Mukh-o-Mukhos: Bengal’s Postcard spreads hatred

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Kolkata: Mukh-o-Mukhos is the first Bengali feature film made in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) but now, the same has a different identity. A blog with similar name has been recently launched. Unlike the film, which highlighted corruption, this Bengali blog from the look of it has a single agenda – spread hate through articles and videos posted on it. A glance through the blog and you will realize that it’s nothing but a propaganda tool, designed to spread hatred through distorted facts that it presents.

Based along the lines of websites like Postcard and OpIndia, the author of Mukh-o-Mukhos prominantely highlights love-jihad as a section. Interestingly, the issue has probably no taker in Bengal. As even Rizwanur Rahman, a techie, who had married to Priyanka Todi and died for love, in 2007.  But neither it was escalated as love-jihad, nor could create a Hindu and Muslim divide in Bengal.

A segment is called ‘Phire Dekha’ which deals with history or rather distorted Medieval History of India.

The latest article of it says that Shah Jahan has established physical relationship with his two daughters too.  The entire article showcased Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan has a sex maniac with no mercy for anyone.

Some of the topics and pictures posted are almost the same as the ones on Postcard. Interestingly, this blog is not a very old one. It is a bilingual blog, where the author posts in Bengali and English.  It even has a Facebook page.

Mukesh Choudhary, a cyber crime expert analysed the blog for eNewsroom, “The blog seems to be active from August 2017. The Bengali version has around 27 lakh hits while its English version has had only 34,000 hits since going live. This makes me believe that the target audience of the blog is the Bengalis from Bengal or Bangladesh.”

Like fake site or blog, it doesn’t have anyone listed as its author or admin. However, its Facebook Group, which also goes by the same name, does have an admin. Interestingly, the group has two admins, one being Himal Hemu and the other Mukh-o-Mukhos. Elaborating on the same, Choudhary mentioned, “Hemu resides in Bongaon, West Bengal but is originally from Kolkata. Both are fake accounts. The real identity of the people behind it cannot be extracted from public domain. Only a legal investigation can reveal their identity.” He also informed that, the blog has been functioning since August 2017, while the Facebook group created a month later on 18 September 2017. “Members of the group are from both Hindu and Muslim community. I presume these members could have been added without their consent as only a hand-full of them post on the group,” he said.

The purpose of this group and blog is clear – spread hate stories which are not even verified by the author before posting. In one of the stories, the author talks about the mass Hindu killing by Taiemur (Sultan of Delhi), and writes, “If a researcher can prove one of the above facts, we will be grateful to him forever.”

“Such posts when posted on social media platform can only cause problem,” he added.

The main agenda of Mukh-o-Mukhos is to create communal disturbances, with general election approaching; one can definitely understand the purpose of it—sow hatred and reap votes.

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