A couple of days back a scuffle broke out between two groups over the game of cricket in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao. However, twisting the context of the fight, the Imam of the Jama Masjid in Unnao claimed that the fight erupted after Muslim students of a madarsa were coerced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans. The Uttar Pradesh Police, on the other hand, refuted the allegations claiming that the fight broke out on the playground and it had nothing to do with the communal undertones the incident is being attached to.
The FactChecker.in, which is notoriously infamous for running a prejudicial viewpoint, disregarded Uttar Pradesh Police’s investigation which conclusively established that the Muslim youths weren’t dragooned to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans and instead chose to believe the complainant Nisar Ahmed’s version that the victims were beaten for protesting against chanting of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans.
Late night on July 12, 2019, UP govt released a press note claiming that “in the course of deliberation” they found the case “was a quarrel between the students over a game of cricket and there were no religious slogans involved.” https://t.co/zt3dRmrvyPhttps://t.co/MBcvJqppDi
— FactChecker.in (@FactCheckIndia) July 13, 2019
Even after the Uttar Pradesh police issued a clarification that the reports of Muslim youths being pummeled for not chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans were baseless, factchecker.in continued to believe the victim’s version of the event, showing utter contempt and disregard for the law enforcement agency charged with administering law and order in the state.
According to the CCTV footage accessed by the police, the alleged perpetrators, against whom an FIR was lodged and who were accused of allegedly thrashing Muslim youths for not chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans were not even present at the spot. The mobile phone records also show that the accused were not present at the spot. The police have also said the complaint of raising slogans hasn’t been verified yet.
However, in a subversive attempt to discredit the police findings and run them down, FactChecker.in blatantly defended its stated version of the event without providing any credible evidence to back their claim.
We stand by our story (n/n)
— FactChecker.in (@FactCheckIndia) July 13, 2019
This is in line with their archetypal modus operandi where they twist facts to portray Muslims as victims and Hindus as brutal aggressors. Recently, in the temple desecration incident in Delhi’s Hauz Qazi, factchecker.in distorted the facts to depict Muslims as victims and Hindus, whose temple was desecrated by a Muslim mob and idols vandalised, were painted as instigators. According to them, tensions were flared up by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal members and Muslims were depicted as victims, even though a Hindu temple was vandalised and idols were broken.
There is a distinct pattern in how factchecker.in perceives an event in which Hindus are invariably portrayed as perpetrators against the minorities. They peddle fictitious narratives to allege that Muslims and other minorities are wantonly targeted by Hindus. They unscrupulously categorise such incidents under their dubious ‘Hate Tracker’ to document crimes committed in the name of religion. Their vile propaganda was ably exposed with painstaking details by Swati Goel, a journalist associated with Swarajya Magazine. She had called out the website for being selectively cherrypicking certain incidents while ignoring others to suit a particular narrative. OpIndia also has shown several times how information is distorted by factchecker.in in their so hate tracker to show Hindus as aggressors.
