Alt News or Fraud News? Shameless campaign of lies and defamation

One little-known website called “Alt News”, patronized by well known political propagandists, recently spun few posts using my Twitter Timeline, calling it a “goldmine of fictitious historical claims”. Well, since it has invoked my Twitter Timeline to get traffic and ad-revenue, of course, it is a goldmine, indeed, for the post truth peddling Fraud News.

Whenever people engage politely with me, seeking a clarification or putting up a counter-view, I hear them out and share the sources (name of the book, museum and link to sources, wherever available), if not done already, so that people can actually explore facts for themselves and act as agents of information dissemination.

Anyone, who’s abusive or simply argues for the sake of arguing, with no interest in learning or sharing, ends up either in my blocked or muted list. My timeline is testimony to the fact that I engage with people on the basis of their eagerness to genuinely learn and share and not on the basis of their follower count.

I have written quite a few articles on History, published in Firspost, Swarajya and India facts, which clearly mention the references, for, I document History as it was, based on sources, without any agenda or garnishing. Am always eager to expand my knowledge of History and anyone genuinely interested in learning and sharing, shall surely get that.

Of late, a large section of Secular Mafia of eminent intellectuals has been indulging in concerted, defamatory attacks upon me, citing my Tweets!

Yes, you heard it right! Not my posts, not the books that I quote from, but my Tweets! This establishes that the information  I share is trampling their ecosystem and annihilating their false sense of moral superiority and intellect. Hence, this course of lying and mudslinging. I have blocked quite a few, after making them aware of their lack of research and, sometimes, if time permitted, also busted their lies. There have been instances where attempts have been made to violate my privacy and my friends threatened.

When the same got called out, a new route had to be found and perhaps that’s why this peddler of post truth, is continuing the campaign of these ‘eminent intellectuals’, with the one point agenda of thwarting the publication of my Book on the Medieval History of India.

I thought of the Book, last year, because it is near impossible to communicate something as important as History in 140 characters. Use of representative images, abbreviations, images taken from a book or magazine, among others, can sometimes communicate partial information or be taken out of context, by anyone not interested in looking up primary sources for revalidation and enrichment. But my Book (am writing it currently) will have no such constraints as my Tweets, and the detractors know it.

I have been extremely occupied in its research, which is extremely time consuming and exhausting, for, I am not a History scholar (have never claimed to be one). Between the research and everything else, am hardly left with any time for myself and hence have no bandwidth to spare and rebut every tom, dick and harry. My Twitter Timeline, in any case, does not claim Six Sigma or ISO certification!

The joke of a post, in the post truth rag, rants that “fictitious historical claims are shared to keep people feel wronged all the time”. It is quite amusing to see this statement from those who continuously peddle propaganda about “skies falling under the fascist rule of Modi”. A section of pseudo-secularatti has spun many such tales and it is no wonder that a section of a community feels victimized enough to take up terrorism.

An introspection on their part will reveal that it is not my Tweets, but their perspective and worldview that is full of hate and divisiveness. So much so, that simply stating the truth, that is documented by scholars, archaeologists and historians of repute, in publications across the world, makes them see red. Their disinclination to explore, learn and stay updated, is their prerogative. But responding to their vindictive ignorance, inherent inability to research (beyond wikipedia, whatsapp, random blogposts) and sheer lethargy, is not my priority.

Through this one post, I intend call out their bumbling bluster, so that people can see the utter lack of honesty and integrity in those who write in, and share the propaganda of this fraud Alt News. Perhaps, Alt News stands for their fabricated, alternate version of truth.

Before proceeding further, let me reiterate that these ignoramuses  are not interested in any information  AT all. No article of mine has been challenged. The CONTENT of my tweets has NOT been touched. What has actually been tom-tomed as an “expose” and shared by many “eminences”, is in fact, a simple google image search of the images accompanying my tweets to concoct and “expose” and allege some ulterior agenda!

Do the dunces who claim to have “researched” through the “goldmine” of my Timeline, understand that at the end of the day, it does not matter, at all! I could use the image of a Mule and yet the content of my tweets would be irrefutable, for, whatever I share on my timeline is based on multiple sources (books, testimonies, research papers, exploration results, theses, museum catalogs, governmental archives, newspapers, among others).

The propaganda rag is not interested in History. It is not interested in learning or knowledge sharing, either. All it has does is pretend that it is “challenging” my “claims” by trying to add motives to representational images used with my tweets. That is not a debate worth my time.

If they needed some traffic and make money from the “goldmine” of my Timeline, they could have simply asked me for clarity on any topic that I have tweeted on. I might have actually expanded on my Tweets and helped them write well researched posts. Why fabricate and concoct an “expose” and prove that its alleged Journalism favours sensationalism as against sense? The pea brained Don Quixotes of FraudNews do not even realise that I don’t “make claims”. I share FACTS.

Ivory sculpture depicting a Hindu Shahi King of Gandhara riding on an elephant. (c.800 CE). Found at Gansu province, Northwest China

AltNews says

I laughed  hard at this one, for, it was proof of the fact that the post truth peddler and its NoIQDhongi patrons, simply source information from Whatsapp, Wikipedia and Blogs Posts,apart from their own photoshopped fraudulent pictures. I understand that it might take them longer to read, but would they, at least just this once, I insist, read Objects of Translation:Material Culture and Medieval “Hindu Muslim” Encounter by Finbarr B Blood, published by Princeton University Press, and stop their post truth diatribe!

The image is NOT that of  Buddha. It is that of a Shahi riding on an elephant . Shahis were Hindu/Buddhist kings of Gandhara. It was indeed found in Gansu province in Northwest China. My tweet is a FACT.

Excerpt from the aforementioned book “Objects of translation”(Princeton University Press)

Hello FakeNews, I challenge you to find us even a single reference to Gautama Buddha riding an elephant  in either BuddhaCharita or Pali canonical texts.

You cannot find a single reference to Buddha riding an elephant either in Pali Canon or Buddhacharita. Why? For Buddha and his ascetic disciples, riding/taming any animal like elephant was an act of sacrilege. In the Dhammapada, it is stated

For it is not on such riding-animals as elephant that a man can go to that place to which he has not yet gone. It is only on his own well-tamed self that he can go to that place to which he has not yet gone

What does this all show?That Alt News is essentially post truth Alternate views based on Journalism of outrage. The rag engages writers who seem to know nothing and are not interested in learning by reading what matters. What’s hilarious is that they are not interested even in reading  the blogs that they have themselves linked. The blog also mentions its Gandharan origin, by the way.

This illustrates the modus operandi of the rag. All it does is run a google image search of every image that I have posted. If anything does not match any blog online, the rag will keep mining the gold of ad revenue from my timeline by writing another post accusing me of fraud! Desperate attention seeking frauds!

This peddler of post truth stands fully exposed.  They have no interest in history, all they and their gushing, gloating patrons want to do, is to prevent truth from coming out. All of them stand thoroughly exposed in their intellectual nakedness. It is not just the Emperor, but the entire empire of pseudo intellectualism that seems to have no clothes

Temples destroyed by Tipu Sultan

AltNews says

This is the funniest of all claims. The Alternate History peddling rag claims that these ruins are not that of a temple but of a “neolithic settlement of BC era” (whatever that means) and that I have used the picture of “Neolithic settlement” as “ruins of temples destroyed by Tipu Sultan”

However, the link that has been shared, by the pretentious, propaganda pile does not support its false claim, for, the caption of the picture in the link clearly mentions it as “ruins of old temple”.

Looks like the phenomenal researchers of Alt News skipped elementary school, for, the meaning of Neolithic eludes them.  Let me offer some help on that front. They could thank me later.

Here is a Neolithic structure from Kerala

Neolithic means “New Stone”. The people of new Stone Age were not sophisticated enough to build historical temples like the one used in the picture. Neolithic man of Kerala lived in Dolmens and Ashmounds. He was a hunter-gatherer. His dress was scanty. The ignoramus google image researchers of Alt News could read up on the research carried out on Neolithic people of Kerala by the great Archeologist and Anthropologist Shri M.A Krishna Iyer.

One might now wonder as to did The Hindu post some non-sense. Actually, it did not. The paper Hindu very clearly mentions that the picture is that of temple ruins. This “source” shared by the post truth rag AltNews talks about posthole sites with pillared halls.

Dr. Sunil Kumar told The Hindu here on Saturday that these sites were perhaps used for construction of Mandapas (pillared halls) or some wooden structures. Of 13 posthole sites with 24 pillared halls identified, 12 were in the rocky plateaus three km to five km from Thenmala (Venkatamala) in the same belts on both sides of the banks of the Ikshumathipuzha, a tributary of the Gayathripuzha flowing through Kollengode, Muthalamada and Elevanchery. The remaining one was found at Polpully, about 20 km from Thenmala. Such postholes on rock surfaces on the Nagarjunakonda and the Brahmagiri sites in Andhra Pradesh and other areas suggest that these must have been part of a Neolithic settlement between 4000 BC and 1000 BC, studies show.

So, what are these Neolithic posthole sites with pillared halls? In yet another article on these Neolithic “pillared halls of Kerala”, Hindu gives the relevant picture with caption. This article is exact replica of the article posted by AltNews

The real “Neolithic settlement” which AltNews fraudulently replaced with a picture of temple ruins

So, this is the “Neolithic settlement” the paper was talking about.  

And with this, Alt News stands completely exposed. The pretentious news site doesn’t even know what Neolithic means. The rag cleverly hides facts from readers, for, the caption of the picture being fraudulently passed off as “neolithic settlement” by Alt News, clearly says “temple ruins”. This again proves that the overzealous researchers of Alt News did not even bother to read the article that they posted as some “proof” of “fraud” from the “goldmine”!

They do not even know that the great Dravidian style temples, such as the one shown in the picture of the article that was posted, belong to Medieval period and no trace of such a temple was ever found in the Neolithic period. Alt News clearly is not interested in knowing and exploring what the link talks about.

As a matter of fact, my aforementioned tweet was the third in a series of tweets that I wrote about Temple destruction by Tipu Sultan in Kerala. Alt News did not even touch the first two tweets because its google image search results would have matched what I had shared. It did not challenge the content of any of my tweets in the thread.

AltNews also has “text blindness”. My criticism of Tipu Sultan’s activities  citing textual references has been far more harsh

Not one of these tweets has ever been contested. Instead, AltNews very dishonestly tried to steer the debate away from Tipu Sultan towards “neolithic settlements” and only ended up making a complete fool of itself. That this travesty has been endorsed by Ramchandra Guha and Digvijay Singh is quite disappointing, to the say the least

Can Alt News prove that the content of my tweets, about Tipu Sultan’s temple destruction in Kerala/Palakkad, is wrong?  NO! It is only interested in making fraudulent accusations, mudslinging and yes digging the “goldmine”!

Massacre of Brahmins after Gandhi Ji’s assassination

The rag AltNews writes

AltNews  says

Reality: READ the New York Times (NYT) report for yourself. It makes no mentions of 15 Brahmins being killed

The dunces need to note that the report was issued the next day (after Gandhi was assassinated). Since when has Media started naming victim communities and perpetrator communities? When was the last time we have heard of “Hindus killed by Muslims” in  media, for example? The accompanying image was simply to show that people were killed.

That those killed were Brahmins is, of course, beyond doubt. Massacre of Hindus (Brahmins), burning of Brahmin houses by anti-Brahmin, Congress activists after Gandhi Ji’s assassination is a well-documented fact. Anyone can read various books that deal with the subject. The Police in India by M. B. Chande , Atlantic Publishers & Dist, The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi by Makarand R Paranjape , Random House or India, Storytellers @ Work By Nandita Bhardwaj, Tirna Ray, Smita Mishra Chaturvedi, Katha, 2004,  are just some of these.

Can the lying, propaganda rag disputing my tweet show me one historical account which shows any community other than Brahmans being targeted on the day of Gandhi’s assassination?

The rag goes on to shamelessly accuse me of blurring the tweet by saying, “ True Indology has presented a blurred report so you can’t read it to verify the claim ”.

And now, let us take a a look at what it presents as the evidence:

This is their original “readable” report and I have “blurred it to make it unreadable!”

 

What the rag has put up is hardly readable and it has the gall to accuse me of blurring! These tweets on Gandhi Ji’s assassination are not based on just one NYT Newspaper Clip which, the post truth peddler fails to realise, I had shared on my own. The Newspaper clip mentions 15 people killed, does it not? Does the post truth gang expect NYT to have mentioned Brahmins killed? Really? If only they could put their pea-brain to better use and pause to read books, they would also get it, hopefully.

And, if they also take the same news item that I have tweeted from the page and magnify it, so that it is visible to people, the image will be the same as tweeted.

So what is this sinister agenda from my side that has put ants in their pants?

1000 years old Varun Dev temple in Karachi (Pakistan), used as a toilet

AltNews says

Actually I am quite bored by this one, for, a number of online folks have rubbished many such handles trying to paint me as some sort of villain, simply for highlighting how poorly minorities are treated in Pakistan. If they had their eyes and ears open, they would see how Hindu, Sikh and Christian minorities are suffering there. Why is Pakistan so special to them that they cannot bear to see any truth, about the wretched state of affairs there, coming out?

The dishonesty of the rag is evident from their act of ignoring the source that was embedded in the tweet. The ANI report(embedded within the tweet)  says

The temples decayed appearance reflects a lack of care, and its walls and rooms serve as a toilet for visitors to Manoras sandy beach, even as humid winds are eating into the structure and the rich carvings on the walls of the mandir are slowly eroding, reported the Daily Times.

Then, as the article says

Shri Varun Dev temple was in a dilapidated condition for years. Being a seaside temple, humid winds were eating away the structure and eroding the rich carvings. In Dec 2015, it received $250,000 funding from the US Ambassador Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) and its restoration started in collaboration with the Sindh Exploration and Adventure Society (SEAS).

Because it received a US funding, the temple began to be “restored”

However, the Sindh Exploration and Adventure Society (SEAS), had not started any restoration until February 2016. This is evident from this picture posted by them in Feb 2016, which does not show any restoration.

It is fine that Pakistan received monetary benefits and decided to work on its “restoration”. But why do these pseudo Ganga Jamuni Zombies not know that its use as a toilet completely disqualifies this temple as any place of worship according to Agama Shastras.

Thus, despite what the rag claims, the truth remains that parts of the temple were used as toilet until Feb 2016 and no amount of “restoration” can restore its status as “Temple” after such defilement. So what exactly has the Goldmine, of my Twitter timeline, got the rag other than, traffic and ad-revenue?

Jain Idols This hilarious allegation by the rag shows what happens when one runs image search to corroborate historical facts!

The tweet is about Jain Neminathaswami Idols found in Mylapore St Thomas Church. That is the Primary fact. The Myth of Saint Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple By Ishwar Sharan and the Iconography of Jain images in the districts of Tamilnadu  By The chennai Government Museum, both document the fact that Mylapore Neminath Jain idols were found at St Thomas Church and were shifted to Mel Chittamur (Sethamur) later.  Here is an excerpt from the book. This Jain temple does not exist anymore in Mylapore and the site occupied by a Christian building

The information that I have tweeted is completely factual information based on well documented sources. These dunces first need to read up on Mylapore Neminathaswami before accusing me of anything.

The next time FraudNews quotes blog posts as the proof, it should pause and not end up digging holes for its pathetic reputation to sink further into. Anyway, the whole exercise by AltNews to prove me a fraud is futile. I could post any image and my tweet would  still be true. One should ask what AltNews tends to achieve by carrying out this false campaign not built on facts

Marble Statue of 3 headed Brahma discovered on the footsteps of the mosque in Ghazni, Afghanistan

AltNews says

If the post truth peddling rag manages to read the book Objects of translation”(Princeton University Press) ,it might squirm in shame, that is if they have any left, by now!

Here’s an excerpt

Here is another excerpt from the same book

The author, as well as the excavator, very clearly say that the idol of Brahma had been set up on a pavement to be trampled upon. Further, the author says trampling of icons conforms to the prescriptions of Hadith

Also, in her Monumental work, “Across the Hindukush (2002)”, Japanese Archaeologist Kuwayama tells us about this idol. She says that this idol of Brahma was brought to Afghanistan by Ghaznavids during their Jihadi raids across India. They used this idol and placed it on the entrance of the royal Ghaznavid  Mosque inside their Palace at Ghazni.

The relevant excerpt from the book is presented below

So let’s recount the facts. The idol was stolen from India, brought to Afghanistan and placed under footsteps of a mosque inside a royal palace to be trod upon. The Art historian even adds that such acts are prescribed by Hadith.

Coming to the pompous declaration by Alt News that “It is not a recent find”, the propaganda rag should have realised that this discovery has only been barely studied by Indian archaeologists and has not been mentioned in any book on Indian history. Both these articles, are recent works by foreign authors and hence termed as recent discovery.

Here is a part of the excavator’s report which has been conveniently left out by the miners of gold from my timeline.

Attention should be called to the fact that the face of the statue that has been discovered in the Palace is completely wiped out, destroyed, it would seem, not by iconoclastic fury but slowly worn away by passing feet, its appearance being much like of medieval tombal stones in church pavements. This may be connected with the statement made by Farista and would suggest that the custom inaugurated in the famous Mosque may have been followed, even if somewhat modified, and not only in religious buildings.

Let us ask the rag the reason for the face of the Brahma idol getting wiped out. Will they have the decency to simply admit that the Brahma’s face was wiped out by stepping on it to humiliate Hindus and follow Hadith prescriptions, first at the Mosque and then at the royal palace? But then, the self-appointed middle men of Secularism and Idea of India won’t be able to continue their zealous, “hide the truth” agenda.

Some people think that knowing the truth about the Islamist invaders will fill us with rage not against those who did it, but against those who follow their faith today. They need to remember that we are all of Indic origin and Indic thought preaches pluralism. So my sincere suggestion to these forces is to stop projecting their insecure, inhuman, selfish personas on others.

As the rag tries to place the idol in a palace in Ghazni, it ends up admitting that the Hindu idol was indeed brought from India to Afghanistan by Ghaznavids and placed at a pavement to be trod upon by Muslim devotees according to the prescriptions of Hadith.

Now we have their lofty proclamation that it was placed under footsteps of the Masud palace rather than the Mosque. Readers would have noticed the nonchalance with which the rag mentions the placement of the idol under the footsteps of the palace and not the mosque.

We have seen above how the Japanaese Archaeologist Kuwayama has connected the find site of idol inside Masud  with a mosque. But even the excavator of the report quoted in the article had no doubt that these must be Mosques.

The Muslim historian Ferishta recorded how Ghaznavids brought statues from India and placed them on footsteps of Mosque.

The idol of Brahma found in a palace had been trodden by pious devotees and its face completely wiped out. Idol was first placed on footsteps of Mosque and this pious custom was later followed by the Royal Palace . The excavator also has no doubt that the building must be mosque. And it is all based on the work done by actual researchers, historians and excavators.

So why is this getting their goat? Is it that they expected me to put hours of research in 140 characters for their approval which, let me re-emphasise, I care two hoots about! Listen FraudNews, my tweets represent hard work and investment of personal time and money. Am not propped up by vested interests.

Much has also been made about the fact that I wrote “Ganesha” for “Brahma” at one place.

Of course, I am human and I make syntactical/semantic mistakes.The rag would also find spelling mistakes in my tweets. But this tweet very clearly reveals what exactly they have been doing.Side-tracking the debate and making defamatory claims.

It does not matter if I identify the idol as Ganesha, Shiva or Brahma. It does not even matter if I use the image of Beyonce instead of the idol.

Idols were kept under the footsteps of Mosques and Islamic palaces. Even the sources used by the rag testify this.

The tweet was in response to a poster who had claimed that Hindus also broke Buddhist temples and Islamist iconoclam was not different from Hindu iconoclasm of Buddhist sites. The poster was only regurgitating the outdated claims made by Marxist historians like Romila Thapar, many decades ago. So, I challenged the poster to show me Buddhist idols on the footsteps of Hindu temples or palaces.

The debate was never about Ganesha or Brahma, in which case my “fraudulent” statement would have mattered. The poster could not answer my challenge. Neither can AltNews.

I challenge the post truth photoshop rag to show me Buddhist idols on footsteps of Hindu buildings, now that it managed to dig up this old tweet and charge me of “fraud”.

Most important is the fact that I have noticed that this tweet has been deleted from my timeline as I must have realised that I had made a syntactical mistake.

So, it is the rag that has indulged in complete fraud by digging up an old tweet from archives, to side track the debate and accuse me of fraud.

Bhai  Singha Purohit

In continuation to its verbal diarrhoea, the lying Alt News makes much ado about this image

Bhai Singha Purohit is a little known figure in mainstream history. For some inexplicable reason, this person has been completely side-lined by people who do not want to see the history of Hindus and Sikhs as that of close cooperation. However, his story is recorded in many Sikh scriptures. But there is not a single statue (image) of him available anywhere. Not a single image of him available online. In such cases and especially when I deal with obscure figures, I use the closest available representation. If I were an artist, I would draw a sketch. And I crop every single picture that I post.

Let me pause and share what the propaganda rag says,

There is a particular significance of this picture of Dronacharya being found in Kashipur which is lost to those who randomly pick it off the internet to use it as someone else. Kashipur has a famous lake known as Drona Sagar which is believed to be associated with Guru Dronacharya. You will many more pictures of this mural here.

I marvel at the confidence with which such nonsense is passed off as facts by AltNews. Can the pretentious writers of the rag show a single reference in Mahabharata where Kashipur gets associated with Drona? The statement is plainly false, but I will still give them the benefit of doubt that perhaps the writer is being ignorant and not lying outrightly.

Coming to the mural, it does NOT belong to Dronacharya’s time, for, it is a modern one. The sculptor had not seen Dronacharya. He only depicts Dronacharya as just a Brahman. In other words, it is also a representational image. This is exactly why I chose the picture to represent Singha Purohit.

The propaganda rag goes on to write,

This once again makes us wonder about the intellectual honesty in picking an unrelated picture and cropping it to use to support a claim

Here is a challenge. I do not need this picture to support anything that I wrote in the tweet. It was only used for illustration. Can the post truth, propaganda rag Alt News show me anything in my Tweet statement that is at odds with the history of Bhai Singha Purohit in traditional Sikh Chronicles like Suraj Pratap Granth ?

If it cannot, I would suggest that it shuts up and stops these tactics. If anyone can show me anything that I have written in the tweet is at odds with  the historical account, I will gladly correct myself.

But you know what the problem is? These people are not interested in history, at all. They are only interested in mudslinging, making fradulent claims and yes, digging my timeline for striking the gold of traffic and ad-revenue.

Haripur Temple in Pakistan

The post truth miner of gold dishonestly hides that the tweet is a part of an appeal to Pakistani authorities issued on the basis of a Pakistani newspaper report. The tweets in the thread are shared above.

Anyone can see that the newspaper report has been included therein. But for some reason, the propaganda peddler chose to ignore it. Perhaps, since its “research expertise” of image search fetched something different, it decided to concoct an entire tale based on the representative image used which I have no inclination to waste my time on.

Civilian Settlement

AltNews says

• • 

Posed with a query about whether gigantic ancient Royal Buildings such as those found in Rome and Persepolis have even been found in India, I tweeted my response with a picture to show that although such ancient Gigantic royal palaces have not been found, ancient Indians had the skill to build sophisticated settlements.

In its weirdest claim, so far, AltNews says, “This is not the picture of a civilian settlement, but the ruins of an ancient Buddhist monastery.”

Are Buddhists not Indians or civilians? Did those poor monks who lived in the small rooms of these monasteries belong to Royal Families?

Is AltNews saying that Indians had no such skill and “Buddhist monastery” was not built by Gandharan Masons but magically created by Buddhist Monks?

The pseudo researchers of the rag ought to note that religious and secular life in ancient India was so closely intertwined as to be inseparable.

The excavator of this site has noted that the place was visited by devotees who brought the monks gifts. There were also resident “slaves” in the settlement who fetched water to this hilly site. Lay Buddhists also lived in these settlements. We know from literary evidence that monks from Kashmir and Gandhara included those who were celibate as well as those who were married.

This site at Jaulian contains many small rooms inhabited by Buddhists. These rooms had windows, doorways, walls and floors, Stones and Jars. The complex had Alcoves, stairways, upper floor, veranda, depression in courtyard, bathrooms, storage rooms and kitchens.

For these reasons, the site is truly remarkable. This is the reason why I had shared the picture of these rooms to illustrate the sophistication of Indian Masons as a response to those great royal buildings elsewhere in the world

But the propaganda rag, without verifying the context of my tweet, without reading up anything about Jaulian and clearly without understanding what “Civilian settlement” means, mined this tweet for its vested interests and accused me of “fraud”.

The readers are discerning enough to know who is playing a major fraud on everyone here.

Architecture of the Mughals before they came to India

AltNews says

First of all, AltNews and its motley crew must be really stupid to think that tents survive in such usable conditions for 500 years. I am certain that my readers/ followers are not dumb enough to think that I am posting an actual Mughal tent used 500 years ago and that too in such a usable form.

What I have posted in that picture is the tent of a Nomadic tribe of Afghanistan. Such tents are used even today in 20th century by Turko-Mongol nomads of Afghanistan and Central Asia. Certainly, Mughal architecture by itself could only make a basic tent. AltNews has a problem with this picture. Suppose that I have to show that 7^th century Arabs used camels as transport. What is wrong in showing a man riding a camel today for illustrative purpose? By AltNews’ Logic, will I need to bring back the dead men and camels of the 7^th century and use an “authentic” image?

The FraudViews portal says,

Since Mughal dynasty started with Babar in India, Mughal architecture also developed in India.

This statement is not true, as we shall see below. Again, it says

 It is an amalgamation of Persian, Turkish and Indian influences. If we were to look at what their architecture was before they came to India, we perhaps have to look at the architecture of their forefathers. A fine example of this will be the architecture of Samarkand. You may want to search for Samarkand yourself but we can assure you it looks nothing like what was shared by the TrueIndology account

There is nothing but absolute dishonesty in their statement.

First of all, Samarkhand was not any “Mughal territory”. It was inhabited by Iranian/Persian speaking people. The Turko-Mughal nomads invaded Samarkhand and occupied/conquered the country with much bloodshed and ethnic cleansing.

The “architecture of samarkhand” which the dunces harp on as “Mughal architecture” is not Mughal at all. It is Persian. And it was not Mughal ancestors like Timur who constructed those buildings. They themselves could not have constructed anything more than tents. It was done by enslaved people forcibly brought from their Iranian and other homelands to Samarqand

And yet, nomadic habits die hard. In spite of importing foreigners and getting those buildings constructed, Taimur preferred living in tents.

Not only that, Timur held his court in open tents as a rule. Even important wedding ceremonies of Timurids took place out in the open tents, highlighting their nomadic lifestyle

Anyway, this was a clever deviation from the original topic by the propaganda peddling miners of gold. My tweet was about Mughal architecture “just before they entered India”. This tent tradition of the Mughals continued well into Babar’s time.

“Just before they entered India, the Mughals were in deplorable condition and invariably took to their nomadic ways. In Babarnama, Babar writes about his condition in Tashkent

During my stay in Tashkent, I endured much poverty and humiliation. I had no country or hope of one! Most of my retainers dispersed; those who remained were unable to move about with me because of their destitution. If I went to my uncle The Khan’s gate, I went sometimes with one man, sometimes with two. It was well he was no stranger but one of my own blood. After showing myself in his presence, I used to go to Shah Begim’s, entering her house bareheaded and barefoot just as if it were my own.

Here is a painting from Babarnama which depicts the episode of horses and camels dying in Babur’s camp. Babarnama illustration depicting an  incident when Mughals had not reached India

Since illustratrated version of Babarnama was commissioned during Akbar’s rule when Mughals became extremely rich, the painting slightly exaggerates Babur’s glory. If this factor is taken into account, Mughal tents aren’t much different from the those of Modern nomads of Afghanistan. These facts too are very well known.

One wonders what the motive behind fraudulently crediting the architectural achievements of Persians to Nomadic Mughals could be. But then again, it is not surprising, right?

RSS 

It could be news to AltNews that RSS work in Eastern Punjab refugee camps is not disputed by anyone including the critical scholarly work conducted on them.  The Padma Bhushan awardee MN Buch, himself a refugee from West Punjab and a primary witness, recorded how RSS helped people in camps of Eastern Punjab. It is genuine work among refugees and its pro-refugee stand which earned Jana Sangh its traditional vote bank West Punjabi refugees in Delhi during the days when the party did not have much reach and expanse. Altnews should rather read up things before writing nonsense

ABVP/RSS participation in Goa and Dadra and Nagar Haveli liberation, respectively, is well known. Craig Baxter the US biographer has fully documented RSS role in Goa and Dadra way back in 1969. I am amused that Fraud News has a problem with this as well

Original Temple of Gorakhnath in Peshawar

Altnews says

Sinister agenda of AltNews will be all too visible as you read further.

Let me give you a background of Gorakhnath temple. This historical temple was mentioned by Abul Fazl in the 16^th century. However, Aurangzeb’s sister Jahanara constructed a Serai and Jamia Mosque at the same site in 1640 CE. The Hindu temple  “disappeared”

The current “temple” existing in Peshwar is NOT the original Gorakhnath temple but was built by Sikhs at the same site in 19^th century after pulling down the Jamia Mosque.

Incidentally, Peshawar had around a 100 Hindu temples when Xuanzang visited the city in 7^th century. Not one of the old temples exists today. We all know why.

The surviving Hindu temples belong to Sikh and British Period(19^th-20^th century). In short, the Gorakhnath temple does not exist anymore. it had not existed even when Sikhs pulled down a msque and constructed a new temple at the site. It ceased to exist in 17th century when Jahanara constructed a mosque at the very site.

So how does my tweet that clearly says “the original temple of Gorakhnath WAS in Peshawar. The ruins can be found even today (note the past tense used in my tweet)”, become  a fraudulent claim?

As a matter of fact, the temple later constructed by Sikhs was abandoned in 1947 and even that is in ruins. The main  Shiva Linga in red sandstone inside the Garbha Griha is missing.  Mural paintings have  been either vandalised or in poor state of preservation

Here is an image of wooden door of western shrine inside Gor Khatri

No matter how much the Pakistani Archaeological department “restores” the site, it is undeniable that they cannot bring in the destroyed murals and idols. What they can “restore” are the ruins and the remains

If I go to Hampi, put in some images of Hindu Gods and worship at the shrine, I cannot “restore” the temple. Hampi will still be “temple ruins”.

But that is not all.

Pakistan has NOT given Hindus control of the site. Yet again, the Don Quixotes failed to check their own links and ascertain facts. The “proof” by the propaganda peddler clearly says that Hindus were not given back their Shrine. They were only allowed to put in some pictures and worship at the shrine on Diwali. They had to give back the keys to Pakistan government.

Pervez Iqbal, the counsel for Phool Wati, said authorities had given Hindus the keys of the temple only for celebrating Diwali. He said the Hindus were “hurt” to hear that they had to return the keys.

Yet, the pictures and images installed by Hindus were again vandalised, thrice in two months after the “reopening of  temple ”

So is this what AltNews means by “Shrine reopened”? And these liars have the audacity to link a BBC video showing a group of Hindus dancing in the temple and pompously declare, “this is the same temple described by the twitter handle as ‘ruins can be found even today’”

Yes, these are nothing but ruins because here are the facts.

The original Gorakhnath temple was long uprooted and destroyed without a trace. A replacement shrine was later built. This shrine was also destroyed and abandoned.Pakistan government repaired the ruins and since 2011 allowed Hindus to perform worship during Diwali. Hindus were not given any ownership of the shrine and acts of iconoclasm and temple desecration continue.

The shameless apologia for temple desecration by AltNews exposes its utter disregard and disrespect for minorities and their places of worship in Pakistan. It shows the negationism of the rag and its patrons. These people seemingly belong to the group  that sheds copious amount of tears at the mention of the disputed structure at Ayodhya but cunningly play down every Hindu temple demolition. This negatationism is a small scale replica of holocaust denial and the post truth peddler and its patrons stand exposed.

Sher Singh Samadhi

AltNews says The propaganda peddler accuses me and Khalid Haroon’s 2016 article on Scroll of “vile propaganda” for simply posting that the Samadhi was converted to a “Muslim site”. And, yet again, boasts of “restoration”. It also goes a step ahead and claims that it was never converted to a Muslim shrine.

However, close up of a few pictures of the site in 2013 before “restoration” will clearly show that not only was it very ill- maintained, but also housed Islamic flags and graffiti showing very clearly that it was indeed converted to a “Muslim site”.

This  clearly illustrates the dishonest propaganda carried out by Altnews.

Babrra Massacre

AltNews says

The author shamelessly accuses me of photoshopping an image of “Jalianwalabagh massacre”. First of all, there is no live picture available of Babrra Massacre, just as there is no live picture available of Jalianwalabagh massacre. This fact has not  deterred people  from producing thousands of images of said massacres.  All of them are representative images.

I have certainly not photoshopped any image and nowhere have I used an image from any movie. This is an extremely malicious and defamatory accusation. These images are freely available on the internet. A blog written in 2015  also has the said images

To be sure, I have not photoshopped anything. I am only reproducing the picture used by online Pashtun History blogs who must have found some reasons for using this picture to depict their history. I have neither time nor reason to ascertain the origin of the picture, as I have not claimed that it is anything more than a representational picture used merely for illustrative purpose. But what is AltNews doing all along? Can AltNews produce any “authentic image” of Babbra massacre? Is Altnews even interested in the topic of the tweet which is the phenomenal Pashtun leader? No, all they are interested in  doing is running their google image search and making defamatory and fraudulent claims. Is this journalistic integrity?

Nehru and Saffron Flag

AltNews says

For the first time, AltNews contests my textual claim and their  utterly ignorant statements show why they have been diligently avoiding it all along.

Let us examine the relevant history

In 1921, the flag proposed was “red and green”, red symbolizing Hindus and green symbolizing Muslims. Gandhi accepted this proposal and added that a white colour should also be included to represent other communities of India

This red and green flag was used from 1921. However, this flag with such communal interpretation was contested by the Sikhs(who wanted their own symbols included)

As a result, the Congress Working Committee in 1931 appointed a seven member flag committee to look into this issue

The Seven member committee was convened by Pattabhi Sitaramayya. It included Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Master Tara Singh(one of the founding members of VHP(Vishva Hindu parishad)) as well as Jawaharlal Nehru.

The Seven member committee deliberated on the issue of national flag.  They contacted various communities of the country and came to an opinion. They submitted a proposal that national flag be of only one color, Saffron. The flag committee chose saffron because, according to the committee, “Saffron is associated with our ancient country by a long tradition and acceptable to Indians as a whole”

However, the above flag never saw the light of the day as it was rejected by CWC(Congress Working committee)

Now, what is the stand of Nehru in all the above? The committee convened by Pattabhi Sitaramayya contacted various communities and proposed a Saffron flag. But what was Nehru’s opinion?

AltNews idiotically claims that since Nehru was a member of the flag committee, he also recommended Saffron. By this stupid logic, one could also argue that Nehru rejected the Saffron flag as he was also a part of CWC(Congress Working Committee) which rejected the proposal of the saffron flag.

There is no need to make such moronic inferences. In his letter to the convener of flag committee, Nehru very  categorically rejected the proposals of Saffron flag and proposed retention of the extant red and green flag.

  Nehru wrote “We should make it perfectly clear that our flag is not based on communal considerations…I should like to retain  the red and green  as they are  beautiful colours”

This very clearly validates my tweet “Nehru rejected the saffron flag terming it communal” and  once again demonstrates how the fraudulent AltNews website operates. It makes ignorant claims like “Nehru recommended saffron flag” or completely misleading statements like “Nehru was a part of the the flag committee which recommended Saffron”. As if that changes the fact that Nehru wrote a letter to the convener of flag committee asking him NOT to replace the red and green flag with Saffron

With such shoddy work, utter lack of any knowledge and fraudulent claims, AltNews in another pathetic attempt to defame me exposes its own ignorance and fraudulence

I must say that the AltNews’ defamation campaign was planned well in advance. As early as in February, AltNews authors were contacting Irfan Habib to rebut “vile propaganda” carried out by me against Hasrat Mohani

However, nothing came out of it. Neither AltNews nor Irfan Habib rebutted anything I wrote on Hasrat Mohani

This is what I shared about Hasrat Mohani

We challenge AltNews to rebut this “vile propaganda carried out by us against Hasrat Mohani” as they put it. If they cannot, they should simply stop fraudulently labeling anything that goes against their agenda as “vile propaganda”

To sum it up, I have been tweeting for over 2 years and shared around a 1000 images. By picking up a couple of genuine picture misattributions (which are only natural since I am  human and prone to mistakes, especially in such a large sample), a few representative images, taking a few pictures out of context and blatantly indulging in lies,  AltNews carried out this vicious hate and defamation propaganda against me. However, their fraudulent work does not stand any test of scrutiny and they have committed so many blunders in their “expose”, that they have ended up exposing themselves

In the end, I would like to make it very clear to FraudNews and anyone, who still chooses to patronise the rag, that I am not here for anyone’s approval, adulation or validation. Your baseless, mindless accusation, unending sick , disgusting and hateful abuses are quite revealing, to say the latest.

The Book, that is the real cause for your heartburn,  will be my answer to the clogs of the propaganda machinery that run the ecosystem propping up its own, selfish Idea of India!