Sources in the government have dismissed reports in the Western media that have appeared in American and British media outlets, raising concern on what they have termed the down sliding of democracy in India which will become more pronounced post 4 June as ‘fake and a part of a sustained misinformation campaign going on for years now’.
Government sources said that such reports have lost their traction among the readers and the government as they are not based on facts but a set of baseless narratives that have been repeatedly proven to be false.
According to officials, use of prominent Western media outlets to hit India through ‘mis-information campaigns in the guise of reports’ has been an age-old practice , but it became more common once Narendra Modi came to power in May 2014.
While the Modi government initially, officials said, would take reports in these outlets seriously, but once it became increasingly clear that ‘false propaganda’ to suit and strengthen a narrative was being written rather than reports that would actually point out to the weakness in the government’s policy execution, these reports are now mostly ignored by the top officials.
According to sources, in many cases, the reports that have appeared in these well known outlets, when verified by the government, have later been found to carry false data and facts that could have easily been verified from material available in the public domain.
In a few cases, the government discovered the content on which the article criticizing the Modi government is based on, was given to the media outlet by groups that had a vested interest against the chair of the Prime Minister.
Intelligence agencies sources told the Daily Guardian that op-eds and articles that are critical of the present government appearing in Western media outlets are a result of planning that was done a few months ago and hence has not come as a surprise.
Government officials said that all the allegations that have been levelled against the office of the Prime Minister have been dealt with by the judiciary of India, which in many cases, has also been highly critical of the stand taken by agencies of government of India including in the recent electoral bonds case.
While referring to the arrest of opposition leaders by central agencies which is being used by the Western media outlets to attack the Prime Minister, sources said that even a casual study of the court documents related to these opposition leaders will prove that all the rules were followed by the arresting agencies and it was the opposition leaders who refused to respond to summons forcing the agency to arrest them, something that even the court’s have recognized.
They also pointed out to the huge number of people who will come out to vote to elect their representatives, which in many seats, will not belong to the BJP or its alliance partners. This would not have happened if people had lost trust in the electoral process, as the reports claim.
According to them the BJP has been unable to make an impact in many states, including Delhi, despite its best efforts, something which would not have happened if the narrative of elections being rigged and system being compromised that are being published in the Western media was true.
According to officials, the reasons for this attack on the Prime Minister’s are multiple and involve several groups and entities, including those who are not based in India. They said that one of the prominent reasons for this is the government not acquiescing and accepting demands of groups that are looking to use the massive Indian market for their own personal growth while compromising on India’s economic growth.