A week after Islamists ran riots in Nuh district (Mewat region) of Haryana, ‘journalist’ Meer Faisal posted a photo essay on the ‘communal violence’ in the State on August 7, 2023.
The contentious story conveniently ignored the killing of 5 people (most Hindus) and presented Islamists as the victims. As expected, Meer Faisal attempted to shield his radical co-religionists by falsely blaming the outbreak of violence on the likes of Gaurakshak Monu Manesar, who was not even present in Nuh.
My photo essay for The London Story is about the recent communal violence in #Haryana. A thread with footage from the site.@FoundationTLS https://t.co/nF2MzfXwE3 pic.twitter.com/Gg7IM3EW5T
— Meer Faisal (@meerfaisal01) August 7, 2023
“Four people, including two cops, were killed in the violence. Moreover, scores of vehicles were set on fire by the rioters,” he shrewdly refused to identify the perpetrators.
Meer Faisal, who is infamous for spewing vitriol against non-Muslims, works for The Observer Post. He has written extensively for Islamist propaganda news portals such as Maktoob Media and Al Jazeera and leftist outlets such as The Wire.
The ‘journalist’ also holds the distinction of being featured by the ISIS-run magazine ‘Voice of Khurasan,’ which has repeatedly called for the annihilation of Hindus in India.
Interestingly, his ‘photo story’ on the Nuh violence was posted on the website of a Netherlands-based ‘think tank’ called ‘Foundation The London Story (TLS)’ on August 7 this year. Meer Faisal wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “My photo story on the recent communal violence in Haryana for The London Story.”
My photo story on the recent communal violence in Haryana for The London Story. https://t.co/AjEvFpMJy1
— Meer Faisal (@meerfaisal01) August 7, 2023
Foundation The London Story and anti-CAA/NRC propaganda
Coincidentally, TLS came into existence during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which aimed to fast-track the citizenship of religious minorities who entered India illegally from the neighbouring Islamic nations of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The Netherlands-based think tank claims to investigate ‘misinformation’, ‘disinformation’ and ‘hate speech’, although it has collaborated with individuals and institutions that are accused of the same.
TLS was co-founded by one Ritumbra Manuvie, a climate researcher and a lecturer of law at the University of Groningen. She has cast aspersions on India and its human rights record through multiple propaganda pieces for The Quint and The Print.
Ritumbra Manuvie was one of the organisers of anti-CAA protests outside the Peace Palace in the Hague city of Netherlands.
“When the government puts the onus to prove citizenship on the individual, a lot of the marginalised will be left stateless and disenfranchised,” she attempted to create hysteria surrounding the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Ritumbra Manuvie dubbed the Citizenship Amendment Act as ‘homeland purification’, encouraged the intervention of the European Parliament in India’s internal matters and misled people about Assam’s detention camps.
In the state of Assam, immigrations has remained contentious on ethno-lingual ground.
— Dr Ritumbra Manuvie (@ritumbra) February 6, 2020
BJP has twisted the Assameese narrative into a Hindu Muslim agenda.
And this is exactly how CAA and NRC will push Muslims in India to detention camps.
Have no doubthttps://t.co/O46v8PV0TA
The propaganda artist was also seen endorsing the likes of Teesta Setalvad, who falsely tried to implicate erstwhile Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2022 Gujarat case.
@TeestaSetalvad will be speaking on CAA, NPR and NRC.#nrisagainstcaa_nrc_npr#WeThePeople#Resist pic.twitter.com/Si9EIXuTxF
— Dr Ritumbra Manuvie (@ritumbra) January 16, 2020
She carried out her disinformation campaign about CAA and NRC on the platforms of Oxford Law Faculty and the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), well until November 2020.
“NRC is an inhumane project bound to end in persecution & extermination of Indian Muslims,” Ritumbra Manuvie was quoted as saying. According to the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), IAMC has links [pdf] with the banned Islamic terror outfit, Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
Besides, the Indian American Muslim Council has ties with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) through its founder Shaik Ubaid.
The IAMC is a Jamat-e-Islami-backed lobbyist organisation claiming to be a rights advocacy group. In the past, it had reportedly collaborated with and even paid money to various groups in the USA to get India blacklisted by the USCIRF (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom).
➡️IAMC's terror angle
— Anti Propaganda Front (@APF_Ind) January 18, 2023
IAMC has close ties with terror organizations like SIMI, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-e-Islami.
Infact, Mohammad Siddiqi, the founder of SIMI, was once hosted as a guest at IAMC.
Research credit – @DisinfoLab pic.twitter.com/iufbOJy9gs
IAMC had been caught spreading fake news and misinformation to further the Islamist cause in India. It had also been slapped with the UAPA in 2021.
It also threw its weight behind Rahul Gandhi after the Congress scion was disqualified for defaming the Modi community.’
Shielding Islamists involved in Delhi riots
‘Activist’ Ritumbra Manuvie, who disseminated Meer Faisal’s false narrative on Nuh violence through her think tank, had also been at the helm of shielding Islamists who unleashed mayhem on the streets of northeast Delhi in February 2020.
While downplaying their actions as ‘mere protests,’ she had claimed, “Ofcourse the Supreme leader has to do the lip service, while Delhi police witch hunt muslim boys and girls who have been protesting against CAA!!”
Ofcourse the Supreme leader has to do the lip service, while Delhi police witch hunt muslim boys and girls who have been protesting against CAA!! https://t.co/aup7NDYdcz
— Dr Ritumbra Manuvie (@ritumbra) April 19, 2020
Ritumbra also gave the false impression that the Muslim community was unilaterally targeted during the 2020 Delhi riots in conjunction with the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC).
She aided in the strategic amplification of this dubious narrative in the Netherlands. As expected, the gruesome murders of Dilbar Negi, Rahul Solanki, head constable Ratan Lal, Rahul Thakur and Intelligence Bureau Ankit Sharma found no mention.
This was the photo which relayed in every police department in Netherlands. When we went out to protest outside the Indian embassy the Dutch Police complimented us for standing up for rights of a stranger who we don't know who is far away. And I can assure you there were tears! https://t.co/pijgjOwSRF
— Dr Ritumbra Manuvie (@ritumbra) November 25, 2020
The official Twitter handle of IAMC also posted about ‘Foundation The London Story’ and its co-founder Ritumbra Manuvie about the latter’s participation in an event called ’10 Stages of Genocide & India’s Muslims.’
Register now to hear Ritumbra Manuvie, Professor, University of Groningen, The Netherlands speak about 10 Stages of Genocide & India’s Muslims tomorrow at 4 PM EST
— Indian American Muslim Council (@IAMCouncil) November 17, 2020
Register here: https://t.co/DooNa7XfOi@ritumbra @FoundationTLS pic.twitter.com/xn5ZEI7crV
Close knitted nexus and propaganda surrounding ‘human rights’ in India
‘Foundation The London Story’, co-founded by Ritumbra Manuvie, has been scaremongering about India and insinuating that a genocide against Muslims is underway in the country. Opindia found 6 such contentious articles, published on the ‘India’ page of the website of the Netherlands-based think tank.
The headline of an article published on March 2, 2022, read, “The process of genocide is well underway in India, experts say at final day of global summit.” Interestingly, it has been copy-pasted verbatim from the website of the Indian American Muslim Council.
The close nexus of TLS with the Jamaat-e-Islami, LeT-backed organisation is clear. As evident from the articles on the website of ‘Foundation The London Story’, it has been misleading its readers about the National Register of Citizens and shielding deceased urban naxals such as Stan Swamy.
The think tank had also platformed the likes of Prashant Bhushan, who is known for thwarting India’s COVID-19 vaccination programme by repeatedly posting fake news about it on social media (here, here and here).
Bhushan had been also infamous for shielding Islamists in Bangladesh after they killed several members of the Hindu community and vandalised Durga Puja pandals in 2021 on false allegations of blasphemy.
In November 2021, ‘Foundation The London Story’ also invited The Wire columnist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta for a discussion on supposed ‘hate speech on Facebook in India.’
Thakurta is the same leftist ‘journalist’, who was slapped with a defamation suit by the Adani Group for claiming that the Modi government tweaked Special Economic Zone (SEZ) rules and benefitted the Indian conglomerate to the tune of ₹500 crore.
12 noon est, join the congressional Briefing pic.twitter.com/q7eenlTx4c
— Foundation London Story (@FoundationTLS) November 2, 2021
In June 2021, Ritumbra Manuvie was part of a webinar dubbed ‘Perilous Progress of the Hindu nationalist project.’ CJ Werleman, known for peddling fake news against Hindus on a global scale, also participated in the said webinar.
Not to forget the case of Rasheed Ahmed, the Executive Director of the Indian American Muslim Council. was the former executive director of the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA). IMANA’s Director of Operations is Zahid Mahmood, an ex-Pak Navy official.
Interestingly, the details of the event was shared by ‘activist’ Pieter Friedrich on Twitter (archive), who later deleted the tweet.
Friedrich is infamous for his ties with a Khalistani and ISI operative and featured prominently in the anti-India ‘Great Thunberg toolkit’ conspiracy.
‘Foundation The London Story’ had also hosted far-left activist Kavitha Krishnan, who had unabashedly shielded Islamists by drawing false equivalences to ‘Sanghis’ (supporters of RSS) and followers of ‘Hindutva.’
In September 2022, Krishnan compared the brutal torture of Mahsa Amini, caused due to her choice of not wearing a hijab in Iran, to the opposition by Hindu groups to selectively entertain Muslim religious attire in government schools.
She had also drawn criticism in the past for participating in the contentious ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ conference and mainstreaming Hinduphobia by comparing ‘Hindutva’ with the white supremacist outfit ‘Ku Klax Klan.’
As part of its EU-India People’s Summit, Ritumbra Manuvie had invited The Hindu ‘journalist’ N Ram to speak on disinformation and hate speech.
Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he desperately tried to create an anti-Modi wave by manufacturing a ‘defence scam’ in the Rafale deal. In an act of amplifying disinformation, N Ram cropped a vital part of a Ministry of Defence (MoD) document to suggest an ‘internal disagreement over the defence deal.
He was also at the helm of accusing the Modi government of snooping on ‘142 prominent individuals’ using Israeli spyware Pegasus, without any evidence. Ironically, N Ram was asked by ‘Foundation the London Story’ to address a session on ‘Age of Disinformation and Hate Speech.’
One of the speakers of the event was the serial fake news peddler and #MeToo accused, Pratik Sinha. He is the founder of ‘Alt News,’ which uses dubious fact-checking methods and acts as an Islamic propaganda website. Sinha has been part of multiple sessions, hosted by ‘Foundation The London Story.’
On May 8, 2021, Ritumbra Manuvie was spotted discussing ‘climate change’ and governmental policies with an ‘activist‘ by the name of Harjeet Singh. Sweden-based troll Ashok Swain, known for carrying out disinformation campaigns against Hindus and India, was also part of the event.
On Twitter, the same Harjeet Singh was seen endorsing ‘motivated protests’ against the three farm laws, enacted by the Modi government, in the Glasglow city of the United Kingdom.
…and there were protesters at #COP26Glasgow in solidarity with farmers in India. pic.twitter.com/4eB2mWhHFI
— Harjeet Singh (@harjeet11) November 6, 2021
In 2016, the climate ‘activist’ had insinuated on Twitter (now X) that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is supposedly involved in ‘communalism’, ‘cow-ism’, ‘casteism’ and ‘crony capitalism.’
My plea to PM #Modi on his B'day to stay away from 5Cs:
— Harjeet Singh (@harjeet11) September 17, 2016
1 Cake
2 Communalism
3 Cow-ism
4 Casteism
5 Crony capitalismhttps://t.co/ZB2HLFmAma
In February last year, Ritumbra Manuvie was listed as one of the speakers at an event dubbed ‘ India on the Brink: Preventing Genocide.’ The event was organised to mark the 20th anniversary of the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Sunita Vishwanath, the co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), also participated in the event. OSINT handle ‘Disinfo Lab’ had earlier informed that the HfHR was actively promoting the misleading narrative of ‘Hindu Vs Hindutva’.
The same organisation was also seen endorsing the ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ conference. As per Disinfo Lab, HfHR was formed in the year 2019 by Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and the Organization for Minorities of India (OFMI).
Interestingly, the three organisations had formed another outfit called the Alliance for Justice and Accountability (AJA). As per an article in The Hindu, the Alliance for Justice and Accountability had been at the forefront of leading demonstrations against the visit of PM Modi to Houston on September 22, 2019.
Just like Ritumbra Manuvie, Sunita Vishwanath had also tried to create hysteria and panic among Indian Muslims about the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in 2019.
“We are especially appalled by the most recent nightmare of the Kashmiri people, and the situation of 1.9 million people in India who are rendered stateless due to the imposition of the travesty called the National Register of Citizens”
What else does HfHR do?
— DisInfo Lab (@DisinfoLab) April 25, 2022
Other than collaborating with IAMC – it runs Facebook ad campaigns to amplify USCIRF’s annual report & its recommendation to blacklist India! It also runs FB ads for Bhima Koregaon convicts.
(33/n) pic.twitter.com/xmCmeosZRY
Vishwanath is also the co-founder of an organisation named ‘Women for Afghan Women’, which is funded by George Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF)/ Open Society Institute (OSI).
In January 2020, Soros committed $1 billion to start a global university to “fight nationalists” and climate change, calling them twin challenges that threaten the survival of our civilisation. He and his Open Society Foundations is influencing civil society and ‘distorting’ public perspectives across different nations.
Interestingly, ‘Foundation The London Story’ had organised a webinar on ‘Minority Rights in India’ on June 26 this year. The think tank had invited Kavita Srivastava, the national secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) as one of the speakers.
The webinar, which tried to create the impression that minority rights have been eroded in India, saw Ritumbra Manuvie acting as the ‘moderator.’
People’s Union for Civil Liberties or PUCL has extensive links to Maoists and ‘Urban Naxals’, who were arrested in the Elgar Parishad case and for the alleged assassination plot against PM Modi.
The PUCL and its associate organisations have a history of ties to Naxals and separatists in Kashmir as well as Manipur. The controversial outfit had earlier extended support to terrorist Afzal Guru and notorious gangster Atiq Ahmed.
In December last year, the co-founder of ‘Foundation The London Story’ created a spectacle in Brussels on the occasion of International Human Rights Day. Ritumbra Manuvie along with other activists conducted a 3-day tour of the city and fear mongered about ‘attacks on religious minorities’ in India.
They, in fact, admitted that Brussels was chosen for their activism as it is the headquarters of the European Union. As such, it provided a platform to the likes of Ritumbra to internationalise isolated incidents of violence in India and paint them as ‘targeted attacks on India’s minorities.’
“India must remember that it was built on tolerance, secularism, diversity, and equality…On today’s Human Rights Day, we call on the Indian government to ensure dignity, freedom, and justice for all people, including its religious minorities,” she was quoted as saying.
Manipur ethnic clash presented as ‘Christian persecution’
The violent conflict between two ethnic groups ‘Meiteis’ and ‘Kukis’, which started on May 3 this year, left over 140 dead in Mainpur. The situation was further exacerbated by political vultures sharing old, misleading and graphic content & falsely attributing it to the North-Eastern State.
One set of vested interest groups sought to change the narrative from an ethnic clash to a ‘Christian genocide’ in the hopes of drawing the ire of Christian-majority European nations and the United States towards India.
They also sought to lay a precedent that gave other nations a free pass to interfere in the internal matters of India. Former BBC journalist, David Campanale was tasked to produce a fact-finding report [pdf] on the Manipur violence by the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA).
Interestingly, the US State Department serves as the Secretariat of IRFBA. It had recently come under scanner for working with media houses and ‘fact checkers’ to peddle deep-state propaganda.
As such, it was anticipated that the 33-page report by David Campanale on the ‘Manipur conflict’ would be anything but an objective analysis of the situation. The ex-BBC journalist went a step ahead and attempted to present the situation as ‘persecution of the Christian community’ by ‘Hindutva groups.’
“Meiteis who follow the indigenous religion i.e. Sanahamism (and even Hinduism) want to get rid of Christianity from their community. They want to revive their own religion. Many Meitei Christians have been threatened with their life and have been given an ultimatum to renounce their Christian faith and accept Sanahamism,” he made outlandish claims on page 22 of the report [pdf].
The global ecosystem then amplified the report of David Campanale as the ‘gospel truth’ and changed the narrative of the ‘Kuki-Meitei’ conflict to ‘religious persecution.’ ‘Foundation the London Story’ also seized the opportunity and even released a background dossier [pdf] on ‘Ethno-religious violence and human rights abuses in Manipur’.
Page 3 of the dossier stated, “To understand and confirm the ongoing human rights violations in Manipur, The London Story interviewed sources from different backgrounds: David Campanale, an international journalist who conducted a thorough fact-finding investigation, one renowned human rights defender in Manipur, and members of the Manipuri community.”
The 7-page document published by TLS, co-founded by Ritumbra Manuvie, has 8 mentions of the former BBC journalist and 7 citations of his misleading report. It clearly shows the shoddy nature of the TLS’ dossier, which itself is based on a dubious report on the Manipur conflict.
TLS and support for Rohingyas
The influence of ‘Foundation The London Story’ is remarkable, to say the least. Its propaganda-laden report, attempting to humanise Rohingyas and negate their security risk in Indian society, is featured on the official website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
“Religious right-wing Hindutva trolls have accused Rohingyas to be an agent of Islamic terrorism and have been accused of carrying out militant attacks in parts of India (Chaudhury, 2018),” the Netherlands-based think tank attempted to present Rohingyas as victims.
Interestingly, it also hit out at Opindia for documenting the crimes committed by the community in this country. Just last month, the Haryana police arrested 25 Rohingya Muslims for their involvement in the violence that took place in the Nuh district (Mewat region) of Haryana.
In November 2019, even the Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina conceded that Rohingyas were a threat to the security of the entire region. She had therefore appealed to the international community to help resolve the issue.
Hasina had said, “In terms of regional security, I would like to say that more than 1.1 million Rohingya citizens of Myanmar fled to Bangladesh in the face of persecution and they are a threat to the security of not only Bangladesh but also the entire region.”
In June this year, the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) found that Rohingyas and illegal Bangladeshi immigrants had received Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificates in the State of West Bengal.
Conclusion
The well-coordinated, close-knitted ecosystem of leftist-islamisofascists has left no stone unturned in downplaying the violence in Nuh, presenting the aggressors as victims in Delhi (2020 riots) and distorting the underlying reasons that led to the conflict in Manipur.
It is interesting to note how a one-sided story by Hinduphobic ‘journalist’ Meer Faisal about the Nuh carnage was given a platform by a Netherlands-based think tank, which in turn is connected to radical outfits such as the Indian American Muslim Council.
‘Foundation the London Story’ is, in turn, connected to a web of urban naxals, leftist propagandists, dubious fact-checkers and influential/ powerful donors.
All of them have been unabashed in shielding extremists, normalising Hinduphobia, presenting Hindu victims as perpetrators and creating hysteria about an ‘impending genocide in India.’ Their outlandish claims do not need the backing of evidence to be considered credible.
Their assertions are taken at face value and are assumed to be true. The lack of accountability, both at the academic level and public discourse, has bolstered their courage to continue peddling lies and presenting them as ‘reality.’
