Students across campuses of universities in the United States are advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza and urging their institutions to divest from companies with connections to Israel. According to Jewish publication Tablet, on April 29, shortly before masked assailants stormed Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall and barricaded themselves inside, The People’s Forum—a Manhattan event space affiliated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and funded by businessman Neville Roy Singham—urged its activists to rush up to Columbia to “support our students.” Similar calls for an “emergency action” were distributed throughout radical networks in New York City.
New York City police intervened to clear the Columbia campus building that had been barricaded by pro-Palestinian demonstrators recently, resulting in the arrest of over 100 individuals and the dismantling of an encampment.
A New York Times probe last year blew the lid off a wide web of Chinese propaganda at the behest of tech mogul Singham — who financed news website NewsClick — confirming India’s fears of anti-national elements colluding with foreign powers.
According to the report, in 2020, Singham emailed his friends to introduce a newsletter, now called Dongsheng News, that covers China in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Drawing stories from the state media, it blends lighthearted news with bureaucratic official prose. Dongsheng’s editors, in China, come from Tricontinental, but its address leads to The People’s Forum.
The protests at US university campuses started making headlines in India last month, around when a video of a woman protester sloganeering in Hindi started doing the rounds on social media. She was chanting the “Azadi” song, heard in Indian higher education institutions like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University (DU) during protests. That prompted speculation that the woman in the video was an Indian student studying abroad.
Around the same time, Achinthya Sivalingan, a student at Princeton University, was arrested moments after protesters set up the first tents for the pro-Palestine encampment. Sivalingan is an Indian-origin woman, not an Indian citizen. She was born in Tamil Nadu and raised in Columbus, US.
Several Indian students studying in the US, are now finding themselves in very dynamic and varied situations on campuses.
The NYT investigation had revealed how China, via its propaganda network, has been able to shelter itself from international criticism of its human rights abuses.
“It is part of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. At the center is a charismatic American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham, who is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes,” the New York Times said.
American non-profit groups form the core strength of the network, weaving in a web of charities and shell companies. Some groups, like No Cold War, do not exist as legal entities but are instead tied to Singham’s network through domain registration records and shared organisers, NYT said.
Apart from this, “none of Singham’s nonprofits have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, as is required of groups (in the US) that seek to influence public opinion on behalf of foreign powers. That usually applies to groups taking money or orders from foreign governments,” the probe found.
In 2021, an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate had revealed that media portal NewsClick had received funds worth Rs 38 crore from abroad, with authorities tracing the money trail to Singham. The BJP had then alleged that “anti-India” elements, in league with foreign forces, were “part of a conspiracy to demean the country and target the ruling Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government”.
According to NYT, corporate filings revealed that “NewsClick sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points”.
The New York Times probe of Singham’s network showed the process of how disinformation influenced mainstream discourses as his groups produced YouTube videos to promote pro-Chinese messages.
NewsClick — run by PPK Newsclick Studio Private Limited — was searched by officials of the Enforcement Directorate on February 9, 2021, to collect additional information to help probe money laundering charges against the company.
The search lasted five days and a total of 10 premises were covered, including the residence of Prabir Purkayastha, the promoter of the company.
In an FIR, Delhi Police’s Special Cell has also claimed that Purkayastha and his associates have used the farmers’ protests and the Covid-19 pandemic to “cause disaffection against India” by using funds provided by Neville Roy Singham.
The ED claimed that PPK had received questionable foreign remittances amounting to Rs 38 crore. These remittances were classified as FDI of Rs 9.59 crore from April 2018, and remaining Rs 28.29 crore, was claimed to have been received for receipts for “export of services”.
The ED raids also helped unearth regular email exchanges between Singham and Purkayastha, revealing that money was paid to NewsClick to spruce up Chinese propaganda, especially its role in Africa, defending China’s crackdown on Jack Ma, etc.
As per the New York Times probe, the Chinese state media accounts had retweeted people and organisations in Singham’s network at least 122 times since February 2020.
Asked by NYT about his ties to Chinese propaganda, Singham did not offer substantive answers. “I categorically deny and repudiate any suggestion that I am a member of, work for, take orders from, or follow instructions of any political party or government or their representatives,” he wrote in an email. “I am solely guided by my beliefs, which are my long-held personal views.”
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