OpIndia

OpIndia OpIndia is an Indian right-wing news website that frequently publishes misinformation. Founded in December 2014, the website has published fake news and Islamophobic commentary on multiple occasions, including a 2020 incident in which it falsely claimed that a Hindu boy was sacrificed in a Bihar mosque.

The moment you censor thoughts, you kill the soul of a man and the spirit of the writer. I oppose any regulation that may just as easily morph into tools of censorship. ~ Nupur J Sharma, OpIndia

Our platform itself believes that majority media houses have lost their ethical code. We have over 300 articles filed under “Media lies”. ~ Nupur J Sharma, OpIndia

What is to say that if the digital platform is regularised today, it won’t be censored tomorrow?... To support or oppose tools in the hand of the government depending on which political party is in power is an exceptionally narrow word view that doesn’t help anyone. ~ Nupur J Sharma, OpIndia

OpIndia is dedicated to criticism of what it considers "liberal media", and to support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Hindutva ideology. According to University of Maryland researchers, OpIndia has shamed journalists it deems opposed to the BJP, and has alleged media bias against Hindus and the BJP. In 2019, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) rejected OpIndia's application to be certified as a fact checker. IFCN-certified fact checkers identified 25 fake news stories and 14 misreported stories published by OpIndia from January 2018 to June 2020.

The website is owned by Aadhyaasi Media and Content Services, a former subsidiary of the parent company of the right-wing magazine Swarajya.[5]: 2 The current CEO of OpIndia is Rahul Roushan, and the current editors are Nupur J Sharma (English) and Chandan Kumar (Hindi).

Quotes

2018

• What is to say that if the digital platform is regularised today, it won’t be censored tomorrow?... To support or oppose tools in the hand of the government depending on which political party is in power is an exceptionally narrow word view that doesn’t help anyone.
• I speak as the Editor of OpIndia when I say that our platform itself believes that majority media houses have lost their ethical code. We have over 300 articles filed under “Media lies”. To ask us then, to conform to the ethical standards set by the very institution we oppose is a monstrosity at myriad levels... The moment you censor thoughts, you kill the soul of a man and the spirit of the writer. I oppose any regulation that may just as easily morph into tools of censorship.
  • 3 May, 2018 Nupur J Sharma Editor, at [1]

• We have worked with relentless focus to show how a certain section of the mainstream media distorts facts and maligns those who dare to question them. OpIndia too was mocked and maligned – and that process has not stopped, nor it will stop ever, we are sure – we were treated as outcasts, branded ‘trolls’ (we don’t complain), personal lives of people associated with the website were targeted, but we persisted. While we made these powerful enemies, what kept us going was the fact that we made many friends too. We could create a community that stood by us and continues to support us to this day.
  • 23 Nov, 2018. OpIndia CEO, Rahul Roushan in Announcement: OpIndia is now a separate legal and business entity

2020

• In the last few days, you would have noticed that we were the target of a coordinated attack from the usual suspects as well as from some unusual corners... I am not saying that they can’t make mistakes, and when our well-wishers like you would point them out, they will make amends. But this time, their only mistake was that they were standing on the wrong side of the ideological divide. But that stand is non-negotiable. That’s what is the soul, the identity of India. That’s not going to change.
  • 19 May, 2020. OpIndia CEO, Rahul Roushan in Harassment of OpIndia and its Editors: A note from the CEO, Rahul Roushan

• The OpIndia page on Wikipedia is negative because OpIndia dared to challenge the ecosystem and the foot-soldiers of the ecosystem decided to hit back at us.
• The OpIndia page on Wikipedia has been created and edited by an ecosystem that the OpIndia went after and exposed, time and again.
  • 4 June 2020. Nupur J Sharma. Wikipedia vs OpIndia: The crusade launched against OpIndia by Wiki

• If I disapproved of the ban on The Satanic Verses, if I disapproved of Dinanath Batra (whom I called “Ban Man” in my article in The Washington Post), if I disapproved of how Taslima Nasreen was hounded and attacked in Hyderabad by Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, then I can’t suddenly do a volte face and chest-thump today. When you ban a book, it acquires a kind of cult status because the market fuels curiosity. That is what happened with other banned books. In fact, there are books chronicling banned books by different regimes in history...All I am saying is that forcing Bloomsbury India to withdraw the book is counter-productive – both politically and in the pure sense of how market forces work... Where do you draw the line? Today, many are relieved that this book will not find a publisher in Bloomsbury. But what will you do if Swarajya or OpIndia launches a publishing house of its own in the future?'
  • About the banning of a book. Rama Lakshmi. 23 August, 2020. Congratulations liberals, for another self-goal in forcing Bloomsbury on Delhi riots book

• We live in a post-truth world where the facts often get lost in the cacophony of emotional wails and motivated narratives. One website which has occupied the driver’s seat in the information-warfare era is Wikipedia. Wikipedia has become the agent of misinformation and propaganda. In a post-truth world where facts are relegated to the ‘right-wing imagination’ and the Left narrative is considered as the Gospel truth, Wikipedia reigns supreme.
  • Nupur Sharma, 26 November, 2020, Caravan Magazine asked us about our coverage on Wikipedia and its Left bias – Here is our detailed response

• “Fact-checking” sounds like a new business. Not enough people have figured out their tricks yet. And it certainly sounds like a noble thing to do. Just like journalism, back in the day.
  I challenge you: show me one difference between the job description of a journalist and a fact checker. If it walks like a duck, if it looks like a duck and if it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck! You can’t seriously fall for this.
  Ten years ago, the online right waged a battle against “journalism.” And they won. The con artists are back. Dressed as fact-checkers. The struggle starts all over again.
  • “Fact checking” is a new name for same old propaganda journalism [2] 2 December, 2020 Abhishek Banerjee

Quotes about OpIndia

• OpIndia is a news and current affairs website that’s hugely popular with those affiliated with the centre-right ideology... The website also runs a fact-checking initiative that extensively debunks media lies and popular personalities who often criticise the Narendra Modi led-BJP government. OpIndia is the only fact-checking website that Prime Minister Narendra Modi follows on Twitter, along with its editor. The website received widespread attention from several national as well as international media organisations when its editor Nupur J. Sharma wrote a series of articles criticising BBC’s research on fake news in India and questioning the credibility of its findings.
  • A. Patil, Fact checkers on the web, Common Cause, XXXVII No 4, 2018, page 20

External links

• OpIndia
• OpIndia at Youtube