State-sponsored disinformation as a weapon A court hearing earlier this month revealed that the evidence used by the police to file a case...
State-sponsored disinformation as a weapon
A court hearing earlier this month revealed that the evidence used by the police to file a case against Umar Khalid in connection with the February 2020 Delhi violence came from edited clips of a speech he gave that were played on TV news channels, who in turn, had pulled those bits from a snippet put out on social media by the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT Cell.
Political scientist Neelanjan Sircar examines what this case tells us about the nature of disinformation in India, and how it is dangerous for democracy.
“In the Indian context, the sheer scale of government intrusions and control over the media emboldens it to strategically deploy misleading information — what is often called disinformation — to develop a national narrative supportive of the ruling BJP and Hindu nationalist ideology, as well as to harass government critic and the Muslim community in India.”
The Owaisi-Hindutva paradox
Asaduddin Owaisi is frequently accused of being the sort of firebrand Muslim political leader who reinforces the claims of the Hindutva Right, encouraging religious polarisation and ultimately helping out the Bharatiya Janata Party at the cost of communal harmony.
Yet, this simplistic reading ignores the...
