Snip, snip: See what ANI did to Nitasha Kaul’s US Congress testimony on Kashmir

The United States Congress Tuesday held a hearing on the human rights situation in Kashmir. Among those who testified was Nitasha Kaul, the Kashmiri writer, poet and academic. 

Explaining why the international community must not take lightly the rise in India of Hindu supremacism, espoused by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Kaul pointed out, “Remember that The New York Times in 1922 had profiled Hitler saying that Mr Hitler’s antisemitism is neither as violent nor as genuine as it sounds. So, things take time to unfold, and the protofascist trajectory that, sadly, the secular democracy of India is on is very worrying for us all.”

The news agency ANI put out a clip of this part of Kaul’s testimony on its feed for subscribers, but with a crucial change: it edited out the words “protofascist trajectory”. Make of that what you will.

ANI has something of a reputation for indulging in such deceit, often in service of the government. A profile of ANI in The Caravan magazine earlier this year pointed out that the news agency “has a disturbing history of producing blatant propaganda for the state”. “ANI is among the few mainland news outlets that cover Kashmir. Most of this coverage, though, amounts to government propaganda,” it added.