Pakistan Senate last year had passed a resolution highlighting their renewed Kashmir policy, which stressed on reaching out to Modi haters, using Media, and importantly, stoking communal tensions between various ethnic groups in India especially caste by ‘talking about Dalits’.
To break India by exploiting fault-lines in the society was declared an official state policy. Coincidentally Indian media too seems to be toying this Pakistan line and following the same policy. Coincidentally again, using the mainstream media too was part of this policy of Pakistan.
But not just the Indian media, Pakistan also realizes the importance of social media and the internet. And it appears that they are working on that front too.
Recently I saw people referring to a video titled Brahmins “The Upper Caste”. Many people on Facebook and Twitter were sharing angry responses to the utter lies and distortions being peddled in that video. When this tweet was shared on my Timeline I decided to investigate the source of this post which was some website called CJ Post.
Being aware about Pakistan’s declared policy, I decided to investigate more about the website. The whois data shows owner details we under privacy lock. The “Contact us” page has no details and only mentions “coming soon”. The website concentrates on “atrocities” against Dalits and other castes.
Their social media presence however gives away the Pakistani connection as a bulk of those sharing its links are Twitter or Facebook users from Pakistan. With these “Dalit” stories, now they are trying to get Indian followers too, and it seems, they are getting successful.
The anti-Brahmin video posted on their Facebook page was viewed over 2.55 lakh times and shared about 10,000 times. There are many responses by Indians to this video trying to dismiss all the fake claims as well.
To create this video with a seemingly “professional” and “foreigner” news reader, these propagandists have used services available online, which they can avail of while sitting in some garage in Islamabad.
It is but obvious that none of the claims in the video are true and hence I am not repeating the same. Still if you are curious, let me tell you that one of the claims in the video says that people belonging to Brahmin caste are not charged any money for staying anywhere in India. Do you really think such ridiculous charges are worth countering?
However my real concern is that on the Facebook page sharing this fake news, I observed many Indians fighting among themselves over caste differences:
I also came across many Indians who identified these nefarious designs and called them out. Someone even copy-pasted my tweets on that article to warn others.
For those who don’t know, this website has a history of coming up with fake news to target India.
In January this year, this fake news website posted an article claiming that an Indian national had raped a Nepali girl inside the Indian Embassy in UAE and RAW officials were also involved in the matter. The website thought that they will be able to create some sensation in the wake of UAE soldiers taking part in Indian Republic Day parade, where Abu Dhabi crown prince was the chief guest.
Some Pakistani accounts even “trended” this news across Twitter and Facebook under a particular hashtag, hoping they will be able to fool the mainstream media of India, Pakistan, UAE, and Nepal. Fortunately, no one was fooled and their antics remained on social media only.
Now they seem to have decided to focus on ‘caste’ because such articles can easily be believed. One can’t deny that in many parts of India, especially rural India, caste tensions exist. Now Pakistanis are adding their own propaganda and ‘creativity’ (like the aforementioned video) to exploit the fault-lines. Today, they are trying to trend a hate hashtag against Brahmins hoping that it gets picked up in India:
@c_aashish @muglikar_ Pakistanis doing a #tag campaign #BrahminsTheCancerOfIndia
Exploiting India’s fault lines seems to be Plan-B of their 1000 cuts Policy. pic.twitter.com/UUHkFBAIcU— Mihir Jha (@MihirkJha) May 25, 2017
In such sensitive and critical times we live in, it is becoming increasingly important to spot the Pakistani propaganda and warn Indians, who knowingly or unknowingly, are becoming party to it.
Pakistan is ready with petrol and waiting for sparks like Saharanpur. Some in the Indian media are ready to carry that petrol on their behalf, but we have to be ready for fire-fighting. Remember, Pakistan is currently winning this war, but we can fight back.
