Amit Malviya’s propagandist jibe at Rajdeep Sardesai is ironic. Here’s why.

Amit Malviya, being criticised as Goebbels of BJP and Modi, attacks other journalists as propagandists.

Photo of Ramasamy Jayaprakash Ramasamy JayaprakashMay 16, 2023
3,588 7 minutes read

Amit Malviya, the head of BJP’s IT wing, is sometimes described as Modi’s Goebbels by the opposition. He had an altercation with Rajdeep Sardesai, Senior Journalist at India Today, during the coverage of the results of Karnataka Elections. During the coverage, Amit Malviya accused Rajdeep Sardesai of being a propagandist and alleged that the journalist serves the Congress party for which he can ask for a Rajya Sabha MP seat.

 

Rajdeep Sardesai responded with grace by requesting take personal jibes at him for asking  simple questions and pointed out that he is from the party of the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who would smile even after losing an election. Rajdeep Sardesai asked Amit Malviya to calm down and promised him that he would send “Mysore Pak”.

 

The journalist’s question was about a simple introspection into BJP’s election tactics and narrative in the months prior to the election and if there was anything wrong. But the way Amit Malviya reacted to a journalist, that too in a live telecast, by calling him a propagandist is highly condemnable.

 

But again, such has become the nature of the BJP leaders of late. In Tamil Nadu, senior BJP leader H.Raja hit back at questioning journalists by asking them if they are “ISI agents”, separatists among other things. This has been a modus operandi for the BJP in the recent years by branding any voice of dissent or criticism as anti-nationals, traitors, opposition backed propagandists etc to undermine their credibility.

 

Coming back to Amit Malviya, he has a notorious tag name of being the Goebbels of the BJP, the name of the infamous propaganda minister in Hitler’s Nazi regime, who spearheaded the propaganda which are often false, misleading and exaggerated. We have included the list of fake news/false propaganda (below this article) that he had spread which YouTurn has covered, which earned him the tag.

Back in 2018, Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that his party’s IT Wing and the social media cell can spread any message and make it go viral, irrespective of it being true or false. While addressing his party’s social media volunteers, he said the following:

“He put a message in the group – that Akhilesh Yadav had slapped Mulayam Singh. No such thing had happened. Mulayam and Akhilesh were 600 km apart. But he put this message. And the social media team spread it. It spread everywhere. By 10 that day my phone started ringing, bhaisahab, did you know Akhilesh slapped Mulayam…. So the message went viral. One should not do such things. But in a way he created a certain mahaul (perception).  This is something worth doing but don’t do it! (Crowd laughs) Do you understand what I am saying?This is something worth doing but don’t do it! We can do good things too. We are capable of delivering any message we want to the public, whether sweet or sour, true of fake. We can do this work only because we have 32 lakh people in our WhatsApp groups.”

The video of the event is still up on BJP’s official YouTube page which can be seen here.

 

To cite an example of how BJP is using their social media might to their advantage, we can look at how BJP Bihar’s official twitter handle spread falsehood that Bihari workers are getting attacked and killed in Tamil Nadu by using unrelated and old videos from different parts of the country. BJP and many of its supporters and functionaries amplified this false narrative which resulted in huge tensions in both Bihar and Tamil Nadu. YouTurn had covered the issue quite extensively which can be seen here, here, here and here.

Just after the Karnataka Assembly election results were out, Amit Malviya resorted to spreading misleading content in social media. He tweeted a video with a caption, “Bhatkal. Soon after Congress victory in Karnataka.” The right-wing ecosystem too followed suit by claiming that Pakistan flag was raised in Bhatkal; bhagwa flag was removed to put Islamic flag etc. But all flags were raised together.

Read More: Saffron flag was not replaced with Pakistan flag in Karnataka’s Bhatkal after Congress’s victory.

Some other BJP leaders tweeted that the Hindus in Karnataka will suffer due to Congress’ victory. Controversial MLA T Raja Singh, who was suspended from the BJP but campaigned for the party in Karnataka, has lamented that the Hindus of Karnataka has shamed people like him and had sold their votes.

Archive

Amit Malviya himself has taken a dig at the people of Karnataka for voting Congress to power and voting the BJP out by claiming that Congress will do “appeasement politics” to Muslims by giving in to their demands and said “Weep Karnataka, weep”. 

Archive 1 | Archive 2

So, the narrative of Hindu victimhood, guilt tripping Hindus and accusing Hindus for not voting for the BJP coupled with false narratives about the rise of anti-national activities, appeasement have been already set in motion. These narratives are spearheaded by Amit Malviya, being the head of the BJP’s IT wing. With all the fake news that Amit Malviya had spread, by himself and through his extensive IT wing in the present and in the past, it is quite ironic to call someone else propagandist.

List of Fake news spread by Amit Malviya:

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Photo of Ramasamy Jayaprakash Ramasamy JayaprakashMay 16, 2023
3,588 7 minutes read
Photo of Ramasamy Jayaprakash

Ramasamy Jayaprakash

Ramasamy works as a Sub-Editor at YouTurn and writes English articles, and makes videos for YouTurn's English YouTube channel.
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