An avalanche of misinformation, half-truths, one-arrayed viewpoints, news items targeting a religious community, political party, media outlet, academic institutions, etc. unleashes on Twitter every day. This is despite the Central government issuing notice to the social media giant on “curbing hateful handles” and the Supreme Court hearing the case on “hatred on social media”.
According to a random search, the most active trolls targeting minority religious communities like Muslims and Christians are self-acclaimed Hindutvadi handles such as @Saffron_Sn, @HinduJagrutiOrg and @JaipurDialogues. These groups are followed by lakhs of followers, including many prominent Indian organisations and personalities.
Following is a random search of three of such prominent groups and some of their recent tweets:
- Jaipur Dialogues
@JaipurDialogues is a verified account of The Jaipur Dialogues Forum, which is spearheaded by former bureaucrat and author Sanjay Dixit. The Forum shot to prominence through its YouTube channel.
The DFRAC has already done a detailed report on propagandist activities of Jaipur Dialogues. Link below:
The account claims itself to be a social media influencer with a motto of धर्मोरक्षतिरक्षितः (dharma defends its defender).
It has a huge following: 160.5K followers. Many verified and non-verified accounts on Twitter follows @JaipurDialogues, some of them includes – @smritiirani, @ADevotedYogi, @mohitbharatiya_, @irakeshpanday, @devusinhoffice, etc.
The very first look at its Twitter page on Thursday evening showed a picture posted on February 4 that depicts Jesus Christ in one part with a quote “I Am Son of God” and the other part seemingly shows Lord Krishna replying “I Don’t Remember A Son Jesus”.
Similarly, the handle shared a video on February 17 mocking actress-activist Swara Bhaskar for marrying a Samajwadi Party’s Muslim young leader Fahad Ahmad whom the actress had jokingly called “Bhai” in a past tweet. Swara has previously been the target of the handle’s venom.
Source: Twitter
Another tweet that the JaipurDialogues shared on February 17 was on the statement of Hunagarian-American Billionaire George Soros in which he had demanded “revival of democracy” in India. The tweet said: “Soros has a game plan for India ready. AIM is to destabilise the current government and kick Modi out of Power. Before 2024 the attacks and the pace of Attacks will only increase!”
Source: Twitter
Besides the above three recent tweets, almost all the tweets generated from the handle shows history of oppression of Hindus, spoofs on Muslims, Christians and critics of the Modi government, and so on.
DFRAC tried to contact Sanjay Dixit for his response on such tweets, but neither the phone number nor the email given on the website of Jaipur Dialogues seems to be working, or perhaps he is evading queries.
The most worrying thing is the huge following of the JaipurDialogues, including by some leading politicians and prominent organisations of the country.
The account has raised many hashtags, for example – #BoycottPathaan, #KashmirFiles, #BoycottBollywood, #Sikh, etc.
2. Hindu Jagruti Organization
@HinduJagrutiOrg is the official Twitter handle of the organization named Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. The group’s official motto is mentioned as “Let’s unite to establish Hindu Rashtra.”
Source: Twitter
A look at recent and past tweets made from the handle suggests that it revolves around highlighting the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh. Most of the tweets correctly cite reports of attacks on Hindus, biases against them and even sentencing of them under charges like blasphemy. However, certain tweets like one on February 15 (a retweet actually) sounds like a propaganda pamphlet. It reads as:
“Persecution of Hindus on d rise in Bangladesh
“1. Girls & Women raped
2- Shops being looted
3- Businessmen being killed
4- Lands being grabbed
5- Temples being demolished & idols vandalised
6- Families forced 2 leave d country
#SaveHindusInBangladesh
Let’s demand 4 d justice of Hindus.”
Source: Twitter
Another tweet (retweet) on February 15 has tagged a video purportedly showing Hindus distributing relief material to seemingly Muslim Bangladeshis after some crisis-like situation. There is also a collage of snaps showing alleged attacks on Hindu temples. Both the video and photographs might be carrying correct information, but deliberately nuanced text accompanying the video and photographs makes it provocative and hateful. It reads as:
“Though Hindus have come to the rescue of Bangladeshis in times of crisis…
Hindus have been relentlessly persecuted, Temples attacked!
Justice4Hindus
#SaveHindusInBangladesh”
Source: Twitter
Similarly, the handle has tweeted and re-tweeted umpteen numbers of tweets that only highlight persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh and call for “retribution” that makes the handle a rendezvous of hate propaganda.
Like @JaipurDialogues, @HinduJagrutiOrg too enjoys a huge following: 60.7K followers till February evening. It is also followed by prominent people and organisations. Some of the followers of this account includes – @madhukishwar, @JaipurDialogues, @doctorrichabjp (Head Social Media-UP BJP Youth Wing), @MNageswarRaoIPS (Former Director, CBI), etc.
3. Snehal
@Saffron_Sn seems like a handle run by an individual. Profile shows picture of one young girl.
Source: Twitter
Browsing the handle, the first tweet shown on the thread is a pinned tweet made on January 30, the death anniversary of Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi. It quotes a speech of Gandhi (no date, place mentioned) but presumably from one of the volumes of compiled works of Gandhi. It reads like:
“Hindus should not harbour anger in their hearts against Muslims even if the latter wanted to destroy them. Even if the Muslims want to kill us all, we should face death bravely. If they established their rule after killing Hindus, we…”
Source: Twitter
Sharing a speech of Gandhi (verified by DFRAC as real speech quoted from Collected Works Of Mahatma Gandhi) on a day of his martyrdom without giving full context seems just a plot to post hateful stuff against Gandhi, who has always been a target of Right-Wing trolls.
Besides, the whole timeline of @Saffron_Sn is full of hateful and propagandist messages.
This handle has a moderate following of 12.1K. @Saffron_Sn is also followed by many verified users. Some of the followers include – @KapilMishra_IND (Member of BJP), @gchahal (CEO of Procurenet), @ippatel (Spokesperson BJP UP), @BefittingFacts, @noconversion, etc.
