It’s one of life’s untold truths that the right-wing sucks at high art. They are great at lowbrow propaganda which is why their Mrinal Sen is Vivek Agnihotri. In fact, the bet propaganda promoting the RW usually comes from those with hard-Left leanings.
X user The Emissary, crediting Rohan Shanbhag, put it perfectly when he wrote: “Ram Ke Naam Effect: When Westerners or Leftists produce media intended to demonize India or Indians but it produces the opposite effect - instead galvanizing them to be proud instead of ashamed.”
The Ram Ke Naam effect refers to a documentary that ended up valorising those involved in the RJB movement.
Here are a few examples:
A fine new addition to that genre is a “report” from The Guardian titled: Indian government ordered killings in Pakistan, intelligence officials claim that like all things The Guardian is a choc-a-bloc with errors including sending Pannun to the Elysian Fields when he is very much alive as well confusing the identity of another deceased. A more accurate title would have been Ab Ki Baar 400 Paar.
While the world-conquering RAW Übermensch is very much a staple of Bollywood, given our normal day-to-day interactions with Indian bureaucracy and the various arms of the state, it seems like there’s a level of hitherto unseen competence that we weren’t aware of.
The has so many revelations (sourced from the Pak’s ISI that treats it as the gospel truth that I am inspired to start a new section on Nonsensical Nemo to celebrate an artform for which I actually have an award: Memes.
Here are some of the best bits from the report explained with memes:
1) The fresh claims relate to almost 20 killings since 2020, carried out by unknown gunmen in Pakistan.
2) Indian agents also allegedly recruited jihadists to carry out the shootings, making them believe they were killing “infidels”.
3) The rise in killings in 2023 was credited to the increased activity of these cells, which are accused of paying millions of rupees to local criminals or poor Pakistanis to carry out the assassinations
4) Millions of rupees were then allegedly paid to Afghan nationals to carry out the shooting in Karachi in March 2022. They fled over the border, but their handlers were later arrested by Pakistani security agencies.
5) Pakistani investigators found that the man had allegedly been paid 1.5m Pakistani rupees (£4,000) by an undercover Indian agent to track down Latif and later was promised 15m Pakistani rupees and his own catering company in the UAE if he carried out the killing. The young man shot Latif dead in a mosque in Sialkot but was arrested soon after, along with accomplices.
6) Analysts believe Pakistani authorities have been reluctant to publicly acknowledge the killings as most of the targets are known terrorists and associates of outlawed militant groups that Islamabad has long denied sheltering.
7) “If you look at the numbers, there is clearly a shift in intent by someone or other. It would be in Pakistan’s interest to say this has been done by India. Equally, one of the legitimate lines of inquiry would be possible involvement of the Indian agencies.”
8) These agents allegedly sought help from former IS fighters from the Indian state of Kerala – who had travelled to Afghanistan to fight for IS but surrendered after 2019 and were brought back through diplomatic channels – to get access to these jihadist networks.
9) They have claimed the assassin was Muhammad Abdullah, a 20-year-old from Lahore. He allegedly told Pakistani investigators he was promised he would be sent to Afghanistan to fight for IS if he passed the test of killing an “infidel” in Pakistan, with Ahmed presented as the target. Abdullah shot and killed Ahmed during early morning prayers at a mosque in Rawalkot, but was later arrested by Pakistani authorities.
Denying all charges