On Thursday, columnist of the news website ‘The Caravan’ – Salil Tripathi – posted a three-year old news report to defame Gujarat government.
Salil Tripathi, who has a history of propagating misinformation on social media, took to Twitter to share a news report that a Gujarat government official had claimed that he would not come to the office because he is Kalki, the tenth incarnation of Vishnu. Sharing the report, Salil Tripathi wrote, “Can you think of a better excuse to skip work”.
The news report, shared by Tripathi, claimed that the officer stated that he would be conducting a “penance” to “change the global conscience” and cannot attend the office.
In his hurry to defame Gujarat, Salil Tripathi shared a news report which was true, but not a recent one. The report was first published on May 18, 2018, almost three years ago. However, the columnist at the far-left portal ‘Caravan’ decided to share the news report strangely three years after the news report was first published.
The propensity of the likes of Tripathi to share such old news, especially from the BJP-ruled Gujarat, comes amidst the latest leak of the Congress ‘toolkit’. The latest leak of the ‘toolkit’ had exposed sinister designs of the Congress party to defame Gujarat as it is the home state of Prime Minister Modi.
The toolkit categorically mentioned that the Congress party and its supporters should build a narrative against Gujarat by highlighting the special treatment. The toolkit also suggests that the party workers and its supporters use people’s distress to build anger against the Modi government.
Salil Tripathi seems to be religiously following the instructions listed in the toolkit as he put out a three-year misleading news article on Gujarat without any context. Perhaps, Tripathi, by sharing reports of unconnected events, was attempting to ‘use people’s distress to build anger against the Modi government.
In addition to that, the ‘toolkit’ had also exposed the intimate links between the Congress party and the far-left website ‘The Caravan.’ The toolkit document had recommended using media organizations such ‘Caravan’ and ‘National Herald’ to amplify the propaganda against the government’s alleged mishandling of the Covid-19.
According to his Twitter profile, Salil Tripathi is a contributor to the far-left website ‘The Caravan’. As the toolkit suggests that ‘The Caravan’ was to be used to defame the government and therefore, it is even more suspicious that a contributor to The Caravan would peddle this narrative.
Congress toolkit names ‘The Caravan’ and left-media outlets
The expose of a toolkit, allegedly linked to the Congress party, has created shockwaves across the political spectrum in the country. The toolkit contained a detailed plan of action for the Congress leaders and supporters, asking them to milk the ongoing pandemic in the country to target the Modi government so that they could revive their political career again.
The toolkit had extensive details to put a formidable attack against the Modi government at a time when they are busy fighting the deadly pandemic. From maligning Hindu events of Kumbh Mela by referring to it as a “super spreader” event to unwarranted attacks against PM Modi for the Central Vista project and to collaborating with ‘friendly’ journalists and international media to defame the Modi government, the toolkit prepared by AICC Research Department had well-listed instructions to the Congress leaders and supporters to exploit the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
The Congress party found itself in the eye of the storm kicked up by the revelations made in the toolkit. As accusations against the Congress party grew louder, the party entailed the services of the propaganda website Alt News to give a clean chit for themselves. However, in a hurry to give clean chit to the Congress party, Alt News not only did an abysmal job with its ‘fact-check’ but also ended up exposing the links of the Congress party to the toolkit document.
As the so-called fact-checkers were busy fact-checking the first four pages of the ‘toolkit’ that has rattled the opposition, the fifth page of the document is now doing the rounds on social media, completing the propaganda machinery loop. The fifth page, which is in continuation to point VII of the document, recommends using media organizations such as ThePrint, The Wire, Scroll, The Quint, and Outlook to highlight and publicize all Covid related stories.
The document had also suggested the party supporters send stories that cannot be published in these media houses to the likes of “The Caravan” and Congress party mouthpiece “National Herald.” Essentially, the Congress party was banking on these left-media outlets, especially The Caravan and National Herald, to initiate a propaganda blitzkrieg against the Modi government.