'A video of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act is being circulated on social media with a claim that they raised slogans against Hindus. BJP Yuva Morcha vice president Santosh Ranjan Rai posted the video with the message, “हिंदुओं की कब्र खुदेगी, AMU की छाती पर.यह भारत में सुनने को मिल रहा है भाई (The grave of Hindus will be dug on the chest of AMU. We are getting to listen this in India -translated)... With the help of a keyword search on Twitter, Alt News found the same video with better audio and video quality.
'A global network of pro-Indian fake websites and think-tanks is aimed at influencing decision-making in Europe, researchers say. The co-ordinated network of 265 sites operates across 65 countries, according to a report by EU Disinfo Lab, a Brussels-based NGO, The researchers traced the websites to an Indian company, Srivastava Group. The network was also found to involve groups responsible for anti-Pakistan lobbying events in Europe... EU Disinfo Lab's investigation started by looking at EP Today, a website which claimed to be an online magazine for the European Parliament in Brussels.
'Several Twitter users claiming to be Muslim took to Twitter this week to share an identical piece of text announcing their support for Citizenship Amendment Bill, which was signed into law by President Ramnath Kovind on Thursday... When Alt News examined the Twitter profiles and previous messages of some of the people declaring support for the Act, it found that several among them used to identify as Hindus. The sudden shift to Muslim identities occurred after the citizenship legislation was introduced in Parliament earlier this month...'
'Minutes after retired Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa attacked the Pakistani claim that IAF bombers dropped their payloads in haste and missed their target on February 26 when they bombed a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Balakot, Christine Fair – an expert on South Asian political and military affairs – said the IAF story of the operation and its aftermath is based on ‘dubious’ claims.
' An examination of the digital evidence presented by the Pune Police in court against prominent human-rights activists accused in the Bhima Koregaon case has revealed several technical anomalies and clear procedural violations by the force. Last year, the Pune Police claimed it had discovered several damning letters on the computer hard drives it had seized from the human-rights lawyer Surendra Gadling and the prison-rights activist Rona Wilson. A close scrutiny of the documents disclosed the irregularities that raise serious questions about the Pune Police’s investigation in the case.
'In a debate in the Lok Sabha on December 12 about the Sanskrit University Bill, Ganesh Singh, the BJP MP from Satna, Madhya Pradesh, cited studies conducted by some American research institution to claim speaking Sanskrit every day “boosts the nervous system and keeps diabetes and cholesterol at bay”, PTI reported. He also said, “according to a [study] by US space research organisation NASA, if computer programming is done in Sanskrit, it will be flawless.” Both claims are false.
'During the debate on the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament, the BJP repeatedly claimed that population of religious minorities in Pakistan has declined from 23% in 1947 to 3.7% in 2011. Analysis of official data however shows this argument is faulty... IndiaToday.in's analysis of Pakistan's Census data shows that these claims are faulty... Pakistan got its identity as a separate nation on August 14, 1947. Back then, Pakistan also included present-day Bangladesh which was known as East Pakistan.
'On Tuesday, replying to a question in Rajya Sabha raised by DMK’s Tiruchi Siva about what the Reserve Bank’s “indirect” approval to the issuance of electoral bonds meant, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: “RBI, being a stakeholder, was involved in the consultation process and during the consultation process, they had certain questions to ask about the particular platform of issuance as to who is going to issue it and also the proforma with which it is going to be issued.
'Home minister Amit Shah on Monday piloted the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha with the contention that the legislation would not have been necessary had the Congress not divided the country on religious lines... The Opposition protested vociferously, but their voices were drowned out by the treasury benches’ desk-thumping. Shah’s claim on the Partition flies in the face of known facts, and the strongest rebuttal came outside the House from Sudheendra Kulkarni, an aide to L.K. Advani who had nurtured the current crop of BJP leaders.
'...The fundamental difference between the gross abuse of the constitution, especially witnessed under Indira Gandhi, and that is being seen under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah over the last five years, is that while the former was seen with anger and revulsion, the latter is adoringly termed as Chanakyaniti. It is this shift in language and discourse that is the most dangerous for Indian democracy – every act of brazen challenge to the constitution is normalised and projected as brilliant political masterstrokes. It is why Amit Shah is eulogised by the mainstream television media.
