The lumbering Indian state appears to be finally waking up to the anti-India agenda that far-left propaganda websites have been running with impunity for years.
The Twitter account of The Caravan not currently available on the platform. “Account Withheld,” says a message on The Caravan’s Twitter page. “The Caravan’s account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand,” the message says.
Though Twitter doesn’t give details around the legal complaint, it appears that \the publication’s fake story around how a protester had been shot by the Delhi Police on Republic Day is responsible for its account being withheld. At the peak of the protests on Republic Day, the publication had claimed that an “eyewitness” had claimed that they’d seen the police firing “from behind the grills of the Andhra Education Society”, which had led to the killing of one Navneet Singh.
The “eyewitness” had claimed that they’d seen police “fleeing” from the spot after Navneet was shot. It even quoted an unnamed police official saying that his colleagues had run away out of fear.
All this was exposed to be fake when the police had released CCTV footage of Navneet’s demise. He’d driven a tractor straight into barricades, and his tractor had subsequently turned turtle. The police could even be seeing approaching the tractor to help.
The fact that the protester hadn’t been shot had also been corroborated by the individual’s autopsy report, which had revealed no bullet injuries, and said that the protester had succumbed to the antemortem injuries he received after his tractor had overturned.
As such, it was apparent that either The Caravan had been misled by the “eyewitness”, or it had deliberated concocted the story about the bullet injury. Either way, it was deeply irresponsible journalism — spreading fake news about a death could’ve inflamed an already-volatile situation, and could’ve led to even more violence. The Delhi Police had then filed an FIR against The Caravan for its fake news.
The Caravan, of course, is no stranger to peddling an agenda that deepens fissures in society. After the Pulwama attack, it had published a detailed caste break-up of the martyred jawans, in what is perhaps the most despicable bit of reporting India had seen in recent times. Just last week, it had published a piece that argued that Hinduism was a “false faith” that didn’t exist until the 18th century.
Following this latest bit of fake news, that was repeated by several publications and individuals, including Rajdeep Sardesai, Shashi Tharoor and others, FIRs had been filed, and some action had been immediate. Sardesai had been suspended by India Today for 15 days, and his salary docked for a month. And with The Caravan’s Twitter account now suspended, it appears that the courts are finally waking up to how far-left accounts have been trying to incite violence and riots in India for years.
