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Hate Speech

HateBuster: Right-wing gets egg on the face for using fake photo of Muskan

Madhu Kishwar used a picture of JDS’s Najma Nazeer, claiming she is the girl at the centre of the hijab controversy

Madhu Kishwar
Image Courtesy: thenewsminute.com

A photo of a young woman who is not wearing a hijab is going viral on social media, with claims that is the student who took on a saffron-clad mob in Mandya. While right-wing trolls are claiming this was a photo of Muskan, the PES Mandya student who stood up against a saffron-clad mob heckling her for wearing a burqa, scores of social media users have fact checked them. The photo is of  Najma Nazeer Chikkanarale, a member of Janata Dal Secular (JDS), Karnataka, who does not wear a hijab.

Right winger Madhu Purnima Kishwar also shared yet another photo of Karnataka politician with activists including Teesta Setalvad, Shelha Rashid, Umar Khalid, actor Prakash Raj, politician Kanhaiya Kumar. She attempted to attack those in the photo and mocked that it was a ‘family photo’. Kishwar too was feeding off the right-wing claims that the hijab wearing student Muskaan removes her head cover in other settings and thus has double standards. She also tagged fact checker Alt news to verify the claim, perhaps as a safety valve.

The fact check put on record what is known that the woman in the photo was Najma Nazer, a member of JDS, Karnataka. According to Alt News, politician  Najma Nazeer Chikkanarale, identified herself in the photograph that is now being shared with fake claims. She also posted on her Facebook wall that, “always lie is lie, truth is truth” adding that “some blind devotees had spread false news and tried to steal my character.”

Many right-wing outlets have been sharing more morphed photos as well as collages of Muskan in a burqa and of other women in ‘western’ wear or without hijab. They appear to be building a false narrative that Muskan and other hijab wearing Muslim women lead double lives and indulge in ‘propaganda’.

Madhu Kishwar’s previous faux pas

Kishwar has targeted, abused and vilified Teesta Setalvad for years, using terms such as “Jihaadi Teesta” “hate monger”, “bikau” freely. Kishwar has shared fake and inflammatory statements such as “Teesta Setalvad Brigade majorly responsible for preparing soil for ISIS & other jehadi groups to take root in India.” 

 

On November 9, 2020, Kolkata police filed an FIR against Madhu Purnima Kishwar for potentially threatening law and order sharing on Twitter a video of a rally in Bangladesh and claiming that it was an ‘Islmaic rally’ in Kolkata.  According to police, the song played in the video clearly refers to Bangladesh. The recording also shows several Bangladeshi flags. However, Kishwar, while sharing the video captioned it as “In Kolkata.” The police called her actions “absolutely incorrect and misleading, posing a threat to the law and order here.” Accordingly, they flagged Kishwar’s tweet with a ‘FakeNewsAlert’ hashtag while the Information Technology (IT) unit started a probe into the matter.