BJP is employing myths, falsehoods, untruths and Photoshop modified images to carry on the malicious propaganda
By A Staff Writer
Social activist Dhruv Rathee has unveiled the myth-making industry working behind the screen of the BJP’s IT Cell.
He says, the social media cell of any party organization is for the marketing and advertising of that Party’s ideology and philosophy, highlighting of its policies and criticism of rival party’s policies.
Doctored Facts
But half of the BJP IT cell’s content is based on fabricated news, doctored facts and their achievements are produced at the photoshop. Much of their news is ‘Paid news’. They pay to the people for even a single tweet. At the first glance, it would appear that this is being done by the BJP volunteers and supporters. But it is not so.
Paid News
The BJP IT Cell hires big PR companies for the purpose. These companies are emailed the messages together with Twitter hashtag of different accounts and indicate the time during which it has to be tweeted. However this strategy is old and also employed by some corporate organizations as well as Bollywood stars. According to Rathee, Bhondu-Bhongu, Dare2Zak, rohitfly, Cool8769, Mehekmahtani, Snehlataj, Coolkashish, KhalidSRKfan, Adarshbalak, ChiragG14, Missfilmy, Jahanpurvi etc are Tweeter accounts which have been registered for the purpose and used to spread such lies myths. These Twitter accounts are used to build up trends in favour of the BJP and they are paid Rs. 50 to 70 for each Tweet. Tweets are on a variety of topics and only a reading of them would reveal that the source of them all is the same. One such self-confessed Digital Influencer is ‘The Red Lipstick’ from which paid Tweets are released.
Photoshop is emerging as the most used tool for the BJP propaganda where they would show such photos which paint larger than life images of Mr. Modi. For instance, a waterfall is shown in such a way that an image of Mr. Modi gets etched up in the background.
Non-existent Quotes
Sometimes, these paid news, paid Twitter and paid Facebook accounts produce such quotes of important personalities which they had never said. The strategy is to pick up audioclips from one source and the videoclip from another and mix them together to serve their propaganda purpose. For example, an Aam Aadmi Party activist was beaten up in a BJP rally ,but the Facebook and Twitter accounts owing allegiance to BJP IT Cell portrayed him as a BJP activist beaten up by an AAP activist.
The flow of myths, lies, half-truths and falsehood from these accounts reached such heights that BJP IT cell chief Mr. Prodyut Bora, who had founded it in 2004, resigned in protest. He wrote in his resignation letter; It was not the party with a difference. Madness has gripped the party. The desire to win at any cost has destroyed the very ethos of the party. I joined the party in 2004. (Economic Times)
Well-Oiled Machine
Now Amit Malviya is in-charge of the BJP IT Cell. It is a well-oiled machine which sends What’sapp messages that spread myths. They hire big PR companies. They have Facebook accounts such as ‘Frustrated Indian’, ‘Satya Vijai’, ‘Jagruk’, ‘India Against Presstitutes’ etc. Sometimes they are successful in making people believe myths and lies spread by them. For instance these social media highlighted a news item saying that the Prime Minister called an IAS officer (Sandip Mahatme) at10 pm on July 21 asking him to repair the National Highway-208-A to Tripura on an urgent basis. It was reported by one Pushpak Chakravorty on Quora Post. TV channels like Zee News and India Vision, which are pro-BJP, immediately aired it. But later the IAS officer denied having received any such call from the Prime Minister and the falsity of this image-making exercise came unstuck.
Rathee warns against being misled by such newsitems and advises the newsreader and TV watchers to confirm such news from portals of reputed newspapers such asThe Hindu, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express and the The Times of India. He says even Indian Express which carried the news item about the Tripura officer, had clearly mentioned that the news was not verified. Rathee says the mythmaking industry is working in full swing and follows no scruples. It does not reveal the sources of funding which runs into hundreds of crores and does not want the party funding to come under the RTI.
(Transcribed from Dhruv Rathee’s facebook page)
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