Is Amit Malviya paying heed to PM Modi’s lecture on media ethics?  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi never misses an opportunity to lecture people on media ethics, calling upon the mainstream media to maintain credibility. But he seems to have turned a Nelson’s eye towards his party’s IT media cell—which has been misleading people through half-truths, lies, bogus pictures and videos under the stewardship of BJP’s digital warrior-in-chief, Amit Malviya.

Within a few days after PM Modi spoke on media ethics on November 6 during the 75th anniversary of Tamil daily Dina Thanthi in Chennai, Malviya was slammed for tweeting out a picture collage of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru embracing his sister and niece. “It seems Hardik has more of Nehru’s DNA, contrary to what Shaktisinh Gohil claimed,” Malviya tweeted, attempting to link Patidar leader Hardik Patel’s alleged sex CD to Nehru’s DNA.

Even after a section of the media did a fact-check and found nothing offensive about the affectionate pictures featured in a nine-photo collage posted on twitter by the BJP’s IT Cell chief, a defiant Malviya on Thursday wrote in another tweet, “Nehru apologists are buzzing on my timeline like a bee under the bonnet! They had maintained radio silence when @shaktisinhgohil made the outrageous comparison. Different yardstick for 'secular philanderers'?”

“This controversy around Nehru and Edwina goes to the heart of the Talibanism that’s the core philosophy of all RSS, all Hindutva followers—they don't believe and can't imagine a friendship between a man and a woman that’s platonic and intellectual. In their limited warped hackneyed medieval outlook of the world, no different than Taliban and ISIS view, women and men can't mix since it would be sacrilegious. This highly misogynistic, patriarchal and hide bound view is a reflection of the ancient belief system handed down over centuries and they are unable and unwilling to crawl out of that hole,” wrote former IPS officer, Sanjiv Bhat on Facebook, sharing a news report on Edwina's daughter's view on her mother and Nehru.

In the report, Pamela Hicks nee Mountbatten maintains: “Jawaharlal Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten loved and respected each other but their relationship was never physical as they were never alone.”

Notably, Malviya’s tweet followed BJP’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra’s comments on a news channel that if he is told that Hardik Patel and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru share the same DNA, he would agree “keeping in mind what he (Hardik Patel) is doing these days.”

But this was not the first time that Malviya resorted to tweeting lies and spreading malicious propaganda. In the past, too, Malviya has been blasted for spreading fake news on social media to cast aspersions on critics of BJP and policies of the Central government.

A botched attempt to cast aspersions on NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar in September had resulted in a major embarrassment for him and the saffron party. After many alert twitter users promptly exposed him for tweeting out an edited clip of Ravish’s speech, Amit Malviya and his party soon became a target of public ridicule for spreading lies and rumours on social media.

This video posted by Malviya on twitter was an 11-second clip cut out from a 10-minute speech that Ravish Kumar delivered at Press Club of India.

After Ram Rahim’s past connection with BJP leaders including PM Narendra Modi came to the fore following his arrest, Malviya tweeted stating that Rahul Gandhi had visited Dera Sacha Sauda leader in the past. In reality, Rahul had met another Dera chief, who has no connection with Dera Sacha Sauda.

While Malviya carried out a concerted social media campaign to make people believe that demonetisation was a success, he drew a lot of flak for comparing marital rape to homosexuality.

On the issue of Triple talaq, Malviya landed in soup after his controversial tweet on Muslim women earlier in September.