Tensions in India-US relations, Who is being blamed by BJP?
Last Updated on December 8, 2024 6:30 am
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party BJP has alleged that US State Department officials (Deep State) are conspiring to destabilize India. It is expected that Indo-US relations will deteriorate further after this allegation.
The tension began after Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani was indicted in the US last month in a $265 billion bribery scam.
On Friday (December 6), the BJP claimed that investigative journalist and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was also involved in the conspiracy.
The US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, New York, said on November 20 that Adani, 62, and two other executives of his company; Sagar Adani and Vineet Jain, agreed to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials between 2020 and 2024 to secure a solar power supply contract, hoping for a potential profit of $2 billion.
The indictment alleges bribery of over $250 million, falsely informing investors and banks, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Tensions have flared between the two sides as opposition parties in India have demanded accountability from the government in parliament over the US court’s allegations. BJP leaders have denied the allegations against Adani, while Rajiv Gandhi and journalist George Soros have accused Modi of conspiring against them for political gain.
The BJP claims that the case is part of a well-planned campaign to tarnish India’s global image and destabilize the Indian leadership.
But the reality is that while the BJP is accusing the US State Department of trying to destabilize India, New Delhi itself is facing allegations of spreading lies and rumors about minorities, especially Muslims, and political opponents.
In 2019, the European Union-based organization DzInfoLab published a report that found that many fake websites were created in different countries to promote issues related to Indian diplomatic interests.
The report found 265 fake media outlets in 65 countries. These were used to promote India’s efforts to occupy the disputed Kashmir region.
Many of these websites were often run under the names of fake human rights organizations, which shared news with each other, and the news was disseminated in a way that made it difficult for readers to trace the source of the information.
The observation showed that these websites also published news about the treatment of minorities in Pakistan, especially problems in the insurgent province of Balochistan.
According to DzInfoLab, some of these websites, such as The American Weekly, Times of Bulgaria and Times of Cyprus, tried to present themselves as reliable news outlets by using names like Many of these outlets have social media accounts.
On the other hand, according to the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2024, India is at the top of the world in terms of spreading false information and misinformation.
Source: TRT