachi Commissioner Samiullah who said there ain’t a single Hindu in the said village to be denied rations.
Pakistani website shared by Dhruv Rathee to rubbish ANI report as fake
First of all, it is ridiculous that Dhruv Rathee uses a report from Pakistani news media outlet to deem ANI’s report as fake. Hindus in Pakistan have often been kidnapped, raped and forcibly converted while the Pakistani media outlets either repudiate such news or ignore them altogether. Secondly, by giving credence to propagandist media outfits of Pakistan, Dhruv Rathee is only empowering them further to provide a cover-up for their heinous acts against Hindus. Thirdly, the investigative fact-checker should also ensure that the ‘sources’ sitting in Pakistan from whom he produces their fact-checked report, do not become part of any terrorist organization in Pakistan.
Fact Check no. 5: Old video used to claim Tablighi Jamaat members spitting on policemen to spread coronavirus
Avant-garde ‘fake-news’ buster Dhruv Rathee shares a link to BBC, the same website which published a report on how sex-life of people have been affected because of the mandated quarantine during the coronavirus outbreak, in which a fact-check about a 26-year-old young man named Mohammad Suhail Shaukat Ali being beaten to the pulp by police officers after he spits on them while being taken to Mumbai court for his hearing is done.
While technically the fact-check is perfect but it is worth noting that the youth who spits on police officers is a Muslim and the incident has a stark resemblance to members of Tablighi Jamaat who are found spitting on police officials, nurses, attendants and doctors in different parts of the country to spread their malady to others. The larger and undeniable point is that Muslim members, belonging to Tablighi Jamaat have unabashedly resorted to spitting, with the aim to infect others. The fact-check glosses over that fact to claim that old videos are being circulated to assert that Tablighi Jamaat members are spitting on others while giving a clean chit to the offenders.
Fact Check no. 6: Video falsely claiming Muslim policeman beating Hindu priest
In his 6th claim, Rathee shares a link to another dubious website-‘The Lallantop’ to contend that the video of a Muslim policeman beating a Hindu priest is fake. Social media was rife with many news, including SP of Rewa beating up a priest during the lockdown. However, ‘The Lallantop’ has managed to keep the secular fabric of its article intact by adding a line in its fact check that not only priests in the temples but Muslims have also been beaten alike during the lockdown.
Dhruv Rathee sharing misleading news
Fact Check no. 7: Muslim worker in restaurant spitting in food to spread coronavirus
The seventh claim is the biggest testament to the trickery of the routine fake-news peddlers-cum-self-proclaimed fact-checkers like Alt News. The title of the article shared by Dhruv Rathee states that it contains ‘fact-check’ about a Muslim man spitting in food to spread coronavirus. However, inside the body of the article, one realises that the fact-check is about whether the food is packaged in India or some other Gulf or Asian country. Even this fact is not established in the article as it explicitly includes a disclaimer that Alt News could not establish exact details about the video, meaning everything else in the article is nothing less than gobbledygook to exonerate Tablighi Jamaat members of any wrongdoing.
AltNews exonerating Tablighi Jamaat
Such videos are often shared on social media, in which people of the Muslim community are seen spitting food before a community meal or they are seen making such claims.
AltNews being selective in ‘fact-checking’
Instead of fact-checking why did the Muslim man in the video spat in the food, or what are the motivations for Muslims to dribble in the food, or if its a custom among Muslims to spit in the food, ‘fact-checker’ AltNews thought it more important to conduct a superficial fact-check to ascertain if the video is from Dubai or Singapore or any other Asian country.
Fact-check no.8: Muslim foreign nationals hiding in Patna mosque to avoid coronavirus testing
This is perhaps the most preposterous fact-check in the total list of 8 posted by Dhruv Rathee. The article, which is written by Alt-News co-founder Muhammad Zubair himself, says that the people hiding in the mosque of Patna were from Kyrgyzstan and not Italy. The interesting fact here is that according to Alt News co-founder Zubair, Kyrgyzstan is not a foreign country. Once again, the fact-check was done just for the sake of it, without having any objective quality to it.
Opindia, based on news sources (which were media and not Facebook page administrators), mentioned the possibility of their being from Turkmenistan in the report, which is quite natural.
AltNews’ selective ‘fact-checking’
In the absence of information, many times news from different sources can publish ‘wrong name/place’, where the purpose is only to convey the news to the readers with the available information. However, in the case of AltNews, where propaganda trumps fact-based reporting, incongruity about unimportant details are pointed out so that the larger point can be somehow masked. Here too, Alt News was busy determining whether the foreign nationals had Chinese passport or Italian citizenship, instead of focusing on the pertinent point that they had come from outside India and were suspected of carrying COVID-19.
Selective fact-checking of AltNews
The fact that they came from Kyrgyzstan, Italy, China or Turkey is secondary. The more important fact that Muslim foreign nationals who may be suspected of carrying COVID-19 were found hiding in Patna mosque was quietly swept under the carpet by the AltNews and irrelevant information points as to from which country they hailed from was given undue importance in their report.
In addition, Alt News in its report mentions that people in the Patna mosque had gotten suspicious of the foreign nationals living in the mosque. Instead of casting aspersions on OpIndia or Amar Ujala for their reportage, Alt News should have questioned the motive of those people who despite having suspicion continued to shelter the foreign nationals within the mosque premises. In fact, when these folks have been found indulging in religious activities while being on a tourist visa.
While Dhruv Rathee and ‘revolutionary’ fact-checkers that he has mentioned in his Facebook post may be under the impression that by composing a list of so-called ‘Fact-Checks’, they could downplay the role of Tablighi Jamaat Muslims in the spread of coronavirus in India, the reality is that by pulling off such an antic, their already diminishing credibility has taken another hit and their nefarious propaganda of confounding people in the name of ‘fact-checking’ stands exposed once again. Far from acquitting Muslims, their stunt has only accentuated their role in the spread of the coronavirus, not just in India but in Gulf cities and South Asian countries such as Dubai, Singapore etc.
Note: The article was originally published on OpIndia Hindi. You could read the Hindi version here.
