Journalist Saba Naqvi, who has often been found peddling fake news on her social media page was once again exposed for promoting fake news carried by the Caravan daily. Saba Naqvi had shared a report published by the Caravan, which alleged that a Muslim driver was tied up and cruelly beaten up for refusing to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. As it turned out, the news was a hoax. However, this didn’t stop Saba from pontificating on her Social Media page.
If this is fake news I would withdraw it with apologies…so I ask @CaravanDaily and @AltNews. Do not consider Opindia a fact check but a malicious communal site spewing fake news and pretending to fact check selectively. https://t.co/yH2Z24pVGH
— Saba Naqvi (@_sabanaqvi) July 5, 2019
As soon as it was established that the news published by the Caravan is bogus, many Twitter users pointed out to her that the report she has shared is, in fact, fake. Instead of humbly issuing an apologetic tweet for her error, Saba tweeted a conditional apology, requesting the Caravan and Altnews, two notorious websites that are known for peddling fake news, to fact check the matter. Perhaps rattled by being exposed yet again as a purveyor of fake news, Saba was triggered into ranting against OpIndia and levelling outlandish accusations of being a ‘malicious communal site sharing fake news’.
There are two facets to this mental collapse. First, it is she who stands guilty of sharing communally sensitive fake news before checking sufficiently to establish the veracity of the incident. Second, it also shows the absolute faith Saba places on infamous websites like Caravan, Altnews, who are amongst the top fake news repositories in the country, requesting them to run a fact check on their own fake news articles.
The resounding victory of the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections has been a watershed moment for the liberals like Saba. Not only have they been dealt with a body blow of another 5 years of Modi at the helm, someone whom they deeply despise, they have also been acquainted with the uncomfortable truth that the people of the country no longer subscribe to their vile propaganda. However, far from being deflated by this insight, the liberals, refusing to learn from their past mistakes, have simply intensified the shrillness of their propaganda. The subterranean Hinduphobia which had been assiduously hidden has found its way out in open.
Just like the posters of Hanuman unwarrantedly attracted liberal scorn, and were vilified as being signs of aggressive Hinduism and religious chauvinism, now the Liberal brigade is deviously co-opting the spiritually edifying chants of “Jai Shri Ram” and connecting them with any untoward incident occurring with the minorities, only to paint a gloomy picture of the country under PM Modi’s rule. Most of the times, there are no communal undertones to these unfortunate stray incidents where people from minority communities are attacked but liberals like Saba Naqvi give it a spin to portray it as a communal atrocity, thereby betraying her Hinduphobic mindset and making the Hindus feel mortified about their own religion.
The perpetual denigration of Hindu ideals and beliefs, especially in cases where the victim belongs to a minority community, is intended to serve two purpose- To extenuate the victim of any criminal wrongdoing that must have invited the wrath of his assailant and the instant mortification it engenders among Hindus that discourages to seeNk legal remedy against the victim for his/her alleged crime.
In the Pehlu Khan murder case, many witnesses have alleged that Pehlu and his sons were habitually involved in acts of cow smuggling. However, the liberal coterie whipped up the frenzy of beef and cow vigilantism to reduce Pehlu Khan and his son’s culpability and send Hindus on a guilt-ride that a man from a minority community was attacked and killed for upholding the Hindu religious belief of cow protection. Liberals didn’t even spare the law enforcement agencies when Pehlu Khan and his sons were charge-sheeted for cow smuggling.
Similarly, a few days back liberals had floated fake news of a man being beaten for refusing to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. It was later revealed that the incident had no religious connotation and the CCTV recording unveiled how it was actually a scuffle between few men and the argument turned into push and shoving in which his cap fell down. The CCTV footage showed how no one had deliberately removed his skullcap. And how even his initial complaint never mentioned that he was forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. After casting smear on the noble Hindu belief of cow protection, disparaging ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is the latest hack embraced by the detractors to further their anti-Hindu propaganda.
This is not the first time when Saba Naqvi has shared fake news and blatantly indulged in peddling Hinduphobic propaganda. In 2018, she had shared old fake news from 2015 where she asserted that a Dalit man was murdered for entering a temple in Uttar Pradesh. The news, firstly, was from 2015 when Akhilesh Yadav was Chief Minister. Secondly, the man was murdered by a drunk and not because he entered the temple. However, this did not deter Saba from exploiting the caste fault-lines by trying to pit Dalits against Hindus.
Apart from this, Saba in 2015 had also written a manifestly sexist piece on BJP leader Smriti Irani foreboding that she would be very soon “cut to size” by the top mandarins of the party. This obviously that didn’t age well as it is evident from the fact that Smriti Irani defeated the Congress PM candidate Rahul Gandhi on his home turf Amethi. Her emphatic victory is a testimony to the fact that BJP’s top echelons placed unswerving faith on Smriti’s capabilities, in stark contrast to Saba’s unfounded misogynist assertions.
From sexist jibes against a woman BJP leader to unabashed Hinduphobic contentions, Saba Naqvi has come a long way in her otherwise lacklustre journalistic vocation. However, she has been remarkably successful in transforming herself into a poor man’s Rana Ayyub by using seemingly non-communal incidents to perpetuate her abhorrence for Hindus and Hinduism.
