Skip to main content

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
  4. Naina PaulDecember 1, 2017 at 2:48 PM

    10 Piece Christmas Nativity Crib Set
    Rs.1,499
    For Order Call Now - 9713099668 ( 10 Am to 6 PM)
    http://www.shopclues.com/10-piece-christmas-nativity-crib-set-decoration-baby-jesus-3.45-inches-medium-size-christmas-crib-nativity-set-130829452.html
    10 pc. Nativity set- Code-17629, Price-590/-
    12 pc. Nativity set- Code-17634, Price- 1200/-
    09 pc. Nativity set- Code-17628, Price- 490/-
    + Shipping Cost Extra ! ( Bhopal, Indore & Gwalior Next Day delivery with premium Indian Post service, Order before 1PM)
    For Order Call Now - 9713099668 ( 10 Am to 6 PM)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yesterday

With students of Carmel Margaret, are you grieving / Over Goldengrove unleaving…? It was one of my first days in the eleventh class of Carmel Public School in Kerala, the last school of my teaching career. One girl, whose name was not Margaret, was in the class looking extremely melancholy. I had noticed her for a few days. I didn’t know how to put the matter over to her. I had already told the students that a smiling face was a rule in the English class. Since Margaret didn’t comply, I chose to drag Hopkins in. I replaced the name of Margaret with the girl’s actual name, however, when I quoted the lines. Margaret is a little girl in the Hopkins poem. Looking at autumn’s falling leaves, Margaret is saddened by the fact of life’s inevitable degeneration. The leaves have to turn yellow and eventually fall. And decay. The poet tells her that she has no choice but accept certain inevitabilities of life. Sorrow is our legacy, Margaret , I said to Margaret’s alter ego in my class. Let
28 comments
Read more

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
37 comments
Read more

William and the autumn of life

William and I were together only for one year, but our friendship has grown stronger year after year. The duration of that friendship is going to hit half a century. In the meanwhile both he and I changed many places. William was in Kerala when I was in Shillong. He was in Ireland when I was in Delhi. Now I am in Kerala where William is planning to migrate back. We were both novices of a religious congregation for one year at Kotagiri in Tamil Nadu. He was older than me by a few years and far more mature too. But we shared a cordial rapport which kept us in touch though we went in unexpected directions later. William’s conversations had the same pattern back then and now too. I’d call it Socratic. He questions a lot of things that you say with the intention of getting to the depth of the matter. The last conversation I had with him was when I decided to stop teaching. I mention this as an example of my conversations with William. “You are a good teacher. Why do you want to stop
15 comments
Read more

Uriel the gargoyle-maker

Uriel was a multifaceted personality. He could stab with words, sting like Mike Tyson, and distort reality charmingly with the precision of a gifted cartoonist. He was sedate now and passionate the next moment. He could don the mantle of a carpenter, a plumber, or a mechanic, as situation demanded. He ran a school in Shillong in those days when I was there. That’s how I landed in the magic circle of his friendship. He made me a gargoyle. Gradually. When the refined side of human civilisation shaped magnificent castles and cathedrals, the darker side of the same homo sapiens gave birth to gargoyles. These grotesque shapes were erected on those beautiful works of architecture as if to prove that there is no human genius without a dash of perversion. In many parts of India, some such repulsive shape is placed in a prominent place of great edifices with the intention of warding off evil or, more commonly, the evil eye. I was Uriel’s gargoyle for warding off the evil eye from his sc
12 comments
Read more

X the variable

X is the most versatile and hence a very precious entity in mathematics. Whenever there is an unknown quantity whose value has to be discovered, the mathematician begins with: Let the unknown quantity be x . This A2Z series presented a few personalities who played certain prominent roles in my life. They are not the only ones who touched my life, however. There are so many others, especially relatives, who left indelible marks on my psyche in many ways. I chose not to bring relatives into this series. Dealing with relatives is one of the most difficult jobs for me. I have failed in that task time and again. Miserably sometimes. When I think of relatives, O V Vijayan’s parable leaps to my mind. Father and little son are on a walk. “Be careful lest you fall,” father warns the boy. “What will happen if I fall?” The boy asks. The father’s answer is: “Relatives will laugh.” One of the harsh truths I have noticed as a teacher is that it is nearly impossible to teach your relatives – nephews
15 comments
Read more