Pro-BJP news agency ANI, Gautam Adani-owned NDTV and fake news peddler page, OpIndia, are facing widespread public ridicule for deciding to omit the name of Satyendra Siwal, who’s been arrested for spying for Pakistan. They are facing ridicule primarily because they move with lightning speed when the accused in such cases are Muslims. While ANI is notorious for its support for the BJP government and has often been caught peddling fake news in a bid to demonise Muslims in India, NDTV is now owned by Gautam Adani, a close friend of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As for OpIndia, the platform is notorious for pushing Islamophobia through fake news. Its editor was even booked by the West Bengal Police for running fake story to demonise Muslims. Its critics often ridicule the blog page by calling it ‘PoopIndia.’
The news of Satyendra Siwal is interesting since he’s been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). Uttar Pradesh has a BJP government, known for harassing Muslims in the state. According to reports, he worked as an employee of the Indian embassy in Moscow as a Multi-Tasking Staff (MTS).
A resident of Hapur near Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Siwal was allegedly passing sensitive information to Pakistan in exchange of hefty financial rewards. He allegedly shared sensitive information about Indian Ministry of Defence, Ministry of External Affairs, and Indian military establishments to Pakistan’s ISI.
The arrest of Siwal, a Hindu, also demolishes the dirty campaign against Indian Muslims by the BJP and its friendly media platforms. These platforms never waste an opportunity to demonise Muslims by highlighting their names in their headlines or social media captions whenever a suspect happens to be a Muslim. However, on occasions when the suspect is a Hindu as is the case with Satyendra Siwal, these same platforms will deliberately omit the name.
It is in this context that netizens began to name and shame these platforms after the news of Siwal’s arrest became public.
Desh ka Gaddar ” Satyendra Siwal” has no name for NDTV. https://t.co/HnqvC6ByVQ
— Drunk Journalist (@drunkJournalist) February 4, 2024
Satendra Siwal posted at Indian Embassy Moscow, Russia who spied for Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, arrested by ATS.
He allegedly passed critical information concerning the strategic activities of the Ministry of Defence pic.twitter.com/HJd0kQ4hK9
— Congress Sevadal (@CongressSevadal) February 4, 2024
🚨Alleged Arrest of “ISI Agent” – Indian Media at its Best 😁
🎯 @WIONews broke this news on X which gave an impression as if Pakistani national has been arrested. Actually the alleged spy is a low caste hindu: poor Satendra Siwal, from Uttar Pradesh, India 🤨
🎯 @EconomicTimes… pic.twitter.com/o0SIZPJqJj— MARKHOR 𓄅 (@MarkhorTweets) February 4, 2024
Satendra Siwal posted at Indian Embassy Moscow, Russia who spied for Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, arrested by ATS.
He allegedly passed critical information concerning the strategic activities of the Ministry of Defence pic.twitter.com/aYZkdCheCh
— Chandigarh Congress Sevadal (@SevadalCHD) February 4, 2024
Satendra Siwal naam lene mein sharam aa rahi hai https://t.co/ONp9zY4HN0
— ਅਦਨਾਨ ਅਲੀ ਖਾਨ ( عدنان علی خان ) (@AdnanAliKhan555) February 4, 2024