The lowest form of popular culture- lack of information, misinformation, disinformation and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives- has overrun the true essence of journalism- of bringing out the truth and for the sake of putting forth the truth out in the world, various institutions have been formalized for the sole purpose of fact-check but what happens when these self-proclaimed organizations indulge in vicious agenda backed by terrorist groups and be-fool the general public.
One such organization has been Document of the Oppressed (DOTO) which claims to be a non-profit documentation center which documents hate crime against religious minorities specifically in India. It was registered in the year 2017 and have been collecting data regarding violence perpetuated on India minorities since 2014. To go as per their saying, they have been documenting all verifiable incidents of hate crimes levied upon religious minorities in India but only if all this was true! In the recent research unearthed by a prominent think-tank Disinfo Lab(@DisinfoLab), it is found that this ‘self-made’ database utilizes fake and fabricated news.
They mold the data as per their convenience and fits it wherever it suits their agenda the best. They have been quite a champion in hyping the numbers of victims so as to defame and disparage India’s image worldwide. 67% of the data published by them has been held deceitful and fraudulent by the think tank. DOTO has used several Islamist fronts like IACSJ and “SAVE INDIA” chapter of “Justice for All” which is ‘powered by’ Chicago based company “Sound Vision” founded by Abdul Malik Mujahid in 1988. DOTO works hand in glove with several organizations. one of the significant one is Delhi Based Quill Foundation (QF). QF is founded by Suhail K.K who happened to be the president of Student Islamic group in 2009-10.
He also headed as the Secretary of Welfare Party Of India in 2011, which was founded by Syed Qasim Rasool IIyas,the father of Umar Khalid and former member of SIMI. Interesting thing to note over here is that both of them are hosted on the same server.
After carefully mapping all the precautions, a technical glitch exposed their bogus nexus. QF has some of the dignitaries of Indian human rights space, including prominent personalities such as Harsh Mander, Dharam Puri, Justice Kolse Patil and Saba Naqvi among others. The ‘Editorial Collective’ of Quill Foundation also boasts of some influential names such Ajit Sahi, who has been mentioned as a Tehelka journalist.
What is most interesting, though not surprising, to see is that the same DOTO Database was the key data which was used in propagating the false narrative of Islamophobia in India which thereby accused India of becoming increasingly Islamophobic. Thus, DOTO with only around 1500 twitter followers not only maligns India’s image globally but it has also been used as a weapon for propagating Islamophobia against India. Therefore, it has become the need of the hour to be aware of such fabricated and fraudulent database which forge the data, not even data but raw facts and fits the pieces into the puzzle to suit their ulterior motives. The least we could do is to be aware and be apprehensive about what appears on the screen in front of us.
