On March 7, The Wire published a report calling India ‘one of the worst autocracies in the last ten years’. It was authored by Vasundhara Sirnate and based on V-Dem’s latest report on democracies worldwide. Notably, V-Dem, which is a George Soros-funded institute, has published multiple dubious reports claiming democracy has been downgraded in India.
Who is Vasundhara Sirnate?
Vasundhara Sirnate, a journalist based out of Ireland, goes by the Twitter handle @vsirnate. She has written for multiple publications, including The Wire, The Hindu, Washington Post, Frontline India, The Telegraph, and more.
In September 2022, Sirnate tried to blame Hindus in Leicester for the violence. A thread published by her propagating disinformation is still available on Twitter. In her thread, she claimed to have accessed footage of 200-strong Hindutva supporters chanting Jai Shri Ram in a “Muslim area” in Leicester.
In another tweet, she quoted a dubious former Guardian reporter Aina Khan who she claimed to have interviewed one Hindu man who was wearing a motorbike helmet and held an India flag. Without naming the “Hindu man”, she claimed that the man in the helmet claimed he was an RSS supporter. She then adds one disclaimer: Italian dictator Mussolini inspired the RSS. This is surprising because it is usually claimed that Hitler’s Nazism inspired RSS and is done to dehumanise those associated with the Sangh. OpIndia’s report on Khan’s thread can be seen here. OpIndia’s detailed coverage of Leicester can be seen here.
Sirnate was one of the founding members of the Hinduphobic Kashmiri separatist organisation The Polis Project. In October 2022, Stop Hindu Hate Advocacy Network (SHHAN) published a detailed thread on Sirnate’s links to the Polis Project and how she consistently propagated anti-Hindu content in media and on social media platforms.
Vasundhara Sirnate along with Suchitra Vijayan founded The Polis Project. 2/9 pic.twitter.com/d2ZZeE8F9Y
— Stop Hindu Hate Advocacy Network (SHHAN) (@HinduHate) October 2, 2022
The Polis Project extensively published content claiming Muslims were facing atrocities in India. The organisation’s reports described the anti-Hindu riots in Delhi in 2020 as a “pogrom against the Muslim community”. Upon simple search on Twitter, we found that the organisation called it “Pogrom” against Muslims multiple times. The organisation also propagated separatist views on Kashmir and published content favouring terrorists like Burhan Wani, Yasin Malik and others.
The Polis Project called anti-Hindu Delhi riots as “anti-Muslim pogrom” and went to the extent to say Delhi Police was complicit in the violence. 3/9 pic.twitter.com/OiGtk0sWLM
— Stop Hindu Hate Advocacy Network (SHHAN) (@HinduHate) October 2, 2022
The Polis Project consistently called Kashmir “Indian-administered” and called India a “settler-colonialist”. It further claimed that “genocide” was underway in Kashmir.
The Polis Project calls Kashmir “Indian-administered”, calls India a “settler-colonialist”, and claim a “genocide” is underway in Kashmir. 5/9 pic.twitter.com/Llbh9v6Ban
— Stop Hindu Hate Advocacy Network (SHHAN) (@HinduHate) October 2, 2022
They furthered their propaganda and gave a clean chit to Pakistan in the Pulwama attack and called Indian media a “BJP’s propaganda machine”. Banned organisation Jamaat-e-Islami also uses their content in their course material on “Stand With Kashmir”. In November 2020, Sirnate stepped down from the Polis Project.
George Soros funds V-Dem
The V-Dem institute is an independent research organization funded by many other institutions and governments. Fund contributors to the institute range from Canadian International Development Agency to the World Bank Group.
The Open Society Foundation, which George Soros leads, also funds the institute. Soros is a self-proclaimed philanthropist and Hungarian-American investor who has sworn to ‘fight nationalists’ and conservative governments throughout the world, which he commonly refers to as ‘authoritarian governments.’
George Soros’ sponsorship of the V-Dem Institute reveals a lot about the organization’s intentions toward India. Soros has publicly expressed his hatred for India and has often denounced the Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His support for an organization that ranks India as a dying democracy highlights the hollowness of the institute’s findings.
The Wire’s propaganda
The Wire, a far-Left propaganda site, is known for publishing misleading, sometimes completely false reports to paint India as a dictatorship. In the last quarter of 2022, The Wire had to drop two of its allegedly “well-researched” reports against the ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party after they were proved to be fabricated. In the Meta Vs The Wire saga, The Wire claimed BJP’s IT Cell Chief Amit Malviya had the power to get any content removed from Instagram.
The researcher who worked on the report fabricated the proofs several experts debunked. Earlier, the same “expert” had worked on the reports revolving around an imaginary app “, Tek Fog”. The Wire’s reports claimed people associated with BJP had the power to manipulate social media trends and influence people using the application.
OpIndia’s coverage of The Wire’s propaganda reports can be seen here.
Foreign meddling in India’s affair
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, international actors have tried their level best to meddle with India’s affairs. Sadly, Indian leaders, including Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, have urged Western countries to interfere in India’s matters. Apart from him, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyer and others have made similar calls in the past. Rahul Gandhi during his recent visit has been complaining that India’s all institutions are biased towards Modi and that is why he needs help to save India’s democracy.
