Questions that Karnataka govt, especially Priyank Kharge, need to answer about the Swawalambi Sarathi scheme and the FIR against Sudhir Chaudhury

On the 8th of September 2023, a fresh controversy surrounded the Congress government in Karnataka. BJP leaders Tejasvi Surya and Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar took to Twitter to post a screenshot of a newspaper ad which spoke about the Swawalambi Sarathi scheme by the Karnataka government which was meant specifically for the minority communities. It appears that the advertisement was not placed by the govt but by a private organisation called AR-Raheem Trust.

As soon as Rajeev Chandrasekhar posted the newspaper clipping and questioning the Karnataka government about a scheme which is specifically for the minorities only, Mohammad Zubair of AltNews, who is in the habit of spreading misinformation and painting a target on people’s backs, attempted to “fact check” the minister.

As per an advertisement attached by the minister in his tweet, a subsidy of 50% of the vehicle’s value with a maximum of 50% is being offered to religious minorities to purchase Auto Rikshwas, Taxis and Goods vehicles. The Swavalambi Sarathi Scheme was launched by Karnataka Housing and Minorities Welfare Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan last month. 

Taking to X, Minister Chandrashekhar said that the scheme is meant exclusively for the non-Hindus keeping even the financially deprived Hindu communities out of it. The union minister said that it is a brazen discrimination and violation of Article 14 of the Constitution from a party that goes abroad and talks of Bharat’s constitution being under threat. He called it “State sponsored Conversion inducement”.

He called the scheme an ‘example of shameless, lazy, appeasement politics of bribing certain communities by Rahul Gandhi’s Congress in Karnataka.’

Heres another example of shameless, lazy, appeasement politics of bribing certain communities by Rahuls Cong in #Karnataka

Buy a vehicle for Rs 6L, using 50% subsidy, sell it the next day for Rs 5L. Cool profit of Rs 2L.

Only available for nonHindus and does not include poor… pic.twitter.com/x0hXuhZB0J

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) September 8, 2023

In the aftermath of this tweet by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, several media outlets covered the scheme and the minister’s criticism of it on the 8th of September itself. On the morning of 12th of September, Priyank Kharge, Congress minister in the Karnataka government, tweeted threatening legal action against Sudhir Choudhary – the AajTak anchor – for covering the news of the Swawalambi Sarathi Scheme and how it was only notified for minorities, not SC/STs or OBCs.

At 11:36 PM on the 12th of September, Mohammad Zubair, who Priyank Kharge calls “chief’, was the first to tweet that an FIR had been filed against Sudhir Chaudhury.

On the 8th of September itself, when Rajeev Chandrashekhar tweeted about the scheme and criticised it, Mohammad Zubair, who works in an official capacity with the Karnataka government, specifically Priyank Kharge, attempted to fact-check the news with misinformation. OpIndia covered the story extensively and listed the misinformation which was spread by Mohammad Zubair.

Zubair had claimed the following on the 8th of September:

1. The scheme Swawalambi Sarathi Scheme was available to minorities, SC/STs and OBCs – he attached the screenshot of an innocuous, privately run website trying to pass it off as official government guidelines.
2. That similar schemes were there during the BJP govt’s tenure and that the Congress was merely continuing those schemes – he used selective screenshots from the official handles of the Minority Welfare Department, leaving out a tweet where in 2022, they had admitted that the scheme had been put on hold.
3. This would mean that the Congress government had repackaged and restarted the scheme after it was put on hold by the BJP – a fact that Zubair did not bother mentioning.

OpIndia found:

1. The website of the Minority Welfare Department of the Karnataka government specifically mentioned that to be eligible for this scheme, one would have to belong to a religious minority community.
2. The scheme was open for registration on the Minority Welfare Department of Karnataka website.
3. There was no similar notification on the Social Welfare Department website or anywhere else.
4. There was no notification for the scheme to be applicable to SC/STs and OBCs on any of the websites.
5. OpIndia spoke to the Social Welfare Department and we were categorically told that the scheme is only valid for those belonging to the minority community, not SC/STs.
6. AajTak confirmed from the Ambedkar Development Corporation. They said that the scheme was currently only valid for minorities and they were discussing how they could make it available for SC/STs and OBCs.
7. During the Karnataka budget after coming to power, the Congress govt had said that this scheme would be made available for SC/STs, but no notification to that effect was issued – registration had only been made live for minorities.

OpIndia’s report on the misinformation spread by Mohammad Zubair and the FIR against Sudhir Choudhury can be read here.

While all of this was in the public domain, there was still an FIR filed against AajTak’s Sudhir Choudhury for covering a news merely asking questions.

What needs to be especially noted here is that had the Congress government announced a scheme specifically for the minority community, these questions would not have been raised. The fact remains that the Congress govt announced in its budget that the scheme would be implemented for SC/STs, OBCs and Minorities, however, when it came to implementation, it only notified it for minorities and not SC/STs and OBCs.

It is pertinent to note that after the tweet by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, only on the 11th of September did the Karnataka Govt issue a notification extending the scheme to OBCs. Interestingly, this notification has still not been uploaded to any govt website yet. Also, there is no SC/ST notification yet either – if there is one, it has not been uploaded on any govt website.

This notification which has been obtained by OpIndia was passed only 3 full days after the tweet by Rajeev Chandrasekhar and on the very day that Sudhir Choudhury did his report.

Given these developments, the Congress government and especially Priyank Kharge need to answer several questions.

1. The issue was raised by Rajeev Chandrasekhar on the 8th of September. At the time this issue was raised, there was clearly no notification in the public domain which extended this scheme to SC/STs and OBCs. The notification extending it to OBCs was only passed on the 11th of September, a full 3 days after the issue was raised. Why did the Congress govt not pass this notification earlier?
2. If a notification was passed on the 11th of September extending this scheme to OBCs, why has it not been passed for SC/STs yet – as was promised in the budget?
3. If it has been passed, why has it not been uploaded to any government website or made public by Karnataka govt?
4. The notification extending it to OBCs was clearly passed as a damage control measure after the issue was raised by Rajeev Chandrasekhar. In that case, the story was accurate and there was no misinformation that had been spread either by Rajeev Chandrasekhar or by the media. If that is the case, Mohammad Zubair, who works officially with the Karnataka govt as informed by Priyank Kharge himself, had spread misinformation calling this as fake news, based on an innocuous, inauthentic website. Will Priyank Kharge then rethink his association with ‘Chief’ Mohammad Zubair?
5. Since Mohammad Zubair was himself spreading misinformation in an effort to fact-check Rajeev Chandrasekhar, will the Karnataka government now file an FIR against Mohammad Zubair, whom Priyank Kharge calls “chief”?
6. The FIR was filed only against Sudhir Choudhury for his AajTak show. The AajTak show aired on the 11th of September – the very day that the notification was issued by the govt. Did the Congress govt wait till some media organisation covered this news after they secretly passed this notification so they could make that media house/journalist/anchor into a scapegoat?
7. Mohammad Zubair also tried to discredit the news by using selective screenshots of the responses by the minority department in 2022 to claim that the scheme was active during the BJP tenure as well. While the scheme was indeed active, it had been halted in 2022 – a screenshot that Zubair selectively refused to publish. Since Priyank Kharge claims that his “fact-checking unit”, which Zubair is a part of, is non-partisan, will it be taking action against Zubair for spreading misinformation?

The Karnataka government and Mohammad Zubair have clearly used the malicious FIR against Sudhir Choudhury to discredit accurate news which was published on the 8th of September. Essentially, the news published on the 8th of September was accurate and continues to be accurate since no notification for the SC/ST community has been notified yet. After the news got traction, the Karnataka govt stealthily notified the scheme for OBCs 3 days after the news. It refused to make it public and when Sudhir Choudhury covered the news, they filed an FIR against him so they could then use the FIR to claim that all news, since the 8th, about this scheme, was fake news.

There appears to be a clear nexus between Priyank Kharge and Mohammad Zubair of AltNews, to spread half-baked ‘fact-checks’ in order to discredit adverse news against Congress and then launch a witch-hunt against those journalists and activists who don’t agree with them politically or publish authentic news that does not suit their political ends.

The modus operandi seems simple – First, Mohammad Zubair uses selective screenshots and half-truths to “fact-check” the news which does not sit well with Congress. Based on that “fact-check”, which is actually misinformation, Priyank Kharge jumps into action and starts threatening people with legal action. Thereafter, FIRs are filed against the individual to intimidate them, thereby discrediting the news completely and ensuring that others who might talk about the news are silenced. There seems to be a lot that the Congress party, the Karnataka govt and especially Priyank Kharge need to answer. While one is not surprised that Congress is taking the help of Islamists and their sympathisers to seemingly indulge in a political witchhunt and silence those who speak up against them, the impunity with which dissidents are being silenced certainly makes one wonder what the tropes about “pyaar ki kheti’ were all about.