An invasion of falsehoods: India’s ‘liberals’ running propaganda war over new citizenship law

As cops are being beaten up and trains and buses burnt by communal mobs, an info war has been unleashed against Modi’s government to twist the CAA and spin large-scale violence and bigotry as spontaneous, progressive resistance.

This protest movement has many fathers, the most useful being the one that should disown it the quickest: Liberals.

It is through them that a massive information war against India’s new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) –– which offers shelter to persecuted Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis from Islamic Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh –– is being carried out.

From film personalities like Farhan Akhtar and Sushant Rajput to selectively secular activists and journalists, self-proclaimed liberals are circulating lies from very dubious sources about the CAA and the proposed nationwide National Register of  Citizens (NRC).

The same global breed pander to Islamists in the name of multiculturalism in Europe, fight for an unbridled refugee movement, and facilitate demographic and cultural takeovers across the continent.

Circulation of fakes

Bollywood film actor and director Akhtar recently tweeted a widely circulated online poster inviting people to join the CAA protests in Mumbai. The poster is credited to Stand With Kashmir, an online entity suspected to be run by the Pakistani spy agency ISI from the US and Canada. It has Facebook and Instagram pages with 50,000 and 15,000 followers respectively. It aggressively pushes Pakistan’s separatist and jihadi view of Kashmir, and this poster is a class showcase of that.

Akhtar failed to notice that India’s map in the poster did not show Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and Akshai Chin (conflicted zones with Pakistan and China) as integral parts of the nation.

Then come the outright lies. The poster says the “law excludes Muslims.” But why should the majority Muslims of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who have systemically persecuted their minorities to the point of near-extinction, be granted protection from religious persecution? Do you protect the sheep running away from a wolf by sheltering the wolf alongside its prey?

Sudden love for women and LGBTQIA

The propaganda document goes on to say, “When combined with the National Register for Citizens…many people will be inhumanly excluded due to being Muslims, transgender, atheists, adivasis, Dalits, women, landless… [sic]”

Amusingly, a nationwide NRC has not yet been drafted. And India’s citizenship has nothing to do with religion, gender, colour, caste, or being tribal or not.

The same Islamists were livid with the special status to Kashmir under Articles 370 and 35A –– which discriminated against women, LGBTQIA, and backward castes.

“India’s Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jain, Parsis and Christians will be granted citizenship without documents, but not Muslims. Why this discrimination?” says the document.

The CAA will only fast-track citizenship for persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. An Indian Hindu without documents will face the same procedures as an Indian Muslim without documents.

So, what’s the fuss about?

Sleeper cells have got activated

Elements of banned extremist organisations have crawled out of the underground to run riot in the name of protest. And there is a new, interesting attempt to dress up garden variety Islamism as progressive resistance.

One such instance is Ladeeda Farzana Sakhaloon. ‘Liberal’ media posted selfies with this nerdy, headscarf-covered girl, describing her as a “Shero.”

Scratch the surface, and a sinister story emerges.

Her husband and she are part of a highly communal group named Students Islamic Organisation which cheers conversions and Islamic rule.

“During the protest gathering happened yesterday. Some liberals dictated us to refrain from chanting ‘Insha Allah’ and ‘Allah-Hu-Akbar,’” Ladeeda writes in a social media post. “We have only submitted completely towards Almighty. We have abandoned your secular slogans long before. Those slogans will be raised loudly again and again… [sic].”

Path to hell is paved with…

On Thursday, a ‘liberal’ website had to eat crow for trying to whitewash the most egregious slogans shouted at the anti-CAA protests.

Protesters were seen in a video shouting “freedom from Hindus.” Indians were outraged by the genocidal tones, but this website called it a fake. It turned out later that the video was genuine.

While policemen are being beaten up, trains and buses burnt by predominantly aggressive Muslim mobs, an information jihad rages against India, twisting the law and spinning large-scale violence and bigotry in the name of protests as some kind of spontaneous, righteous, anti-fascist youth resistance.

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