AN organisation targeting critics of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set up and is being run by an officer of India’s top spy agency, the Washington Post has claimed.

Disinfo Lab has published lengthy reports and social media posts, claiming to reveal the personal relationships and funding sources behind US-based critics of Mr Modi.

The organisation was created in mid-2020 by Lt Col Dibya Satpathy, a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) intelligence officer, the report said.

Mr Satapthy has “worked to shape international perceptions of India” and met with Western journalists and under aliases to seek “favourable coverage of India or critical coverage of its adversaries, Pakistan and China,” the Post reported.

The organisation “is running a covert influence operation”, the Post claimed while quoting three people who were part of the organisation.

According to the report, Disinfo Lab has accused US government officials, researchers, humanitarian groups and Indian-American rights activists as part of a conspiracy, purportedly led by global Islamic groups and billionaire George Soros, to undermine India.

The allegations have been amplified and shared widely on social media “by pro-Modi influencers”. The claims also found their way to mainstream Indian news channels and presented in the US Congress.

The organisation’s activities demonstrate “how the online propaganda campaigns waged by the BJP and its allies have been expanding beyond their traditional, domestic aims of shoring up popular support and denigrating opposition parties — and now seek to influence attitudes far beyond India’s borders,” the report stated.

The Disinfo Lab has denied any association with a government agency or personnel and said. In a post on X, it said the US newspaper “recycled 2-year-old Pakistani propaganda”.

As per the Post, the organisation has targeted Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat member of Congress from Washington and a critic of the Indian PM; human rights activists, journalists; and members of the US Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF).

In one of its reports, the group claimed that a USCIRF commissioner was influenced by Islamist groups as she once worked on a fundraising committee alongside a lobbyist who went on to represent Muslim-American groups.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2023