On Thursday (April 6), ‘Adani Watch’ courted controversy after it falsely claimed that a Chinese company, supposedly associated with Indian industrialist Gautam Adani, is building critical infrastructure projects in the country.
The propaganda portal mistook a Taiwanese person named Chang Chien-Ting for a Chinese national and went on to claim that his alleged company (PMC Projects (India) Pvt Ltd) is constructing ports, electricity lines and railway tracks in India.
The disinformation was then further amplified by Congress scion Rahul Gandhi to attack Adani and cast aspersions on the integrity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The most prominent Indian opposition figure takes up #AdaniWatch concerns about a Chinese company’s involvement in Adani’s critical infrastructure projects. @RahulGandhi https://t.co/ExyDifV28r
— Bob Brown Foundation (@BobBrownFndn) April 6, 2023
As per the website of ‘Adani Watch,’ it is a project run by the Australia-based Bob Brown Foundation. Interestingly, the charitable organisation was set up by former Australian Greens politician Bob Brown with the objective to save the biosphere and protect the ecology.
While championing the cause of the ‘environment’ in Australia, the Foundation turned its gaze towards India. And since then, it has been fixated on Gautam Adani and everything that goes against the incumbent political dispensation at the Centre.
Popular OSINT Twitter handle, The Hawk Eye, pointed out that Adani Watch’s vicious articles are not just limited to the Indian industrialist but often extend into the political arena. “What an Australian NGO has to take if Ravish Kumar left NDTV?” it inquired in February this year.
And why an environmentalist NGO would endorse a tweet on BBC Documentary? What’s the real motive?
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) February 2, 2023
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Interestingly, Bob Brown Foundation endorses even the propaganda-laden documentary by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Prime Minister Narendra. This is despite the fact that it has nothing to do with Gautam Adani or the environment.
“In this age of rapid destruction of the biosphere, attended by cynicism and pessimism, our foundation will use ecological reality and optimism to promote real environmental wins,” reads the mission statement.
In March 2022, the Bob Brown Foundation was also seen batting for Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra after she had submitted a formal complaint to SEBI against the Adani Group.
The Hawk Eye also highlighted how ‘Adani Watch’ is lenient about infrastructure projects of Gautam Adani in non-BJP ruled States. “The narrative is Adani is moving into these states to get away from “Modi-favored” image,” it emphasised.
Most of the misleading pieces on the propaganda portal are written by leftist ‘journalist’ Ravi Nair, who also happened to write a malicious article about a Chinese company building India’s key infrastructure projects.
Collecting all such info at deep down level is not possible with local agent.
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) February 2, 2023
NewsClick journo Ravi Nair is a contributor to AdaniWatch. His almost every post is being endorsed by BBF twitter handle.
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As such, the Twitter handle of the Bob Brown Foundation retweets almost every tweet, which is posted by Ravi Nair. Another group named ‘Stop Adani’, supported by the same Foundation, also regularly endorses the tweets of the leftist ‘journalist.’
27. This propaganda Stop Adani group is continuously retweeting Ravi Nair’s tweets. Who is Ravi Nair?
— Vijay Patel🇮🇳 (@vijaygajera) February 2, 2023
He writes for The Wire, Newsclick, and Janta ka reporter.
All of these are part of Digipub. pic.twitter.com/mpEfp6LCqE
In its 2017 annual report, the ‘Stop Adani’ group thanked former Australian Greens politician Bob Brown for conducting key meetings and speaking at events such as the ‘Stop Adani summit’ in Sydney and a ‘Stop Adani rally’ in Hobart.
Through his Foundation, he also manufactured and distributed 5,000 Stop Adani bumper stickers across Australia free of charge.
The campaign was launched in 2017. They maintain a similar propaganda website stopadani(.) com.
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) February 2, 2023
If you have gone through @vijaygajera thread, you might have already learned about their local amplifiers.
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According to independent journalist Vijay Patel, the ‘Stop Adani’ group works in a coordinated fashion, just like the ‘Adani Watch’ project.
The group had shared politically motivated tweets by the likes of ‘activist’ Prashant Bhushan, The Wire, Hindenburg Research, dubious fact-checker Mohammed Zubair and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
26. Few more retweets by the Stop Adani propaganda group. pic.twitter.com/ALHLQbvLf8
— Vijay Patel🇮🇳 (@vijaygajera) February 2, 2023
In September 2020, an academic named Dr Jennifer Sanger published a flawed scientific paper on Australian bushfires, which she eventually had to retract. It later came to light that she was a campaigner for Bob Brown Foundation.
In April 2021, Tasmanian Resources Minister Guy Barnett wrote to the Assistant Treasurer of Australia, Michael Sukkar, urging him to de-recognise Bob Brown Foundation as a ‘charity.’
The Foundation had reportedly violated the Australian Charities Act of 2013 by asking people to ‘vote the Greens’, a political party which Bob Brown represented between 1989 and 2012. In November last year, he was arrested for protesting against logging in Tasmania.
The targeting of the Adani group, alongside the BJP government at the Centre, clearly shows that the Australia-based Foundation is working towards objectives that are a far cry from its mission statement.
