Jaspreet Oberoi: Vile BJP IT Cell Exposed For The World To See
Finally, comparisons are rightfully being made between White and Hindu Supremacy
Jaspreet Oberoi
February 5, 2021 | 3 min. read
It is safe to assume that if you are someone who just came to learn of the farmers’ protest in India it is because of Rihanna, Meena Harris, and Greta Thunberg.
Welcome to one of the biggest protests in human history.
The agitation has been on for months now and it took a lot of missteps, extremely warped thinking, and vaingloriousness on the part of the Modi government to allow a manageable domestic issue to snowball into a major international embarrassment.
The issue that had been simmering within the Indian twitter circles for some time is now buzzing on the world scene. The tweets by these celebrities brought the good, the bad, and the very ugly out of the ecosystem’s actors and has helped put a much-needed spotlight on the excesses that the world’s largest democracy is subjecting hundreds of thousands of its own citizens to.
For more than two months now, these protestors have been camping around Delhi, the national capital, at three different border sites, braving extremely cold weather and living in tents.
From the government’s side, iron nails, rods, barbed wires, boulders, and walls have come up resembling war-like preparations. This barricading of entry points to Delhi has made it extremely hard for the protestors to procure daily supplies. Also, the makeshift toilets have been destroyed by the police along with cutting the electricity, water, and internet access.
Since the start of these protests, more than 70 protestors have died due to these adverse conditions and more than 200 have been detained by the police.
While similar situations in China, Russia, Hong Kong, or the Middle East would attract instant international condemnation, India has been largely immune to it, at least till now.
After the burst of tweets by international figures, the fear of world-wide denunciation sent the Indian government into a frenzy.
What is atypical and unprecedented for any country’s government, India issued an official statement calling such celebrity actions irresponsible and inaccurate. In addition to the numerous superfluous and apocryphal statements, the government release included two hashtags, #IndiaTogether and #IndiaAgainstPropaganda. Soon thereafter, government ministers all tweeted in unison, incorporating the two hashtags prescribed by the official release, claiming Rihanna and Greta to be a party to an international conspiracy against India by separatists.
It is not hard to make out that the design was to galvanize sympathizers in order to take over the digital space they were losing to #FarmersProtest and #StandWithFarmers, the popular hashtags amplified by Rihanna and Greta.
Within a span of few hours, Bollywood entertainers and Indian sports stars, most of whom have long been silent on the farmer protests and often toe the government's line, tweeted in one voice, echoing the government's stand on the agriculture laws, and asked people outside India not to meddle with their country's affairs. Multiple of those tweets were found to have exactly the same wording, exposing the fact that the BJP IT Cell designed the tweets and distributed them for spreading propaganda.
Unfortunately for the government, the intended rebuttal crossed their carefully designed lines.
The well-oiled IT Cell machinery that Modi has used for years now to intimidate and abuse dissenters at home could not resist doing the same to Rihanna, Greta Thunberg, Meena Harris, and others.
All these women were subjected to insensitive, cruel, and vicious trolling for days, thereby exposing the strategies of the vile Indian government machinery, which had previously been hidden from the global scrutiny.
Twitter was swarmed with BJP’s nationalist trolls pulling out old images of Chris Brown, suggesting how Rihanna deserved violence and heaping misogynistic abuse on her. Similar abuse was directed at Greta, calling her a mentally unstable child, a brain-washed terrorist, and much more. This is typical of what the official opposition and dissenters have been facing in India since Modi came to power.
As expected, the international media has picked the episode with overwhelming interest.
Finally, comparisons are rightfully being made between White and Hindu supremacy. Modi is now being talked about as an authoritarian propagandist and the human rights watch has again been alerted.
The world will hopefully see the wickedness that has been hidden under the rug for a long time now; a rug carefully designed to showcase the chai, the yoga, the butter chicken, and the call-centers, all in extremely mild and pleasing colours.
Jaspreet Oberoi was born and raised in Patiala, Punjab, and currently lives in Vancouver, Canada. He is a columnist focused on socio-political issues concerning India and Canada. You can find him on Twitter at @ijasoberoi.
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