EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels-based disinformation watchdog, on Wednesday cracked open a massive 15-year-old Indian operation targeting international institutions including the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) with over 750 fake local media outlets and more than 10 dead NGOs to serve Indian interests and amplify content to undermine Pakistan and China.
The report stated that the operation led by the Srivastava Group and amplified by ANI — an Indian news agency based in New Delhi — under the banner of "Indian Chronicles" began in 2005 and is still underway. It's mission is to discredit nations in conflict with India in Asia, in particular, Pakistan but also China to a lesser extent.
"Indian Chronicles’ key objective is to undermine Pakistan internationally. To do so, they resurrected dead NGOs at the UN. They impersonated the EU. They laundered content produced by fake media to real media - and reached millions in South-Asia and across the world," the report added.
Resurrection of UN-accredited NGOs
During the investigation, it was found that the former president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz — who said to have left politics — was now heading Canners International, an NGO dedicated to the promotion of food in cans.
"We soon found the NGO he was supposedly leading officially ceased to exist in 2007 and was now regularly speaking at the UN Human Rights Council to slam Pakistan," the report said.
According to the EU DisinfoLab, the Indian Chronicles also resurrected a renowned international human rights lawyer Louis Sohn. He was listed as a participant in a UN event in 2007 as well as an attendee during an event in Washington DC in 2011 even though he passed away in 2006.
The report further said that outside the doors of the UN, Indian Chronicles also created and supported several NGOs and think-tanks in charge of lobbying, organising events and demonstrations, all favourable to Indian interests.
Summary of the 15-year influence operation
The open-source investigation shows that the operation is still ongoing.
The operation’s mission is to discredit nations in conflict with India in Asia, in particular Pakistan but also China to a lesser extent. Its long-term objective is:
- In India, to reinforce pro-Indian and anti-Pakistan (and anti-Chinese) feelings.
- Internationally, to consolidate the power and improve the perception of India, to damage the reputation of other countries and ultimately benefit from more support from international institutions such as the EU and the UN.
To do so, the operation consists of:
- The support to minority and human rights NGOs and think-tanks.
- The use of Members of the European Parliament to create a mirage of institutional support from European institutions to these minority groups, in favour of Indian interests and against Pakistan (and China).
An active presence in Geneva and the United Nations’ Human Rights Council through:
- Side-events and demonstrations in support of minority rights;
- Impersonation of extinguished UN-accredited NGOs or use speaking slots reserved to various NGOs whose original missions seem totally unrelated.
- The creation of fake media in Brussels, Geneva and across the world and/or the repackaging and dissemination via ANI and obscure local media networks – at least in 97 countries – to multiply the repetition of online negative content about countries in conflict with India, in particular Pakistan.
Advocacy in Geneva
The investigation uncovered an entire network of coordinated UN-accredited NGOs promoting Indian interests and criticising Pakistan repeatedly.
"We could tie at least 10 of them directly to the Srivastava family, with several other dubious NGOs pushing the same messages," the report said.
It said that these UN-accredited NGOs work in coordination with non-accredited think-tanks and minority-rights NGOs in Brussels and Geneva. Several of them – like the European Organisation for Pakistani Minorities (EOPM), Baluchistan House and the South Asia Democratic Forum (SADF) – were directly but opaquely created by the Srivastava group.
"In Geneva, these think-tanks and NGOs are in charge of lobbying, organising demonstrations and speaking during press conferences and UN side-events. They were repeatedly given the floor at the UN on behalf of the accredited organisations."
Lobbying in Brussels
The organisations created by the Srivastava Group in Brussels organised trips for Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to Occupied Kashmir, Bangladesh and the Maldives.
"Some of these trips led to much institutional controversy, as the delegations of MEPs were often presented as official EU delegations when they were in fact not travelling on behalf of the Parliament," the report stated.
The actors orchestrating Indian Chronicles are directly tied – and again not at all transparently – to the creation of three informal groups in the European Parliament, namely the “South Asia Peace Forum”, the “Baloch Forum” and “Friends of Gilgit-Baltistan”.
The report said that they have organised press conferences and events within and in front of the European Parliament.
Organisations like WESTT – the Women Economic and Social Think-Tank – have drafted and suggested parliamentary questions to the European Commission, along with articles for fake EU magazines such as EP Today.
"These served as a honeypot to attract a growing number of MEPs into a pro-India and anti-Pakistan discourse, often using causes such as minorities rights and women’s rights as an entry point."
The reported uncovered EU Chronicles — a platform of fake media with fake journalists supposedly covering European affairs — which essentially provides a platform for MEPs to sign pro-Indian articles. "In less than 6 months of existence, already 11 MEPs have written or endorsed op-eds at a remarkably high pace for EU Chronicle."
Role of ANI
The report stated that the only valuable coverage these op-eds receive, comes from an immediate repackaging by an Indian press agency named ANI (Asian News International), often quoting these op-eds as genuine articles from “independent media EU Chronicle”.
"Without Times of Geneva and 4 News Agency which stopped their activities following our previous investigation, ANI – which is considered as one of the biggest news agencies in India and the largest television agency of India – remains the only press agency to extensively cover the activities of dubious NGOs in Geneva," the report stated.
The coverage – and often distortion – by ANI of the content produced in Brussels and Geneva led us to the Big News Network and the World News Network – an entire network of 500+ fake local media in 95 countries that have helped reproduce negative iterations about Pakistan (or China). "We also realised that the content produced was primarily targeted at Indian nationals, with an extensive coverage of these barely known “media”, MEPs and “NGOs” in Europe."
The investigation also revealed how the activities of a fake zombie-NGO and that of a fake specialised media can be repackaged, distorted and amplified by malicious actors to influence or disinform globally, using loopholes in international institutions and online search engines.
The report was originally published by EU DisinfoLab
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