BJP targets Congress over report on media portal NewsClick, alleges China links
The BJP today unleashed an attack on the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, alleging Chinese funding for the party a day after an explosive New York Times report claimed that media portal Newsclick, financed by American tech mogul Neville Roy Singham, was pushing China’s agenda. It also accused the Congress of defending Newsclick during an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate in 2021 into its funding.
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey also slammed the Congress in parliament. Several words from his speech were later deleted after the Congress strongly objected to the “defamatory charges”, and sought a removal of the speech.
The New York Times had, in its investigative report on Saturday, said, “In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Singham’s network financed a news site, NewsClick, that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points”. The report unearthed how Singham was at the heart of an intrinsically-linked network of activists’ groups, non-profit organisations, shell companies, and their close ties to Beijing and Chinese propaganda.
“Much before NYT, India has long been telling the world that NewsClick is a dangerous global web of Chinese propaganda. Supported by like-minded forces, Neville has been furthering a dubious anti-India agenda,” Union Minister for Information and Technology Anurag Thakur said.
The BJP leader alleged that Congress had defended NewsClick in 2021 when India’s law enforcement agencies initiated an inquiry against the website on allegations of money laundering. An investigation by the Enforcement Directorate found that NewsClick had received around Rs 38-crore funding from abroad. Investigators traced the flow of funds to Neville Roy Singham who was alleged to have a close association with the propaganda arm of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
“It is natural for the Congress to defend Neville and NewsClick because national interest never matters to its leadership. Isn’t it the same Congress Party that signed an MoU with the CPC in the year 2008 to promote Chinese interest in India and allegedly accepted donations for the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) from the Chinese embassy?” Thakur said.
The BJP has accused the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation of receiving donations from the Chinese embassy in India. The party alleges that these donations were made in 2005-06.
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar slammed Rahul Gandhi, alleging that the Congress leader’s remarks abroad on India’s democracy are in sync with what platforms like NewsClick put out.
“These narratives that are put out by platforms like NewsClick and other platforms that are operating in concert are echoed almost blandly in a similar fashion by this political leader, Rahul Gandhi, who goes abroad and says exactly the same things-democracy is under danger, judiciary is compromised, EVMs are compromised. This is exactly the narrative that these platforms put out,” the minister said.
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