China, Cong linked to ‘anti-India umbilical cord’: BJP targets Oppn, news website citing NYT report

As the Opposition protested against the BJP MP’s remarks, urging Speaker Om Birla to strike from records the “defamatory and libellous” comments, the proceedings were adjourned. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to the Speaker demanding that Dubey’s remarks be expunged “in full (under Rule 380) and that an inquiry be conducted into how such an allegation was permitted to be raised on the record”. The protests forced the proceedings to be adjourned. Later in the day, the BJP MP’s references to a few journalists, a news website, and a foreign power were expunged.

Congress MP Hibi Eden from Ernakulam, Kerala, filed a privilege notice against Dubey. In his letter to the Speaker, Eden said Dubey had “blatantly produced misinformation about Opposition party MPs including Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi and accused them of having been the recipients of money from the People’s Republic of China for fostering anti-national activities and further alleged that Opposition party leaders joined hands with journalists and separatists and are indulging in anti-national activities”. Eden said the allegations were “highly insulting, deeply distressing and an absolute fabrication intended with intentional malice with a sinister move”.

At a press conference at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur and the Minister of State (MoS) for Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, also took aim at the Congress and other Opposition leaders. Alleging a link between China, the NewsClick website, and the Congress, Thakur said, “Chinese goods are being sold in Rahul ji’s fake ‘mohabbat ki dukaan’.”

Terming the INDIA bloc a “Ghamandia Gathbandan (coalition of the arrogant)” — Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the term to describe the Opposition bloc at a meeting with NDA MPs last week — Thakur said, “The ‘Ghamandia Gathbandhan’, its leaders, and all the people supported and nurtured by this alliance can never think of India’s interest. The only mission of this alliance is to make India weak, to harm her interests, to nurture anti-India agenda.”

“If you see the funding network of NewsClick, it was funded by a foreigner Neville Roy Singham and he gets funds from China. This Neville Roy Singham has direct contact with the propaganda arm of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese media company Maku Group,” Thakur said.

The minister said “foreign hands” behind the news website had been revealed in 2021. “There have been many China and Pakistan-sponsored channels and platforms that run anti-India agenda, which run anti-India, and Break India campaigns. It is understandable when foreign powers do it, but it is deeply unfortunate and shameful when those living in the country become a tool for these activities, become agents for such anti-India propaganda. They present fake news in the name of free news. The Congress and other parties are supporting them.”

Quoting BJP veteran L K Advani, Thakur said, “Advani ji once said in Parliament, ‘Whenever one stands against the country, we should all come together as a combined force against him; Kauravas and Pandavas came together when there emerged a third sinful force against them.’”

He added, “But it is unfortunate for the Congress to shake hands with the foreign powers and proceed ahead towards fulfilling its selfish motives (absolutely against the nation’s interests). Those spreading misinformation, those defaming India, those shaping false narratives with China’s agenda will not be spared.”

Chandrasekhar claimed there was a “remarkable convergence of strategy and a consistent narrative” by platforms that rally behind “free speech”. He said some countries were fanning misinformation in India with the help of some parties and news websites. “These narratives that are put out by platforms like NewsClick and other platforms that are operating in concert are echoed almost blandly in a similar fashion by this political leader, Rahul Gandhi, who goes abroad and says exactly the same things-democracy is under danger, the judiciary is compromised, EVMs are compromised. This is exactly the narrative that these platforms put out,” he said.

The MoS IT said the government had removed thousands of accounts operated by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and Khalistani operatives. “A few months ago, there were another 1000+ accounts that were removed. Those were being sponsored and operated by Khalistani elements, again fanning misinformation, violence, lies and hatred against the Government of India and our leadership. This new revelation further reinforces the threat that our country, our democratic society, and our media faces.”