The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a scathing assault on the Congress party and its leader Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha on Monday, following a controversial New York Times expose that unveiled alleged Chinese funding for the media portal Newsclick.
The New York Times report has ignited a heated debate, with the BJP accusing the Congress of bailing out Newsclick – funded by American businessman Neville Roy Singham – during an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in 2021 into its funding sources.
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey took the offensive to the parliamentary floor, saying, “Money from China came into NewsClick. An environment was created against the government using Chinese funds.” Dubey further claimed that China had provided financial support to the Congress party on multiple occasions during the period from 2005 to 2015.
Congress leader and MP Adhir Ranjan Choudhary swiftly challenged the ‘defamatory charges’, writing to Speaker Om Birla to seek the removal of Dubey’s remarks from the official parliamentary records, citing defamation concerns. Ultimately, several words from Dubey’s speech were removed from the Parliament records.
BJP leader Sambit Patra said, “All these US companies [linked to flow of funds to NewsClick] are registered in one address. All this clearly reveals that those running NewsClick were not only running a campaign to defame and destabilise the Narendra Modi government, but also conspiring against India and trying to create unrest and disturb harmony.”
The contentious New York Times investigative report, published on Saturday, detailed the financial network linked to Neville Roy Singham, who allegedly financed NewsClick. The report unveiled a web of connections involving activist groups, non-profit organisations, and shell companies with purported links to the Chinese government and propaganda machinery.
“In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Singham’s network financed a news site, NewsClick, that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points,” the report said.
“It is part of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. At the centre is a charismatic American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham, who is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes.”
Union Minister for Information and Technology, Anurag Thakur, underlined the global implications of the controversy, saying, “Even newspapers like ‘The New York Times’ are now admitting that Neville Roy Singham and his NewsClick are dangerous tools of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and promoting China’s political agenda across the world.”
“Much before NYT, India has long been telling the world that NewsClick is a dangerous global web of Chinese propaganda. Supported by like-minded forces, Neville has been furthering a dubious anti-India agenda.”
Highlighting the Congress party’s stance, Thakur said, “It is natural for the Congress to defend Neville and NewsClick because national interest never matters to its leadership. Isn’t it the same Congress Party that signed an MoU with the CPC in the year 2008 to promote Chinese interest in India and allegedly accepted donations for the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) from the Chinese embassy?”
Thakur further accused Congress of defending Newsclick during the ED’s inquiry in 2021 into the news portal on allegations of money laundering. An investigation by the ED had found that Newsclick had received around ₹38 crore in funding from foreign countries, which were traced to tech mogul Neville Roy Singham – an alleged member of the Communist Party of China’s propaganda arm.
The BJP’s accusations have also rekindled allegations against the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation for receiving donations from the Chinese embassy in India. Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar joined the fray, suggesting a correlation between Rahul Gandhi’s statements abroad and the narratives propagated by platforms like NewsClick.
“These narratives that are put out by platforms like NewsClick and other platforms that are operating in concert are echoed almost blandly in a similar fashion by this political leader, Rahul Gandhi, who goes abroad and says exactly the same things – democracy is under danger, judiciary is compromised, EVMs are compromised. This is exactly the narrative that these platforms put out,” Chandrasekhar stated.
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