Category: Fact Check

President Joe Biden has been giving a series of campaign-style speeches, touting the success of his economic policies, which he calls “Bidenomics,” and talking about his efforts to diversify the federal courts. But we found that some of his claims were wrong or imprecise.

• Biden wrongly claimed to have “appointed more African American women” to federal judgeships than “every other president combined.” He’s had more African American women confirmed than any other president, but not more than all of them combined.

• Biden exaggerated the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on reducing carbon emissions.

• Biden noted that the share of “working-age Americans” in the workforce is the highest it’s been in roughly 20 years, which is correct for those age 25 to 54. But when including those age 55 and older, labor force participation rates are still below the pre-pandemic level.

Biden made those claims in speeches in Chicago on June 28 and in New York on June 29.

African American Women Judges

While complimenting Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Biden went too far when talking about how many African American women Durbin has helped Biden get confirmed to federal judgeships.

“He’s made sure that we got more judges appointed — we — we’ve appointed more African American women to the exec- — to the — to the federal bench than any other — every other president combined,” Biden said of Durbin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But that claim is not accurate.

Biden, with Durbin’s assistance, has been able to get 31 African American women confirmed to the federal courts, according to data from the Federal Judiciary Center. But there have been 88 African American women confirmed to federal judgeships since Constance Baker Motley was the first in 1966, meaning that Biden has appointed less than half of them. His total also includes four women, including Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson, whom other presidents already had appointed to a federal court when Biden elevated them to another position.

Those figures include women who were identified as African American alone or as African American and another race or ethnicity.

It’s true that Biden has appointed more African American women to the federal courts than any other individual president, if that’s what he meant to say. We asked the White House for clarification, but didn’t get a response.

The presidents with the next highest totals are Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, who appointed 27 and 15 African American women in their respective presidencies.

Biden also may have meant to refer specifically to African American women appointed to federal appellate courts, as he has said in past speeches.

He has had 13 African American women confirmed to the U.S. Courts of Appeals, according to the Federal Judiciary Center’s figures. Before Biden, only eight African American women had ever been appointed to those appellate courts.

In the federal court hierarchy, the 13 federal appellate courts are second only to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Reducing Carbon Emissions

In remarks at a June 29 campaign event in New York, Biden exaggerated the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on reducing carbon emissions.

Biden, June 29: But as I said, in addition to rejoining the Paris climate treaty, we passed the Inflation Reform Act, the largest investment in the history of the world — $369 billion for climate. $369 billion. And remember they got mad I didn’t get $500 billion?

Well, it cuts pollution by 1 billion tons, cuts emissions by 50% by 2030, and — and tax credits for EVs, solar, wind, and batteries, heat pumps, hydrogen.

The president is right about the tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act — although not “reform act,” as he said. The act, which he signed Aug. 16, provides tens of billions of dollars in tax credits, as we’ve explained before.

But the president left the missing impression that the act alone will cut greenhouse gas, or GHG, emissions in half by 2030.

First, a little background: Under the Paris Agreement, the U.S. has committed to achieving a 50% reduction in GHG emissions from 2005 levels by 2030.

In a March paper for the Brookings Institution, three economists — who described the IRA as “the largest federal response to climate change to date” — estimated that the law will make a significant contribution to the 50% reduction goal. But the U.S. won’t reach the goal by 2030, even with the IRA.

“Consistent with preliminary analysis, modeling suggests that IRA puts the U.S. on track to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 32% to 42% below 2005 levels in 2030,” the paper says, “which is 6 to 11 percentage points lower than without IRA.”

Similarly, Biden’s claim that the law “cuts pollution by 1 billion tons” isn’t quite right. That can only be achieved in combination with another law he signed — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is also known as the bipartisan infrastructure law, according to an analysis by the Department of Energy.

“DOE estimates that the clean energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 together could reduce emissions by approximately 1,000 million metric tons (MMT CO2e) in 2030,” the department said in a fact sheet on the impact of Inflation Reduction Act on helping to reach the U.S. climate goals.

So, the president can take credit for making significant strides toward the U.S. goal of reducing GHG emissions 50% from 2005 by 2030. But it wasn’t just because of the Inflation Reduction Act, and even with the law, the U.S. still falls short of its 50% goal.

Workforce Participation

Pushing back against Republican criticism that his policies have encouraged some Americans not to work, Biden said the share of “working-age Americans” in the workforce is the highest it’s been in 20 years.

Biden, July 28: And the shame [sic] of working-age Americans in the workforce — the share of them — the share of them is the highest it’s been in 20 years. Remember what they were saying? “Biden’s policy isn’t working. He’s just paying people not to work, people on the sidelines.” Well, guess what? Every single day in four years before I took office — you may remember, I took a lot of criticism in my presidency.  Republicans charged me with encouraging people to stay home and not work. Well, they were wrong. The evidence is clear: Americans are back to work who’ve been on the sidelines, and they want to come back.

The White House press office pointed us to the “prime age” labor force participation rate, which is the percentage of people age 25 to 54 who are working or seeking work.

That rate was 83.4% in May, a level that had not been reached since January 2007. It was 83.0% in February 2020, just before the pandemic sent labor participation downward to a low of 79.9% in April 2020. So Biden is correct that the labor force participation rate for prime-working-age people is a bit higher than it was pre-pandemic.

But as Republicans on the House Budget Committee noted in a “fact check” of Biden’s address, the labor force participation rate for all people age 16 and older — including those who are working or seeking work — has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. That rate was 62.6% in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s lower than the 63.3% rate in the five months prior to the pandemic. The employment-to-population ratio, which measures the share of people 16 and older who are employed, was also a bit higher pre-pandemic (61.1% in January and February of 2020) than it was in May (60.3%).

University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan pointed us toward the labor force participation rate for people age 55 and older, to explain the discrepancy between prime working age versus overall participation rates. It shows that among those 55 and older, labor force participation dropped from 40.3% pre-pandemic to 38.4% in May.

“This is indicative of a human capital crisis that the Biden Administration has ignored,” Mulligan told us via email. “The massive pandemic disruption, which lasted far too long IMO, hurt the accumulation of human capital at all ages. For the young it shows up as low test scores. For younger adults it shows up as low real wages. For older adults, it shows up as both low real wages and poor health. It was a mistake to neglect chronic conditions during the pandemic, which resulted in both non-Covid mortality and morbidity. At ages 55+ especially, that morbidity shows up as earlier retirement than planned.”

But Aaron Sojourner, a senior researcher at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, said the prime-age labor force participation rate cited by Biden “is a better measure of core labor market strength than overall LFPR [labor force participation rate].”

“The Baby Boomers are crossings into retirement age,” Sojourner told us via email. “The aging of this demographic bulge systematically pulls down the overall LFPR and EPOP [employment-to-population], but not the prime age rates. … The labor market is strong.”

So, Biden’s right about the labor force participation rate for those age 24 to 55, which he imprecisely referred to as “working-age Americans.” Looking at the overall labor force participation rate for everyone 16 and older, including those 55 and above, the picture isn’t as rosy, and hasn’t quite returned to pre-pandemic levels.

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A video surfaced on social media on April 7, 2023, featuring a man addressing a crowd outside a mosque in Farooq Nagar, Nagpur. Facing the gathering that emerges from the mosque, he talks about the ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’. Flanking him on both sides are men holding banners, one of which says, ‘Save daughters, make them study their faith. Our girls are getting converted because they are going astray from the path of their faith’.

‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ (BLT), a conspiracy theory that has gained popularity in certain Muslim groups, revolves around the notion that Hindu men enter relationships with Muslim women with the alleged aim of enticing them away from Islam and persuading them to embrace the Sanatan Dharam. It is a counter-conspiracy theory to the much talked about ‘Love Jihad’ narrative, which holds that Muslim men seduce Hindu women in order to coerce them into converting to Islam. Though the Union government and the National Commission for Women have said that they have no data on ‘Love Jihad’, several BJP-ruled states have given their stamp on the theory by enacting anti-conversion laws and taking other measures.

The BLT theory, on the other hand, has received sustained support through on-ground outreach programmes, speeches by religious leaders, social media campaigns with videos, and news reports churned out by influencers. Asked about his take on the theory, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, however, told Alt News, “Mohabbat ke mamle main kisi ko taang adane ki zaroorat nahi.” (No one should interfere in matters of love).

What the man in the Nagpur video says gives us a fair idea about how the BLT conspiracy theory is gaining ground. He says,

“I appeal to all the brothers, the banners that you see here are not here just for the sake of it, they are here to wake you up from your neglectful sleep. We are all aware that our daughters are getting apostate (murtad), it is our responsibility to protect our daughters. We should counsel them, protect their faith and make them aware of how many girls are getting apostate. There are strategies in their ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ on how to approach our daughters, trap them and make them leave our faith. It is your, mine and everyone’s responsibility to protect our daughters and to do this we have to wake up from our stupor…”

Payment, Job, Property as Reward: Maulana Sajjad Nomani

One of the popular videos circulating on social media features Maulana Sajjad Nomani, an executive committee member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. In this 7-minute clip, the cleric asserts that around 8 lakh Muslim women have renounced their faith and ran away with Hindu individuals, labelling these women as murtad (apostates). He further claims that the RSS has formed a large team aimed at training Hindu youth for three to six months, equipping them with Urdu language skills and other etiquette, so that they can lure Muslim women. According to his statements, these Hindu men are incentivized with a sum of Rs 2.5 lakh if they succeed in persuading a Muslim girl to abandon Islam. Additionally, they are offered various benefits such as property and employment. The cleric suggests that millions of Hindu youths have now joined this campaign. The remarks were made by Maulana Sajjad Nomani on 31 December 2021 and the speech is available on his YouTube channel.

It appears that Maulana Sajjad Nomani’s sermon draws inspiration from a fabricated letter attributed to the RSS, which has been circulating for some time. This false letter outlines 12 specific strategies for ‘entrapping’ Muslim women, claiming that the RSS would provide a 15-day training program on converting these women and assimilating them into the folds of “Sanatan Dharma”. This letter was recently debunked by Alt News when it was trending with the hashtag #BhagwaLoveTrap or #Bhagwa_Love_Trap. Furthermore, the figure that a grant of Rs 2.5 lakh would be offered to support these couples in establishing their new households, appears to have been taken from an offer made by the members of Akhil Bharat Hindu Yuva Morcha in 2018.

Another religious leader, Maulana Tauqeer Raza, during an interview with ABP Ganga in early March, echoed a similar claim about Muslim women being ‘entrapped’ by Hindu men. According to him, organizations like Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad have allegedly offered rewards, including a sum of Rs 2 lakh and other benefits, to Hindu men who succeed in trapping Muslim women. He says that according to a survey, 10 lakh Muslim women have been either seduced, trapped, or kidnapped by Hindu men. Neither Maulana Sajjad Nomani nor Maulana Tauqeer Raza provides the source of these data in their statements. In an interview with Millat Times in April end, Maulana Sajjad Nomani made a clarification regarding his earlier statement. He expressed retracting his previous statement as he was told by an acquaintance that the figure he mentioned in his sermons was wrong. But he expressed that the Muslim community should be concerned even if one girl was being converted, as these allegations should not be taken lightly.

In addition to the aforementioned statements, numerous videos on YouTube have gained thousands of views by discussing the ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’. These videos are typically presented by individuals who engage in lengthy monologues accompanied by dramatic music.

Secular Miya Bhai (SMB)

This YouTube channel boasts of 1.5 million subscribers and has produced multiple videos focusing on ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’. One of the earliest videos found on this subject was uploaded in September 2021, titled “Musalman Sixth Generation Ki Jung Har Rahe Part 1 | Love Trap se Bache,” which garnered over 2 Lakh views.

In this video, the creator asserts that Muslims are losing in the realm of sixth-generation warfare, a psychological battle where the goal is not to capture lands but minds. The video contains a voice-over that launches into a diatribe about the deceptive nature of this warfare, without providing concrete data or evidence. It discusses the concept of “false empowerment” facilitated by social media and highlights instances of non-Muslim men approaching Muslim women under the pretext of learning about Islam, only to gradually manipulate their thoughts.

Within the same month, the uploader shared two additional videos on the same topic. Similar to the first video, the second one lacks substantial content and primarily stirs fear related to the said psychological warfare. The third video in the series presents a nine-step plan aimed at safeguarding the community against the ‘love trap’, which includes suggestions like forming a vigilante team to monitor and address such cases within their respective areas. Between September 2021 and May 2023, this channel produced approximately 36 videos on the subject, with the highest number of uploads occurring in May 2023.

The chart below illustrates the monthly distribution of uploaded videos on the subject.

Haque Media

On May 3, 2023, the channel Haque Media shared a video titled ‘Bhagwa Love Trap Conspiracy Or Myth?‘ The host, Faizul Bari, introduces the programme as a presentation to viewers based on ‘extensive research’. During the broadcast, the anchor discusses numerous cases where Muslim women allegedly eloped with Hindu men, converted to Hinduism, and subsequently faced abandonment or even death at the hands of their spouses after a few months. The anchor highlights the alarming nature of these incidents and raises the question if there is a concerted narrative behind them. To elaborate on this, the anchor presents various statements given by Hindu leaders over the years.

This specific video is of particular importance in the context of this report because it provides an overview of the cases and speeches that are being utilized to promote and substantiate the ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ theory. It emphasizes a minimum of 19 instances where Muslim women involved in interfaith relationships have experienced deception, murder, or abandonment by their partners. Additionally, it sheds light on at least 17 occurrences where Hindu leaders or Hindu youth have made derogatory comments about Muslim women or have announced reward programs for Hindu youths who manage to marry Muslim women. Furthermore, it touches upon notable online incidents such as the ‘Bulli bai’ and ‘Sulli deals’ GitHub applications, which garnered significant media coverage. Interestingly, the host also mentions the figures mentioned by Maulana Sajjad Nomani and Maulana Tauqeer Raza. The video portrays these events as the inception of an ongoing campaign, highlighting the need for a defence mechanism for Muslim women against such occurrences.

In the latter half of the video, the host says that Muslim women from all walks of life are becoming victims of this campaign. He claims that Muslim women from strict households are being trapped through mobile games that have inbuilt chat features.

Speaking to Scroll about ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’, Faizul Bari said that he saw it as his duty to warn people “about the repercussions of such a relationship. I see it from a religious point of view. It is my religious duty to stop people from indulging in sin.” He added, “We should also speak against interfaith relationships between Muslim men and Hindu women because it causes a feeling of anxiety in Hindu society.”

Raza Graphy

This channel uploaded a video on May 23, 2023, titled, “सरकारी भगवा लव ट्रैप, पूरी प्लानिंग और षड्यंत्र के साथ मुसलमान लड़कियों को फसाया जा रहा जाल में!”. This video, too, contains long monologues with graphics presented in between. In the introductory segment of the video, the host, Muhammed Raza, introduces the term ‘Sarkari Bhagwa Love Trap’.

He begins by narrating an incident from Bareilly where a railway staffer, Ashish, was ‘caught’ with a Muslim woman at a guest house. He says that it was allegedly found that Ashish had explicit photos of multiple women in his phone. According to media reports, members of a Muslim organization received a ‘tip-off’ about the couple and, upon investigating, found the information to be credible. The host uses this example to show what he calls the ‘sarkari’ dimension of the conspiracy. He says that films like ‘The Kerala Story,’ which received endorsement from the Prime Minister and the home minister, are utilized to propagate the concept of ‘reverse Love Jihad’. According to his explanation, it is reverse ‘Love Jihad’ because first the conspiracy theory of ‘Love Jihad’ is established and then the Hindu youth are being encouraged to avenge it.

Reflecting on the Barielly incident, the host asserts that the Hindu community brazenly engages in such actions. He attributes the responsibility for these incidents to the Muslim girls and their parents. According to the host, these girls are fully aware of the faith of their partners, yet they distance themselves from their own community. He further emphasizes that the fault also lies with the girls’ parents, stating that granting them freedom is not inherently wrong, however, some girls take advantage of this freedom and education. The host suggests that if these girls feel tempted, they should simply request their parents to arrange their marriages.

Muslim girls who wear jeans end up in a room with Hindu boys

The host also makes the observation that these girls possess commendable academic achievements, which leads their parents to be lenient and not object to their abandoning the burqa. He says he has personally witnessed numerous cases in his own vicinity where parents would disapprove of their son wearing jeans. However, now the same parents allow their daughters to wear hijabs and jeans, engage in dancing, and share their performances on social media. The host says that daughters of these parents eventually discover their own children in private rooms (he names a popular hotel room aggregator platform) with men from the Hindu community.

The host then proceeds to discuss how law enforcement works in different ways based on the religion of the perpetrator during the Modi regime. He asserts that if a Muslim man is caught with a Hindu woman, he is immediately subjected to mob violence, whereas if a Muslim woman is caught with a Hindu man, society tends to portray it as the Muslim community harassing the girl, leading to complaints being filed against members of the Muslim community. The host highlights an incident that apparently occurred in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, and expresses his view that these girls are shameless, as they confront the mob and file cases against them. (We could not find any news report on this said incident; just an unverified video uploaded on Twitter.)

He also talks about another case where a Muslim girl stood up for herself, and continues to put the blame on these girls and other influencers with Muslim names, suggesting that these influencers serve as their source of inspiration. Towards the end, the host brings attention to a tragic incident where a Muslim girl involved in a live-in relationship with her Hindu partner in Noida was murdered by him.

In a telephonic conversation with Alt News, Mr Raza summarized his perspective on ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’. “BLT is an organised effort because Hindutva leaders over the years have publicly announced reward programmes and other incentives for Hindu youth if they marry Muslim women. There are multiple Telegram chats of Hindu youth that have gone viral where they are seen making disgusting remarks towards Muslim women. This systematic promotion occurs due to the authorities’ tendency to swiftly initiate ‘investigation’ when a Muslim man marries a Hindu woman, while no action is taken against those individuals who announce such reward programs,” said Raza.

Raza also expressed his opposition to moral policing and emphasized the importance of adhering to legal and constitutional processes. “I am on the side of the Constitution and I believe no one should be harassed,” he added.

Twitter and Instagram Campaigners

A noticeable and coordinated effort to amplify the ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ theory is evident on social media platforms. It involves prominent users who amplify news reports of interfaith couples being targeted by mobs, as well as participate in harassing female voices that raise objections to these moral policing activities. Additionally, certain users engage in doxxing and contribute to the perpetuation of this narrative through repetitive amplification. They share graphics depicting the perceived ‘fate’ of Muslim women in interfaith relationships or distribute religious sermons that ‘warn’ the community about perceived ‘forces’ responsible for luring Muslim girls away.

For instance, a user with 44,000 followers shared a tweet about ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’, which garnered close to 1.5 lakh views on the platform. It is worth noting that this same user had previously disseminated a fabricated letter attributed to the RSS, which outlined various strategies for Hindu men to Muslim women and even mentioned monetary rewards for these couples. In the same month, this user tweeted news reports about interfaith relationships where Muslim women were either deceived or murdered. He has also tweeted a two-year-old video of Hindutva youth leader Sukhdev Sahdev who talked about strategically targeting Muslim women.

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As of June 7, there is an account that has gained over 2,000 followers despite having only 70 tweets. This account frequently shares information about interfaith couples, sometimes even revealing their social media profiles or residential addresses. It is important to note that this is not an isolated case, as there are several other accounts engaging in similar activities. Furthermore, these accounts relentlessly target and harass anyone who criticizes their campaign, using social media hashtags to direct their attacks towards these individuals. Below is a collage of some of the tweets made by these accounts:

On Instagram, a search for hashtags such as #Bhagwa_Love_Trap, #BhagwaLoveTrap, or #भगवा_लव_ट्रैप reveals a significant number of posts. Among these posts are various content types, including details about interfaith couples, infographics highlighting the risks associated with ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’, and other related material. It’s worth noting that some of these posts date back to December 2021, indicating the longevity and prevalence of this type of content on the platform. In the past, News Meter had published a story regarding an Instagram page named ‘Jhamunda_official._’. This account was known for collecting information about Muslim women seen in public places with men of different faith, and subsequently sharing these details online.

Below is a collage of some of the posts that can be found on Instagram using these hashtags.

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On-ground Campaigns, Moral Policing and Arrests

On April 7 and April 14, two videos filmed in Nagpur surfaced on Facebook, featuring individuals holding banners outside a mosque and delivering speeches. In one of the videos, a man expresses concern about daughters having phones protected with passwords. He suggests that worldly education should only be imparted if the safety of one’s child is ensured. He also urges the youth to be vigilant of such development and provide counselling to girls who stray away from the community.

On 24 May, in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, media outlets reported that the police registered FIR against 10 unidentified individuals under section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The charges were related to the distribution of pamphlets containing objectionable content targeting the RSS and the Bajrang Dal on the night of May 20. Subsequently, on May 26, it was reported that five individuals involved in the incident had been identified and arrested. According to police, the pamphlets contained statements alleging that “attempts are being made to turn 10 lakh Muslim girls into Kafirs (non-believers)” and that 800 Muslim girls in Amravati city of Maharashtra were subjected to conversion.

As of June 5, Alt News has documented 31 cases of moral policing perpetrated by Muslim men across different regions of the country. The highest number of incidents occurred in Uttar Pradesh, with 12 cases, followed by Telangana with 4 cases and Madhya Pradesh with 3 cases. The exact locations of four instances remain unverified. It’s important to note that this data has been manually collected by monitoring accounts associated with the propagation of the ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ conspiracy, and the actual numbers may vary.

In addition to the five arrests made in Indore, there were reports on May 27 about six individuals being apprehended for harassing a man who was out for dinner with his female Muslim friend. Similarly, on the same day, two Muslim youths, both aged 20, were arrested for harassing a Hindu man who was accompanied by his female Muslim friend at an eatery in Karnataka. In Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, a shop owner was arrested following a complaint filed by a Muslim woman who was allegedly harassed and threatened by a group of individuals while she was at a market place with a male Hindu friend. According to a report by The Quint, six individuals were apprehended in Meerut for their involvement in the harassment and intimidation of a Hindu man on May 13. The incident occurred while he was riding a bike with a Muslim woman. Similarly, in Muzzafarnagar, four men were arrested for harassing a Hindu man who was accompanied by his female Muslim friend.

The Anxiety of the Muslim Community and the Agency of Muslim Women

Undoubtedly, in recent years, Muslim women have unquestionably become targets of Hindutva groups through various means such as speeches, video skits, reward programs, anti-Hijab campaigns, digital auctions such as ‘Bulli bai’ and ‘Sulli deals’, and unchecked sexual violence on social media. It is these incidents that are used to justify the Bhagwa Love Trap conspiracy.

For example, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, a video addressing the ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ highlights 17 instances where Hindu leaders or youth have made derogatory remarks about Muslim women or have openly declared reward programs for Hindu youth who successfully marry Muslim women. Such statements and announcements have been made in public settings and are of grave concern to society at large. These incidents have instilled a sense of panic within the Muslim community, and the reactions to these events are evident for all to see. In fact, a prominent social activist Khalida Parveen, with extensive experience in grassroots-level work, recently took to Twitter to validate the existence of the ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ conspiracy, while labelling its counterpart, ‘Love Jihad,’ as mere propaganda.

We reached out to Ms. Khalida Parveen to understand the motivation behind her tweet. According to her, the legitimacy of the ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ narrative stems from ‘the persistent urging of Hindu youth by influential Hindutva figures to ensnare Muslim girls’. These figures openly declare reward programs and utilize various strategies to amplify their message.

“See, interfaith relationships have been happening for ages, I am least bothered about it. My concern is teenage girls getting trapped. Recently, in my own professional capacity, I have been actively involved in counselling teenage Muslim girls who find themselves entangled in relationships with Hindu boys, only to be subsequently abandoned under the pretext of mere ‘time pass’”, said Ms. Parveen. She added, “These households often have their own internal challenges, which push these girls to seek alternative paths, leading them into these precarious situations. In some instances, these girls even get coerced into substance abuse.”

It is unclear how these teenage relationships prove the existence of ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’, as it is not new for teenagers to get into relationships against the will of their parents, then break up or in extreme cases, get into substance abuse through various means.

When we inquired about the cases of moral policing occurring across the country, she said consenting adults should not be subjected to harassment. “At best, these men should offer counselling to these adult women and can inform their families about their daughter. I believe the families should also keep their doors open and not abandon these women when they realise that their life is going to be miserable. This way, they have a reliable support system to fall back on in case of any adversities within their relationship,” said Ms. Parveen.

Furthermore, she recommended that men who encounter such situations should refrain from recording videos and circulating them on social media, instead, they should engage in direct conversations with the families without resorting to physical harassment and intimidation which do not yield any positive result. Above all, she stressed one should not interfere in adult women’s choices and leave them free. “After all it’s their life and they are accountable for their deeds in front of Allah,” said Ms. Parveen.

We tried to reach out to Maulana Sajjad Nomani, but his son convyeed to Alt News that interviewing the Maulana was not feasible.

It’s not that all clerics are on the same page on the BLT issue. In an interview with The Hindu, Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani, the president of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) said, “This kind of propaganda is being done by the Sangh Parivar. Some of our emotional orators spice up their speeches with this, which is harmful for Muslims. If something like this does happen, then it is due to co-education and workplaces where there are both men and women working, and this has happened in the past too.”

‘Moral Policing Must be Unconditionally Condemned’

In a telephonic conversation with Alt News, Ghazala Wahab, the editor of FORCE Magazine and the author of the book ‘Born a Muslim: Some Truths about Islam in India’, said that there is no justification for moral policing.

“I object to the term moral policing because it provides a cover of morality to criminal activity. All these acts of vigilantism against women in public places must be regarded as sexual harassment or molestation. No one has any right to heckle and photograph any woman. This harassment in the name of moral policing must be unconditionally condemned. It is important to note that this issue is not limited to Muslim women alone. Over the past 15-20 years, Hindu vigilante groups have been harassing young individuals on the Valentine’s Day. This behaviour has persisted because law enforcement agencies do not take serious action against these criminals. They should be booked under sexual harassment laws and made examples of so that no one gets tempted to become the custodian of a woman’s morality,” said Wahab.

“When a woman, regardless of her religious background, chooses to go out with a man, she is already in a vulnerable position due to the fear of retribution from their parents, neighbours, and extended family. This vulnerability stems from the conservative nature of our society, which is quick to put a woman’s character under the microscope at the first opportunity. Instead of fostering an inclusive and secure environment for young individuals to socialize, we are inadvertently putting their lives at risk by endorsing such vigilantism. It is important to understand that such public naming and shaming can traumatize individuals to the point of self-harm or compel them to flee from home due to the fear instilled by their parents or extended family.”

“Parents also have a role to play. They should perceive these incidents as direct attacks on their children and stand up for them, instead of blaming their children for bringing shame to the family,” she added.

Related

In June 24 remarks, former President Donald Trump made misleading claims about the reach of the National Archives and Records Administration and the federal charges he is facing for allegedly retaining classified documents after he was no longer in office. Trump also made an unsubstantiated claim about President Joe Biden.

• Trump complained that charging him for alleged Espionage Act violations is an “outrageous and vicious” legal argument because he’s not a spy. But other individuals who weren’t alleged to be spies have been convicted of violating the same section of that federal law concerning the willful retention of national defense information.

• Trump accurately quoted from a January New York Times article that said the National Archives can’t on its own enforce a request that a former president return presidential records to the government. What he left out was the part of the article that said NARA can refer suspected violations of law to the Department of Justice, as it did in Trump’s case.

• He also said that an IRS whistleblower “revealed that crooked Joe [Biden] sat in a room while his son Hunter messaged a Chinese Communist Party official” about money. But IRS agents told Congress in May that it hadn’t been established that Biden was with his son, as Hunter Biden claimed in a July 2017 WhatsApp message.

Trump made those claims at this month’s Faith & Freedom Coalition Conference in Washington, D.C., where he spoke for roughly 90 minutes.

The Espionage Act Claim

Trump is not the first non-spy to face charges under a section of the Espionage Act pertaining to the illegal retention of classified information, contrary to his suggestion that this is a novel legal strategy from federal prosecutors.

“[C]harging a former president of the United States under the Espionage Act of 1917, that’s like making nuclear weapons in your basement, isn’t it?” Trump said. “An act for a crime so heinous that only the death penalty would do, is one of the most outrageous and vicious legal theories ever put forward in an American court of law. … The Espionage Act has been used to go after traitors and spies. It has nothing to do with a former president legally keeping his own documents.”

As we’ve written before, Trump is not being charged as a spy. Instead, he has been charged — 31 times — with violating 18 U.S.C. 793 (e), which is the part of the Espionage Act that makes “unauthorized possession” of documents “relating to the national defense” a crime. Not only is it unlawful if an individual “willfully communicates, delivers, transmits” such documents to “any person not entitled to receive it,” the law also says it is illegal if a person “willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it.”

When Trump made a similar claim in a speech following his June 13 arraignment, CNN listed seven other people – all convicted between 2017 and 2023 – who were charged under the same provision of the Espionage Act. They include:

• Robert Birchum, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, who pleaded guilty in February to one count of unlawful retention of national defense information, and was sentenced on June 1 to three years in prison.

• Kendra Kingsbury, an FBI intelligence analyst, who pleaded guilty in October to two counts of willful retention of national defense information, and was sentenced on June 21 to 46 months in prison.

• Jeremy Brown, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces weapons sergeant, who was found guilty in December of retaining classified documents and other crimes, and was sentenced on April 7 to over seven years in prison.

• Ahmedelhadi Yassin Serageldin, a former Raytheon systems engineer, who pleaded guilty in December 2019 to “having unauthorized possession of, access to, and control over numerous classified documents, writings, and notes relating to the national defense, and then willfully retaining the same and failing to deliver them to the United States.” He was sentenced in July 2020 to 18 months in prison.

• Harold Thomas Martin III, a former government contractor, who pleaded guilty in March 2019 to willful retention of national defense information, and was sentenced four months later to nine years in prison.

• Weldon Marshall, a former defense contractor, who pleaded guilty in March 2018 to one count of unlawfully retaining national defense information, and was sentenced three months later to 41 months in prison.

• Nghia Hoang Pho, a former National Security Agency employee, who pleaded guilty in December 2017 to one count of willful retention of national defense information, and was sentenced in September 2018 to 66 months in prison.

None of the seven were alleged to have sold or shared classified information with a U.S. adversary, or otherwise to have engaged in espionage or spying.

The New York Times on NARA

Trump distorted the content of a New York Times article to falsely claim that the National Archives and Records Administration didn’t “have the right to ask” him to return the presidential records that he took to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House in January 2021.

“But even the New York Times, in a major article, big article, and they must hate… probably the writer was fired after he said this, but it said, headline, said that, ‘When it comes to asking for documents from former presidents, the only power that NARA has is to say, ‘Pretty please,’” Trump said. “Quote, ‘Asking nicely is about all they can do.’ And yet they reported me to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. They don’t even have the right to ask. And if they do ask, they have to be very nice. And I don’t have to give it.”

Trump accurately quoted from the Jan. 27, 2023, article written by White House correspondent Michael Shear. However, Trump left out the rest of what the article said.

Shear went on to write: “Enforcement of the laws governing presidential records and classified documents is up to the Justice Department, which has opened investigations into the actions of President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump, who have each discovered classified records at their homes.”

Shear also quoted Steven Aftergood, a specialist on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, who said, “If there are violations of law, they can be referred to the Justice Department for action.”

That’s ultimately what happened in Trump’s case.

As we’ve written before, when NARA officials noticed hundreds of pages of classified documents in the boxes of presidential records that Trump’s team turned over in January 2022, NARA’s inspector general referred the matter to the Department of Justice on Feb. 9. After an initial review, the FBI opened a criminal investigation on March 30, looking into how classified documents ended up at Trump’s property and whether any additional classified documents remained there in unauthorized locations.

That investigation led to the FBI getting a grand jury subpoena for Trump to turn over additional classified records that he had at Mar-a-Lago, which led to the FBI getting a court-authorized warrant to search that Florida property when it was determined that Trump wasn’t fully cooperating.

Trump also has been charged with obstructing federal law enforcement’s efforts to obtain the requested documents.

China Deal

In an interview last month with the House Ways and Means Committee, an IRS whistleblower who was overseeing the agency’s criminal tax investigation of Hunter Biden disclosed the agency obtained a WhatsApp message that Hunter Biden sent to a Chinese businessman in which he invoked his father’s name.

“For example, we obtained a July 30th, 2017, WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, where Hunter Biden wrote: ‘I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” Gary Shapley, a supervisory special agent for the IRS Criminal Investigation division on the Hunter Biden case, told the House committee on May 26.

Shapley continued reading from Hunter Biden’s WhatsApp message: “Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”

It is the clearest example yet of the president’s son trading on his father’s name in his business dealings with foreign companies. But, during his June 24 speech at the Faith & Freedom Coalition event, Trump went beyond the known facts to make unsubstantiated allegations about Joe Biden.

Trump claimed that the Shapley “revealed that crooked Joe sat in a room while his son Hunter messaged a Chinese Communist Party official.” But Shapley and another IRS agent interviewed later by the committee could not confirm if Joe Biden was in the room with his son for the call, as Trump said. It is not even clear from their interviews if Joe Biden was aware of the business deal being discussed or aware that his son had used his name in the message — which took place six months after the senior Biden had left the vice presidency.

In a June 1 interview with the committee, an unnamed IRS case agent who identified Shapley as his supervisor was asked if he was “aware of any business that he was involved in with Joe Biden?” The agent started his answer by saying, “So this is a complicated issue,” citing circumstantial evidence — including the WhatsApp message — but no proof.

Both agents criticized federal prosecutors for their immediate response to the WhatsApp message.

“I went to the prosecutors with this, and they, again, came back at me with: Well, how do we know that? He could just be lying and claiming that the dad — that his dad’s there, but his dad is not there,” the unidentified case agent told the committee.

Shapley said the IRS wanted to get location data for the messages to determine if Hunter Biden and his dad could be “co-located,” which would put investigators on “better ground” to pursue Joe Biden’s possible involvement. Shapley and the case agent both said the FBI had rejected that suggestion at that point. The unidentified case agent said, “I don’t know if the FBI ever did anything with it,” referring to the suggestion to obtain location data.

Trump also falsely claimed that the mainstream media did not report about Hunter Biden’s WhatsApp message, and he made the unsubstantiated claim that “the Bidens” were paid “for absolutely no reason.”

“Now, can you imagine the newspapers not reporting this, not a word of it in any of them, in any of them, mainstream,” Trump said. “’I’m sitting here waiting for the call,’ he said, ‘With my father, I’m sitting here with my father waiting for the call.’ In other words, send us money. Within 10 days, the Bidens got $5.1 million from China for absolutely no reason.”

Contrary to Trump’s claim, all the major news outlets covered the disclosure of the WhatsApp messages on June 22, when the committee released both transcripts. The New York Times, the Washington Post, ABC News, NBC News and CBS News all wrote about the interviews, which included allegations that the IRS wanted to bring felony charges against Hunter Biden. Ultimately, as we’ve reported, the DOJ and Hunter Biden agreed to a plea deal on two misdemeanor tax charges.

“Two whistleblowers told Congress that IRS investigators recommended charging Hunter Biden with attempted tax evasion and other felonies, which are far more serious crimes than what the president’s son has agreed to plead guilty to, according to transcripts of their private interviews with lawmakers,” CNN said in a June 22 story, which also mentioned the WhatsApp message.

As for “the Bidens” receiving $5.1 million as a result of Hunter Biden’s threatening WhatsApp message, Trump is referring to a June 23 Fox News story about a separate Senate report released in 2020. That report showed that two firms linked to Hunter Biden received $5.1 million from CEFC Infrastructure Investment in August 2017 — not long after Hunter Biden’s WhatsApp message to Zhao, Fox reported. Shapley told the committee that Zhao is “one of the executives at CEFC.”

Despite Trump’s use of the phrase “the Bidens,” there is no evidence in the Senate report or in the interviews conducted by the House Ways and Means committee that Joe Biden received any of that money. It’s also not clear what Hunter Biden, a lawyer and consultant, did for the $5.1 million payment from CEFC Infrastructure Investment in August 2017, so we can’t substantiate Trump’s claim that it was “for absolutely no reason.”

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In a recent tweet, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s official handle claimed that 220 crore people in India had been inoculated against coronavirus for free. Alongside a graphic, the BJP’s official Twitter handle wrote, “Did you ever think it was possible that 220 crore people would get vaccinated for free?”. The tweet was later deleted. (Archive)

Shortly afterwards, Union minister Kailash Choudhary, Rajsamand BJP MP Diya Kumari, former Uttarakhand chief minister and BJP leader Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Ballia BJP MP Virendra Singh, Darbhanga BJP MP Gopal Jee Thakur, former Bihar deputy chief minister and BJP MLA from Katihar Tarkishore Prasad, among others, promoted the same claim on Facebook.

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The following screen recording of Meta’s social monitoring tool CrowdTangle also shows that several BJP leaders, MLAs and ministers posted this claim on Facebook.

Fact Check

Upon first glance, the claim made by the BJP seems misleading. The first thing worth noting is that the population of India is not 220 crore. As per an Indian Express report dated April 20 quoting data from the UNFPA State of World Population Report 2023, India is set to become the most populous country in the world leaving China behind. According to the report, by the middle of this year, India’s population is estimated to reach 142.86 crore, which is slightly higher than China’s 142.57 crore population.

Where did the figure of 220 crore come from?

On checking the Indian government’s CoWin portal related to Covid vaccinations, Alt News found that the total number of vaccination doses is 220 crore. In other words, a total of 1,02,74,10,872 people have taken the first dose so far. Similarly, 95,19,77,979 people have taken the second dose, and 22,73,16,908 people have taken the booster/precaution dose. The figure comes from the sum total of these three figures, i.e. 2,20,67,05,759.

With some simple addition and subtraction, we can figure out how many people took the first Covid vaccine jab. It is obvious that those who took the second dose would have taken the first one. Furthermore, those who took the booster/precaution dose would have likely taken the second dose. Therefore, a sum total across these three categories hardly makes any sense. In this case those who have taken the booster/precaution dose are separated across three figures and those who have taken the second one are counted in two figures.

If we talk about the reach of the Covid vaccine, then according to these figures, it reached 102,74,10,872 people out of which 95,19,77,979 people took the second dose. Finally, this would mean the booster/precaution dose reached only 22,73,16,908 people.

False claim of free vaccine to all

The fifth page of the Guidance doc for COWIN 2.0 issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare clearly mentions that the vaccine would be provided free of charge at the government health facilities and will be on payment basis in private health facilities, at a rate as may be decided by the Indian government from time to time.

On February 27, 2021, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued a press release which clearly stated, “Private hospitals functioning as CVCs may recover a charge subject to a ceiling of Rs 250 per person per dose. This nationwide vaccination program is now to be exponentially expanded to the following age-groups from March 1, 2021:

1. i) all citizens above 60 years of age and,
2. ii) those within the age bracket of 45 to 59 years with specific co-morbodities

The office memorandum issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India to all the states and union territories on June 8, 2021, is available on the Kerala and Assam state governments’ websites. It is mentioned here that under the new guidelines of the National Covid Vaccination Program released on June 8, 2021, the cost of the vaccine dose for private hospitals would be declared by each vaccine manufacturer. Private hospitals would be able to charge a maximum of Rs 150 per dose as service charge. According to the memorandum, a maximum of Rs 780 could be charged by a private CVC (Covid Vaccination Centre) for the Covishield vaccine including GST and service charge, Rs 1410 for Covaxin, and Rs 1145 for the Sputnik V vaccine.

Changes have been introduced in these policies from time to time. On April 9, 2022, Adar Poonawala, CEO of the Serum Institute of India and Suchitra Ella, founder of Bharat Biotech, tweeted that the cost of the Covishield vaccine for a private hospital would be Rs 225 per dose, down from Rs 600 earlier, and the price of Covaxin had been reduced from Rs 1200 to Rs 225 per dose. The Union health ministry had announced that from April 10, 2022, booster/precaution doses of the Covid-19 vaccine would be available for everyone above 18 years of age at private vaccination centres. Since people still had to pay a fee for the vaccine at private vaccination centres, the BJP’s claim about the government providing free Covid vaccines to all is false.

To sum it up, the first dose of the Covid vaccine reached the highest number of people, around 103 crore, yet the BJP and its leaders misleadingly claimed that 220 crore people were given the Covid-19 vaccination. In reality, this figure of 220 crore is not the number of people inoculated, but of the number of total doses of the vaccine that were administered. This number includes people who were given the first dose, second dose as well as the booster/precaution dose. At the same time, the BJP made a false claim of providing free vaccines to all, even as vaccination policies were revised from time to time and private hospitals charged for administering vaccines.

Related

On June 26, journalist Meer Faisal tweeted a video of several students raising ‘Jai Sri Ram’ slogans as a reaction to their Muslim peers offering Namaz at the Allen Institute in Kota. According to Faisal’s tweet, the video was initially posted on the Instagram page, @allen_sae_hu.

Muslim students were offering Friday prayer in an area designated for them at Allen Institute, and after seeing this, Hindu students started opposing them by chanting “Jai Shri Ram.” This video was posted on Instagram two days ago by @Allen_Sae_Hu. #Islamophobia pic.twitter.com/00aOBLD4we

— Meer Faisal (@meerfaisal01) June 26, 2023

Advocate Ashutosh J Dubey, who identifies himself on Twitter as ‘legal co-convener Of Palghar BJP assembly, tweeted another video from the same incident. He wrote, “JUST IN: Coaching Centre After performing the namaz, Hindu children began shouting “Jai Shri Ram” in unison. This video of Allen Coaching Institute in Kota is being reported”. (Archive)

JUST IN: Coaching Centre After performing the namaz, Hindu children began shouting “Jai Shri Ram” in unison.

This video of Allen Coaching Institute in Kota is being reported. pic.twitter.com/HTC02eGmHs

— ADV. ASHUTOSH J. DUBEY 🇮🇳 (@AdvAshutoshBJP) June 26, 2023

However, a few hours after Meer Faisal’s tweet was shared, the official handle of Kota City Police refuted Faisal’s claim in a reply and wrote, “This video is from 2020. No such incident has happened recently. Effective action was taken by the concerned organization at the time. The police are constantly monitoring such developments. The law and order situation is normal”. (Archive)

यह वीडियो 2020 का है अभी ऐसी कोई गतिविधि नहीं हुई है, तत् समय इस पर संबंधित संस्था द्वारा प्रभावी कार्यवाही अम्ल में लाई गई थी,पुलिस ऐसे घटनाक्रमों पर लगातार नजर रखती है। कानून व्यवस्था की स्थिति सामान्य है।

— KotaCity Police (@KotaPolice) June 26, 2023

After Kota Police’s clarification, Right Wing propaganda website OpIndia published a ‘fact-check’ report titled, “Propagandist and serial fake news spreader, Meer Faisal, shares a three-year-old video of Allen coaching institute to spread communal hate against Hindus”. In their report, they cited the Kota Police tweet to ‘debunk’ Meer Faisal’s claim. (Archive)

Propagandist and serial fake news spreader, Meer Faisal, shares a three-year-old video of Allen coaching institute to spread communal hate against Hindushttps://t.co/YrDDzdnljY

— OpIndia.com (@OpIndia_com) June 27, 2023

Several users took to Twitter to ‘debunk’ the viral video and called it an old incident, citing the Kota Police tweet. In the process, they also targeted individuals like Meer Faisal who had initially shared the video. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4)

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Is the video from 2020?

Upon a keyword search, we found a number of recent articles reporting this incident. Several of these articles contain a statement from the senior vice-president of the Allen Institute, C R Chaudhary, admitting that the incident indeed happened. For instance, when media outlet Amar Ujala reached out to him for a comment for a June 26 report, Chaudhary told them that the incident did took place at the centre after the floor attendant had left. However, he insisted that the matter should not be taken seriously since the institute was a place for teaching and learning. (Archive)

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Chaudhury gave a similar statement to Zee News for a report published on June 27 wherein he admitted that some students did act in this manner.

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Chaudhary also made a video statement on the issue.

Sr vice president Allen CR Choudhary today reply on matter pic.twitter.com/YjUpGgPpO7

— Neeraj Sharma (@journalistneer) June 26, 2023

We reached out to multiple students at the Allen Supath building in Naya Nohra, all of whom confirmed that the incident happened on June 23, 2023. A student from the institute recounted the incident in detail: “The video is not from 2020. This happened on the 23rd. Around June 10-12, approximately 25 of us had taken permission for Namaaz from principal sir, the floor in-charge and the ground staff. Initially, we were supposed to pray on the fifth floor. But when more students wanted to join, principal sir suggested that we pray on our respective floors. Some people raised Jai Sri Ram slogans when we started to pray on our floors, but we ignored them. June 23 was Jumma, so during the Asar prayers, many students came and loudly chanted Jai Sri Ram slogans on the fourth floor of Block A. However, no serious altercation followed that incident. We left peacefully and attended our classes”.

We could further confirm the location by comparing screengrabs from one of the viral videos with images from Google. We could also independently confirm that some of the students seen in the viral videos were currently studying at the institute. We will not reveal their identities owing to the fact that they are minors.

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We sourced a longer version of one of the viral videos.

We also noted that in the aforementioned video, a portion of a poster can be seen, with ‘AIR 1 Tanishka’ written on it.

Upon probing further, we found that a student named Tanishka topped the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (UG) in 2022 and was a student of Allen.

🏆Once again ALLENite Creates history by Securing AIR-1

🎉#ALLEN 2-Year classroom student TANISHKA secured AIR-1 in #NEETUG2022 exam!

Creating history is our tradition and ALLENites know how to mark it

👏Congratulations to her for securing this milestone!#NEETResult #NEETUG pic.twitter.com/2kRb85yH1a

— ALLEN Career Institute (@ALLENkota) September 7, 2022

A student of the institute sent us a clear image of the poster put up at the location of the incident. The year 2022 is also mentioned in the top left corner of the poster.

Below is a comparison of a screengrab where the poster is visible and the said picture.

Needless to say, a poster with the image of a NEET (UG) 2022 topper is impossible to be found in a video from 2020.

Hence, the video of students at the Allen Institute in Kota raising ‘Jai Sri Ram’ slogans is from June 23, 2023 and not 2020, as claimed by Kota Police in a tweet. News reports and independent sources from the institute in Rajasthan’s Kota confirm that the incident took place recently.

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