India-US relations have hit another low as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a sharp attack on the US State Department, accusing "deep state" elements conspiring to destabilise India.
The Hindu far-right BJP claimed on Friday that these efforts were carried out in coordination with investigative journalists and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.
The recent friction traces back to the indictment of Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group and a key figure linked to Modi’s administration, in the US last month for allegedly being part of a $265 billion bribery scheme.
The US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn stated on November 20 that Adani, 62, along with two other executives of an Indian renewable energy company, Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, agreed between 2020 and 2024 to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain solar energy supply contracts expected to yield $2 billion in profits.
"This indictment alleges schemes to pay over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials, to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller.
Opposition parties in India have used this indictment to call for greater accountability, straining parliamentary proceedings.
BJP leaders have dismissed the charges against Adani and accused Gandhi and Soros of deliberately targeting Modi for political gains.
“This is a well-funded campaign to tarnish India’s global image and destabilize its leadership,” the BJP claimed in a series of posts on X.
While BJP accuses the US State Department on trying to destablise India, New Delhi itself faces accusations of spreading lies and rumours about political opponents and members of minorities, especially Muslims.
In 2019, the EU DisinfoLab report revealed that a vast network of Indian fake news websites across dozens of countries had been created to promote Indian diplomatic interests.
The report discovered 265 bogus media outlets in 65 countries managed by what it called an "Indian influence network," which attempted to whitewash India’s annexation of the disputed Kashmir territory.
Many of these websites, often linked to obscure human rights groups, share each other’s content, layering stories in ways that make it difficult for readers to trace the source of the information.
A cursory look at some of these websites shows that they disproportionately report on the treatment of minorities in Pakistan, including issues in the insurgency-hit Balochistan province.
Under the guise of names such as The American Weekly, Times of Bulgaria, and Times of Cyprus, this network seeks to present an air of legitimacy, according to the DisinfoLab’s database.
Many of these outlets also maintain social media accounts.
On the other hand, according to the 2024 World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report, India leads globally in the prevalence of misinformation and disinformation.
Source: trtworld.com
BDST: 1224 HRS, DEC 07, 2024
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