The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday launched a scathing attack on Parliament for "defending" the NewsClick online portal. The ruling party calls the website a "dangerous tool of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)" to advance China's political agenda around the world. This follows an investigation by the American daily The New York Times, which linked NewsClick to an individual. My name is Neville Roy Singham. Singham, according to the investigation, received money from the Chinese Communist Party to promote his political agenda around the world.
The BJP raised the issue in parliament on Monday with party MP Nishikant Dubey saying: "Chinese money has gone to NewsClick. An environment has been created against the government using Chinese money. Posting an excerpt from his speech at the Lok Sabha on social media, Dubey said: “The policy of the Congress Party is to smash India… The Election Commission should investigate China's funding of the Congress Party. and close the shop of the Congress Party.”
“Rahul's hate store is full of Chinese products. The policy of the Congress party is to work with China to divide India. The investigation into China's funding of the Congress party should be conducted by the Election Commission of the Government of India," Dubey told Lok Sabha.
Immediately following Dubey's comments to the Lok Sabha, Congress leader and MP Adhir Ranjan Choudhary wrote to President Om Birla requesting that the BJP congressman's comments be removed from Lok Sabha's records. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote in the letter: “We request, under Rule 380, that his remarks be completely deleted and an investigation into how such an allegation may have been recorded.
Earlier on Monday, Union Information and Technology Minister Anurag Thakur said: “Even newspapers like 'The New York Times' are now acknowledging that Neville Roy Singham and his NewsClick are dangerous tools. danger of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and promote Chinese politics. agenda around the world.”
“Long before the NYT, India had long told the world that NewsClick was a dangerous global propaganda network of China. Backed by like-minded forces, Neville pursues a questionable anti-India agenda,” Thakur said.
The BJP leader alleges that Congress backed NewsClick in 2021 when Indian law enforcement opened an investigation against the site over money laundering allegations.
“It was only natural for Congress to defend Neville and NewsClick because the national interest was never important to their leaders. Isn't this the same Congress Party that signed a memorandum of understanding with the CCP in 2008 to advance Chinese interests in India and is said to have accepted donations to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) from the Chinese embassy? Thakur said.
The head of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT unit Amit Malviya also criticized the NYT's report to Congress and said NewsClick was backed by the Congress party.
“Two years after the ED raided promoters of the dodgy NewsClick.in website, the NYT confirms it is a dangerous tool of the Chinese Communist Party,” the BJP leader said in a tweet calling the congress a "wolf in sheep's clothing".
