Popular Front vows to resist a fresh round of vilifications targeting the organization

New Delhi, 17 June 2021 [Fik/News Sources]: Popular Front of India Chairman O M A Salam has, in a statement, said that the organization would expose and resist the new round of vilification campaign against the organization initiated by fascist forces and their agents.

BJP and its fake news machinery are once again up for a new round of vilification campaign targeting Popular Front. In the past couple of days there was an attempt to defame the organization through 3 different reports. The timing of this smear campaign proves it is part of a coordinated campaign by the IT and fake news cells of the BJP and RSS. The fact that such reports mainly appear in Sangh affiliated Hindi and English news portal is also suggests of higher level plan.

A few months ago the IT Department had taken a politically motivated decision to cancel the Income Tax exemption of Popular Front that is enjoyed by charitable organizations. The organization had already legally challenged this decision as the reasons cited are political in nature and it is evident that the IT department acted only as a rubber stamp to sign the cancellation based on allegations that were drafted by the BJP government. This old news is now getting reported by few media sections as a fresh development, which makes it evident that an old issue has been sensationalized as part of a plan to defame our organization. In another instance, a fake news was floated accusing Popular Front of hatching a conspiracy to manipulate the UP elections through Rohingya refugees.

The timing of this allegation makes it clear that this smear campaign is born out of BJP’s desperation to divert people’s attention from the grave administrative failures during the pandemic especially in UP. Similarly, few BJP backed fake news peddlers attempted to baselessly link Popular Front to the seizure of Gelatin sticks from a forest area in Kerala even when there was no such statement made by the investigation agencies. In Kerala, the BJP is in crisis after its senior leaders came under investigation for huge amounts of black money dealings and money laundering. Police report to the court calls it a crime against nation’s economy. It was clearly an attempt by BJP to torpedo the state Assembly election by funnelling black money. The party is now desperate for issues to divert the media attention from this issue.  In a leaked tape, a senior BJP spokesperson was seen recommending that the party should adopt extreme measures to divert media discussions on it. So it is not surprising that while the Kerala police, state investigation agencies and local language media say that the probe is still on about the discovery of Gelatin sticks, a section of media affiliated to BJP is desperate to link it to the Popular Front.

With the humiliating defeat in the recent assembly elections and with nothing positive to present before the people in the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh, BJP and Sangh Parivar is entangled in a serious political crisis. BJP hopes that the mass hysteria about national security and vilification of the Muslim community and organizations would erase all other political questions from the scene. It may have worked before, but it’s up to opposition parties and mainstream media in the country to decide whether to fall prey to the same old trick over and over again or to expose it for what it is. Overcoming this kind of propaganda of BJP is vital not only for the survival of non-BJP parties but also for the survival of constitutional values like democracy in the country.

As for Popular Front, the organization will not sit and watch while its name is being misused to mislead people, hijack political discourse and scapegoat innocents for false terror narratives. The Popular Front will resist the propaganda and expose it before the people of the country through legal and democratic means.