New Delhi: Stepping up its attack against the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the Congress has claimed that some “mischievous” changes were made recently on Wikipedia pages related to former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his forefathers through a government of India internet Protocol (IP) address.
“Wikipedia pages of Jawaharlal Nehru and Motilal Nehru were altered. What is worse is it was done from a government internet Protocol address and from National Informatics Centre (NIC),” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told Gulf News here on Thursday.
Surjewala has demanded a response from Prime Minister Modi on the matter.
“Will the Prime Minister answer how the Wikipedia pages of former prime minister and Congress leaders were altered through a government IP address. Will PM and the Minister in charge answer whether such attempt was made with their consent and concurrence,” he asked.
The edits stated, “Gangadhar Nehru was born as a Muslim by the name of Ghiasuddin Ghazi but changed his name to a Hindu Ganga Dhar to escape British clutches.”
Similar edits were made on the pages of Ganga Dhar’s son Motilal Nehru and grandson Jawaharlal.
On the former PM’s page, alleged details of his “affair” with Edwina Mountbatten, the wife of India’s first governor-general Lord Mountbatten, were also added.
The revisions claimed that the first Indian PM was born in a red-light area in Allahabad. The revisions were changed back to the original text in just minutes, but Wikipedia’s revision history page can be easily checked to see the complete list of edits.
Congress has alleged that a software that tracks anonymous Wikipedia edits has found that mischievous changes were made to the entries on June 26. These edits were later deleted by volunteer editors of the online encyclopedia. The discovery was broadcast by @AnonGoIWPEdits — the Twitter handle of the software that was created by Pranesh Prakash, policy director at Centre for internet and Society.
“All this shows is that the IP address was provided by the NIC and nothing more. It is not yet clear as to who all have access to the NIC network, so it is difficult to pinpoint the exact person who did this,” Prakash told Gulf News.
When Gulf News verified the IP address that made these changes on whois.domaintools.com, it turned out that the IP address in question indeed belonged to NIC.
“There was an attempt to alter the Wikipedia pages of Jawaharlal Nehru and Motilal Nehru. There was a sinister attempt to show that Jawaharlal Nehru was a Muslim. It does not matter whether he was a Muslim or a Hindu — he was an Indian. The government should conduct a full inquiry,” Surjewala further added.