'On Tuesday, actor Deepika Padukone attended a protest meeting at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University to express solidarity with students who had been injured in violence unleashed by a masked mob on Sunday. Many have blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, for planning the violence. Padukone’s gesture irked some people, who took to social media to make #BoycottChhapaak one of the top trends on Twitter.
'If reality spoke for itself, Prasar Bharati would probably dispute it. On January 6, a day after mob violence in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, India's state broadcaster spun a blatantly false angle on it. This was fact-checked by AltNews, but Prasar Bharati would not back down... In short, the state broadcaster of India — itself borne out of the fears around autonomy following ruthless state propaganda during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency regime — is now peddling demonstrably false information online. Unsurprisingly, this information suits the position of the current establishment.
'A video of a man in a red jacket beating up another person in green clothing is widely circulating on social media to espouse the claim that students associated with Left parties attacked members of RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). This triggered the violence in JNU on the intervening night of January 5-6, per the narrative. Journalist Sumit Kumar Singh the first to tweet the video. He wrote, “This triggered clashes in #JNU campus. Students associated with Left parties bashed up #ABVP members when they were facilitating admission process.
'Messages urging people to “thrash the anti-nationals” in JNU allegedly did rounds of some WhatsApp groups in the hours leading up to the violence on campus Sunday. The Indian Express managed to contact six people from whose mobile numbers the messages threatening violence were made in the groups. Out of the six, three said someone else may have “misused” their number to post the messages, one said his “friend posted the message”, two others said they entered the groups to “provide intel”.
'...Scroll.in examined screenshots of WhatsApp messages that were shared by social media users. Using Truecaller, an app that enables the identification of mobile phone users, and Facebook, the identity of some of the people exchanging messages about the violence was traced. The number associated with the message – “We entered their hostels and beat them up” – was traced to Saurabh Dubey over Truecaller. His Facebook profile shows he is an assistant professor at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Evening College of the University of Delhi. He manages a group called “JNUites for MODI”.
'With the BJP and the Centre coming in for intense criticism for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the party had begun a campaign asking people to give a missed call to a number to “register” their support for the controversial law. While reports said that the BJP IT cell would also “give a push” to the campaign on social media outlets, the strategy took a rather interesting turn, as it later emerged...
'“The enemy is not just on the other side of the border, but inside the house as well, living like a termite,” read a message that landed in the WhatsApp group of the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) of an East Delhi neighbourhood earlier this month.
“Termite” is the word that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah, now India’s Home Minister, had used to describe persons living without papers in the country in an election speech he gave in April.
'On December 28, BJP social media head Amit Malviya tweeted a video and claimed that it shows anti-CAA protesters in Lucknow raising ‘Pakistan zindabad’ slogans. Malviya wrote, “Since this is a season of pulling out old videos, here is one from Lucknow where anti-CAA protestors can be seen raising ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans… Damn!
'As tends to happen whenever its policies are controversial and face some backlash, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has again tried to insist that its efforts are no different from those of the Congress-led regime that preceded it. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar this week adamantly said that the National Population Register update planned for next year – which many have pointed out that, despite denials, is the first step on the path to a National Register of Citizens – was simply a continuation of a policy that the previous government also implemented.
' In an official communication dated December 24, seen by Scroll.in, a government department cautioned employees against taking political stands on social media. In the order, issued by the state’s elementary education department, employees were warned there would be disciplinary action against those “indulging and participating in political activities” on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram”.
