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Falsehood in Bharat


One of my old colleagues in Delhi shared the above in his Facebook space today.  I was amused.  I controlled my amusement with a hearty laugh.  I did not comment.  In fact, I stopped commenting on the posts made by many of my Delhi friends because they are not even fit to be counted as jokes.  Blatant lies, that’s what they are.  But my friends in Delhi and other parts of North India believe they are truths.  In fact, these are ‘truths’ fabricated by BJP after it came to power in Delhi three and a half years ago. 

I’m taking this as an example.  Just one out of the innumerable lies foisted on the nation as historical truths by the ruling party.  Knowledgeable people will ignore these.  At best, they will have hearty laughs like me.  I too kept on ignoring them.  But I was aghast when some of my students in Kerala (where I teach now) started taking some of these posts seriously.  This blog post is for their sake.  Beware, my young friends.  There is a lot of falsehood being foisted on us cleverly.  Save yourselves from them.  Learn the real history from scholarly books.

What is the truth behind this new lie about Jawaharlal Nehru?  On 26 June 2015, a series of IP addresses allegedly belonging to the Government of India edited many Wikipedia pages and foisted lies on readers.  On 1 July 2015, Times of India reported this matter.

These lies were later corrected by volunteer editors of Wikipedia.  However, many right wing people in India downloaded screenshots and used other methods to ‘save’ the lies [such as quoting them in certain websites] in order to perpetuate them.  One such lie was that Nehru’s grandfather was a Muslim.  "Gangadhar was born as a Muslim by the name of Ghiasuddin Ghazi but changed his name to a Hindu Ganga Dhar to escape British clutches."  A lot more such lies were put up in Wikipedia. 

A lot of lies are being foisted on the nation today through social media and other means of communication.  BJP is spending crores of rupees on publicity of duplicitous history.  There are thousands of people engaged in this task.  It is the duty of any honest citizen to verify such information that is bombarding us from infinite sources.  Beware. 


   

Comments

  1. जितेन्द्र माथुरNovember 30, 2017 at 1:46 AM

    I agree with you. That's what's being done relentlessly now-a-days through various channels and it's the duty of the readers not to believe any such thing blindly. The editing facility given to all and sundry by Wikipedia is actually a distorting facility which makes a sizable chunk of the information available on that site as unreliable as it's misused by ill-intended people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 30, 2017 at 6:09 AM

      Wikipedia will lose its credibility unless it restricts its editors and contributors. They already have a system. Maybe it needs just a little refurbishing. There are so many other channels, however...

      Delete
  2. Jyotirmoy SarkarNovember 30, 2017 at 8:48 AM

    This post contains some shocking and surprising infos for me,thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 30, 2017 at 9:01 AM

      A lot of people are unaware of the heinous propaganda indulged in by BJP.

      Delete
  3. Pranju chakrapaniNovember 30, 2017 at 1:06 PM

    Wikipedia is incredible, so to say. Regarding the veracity of religious orientation of politicians, don't you think it is high time that we should look at the potential of politicians in governing our nation than in their religious inclinations and orientations?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 30, 2017 at 5:54 PM

      Are they governing? Looking after the welfare of a handful of people (the rich traders) is not governance. Dividing the country into two sections based on religion is not governance. Making people eat only what one political party wants them to eat, imposing a monolithic culture on the entire nation, fooling people with false promises, entertaining them with sarcastic comments on opposition party members... ignoring serious problems of poverty and unemployment... is this governance?

      Delete
    2. Pranju chakrapaniNovember 30, 2017 at 8:48 PM

      Of course not. That is not governance. However, I was hinting at the governing capabilities of Mr. Gandhi.

      Delete
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