On Sunday (April 16), BBC News ‘journalist’ Geeta Pandey stirred the hornet’s nest by trying to create a sympathy wave for deceased gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed.
In her piece titled ‘Atiq Ahmed: The brazen murder of an Indian mafia don-turned-politician,’ Pandey went on to weave a sorry tale around Ahmed’s childhood days. “The 60-year-old was born in a poor family in Prayagraj and was a school dropout…” the report read.
Hinting at a rags-to-riches story, she added, “…But over the years he amassed huge wealth, enjoyed political patronage and power and came to wield immense influence in the city of his birth and beyond.”
Atiq Ahmed was "Robin Hood, a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde type of character" who helped poor people, paying for weddings & school uniforms, gave money during Eid. But this persona unravelled with mounting accusations of heinous crimes. My report for @BBCIndia https://t.co/KiyVYepslA
— GeetaPandeyBBC (@geetapandeyBBC) April 16, 2023
Citing former Uttar Pradesh DGP Vikram Singh, Geeta Pandey highlighted how the gangster Atiq Ahmed was a sort of ‘Robinhood’ who helped people in distress.
“(He) spent lavishly to help poor people – paying for weddings, giving them money during Eid festivals, and helping poor women buy school uniforms and books for their children,” she quoted Singh as saying.
The BBC journalist also cast doubts on the police encounter of Asad Ahmed, the son of Atiq Ahmed, but decided to not delve into the details of his criminal activity.
Interestingly, she was able to find a 40-year-old anonymous ‘Muslim’ man, who was left wondering whether the assassination of Atiq Ahmed was related to his Islamic Faith.
Anti-India propaganda masked as ‘good journalism’
This is not the first time that Geeta Pandey displayed her excellence in vicious propaganda. In June last year, she falsely claimed that bulldozers were being used ‘to destroy homes and livelihoods of the minority Muslim community.’
This allegation is not rooted in reality. The BJP government has been razing illegal structures, irrespective of the faith or political affiliations of the accused. It is curious that Geeta Pandey associates only Muslims with illegal encroachment.
The illegally acquired properties of dozens of criminals and mafias have been demolished in UP, and the names include non-Muslims like Vikas Dubey, Yogesh Bhadora, Ramesh Pradhan, Badan Singh, Sundar Bhati, Vijay Mishra and many others.
In September 2022, the Uttarakhand government demolished the resort owned by the son of ex-BJP minister Pulkit Arya in connection to the murder of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari. Pulkit Arya is neither a Muslim student nor an activist but that did not stop the government from taking swift action against him.
The BBC ‘journalist’ has deceptively tried to claim that action has been taken unilaterally against the Muslim community. During the Coronavirus pandemic, she was actively involved in anti-Hindu propaganda, even going to the extent of labelling Kumbh Mela devotees as ‘Covid superspreaders.’
The false characterisation of the event and the Covid-19 scare gave the opportunity to the usual suspects to compare ‘Kumbh’ with the Nizamuddin Markaz event, organised by Tablighi Jamaat.
Opindia had reported how the Panchayati Niranjani Akhada asked Sadhus to leave Haridwar and conclude the festival within 17 days instead of 30 days (cut down from the original) and displayed awareness about the fatal consequences of the pandemic.
Geeta Pandey did not content herself by calling Hindu pilgrims ‘super spreaders’. She also exploited the rising cases during the second wave of the pandemic to tarnish the image of India on a global scale.
It is interesting to note that some ‘journalists’ took aerial shots of the burning pyres, breached the privacy of the grieving families and used the tragedy of millions of people for furthering their political narrative.
In her article, Geeta Pandey tried to link the presence of dead bodies in the river Ganga to ‘unaccounted Covid-19 deaths’, a claim which was debunked in May last year.
She had also resorted to blatant Hinduphobia in the past. Following the death of a man named Tabrez Ansari on the accusation of being a thief, the BBC journalist compared the sacred Hindu chant of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ to a ‘murder cry.’
“Jai Shri Ram has now been turned into a cry of attack, meant to intimidate and threaten those who worship differently,” she claimed in her vicious piece.
"Jai Shri Ram" has now been turned into a cry of attack, meant to intimidate and threaten those who worship differently. My piece for @BBCIndia @BBCNewsAsia @BBCWorld https://t.co/cDcq4oq5Db
— GeetaPandeyBBC (@geetapandeyBBC) July 10, 2019
In February this year, she wrote a propaganda-laden article with the objective of painting Bageshwar Dham Sarkar as ‘regressive’, ‘orthodox’ and anti-Muslim.’
“Mr Shastri has also been embroiled in political controversies over what appear to be anti-minority statements and calling for India to be made a Hindu rashtra (nation). He was also accused of practising untouchability last year after a video went viral that showed him telling a man “Don’t touch me… you’re untouchable”, the article read.
Geeta Pandey has never shied from acknowledging the impact of her articles. Following the incarceration of Delhi riot accused Safoora Zargar, the left-liberal lobby campaigned for her release on grounds that she is pregnant.
The BBC journalist had also amplified the campaign, with the claim that Zargar was at health risk in jail. A month after the publication of her article, Pandey informed, “She’s finally been granted bail and her family tells me she’s expected to walk out of jail today.”
Some good news: I wrote this piece on #SafooraZargar last month for @BBCIndia She's finally been granted bail and her family tells me she's expected to walk out of jail today https://t.co/zeJvZPWrow
— GeetaPandeyBBC (@geetapandeyBBC) June 23, 2020
The BBC journalist had also batted for fake news peddler Prashant Bhushan in an article titled ‘India finds an unlikely hero in lawyer-activist.’ Geeta Pandey has also tried to discredit ‘love jihad’ as a conspiracy theory, despite 100s of documented cases of forced conversion and identity fraud.
Her latest attempt to discover a ‘Robinhood’ in a deceased gangster-politician is part of the same politically motivated ruse.
