The left-leaning brigade has demonstrated a remarkable zeal in their endeavour to mount opposition against the Modi government. From raising the unsubstantiated bogey of intolerance, to returning their awards, from launching protest agitation against the CAA, to fomenting unrest through the ongoing farmers’ protests, the anti-Modi detractors have pulled out every trick from their playbook, in a bid to tarnish the reputation of the central government and portray them as anti-people in public perception.
However, lately, they have incorporated an even more sinister ploy of using gullible and impressionable children to peddle their propaganda and achieve their nefarious designs of fomenting anarchy.
The ongoing farmers’ protest has seen children being used as props by the demonstrators to lend credence to their agitation and hustle the government into acceding to their demands. Young children, with no knowledge or understanding of the new Farm Laws, are tutored to speak against the Centre to pressurize them into repealing them.
To this effect, children are also roped in videos to solicit support for the ongoing farmers’ protest by capitalising on the emotional appeal that characterises young and innocent children.
Children of actor-singer Gippy Grewal participate in pro farmers’ protest event in Canada where abuses were hurled at PM Modi
In one such video that is doing the rounds on the internet, children of the actor-singer Gippy Grewal are seen exhorting people to extend their support to farmers and join the protests in solidarity with them. The two children, who seem no greater than 8-10 years in age, are also seen joining a protest event held in Canada on December 3. Significantly, the protests also saw participation from protesters who chanted abusive slogans against PM Modi.
“Modi Kutta Chor Hai” can be distinctly heard in the background even as the video focuses on the two children and how they had participated in the protest to mark their support for the farmers in India. Perhaps, the children are even unaware that they had become a propaganda instrument for a protest that has seen participation from pro-Khalistani supporters and Khalistani terror outfits like Sikhs For Justice(SFJ).
While using children to generate a sympathy wave for one’s cause is undeniably an abominable tactic and morally repugnant, this is, however, not the first time that innocence of children is being exploited to bring about a particular political objective. The Uttar Pradesh state Congress in-charge Priyanka Gandhi was also seen in a video egging on children to raise abusive slogans against PM Modi.
Children shout abusive slogans against PM Modi even as Priyanka Gandhi watches on in amusement
Earlier last year, in the run-up to the 2019 General Assembly elections, a video had emerged in which young and guileless children were seen chanting “Chowkidar Chor Hai” as Priyanka Gandhi watched on in amusement. Gandhi had no qualms that young children were being taught to disregard and disrespect the highest chair of the country and peddle unsubstantiated lies and propaganda against PM Modi.
Further in the video, children were seen abusing PM Modi further. The kinds in unison chant, “neem ka patta kadvah hai, Narendra Modi bha**wa hai”. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra smiles sheepishly and reluctantly, as a token gesture tells the children that this is a bad slogan and they should focus on the good slogans. After this, the kids go back to chanting ‘chowkidaar chor hai’ and ‘Rahul Gandhi zindabad.
Rahul Gandhi uses a 10-year-old for his petty anti-Modi propaganda
Even Rahul Gandhi shares the blame of using children for peddling his petty propaganda against PM Modi. In an event earlier this year, Rahul Gandhi referred to a 10-year-old during his election rally in Old Delhi to regurgitate the familiar trope that mahaul in the country has deteriorated under PM Modi.
In the video, Gandhi turns to the kid and first asks, twice, ‘Dekha aapne?’ Then, Rahul Gandhi asks the girl her age, to which, she says she is 10-years-old. He then asks her if she has noticed how in the past 5 years how the ‘mahaul’ has become bad. Rahul Gandhi then says to the 10-year-old kid, “Dekha na? Jo pehele mood hua karta tha, jo pehele shanti thi, jo bhaichara tha, wo gayab ho gaya na? Gayab ho gaya?” Then, he nods affirmatively.
Essentially, Rahul Gandhi during his election rally assumed that the child was capable of understanding how “well” Congress ruled the country when she was a 4 or 5-year-old and now, at the ripe old age of 10, she is capable of understanding how terribly PM Modi is governing the country by apparently ruining the ‘mood’ of the nation. She is also supposed to understand how there is no ‘brotherhood’ or ‘peace’ anymore.
Protesters get their young children to farmers’ protest Children amidst biting cold wave
Even though north India is in the throes of a biting cold wave, it did not deter the protesters from bringing their children along with them at the protest site along the Delhi Border. With the meetings between the demonstrators and the central government hitting a deadlock, the protesters propped up their children with banners and placards demanding a complete rollback of the three newly introduced Farm Bills.
Scores of children of the tender age of 6-10 years were used as pawns by the protesters, in a bid to mount pressure on the Centre into agreeing to their demands. Young children were seen holding posters and banners in solidarity with the protesters and demanding the government to repeal the farm bills.
Children and infants being used as props by the protesters at Shaheen Bagh
The participation of children in protest along the Delhi border bears a stark resemblance to the Shaheen Bagh protests that also witnessed children being used as props by the protesters to garner sympathy from the masses and pressurise the government into repealing the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh had witnessed the tragic death of a 4-month-old infant due to severe cold and congestion after being exposed to the bitter cold that swept the national capital region earlier in January. Their infant, Mohammad Jahan, who died on January 30, was taken to protest site at Shaheen Bagh almost every day. The Supreme Court had fumed over the incident, questioning how can a 4-month-old baby participate in a protest.
If this wasn’t enough, a video of children holding posters of Mohammad Jahan had gone viral on the social media websites. In the video, while the gullible children were holding Jahan’s pictures, Shaheen Bagh protesters in the background could be heard rationalising Jahan’s death as a ‘Qurbani’ or sacrifice for the anti-CAA movement.
