‘Rahul Gandhi’s hate shop has Chinese goods’: BJP targets Cong over NYT report
Citing media portal NewsClick, which was named in the NYT report for allegedly receiving Chinese funds, the BJP said that the Congress and some independent journalists have ties with ‘Chinese propaganda’
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday targeted the Congress in Lok Sabha over a New York Times investigation on China pumping money into various countries including India for pushing its propaganda. Citing media portal NewsClick, which was named in the NYT report for allegedly receiving Chinese funds, the BJP said that the opposition party and some independent journalists have ties with ‘Chinese propaganda’.
BJP member of Parliament Nishikant Dubey said, “The New York Times has revealed the details about the ED raid on Newsclick. Newsclick- the anti-national, tukde- tukde gang who want to destroy India has been exposed for their funding. It has been revealed how the money was given by the Chinese to Naxalites, Maoists…., Rohini Singh, Swati Chaturvedi (both independent journalists) to create an ‘atmosphere’ in India.”
The NYT investigation revealed a well-funded network at the behest of American billionaire Neville Roy Singham spreading ‘Chinese propaganda’ in various countries.
Dubey alleged that the Congress has always taken funds from China and they should be investigated. “Whenever there was a problem in the country from 2005 to 2014, the Chinese government gave money to the Congress. In 2008, they invited both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. In 2016, they were talking to the Chinese during the Doklam crisis… They want to divide India through the Chinese government and journalists... The Government of India should investigate the Chinese funding of the Congress party and close the Congress shop,” Dubey said.
“Rahul Gandhi’s hate shop has Chinese goods,” he added.
Following the BJP MP’s comments, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote a letter to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla demanding that under Rule 380, Dubey’s remarks be expunged in full and that an inquiry be conducted into how such an allegation was permitted to be raised on record.
Responding to the BJP MP’s comments, Rohini Singh wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Nishikant Dubey has lost his mental balance! Neither have I ever worked for NewsClick nor do I have any relation with them… If Nishikant Dubey, who is misusing the parliamentary privilege, has the courage, then he should come out of Parliament and tell this lie. India’s most ‘wretched MP’, with whom people are afraid to even sit, is now speaking the language of a second-rate troll in Parliament.”
Swati Chaturvedi tweeted: “My journalistic income is an open book scrutinised every year by Income Tax @nsitharaman (Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman) get a special audit done & let @nishikant_dubey the coward who misused his Parliamentary privilege to slander apologise. I have nothing to do with @newsclickin”
Earlier, Union minister for information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur said, “Even newspapers like ‘The New York Times’ are now admitting that Neville Roy Singham and his NewsClick are dangerous tools of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and promoting China’s political agenda across the world. 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”.
“In 2021, when Indian enforcement agencies launched an investigation against Newsclick based on strong evidence of money laundering, Congress and the entire left-liberal public defended it. Congress, China and NewsClick are part of an umbilical cord. In Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Nakli Mohabbat Ki Dukaan’ (fake shop of love) Chinese goods can be seen clearly. His love for China can be seen. They were running an anti-India agenda. NewsClick diverted the attention of the people through fake propaganda in the name of free news. This is not free news but fake news and the Congress and the other parties came together under the guise of press freedom to push their propaganda,” Thakur said while addressing a press conference.
Taking aim at Indian human right activist Gautam Navlakha, Thakur said that the former had a big hand in funding NewsClick. “The money that was supplied to NewsClick has been routed through Gautam Navlakha who was booked under UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon case and he is still under house arrest. Right after NewsClick started, crores of rupees were given to them and moreover ₹1.5 crore was given to one electrician. How did Congress, and Rahul Gandhi not raise any objection to it. And not only that, this-loss making company’s shares were bought at an artificially enhanced premium. But no questions were asked by the Opposition,” he said.
Union minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship and electronics and information technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said, “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... This is a complex conspiracy. This is a network of operators being funded, being fanned by vested interests outside the country, who are opposed to India’s rise.”