The Misinformation Machine: How Indian Media Undermines India-Bangladesh Relations

The Scale of the Problem

Since the August 5, 2024 student-led revolution that ended Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule in Bangladesh, Indian media has unleashed an unprecedented misinformation campaign against the country. According to Rumor Scanner, Bangladesh’s leading fact-checking organization certified by the International Fact Checking Network, 72 Indian media outlets published 137 fake reports on 32 topics about Bangladesh in 2024 alone.

It is worth noting that India has legitimate security interests in Bangladesh’s political stability, given shared borders, trade relationships, and regional dynamics. However, the misinformation campaign documented here represents a counterproductive response that undermines rather than advances those interests.

The numbers are staggering. Only 12 misinformation instances were recorded in the first six months of 2024. After Hasina fled to India on August 5, that number exploded to 53 cases in August alone — a 340% increase. December saw another spike with 53 additional cases linked to the arrest of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das.

More alarming is the reach of this misinformation. Content spread via Indian-operated social media accounts was viewed at least 250 million times in 2024. Analysis by Bangladeshi fact-checkers found that 72% of social media accounts spreading fake news about Bangladesh were located in India.

The Anatomy of Fabrication

The misinformation campaign follows consistent patterns that Bangladeshi fact-checkers have documented extensively. The most common tactic is misrepresenting Muslim victims as Hindus — at least 36 such instances were identified in 2024.

Case Study: The Temple Attack Hoax

When protests erupted following Hasina’s departure, Republic TV broadcast video of a temple in Chattogram, claiming it had been “set ablaze by Islamists in Bangladesh.” Fact-checkers at Dismislab dismissed the report — the temple caretaker confirmed the temple had not been attacked at all. The actual target was an Awami League office located behind the temple.

BBC Verify conducted its own investigation and found that a photo of arson at cricketer Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s house — he is a Muslim Awami League MP — was falsely shared as belonging to Hindu cricketer Liton Das to give it a communal angle. Liton Das himself took to Facebook to debunk the claim.

Case Study: The Fake Lawyer Murder

Following the arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das in November 2024, Indian media reported that lawyer Saiful Islam Alif was “murdered because he was Chinmoy’s lawyer.” Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser’s Press Wing issued a direct rebuttal:

“Some Indian media are claiming that lawyer Saiful Islam Alif was representing Chinmoy Krishna Das. The claim is false and is being spread with malafide intention.”

Chinmoy’s actual lawyer was Subhashish Sharma, not Saiful Islam. Yet the false narrative had already circulated across Indian television and social media, fueling outrage and diplomatic tensions.

Political Violence Disguised as Religious Persecution

Perhaps the most damaging aspect of the misinformation campaign is the systematic reframing of political violence as religious persecution. International investigations have thoroughly debunked this narrative.

Police investigations found that 98.4% of reported cases of attacks on minorities between August 5-20, 2024 were due to political reasons, not religious motivations. A Netra News investigation published on October 30, 2024 found that none of the murders bore clear signs of religious or communal motives — instead revealing a mix of political retribution, mob violence, and criminal homicides.

The UK government’s Bangladesh Fact-check Project considered 1,234 attacks to be politically motivated and only 20 as communal in nature.

Even Hindu community leaders in Bangladesh reject the Indian media narrative. Gobinda Pramanik, Secretary General of the Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance, stated:

“Almost all were politically motivated attacks. In the Indian media, they falsely termed them as communal anti-Hindu attacks. In Bangladesh, we do not have any communal tension between Muslims and Hindus.”

He noted that mobs attacked “five to seven times more” Awami League-supporting Muslim households after August 5 than Hindu households — but this reality contradicts the “Hindu genocide” narrative Indian media has constructed.

The Diplomatic Fallout

The misinformation campaign has produced real diplomatic consequences, transforming what was once called a “golden era” in India-Bangladesh relations into what experts now describe as an “unprecedented cold war.”

Multiple Envoy Summonings

Bangladesh has summoned Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma multiple times to protest attacks on Bangladeshi diplomatic compounds in India and what Dhaka termed “deliberate misinformation spread by Indian media.”

Foreign Secretary Jashim Uddin stated that Bangladesh expected Delhi’s active cooperation in countering negative campaigns, saying:

“We drew their attention and sought appropriate steps regarding dissemination of misleading and false information in Indian media about Bangladesh’s July-August revolution and alleged hostile attitude to the minority communities.”

The Agartala Attack

On December 2, 2024, following the arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das, a Hindu mob vandalized the Bangladesh diplomatic compound in Agartala, India — an attack directly linked to inflammatory Indian media coverage. The incident represented a serious breach of diplomatic norms and further deteriorated bilateral relations.

Visa Crisis

India significantly scaled down visa services following Hasina’s departure, withdrawing consular personnel citing security concerns. Daily visa approvals dropped from 8,000 to approximately 1,000. This represents a dramatic reduction from the 1.6 million visas issued in 2023, disrupting medical tourism, business travel, and family connections.

The Strategic Motivation

Why would Indian media engage in such a systematic campaign? Analysts point to several interconnected factors.

The Fall of India’s Ally

The abrupt fall of the Hasina regime ended what analyst Aupam Debashis Roy describes as “the dream run of the Indian deep state in Bangladesh.” India had expected its ally to remain in power for years and had lobbied the United States to stop pressuring Hasina over democratic backsliding.

With Hasina now residing in India and seeking New Delhi’s protection, the pattern suggests Indian media is attempting to delegitimize the interim government. As one Diplomat analysis noted: “Indian media unleashed a barrage of misinformation, leveraging the sensitive issue of minority rights to undermine the legitimacy of the interim government.”

BJP’s Domestic Politics

Under the BJP, India’s domestic and foreign policies have increasingly emphasized Hindu nationalism. By portraying Bangladesh as a hostile environment for Hindus, Indian media supports the BJP’s narrative of Hindu victimhood, bolstering its appeal to its core voter base.

Roy explains: “The BJP-leaning media wants to spread the word that Bangladesh is going to be in the hands of Islamists because it supports the BJP’s narrative… They want to show that Bangladesh is a place for radical Islamists and Hindus and minorities are not safe here.”

Erosion of Journalistic Standards

The narratives being propagated reflect what analysts describe as the erosion of journalistic integrity in favor of political alignment. Critics note that segments of Indian media have become willing to amplify government narratives regardless of accuracy.

Jon Danilowicz, a retired US diplomat who served in Bangladesh, offered a direct assessment: “After mistakenly backing former PM Hasina past her expiration date, India appears to be stubbornly doubling down on its failed Bangladesh policy. The charges that Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus is leading an Islamist regime and unleashing genocide against the Hindu minority lack evidentiary support and have been debunked by multiple international fact-checking organizations.”

Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Catastrophe

The misinformation strategy offers Indian media outlets and political actors tangible short-term benefits. But a sober cost-benefit analysis reveals a strategy that is fundamentally self-defeating.

The Temporary Benefits

Viewership and Revenue: Sensationalist coverage of “Hindu persecution” drives higher TRP ratings. Fear-based narratives reliably attract eyeballs, and eyeballs translate to advertising revenue. Republic Bangla and similar outlets have built business models around inflammatory content.

Domestic Political Dividends: The BJP’s Hindu nationalist base responds to narratives of Hindu victimhood. Coverage portraying Bangladesh as hostile to Hindus reinforces the party’s core messaging ahead of elections in West Bengal and northeastern states with significant Hindu populations. It serves the Hindutva agenda without requiring evidence.

Deflection from Policy Failures: By focusing attention on alleged persecution in Bangladesh, Indian media deflects from New Delhi’s strategic failure — the loss of a reliable ally in Dhaka after 15 years of cultivation.

The Long-Term Costs

However, these short-term gains are rapidly being overwhelmed by cascading long-term consequences:

Collapse of Soft Power: India spent decades building cultural and economic influence in Bangladesh. This misinformation campaign has erased that investment in months. Anti-India sentiment now exceeds even the July 2024 revolution. A generation of Bangladeshis who consume Indian entertainment, seek Indian medical care, and study in Indian universities now view India with suspicion and hostility.

Economic Self-Harm: The $13+ billion bilateral trade relationship is under strain. Visa restrictions have disrupted medical tourism — Bangladesh represents 50% of India’s medical tourists. Indian businesses in Bangladesh face a hostile operating environment. The economic costs will compound for years.

Strategic Blowback: The misinformation campaign is accelerating exactly what Indian strategists claim to fear. By portraying Bangladesh as an Islamist threat, Indian media is pushing Dhaka toward closer ties with Pakistan and China — the very outcome India sought to prevent. Bangladesh’s interim government, facing relentless attacks from Indian media, has little incentive to prioritize relations with New Delhi.

Regional Instability: The “Hindu genocide” narrative has real-world consequences. It fueled the mob attack on Bangladesh’s consulate in Agartala. It inflames communal tensions on both sides of the border. It makes diplomatic resolution of genuine issues — water sharing, border management, trade disputes — nearly impossible.

The Viewership Trap

Indian media outlets face a structural problem: they have discovered that anti-Bangladesh content generates engagement. This creates a feedback loop where editorial decisions are driven by metrics rather than accuracy or strategic consequences. Each outlet competes to be more inflammatory than the last, driving the narrative further from reality.

This is not journalism — it is entertainment disguised as news, with foreign policy consequences that media executives never have to answer for. The journalists at Republic Bangla will not bear the costs of deteriorated bilateral relations. Those costs will be borne by Indian businesses, by patients seeking medical care, by families separated by visa restrictions, and by both nations’ security establishments managing an unnecessarily hostile border.

The tragedy is that this outcome serves no one’s genuine interests — not India’s, not Bangladesh’s, and certainly not the Hindu minorities in Bangladesh whose safety is allegedly the concern. By poisoning the bilateral relationship, Indian media has made constructive engagement on minority protection nearly impossible.

Bangladesh’s Counter-Offensive

Bangladesh has not remained passive in the face of this information warfare. The country’s fact-checking infrastructure has emerged as a crucial line of defense.

The Rumor Scanner Response

Rumor Scanner, Bangladesh’s leading fact-checking organization, documented 2,919 instances of misinformation throughout 2024 — a 52% increase from the previous year. The organization has published comprehensive reports tracking Indian media outlets and social media accounts, identifying specific individuals spreading misinformation including BJP politicians and Hindutva activists.

Sajjad Hossain Chowdhury, head of operations at Rumor Scanner, told VOA that Indian media and nationalist social media accounts have been spreading “fake news” about Bangladesh since the fall of the Awami League government: “Several Indian mainstream media outlets showed a video of the ritual of immersion of goddess Kali in India and claimed that it was the scene from a temple being vandalized by Islamists in Bangladesh.”

Official Government Response

Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has stated that attacks on minority Hindus were “exaggerated” and that the attacks on minorities were more political than communal. The interim government’s press wing has actively debunked false claims, including the lawyer murder hoax.

Legal Action

On December 2, 2024, a writ petition was filed in the Bangladesh High Court seeking a ban on the broadcast of all Indian TV channels in the country, specifically naming Star Jalsha, Star Plus, Zee Bangla, and Republic Bangla. While the petition remains pending, it signals growing frustration with Indian media’s role in inflaming tensions.

The Role of Social Media Platforms

The misinformation ecosystem extends far beyond traditional media. X (formerly Twitter) emerged as the primary platform for spreading communal misinformation, with 51 instances detected in August 2024 alone. Between August 5-13, posts from 50 identified Indian accounts spreading communal narratives received over 15 million views.

The spread of hashtags like #SaveBangladeshiHindus and #HindusUnderAttack — predominantly pushed by Hindu nationalist supporters — amplified false narratives despite minimal on-ground evidence supporting claims of systematic persecution.

This raises serious questions about platform accountability. Tech companies like Meta, TikTok, and X must combat disinformation with subject-matter experts who understand the socio-political nuances of South Asia. Partnerships with local fact-checking organizations are essential but currently insufficient.

Generation Z’s Resistance

A significant development has been Bangladesh’s Generation Z developing sophisticated resistance to Indian propaganda. Having grown up during an era of intense information warfare, they can recognize propaganda patterns that older generations might miss.

The “blame Pakistan” narrative rings hollow to a population that has witnessed:

• Sheikh Hasina fleeing to India after the revolution
• Awami League leadership operating from Kolkata and New Delhi
• Accused killers escaping across the Indian border
• India refusing extradition of wanted individuals

This generation toppled a 15-year regime through peaceful protest. They are unlikely to accept subordination to Indian interests, regardless of how the narrative is framed.

The Counter-Narrative: Interfaith Solidarity

What Indian media consistently fails to report is the remarkable display of interfaith solidarity in Bangladesh following the revolution. Many Bangladeshi students and youth volunteers maintained order to protect civil properties and minority rights, including protecting Hindu temples.

Social media sites were flooded with photographs of students protecting temples across Bangladesh. Shahadat Ul Islam, a student from a madrasa, stood vigilant at the Dhakeshwari temple in Dhaka, explaining: “We are keeping vigilance here so that no one can harm our Hindu brothers.”

This reality — Muslims protecting Hindu temples during a political transition — fundamentally contradicts the narrative of “Islamist persecution” that Indian media has constructed.

The Path Forward

The fundamental lesson of this crisis is clear: no amount of narrative warfare can substitute for genuine policy correction. As long as 72 Indian media outlets continue spreading fabricated stories while India harbors those accused of crimes in Bangladesh, the relationship will continue to deteriorate.

Bangladeshis have proven they can distinguish between propaganda and reality. The question now is whether Indian media — and Indian policymakers — will recognize that their strategy is failing.

This Delta Dispatch represents the analysis of the Inqilab Delta Forum research team. It is intended to contribute to informed public discourse on matters of national importance.

Sources: Research based on Rumor Scanner, BBC Verify, Dismislab, The Diplomat, Al Jazeera, VOA, The Daily Star, The Business Standard, and regional fact-checking organizations. Data current as of December 2024.