WaPo’s Information Provocation Against India Tries Way Too Hard To Stir International Drama

It took three journalists nearly 5,000 words to convey a single point, namely that an alleged Indian intelligence agent is supposedly behind a site that sometimes criticizes anti-Indian Americans. That’s it. Everything else was just dramatic flair and fluff to manipulate naïve readers into thinking that the Indian government is meddling in US affairs when it's actually the US that's meddling in Indian affairs.

Top conservative influencer Jack Posobiec tipped the world off over the weekend about how “WaPo Is Preparing A Major Information Provocation Against India Ahead Of The FBI Chief’s Visit” after he shared screenshots of a message that he received from Washington Post (WaPo) journalist Pranshu Verma. The preceding hyperlinked analysis predicted that this Democrat-allied outlet wanted to complicate the FBI chief’s visit to India this week by concocting a conspiracy theory alleging Indian meddling in US affairs.

That’s exactly what their article titled “Covert Indian operation seeks to discredit Modi’s critics in the U.S.” seeks to do. It was published at 10pm EST on Sunday, which was the literal eve of the FBI chief’s visit to discuss the Justice Department’s charges against an unnamed Indian official and an Indian drug trafficker less than two weeks ago. Both were accused of conspiring to assassinate a Delhi-designated terrorist-separatist with dual American citizenship in June in a case that resembles Canada’s earlier one.

Those charges and WaPo’s strategically timed information provocation are part of a power play by the US’ liberal-globalist policymaking faction to recapture control of American policy towards India from their conservative-nationalist rivals. In brief, the former want to punish India for defying their country’s anti-Russian sanctions and internally divide it via weaponized “wokeism”, while the latter appreciate India’s role as a counterweight against China and want to strengthen it as much as possible.  

Readers can learn more about the larger geopolitical context and associated dynamics by reviewing the analysis that was hyperlinked to in the introductory paragraph since the present piece will now segue into critiquing WaPo’s information provocation after summarizing the events leading up to it. About their article, it took three journalists nearly 5,000 words to convey a single point, namely that an alleged Indian intelligence agent is supposedly behind a site that sometimes criticizes anti-Indian Americans.  

That’s it. Everything else was just dramatic flair and fluff to manipulate naïve readers into thinking that the Indian government is meddling in US affairs. The reality is actually the complete opposite, however, since these same anti-Indian Americans like Soros and the others that figure prominently in that site’s reports are the ones meddling in Indian affairs. WaPo tacitly acknowledges this too but defends it on subjective “democracy” and “human rights” grounds.

No one should be surprised by their editorial position since this outlet is known to be among the most loyal guard dogs of the US’ liberal-globalist policymaking faction that’s publicly represented by WaPo’s Democrat allies. To be sure, sometimes they buck the trend by publishing pieces that go against that group’s goals such as when they amplified the narratives of Ukrainian draft dodgers right as Zelensky wants more conscripts, but they still do that faction’s bidding much more often than they undermine it.  

Their latest information provocation against India, which is the seventh part in their series titled “Rising India, Toxic Tech”, serves additional purposes beyond just trying to complicate the FBI chief’s visit to India by prompting him to bring up what they misportray as Indian meddling in US affairs. It defends the meddling in Indian affairs carried out by the same Americans that this site exposed while also trying to put public pressure on those prominent social media accounts that they said shared its content.

Reversing the roles of victim and villain, which is done in this case by reframing that site’s reports as meddling in US affairs while defending the actual meddling in Indian affairs by those same Americans that provoked these reports in the first place, is nothing more than gaslighting. This is a typical liberal-globalist tactic, as is the naming and shaming that they attempt later on in their piece. It all comes off as trying too hard though when remembering that the entire premise of their piece remains unproven.

After all, their claim that this site is run by an alleged Indian intelligence agent is based on anonymous sources, while everything that this same site reported about those Americans who meddle in Indian affairs is based on facts even if one might dispute some of the connections between them. WaPo’s disclosure that this site “falsely” accused them of “waging psychological warfare against India at the behest of the CIA” in a viral thread last month hints that they’re partly driven by petty revenge.

Liberal-globalists are infamous for their narcissism so it wouldn’t be surprising if that played a role in their decision to run this piece. It’s also extremely hypocritical too, which is another characteristic of liberal-globalists, seeing as how there’s much more evidence to conclude that Western officials have a hand in the worldwide troll network known as “NAFO”. This is a collection of anonymous social media users that resort to vitriol, threats, and even racism to attack anyone who doesn’t fully support Ukraine.  

Independent researcher Moss Robeson, who specializes in investigating contemporary Ukrainian diaspora networks, published a detailed report about them in October 2022 titled “Ukes, Kooks & Spooks: #NAFO”. This was followed shortly afterwards by The Grayzone’s Alexander Rubinstein, who released a two-part series later that month about “How the pro-Ukraine NAFO troll operation crowd-funds war criminals” and “Meet the spooks, mercs and chickenhawk politicos enlisting as NAFO trolls”.

Most damning of all was the fact that this summer’s NATO Summit in Vilnius also hosted a “NAFO Summit” that was even addressed by Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, which leaves no doubt about the connection between some Western officials and this worldwide troll network. Seeing as how “NAFO” regularly targets Western citizens, including with threats and racist attacks, one might ordinarily think that WaPo would be interested in building upon the aforementioned evidence to expose this campaign.

Instead of practicing bonafide journalism as would have been the case in that example, they decided to concoct a conspiracy theory based on anonymous sources to claim that India is meddling in US affairs, which they strategically timed to coincide with the FBI chief’s visit to that country. The contrast between them declining to further investigate the proven connections between “NAFO” and Western officials while inventing connections between that Indian site and its intelligence agencies discredits WaPo.

They tried way too hard to stir international drama with India and thus inadvertently exposed themselves as one of the liberal-globalist policymaking faction’s top information warfare platforms. The occasions where they go against this group’s goals are only meant to reinforce their false credentials as a supposedly independent outlet in order to deflect from their true purpose as was explained. Looking forward, more such provocations are expected from WaPo, but few are expected to lend them credence.