One could dismiss a Twitter account’s conspiracy theories – conjuring up an “anti-Hindu ecosystem” while linking together American philanthropist George Soros, communists, the London School of Economics, digital media and the Gandhis – as feverish hyperbole. But not when the account claims to be a fact-checker, is followed by senior BJP leaders, and the man behind it is cited as a source in RSS mouthpiece Organiser’s piece on “an anti-India ecosystem” of left-liberal journalists and “foreign handlers” and in an analysis by Hindu supremacist portal OpIndia of deaths “falsely” linked to the farm protest.
The Twitter handle @VijayGajera has over 85,000 followers and is run by one Vijay Patel from Gujarat’s Rajkot. Patel also runs onlyfact.in, a “fact-checking” website with a Twitter handle that has over 18,000 followers. Interestingly, one of Patel's chief targets is the fact-checking platform Alt News. Patel's portal has published several posts against Alt News, its jailed cofounder Mohammed Zubair, founder Pratik Sinha and the latter’s father Mukul Sinha.
