The BJP in Bengal has accused chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s administration of doing what the BJP is infamous for nationally – using social media to build a narrative.
Leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikary on Saturday accused the state police of preparing a “toolkit” engaging civic volunteers to spread fake news on the march to the state secretariat in Howrah to be held on August 27.
On his X (formerly Twitter) handle, Adhikari shared a list of 167 what he claimed were “fake profiles” created in his home district of East Midnapore alone.
“The police stations in every district have directed the civic volunteers to open Facebook profiles to spread fake news on the proposed march to the state secretariat on August 27. The URL links of these profiles are being used to spread disinformation and break the morale of the students,” wrote Adhikari.
Adhikari alleged police stations were acting on the instructions of the state police’s top brass.
“New SIM cards were bought using the personal documents of the civic volunteers. The officers-in-charge of the police stations have paid the money for procuring the SIMs. After which the fake profiles were created,” Adhikari alleged.
Links to four of the Facebook profiles shared by Adhikari displayed on Saturday morning only a name without any picture of the user. None of the profiles had shared any post yet.
The march to Nabanna, the state secretariat, on August 27 has been called by a self-styled student organisation called Chhatra Samaj. It has been called without any political banners. However, Left supporters in Bengal have been alerted that Chhatra Samaj is a disguise for the RSS-affiliate ABVP.
Since the rape and murder of the 31-year old postgraduate trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Calcutta along with the rest of the country has been on the boil with all sections of society – including doctors, students and even YouTubers – holding multiple protests daily. Political parties are also in the mix.
Adhikari’s accusations stand out because the BJP’s critics say the party’s social media cell has mastered the art of creating social media toolkits to build a narrative.
In October 2018, Union home minister Amit Shah was quoted in several newspaper reports as telling cadres in Kota, Rajasthan: “We are capable enough to spread any message among people, whether sour or sweet, real or fake. We can do this work only because we have 32 lakh people in our WhatsApp groups. That is how we were able to make this viral.”
Last September, The Washington Post had done an investigative piece headlined “Inside the vast digital campaign by Hindu nationalists to inflame India”. It accused India’s ruling party of having “perfected the spread of inflammatory, often false and bigoted material on an industrial scale, earning both envy and condemnation beyond India’s borders”.
Adhikari, in his post on Saturday, claimed: “In the entire world toolkits are used to strengthen protest movements, online and offline. This is the first time that a government is using a ‘toolkit’ to break a movement.”
Contacted about the allegations, Trinamul leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh said: “It has come to our notice. We have to make our own inquiries. I cannot comment without a complete grasp of the matter.”
Earlier this week, Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale had in a long thread on X claimed the BJP was using the RG Kar rape and murder incident to try to topple the Mamata Banerjee government.
“CBI is allegedly trying to bury the RG Kar rape & murder case to help BJP through a carefully planted conspiracy theory,” Gokhale wrote.” Complete silence on the case since 6 days & a very dirty game seems to be unfolding right now. In the meanwhile, BJP has hijacked the genuine protests & is trying to topple the West Bengal Govt. Bengal Governor landed in Delhi last night to meet the President & Amit Shah.”
Gokhale alleged that the “hurried cremation” conspiracy theory was re-planted after the governor left for Delhi.
