NEW DELHI: Under Modi Government, the use of hateful and divisive language by high-ranking BJP lawmakers skyrockets.
But according to a latest research by some eminent civil rights activists, a shocking revelation come to the fore that lots of content referred to Muslim, Christians and other minorities in a way many consider offensive and derogatory have mysteriously disappeared from the websites or the internet.
The team of civil rights activists recently launched “Dismantling India, A Four Year Report” claimed to have discovered that the online hate speeches videos or the articles in mainstream newspapers like The Hindu, Hindustan Times, and The Indian Express, particularly on riots made by the perpetrator from the ruling saffron party have been removed from internet where they had once been.
Talking to Caravan Daily, researcher and civil rights activist Leena Dabiru said, “When we were compiling the data we had several tables on various issues like hate speeches against Muslims and Christians, reports on Dalits and women. Since it is four years’ report, we were tracking the things from the day when BJP came to power in 2014. While tracking the links online we found that they don’t exist any longer. They were showing ‘404 Error’. This error was there in almost all the files which were directly associated with those who delivered speeches that created some kind of communal disharmony and are now ministers, MPs and MLAs of the ruling party .”
Shabnam Hashmi, renowned civil rights activist and founding member of ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) said, on the occasion of report release, said:
“There is very organised cleansing process of the internet which is happening. You wouldn’t find those speeches of Mr Modi in YouTube because they were removed even before 2014 general elections. What he spoke during Gaurav Yatra which is full of venom has been removed. Now they are removing articles, editorials which are against Modi, BJP and RSS.”
Some of the Articles of Hate Removed From Internet
Here are headlines of a few articles or videos of objectionable content that are no longer available on Internet:
28 June, 2014, Indian Express
MP cites security for Christian profiling
https://www.indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/web/mp-cites-for-christian-profiling
2 September 2014, The New Indian Express
Communal tension flares up in Biramitrapur
2 December 2014, First Post
First ‘shehzada’ now ‘haramzada’: BJP MoS unleashes latest pre poll offensive
2 December 2014, IBNlive
Muslims, Christians sons of Rama, those who don’t believe in it should leave India: BJP Minister
Video removed:
https://www.news18.com/videos/politics/niranjan-jyoti-729185.html
12 December 2014, Times of India
Adityanath firm on ‘ghar vapsi’ of 6k on Xmas day
According to an analysis of election affidavits by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Elections Watch (NEW), a total of 58 current MPs and MLAs have declared cases related to hate speech, of which 27 (10 MPs and 17 MLAs) are from the BJP. This is the highest number across political parties.