Indian Chronicles: revived NGOs

The narrative account of the exposure is in Indian Chronicles: fake local outlets, revived NGOs and a borrowed professor. This file is the structured record: what rests on what, and what would change the reading.

Mechanism

EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels research NGO, describes a three-layer chain. First, a source that looks independent: a revived UN-accredited NGO or a "European" news site. Second, a venue that lends standing: a Human Rights Council side event, or an op-ed signed by a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Third, a relay: ANI repackages the item as news and Indian outlets repeat it. By the last step a New Delhi group's output reads as European or UN reporting. That is Narrative laundering.

The Palais des Nations, Geneva: a pale stone building with a stepped terrace and lawns in front

The Palais des Nations, Geneva, 20 October 2014, by Vassil. CC0. Setting only: the Human Rights Council meets here.

Astroturfing: the report lists 10 or more UN-accredited NGOs it ties to the group, most of them defunct bodies whose accreditation was reused (a canning-industry committee, an environmental council). It says students and interns spoke for them at the Council, and that two of EU Chronicle's main bylines were not real people.
Transfer: names borrow standing. EUvsDisinfo (the EU's East StratCom Task Force) noted on 9 October 2019 that EP Today used the European Parliament's name without authorisation and that the Parliament had written to it in September 2019.
Testimonial: MEP op-eds and a dead professor's name vouch for the material. Louis B. Sohn (1914 to 2006) is listed for a revived commission at a 2007 Council meeting and a 2011 Washington event.
Manufactured consensus: one op-ed becomes dozens of lookalike headlines. EU DisinfoLab traces a 17 September 2020 letter from individual MEPs through EU Chronicle and ANI to a network headline, "EU to take strong action on China". A single MEP's remark also appeared in Indian media as an EU position.

The European Parliament buildings in the Espace Leopold, Brussels: glass and stone office blocks

European Parliament buildings, Espace Léopold, Brussels, 23 February 2016, by Jordiferrer. CC BY-SA 4.0. Setting only: the institution whose name EP Today used.

What attribution rests on. Column A (documented): the shared servers, registrant emails and addresses linking EP Today, the New Delhi Times, IINS and the Srivastava Group; EP Today's syndication of RT and Voice of America; ANI's repackaging of EU Chronicle text; Sohn's listing after death. ANI's repackaging is documented; that it knew the sources were fabricated is not shown. Under the confidence scale in Method (how to file), the tie between the operation and the Srivastava Group is high: hosting and registration records plus independent Indian reporting, with the group silent. The tie to any state is not documented and is inferred at most. EU DisinfoLab wrote that it "could not come with enough evidence to do a formal attribution" and urged readers to refrain from naming Indian intelligence services. It listed three circumstantial points: a Srivastava-owned firm, Aglaya, whose 2014 brochure (reported by Vice in 2016) offered what the report calls information warfare services; ANI's long ties to Indian governments (reported by The Caravan); and a 2009 allegation, unverified here, that a group member threatened a UN speaker. This file makes no finding on state direction.

Evidence

2005. EU DisinfoLab dates the operation to 2005, when the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace (inactive since the late 1970s) was revived. Source: EU DisinfoLab, Indian Chronicles, 9 Dec 2020: https://www.disinfo.eu/publications/indian-chronicles-deep-dive-into-a-15-year-operation-targeting-the-eu-and-un-to-serve-indian-interests/ (summary: https://www.disinfo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Indian-chronicles_SUMMARY.pdf)
2018. MEPs and others visit the Maldives before its election. EP Today called them an "EU Delegation". The EU Delegation to Sri Lanka and the Maldives stated they travelled "in their private – not official – capacity". Maldives' ambassador to the EU complained. Source: EEAS, https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/sri-lanka/49624/eu-delegation-response-media-coverage-ep-today-article_en
9 Oct 2019. EUvsDisinfo analysed 17,697 EP Today articles (April 2017 to August 2019): 47% of items since 24 October 2018 were word-for-word RT copies, and 25 items (0.14%) came from MEPs or decision-makers. Four Facebook admins were in India. Source: https://euvsdisinfo.eu/how-to-get-the-european-parliament-to-read-russia-today/
27 to 29 Oct 2019. 27 MEPs tour Jammu and Kashmir after meeting the prime minister in Delhi on 28 October. A letter from Madi Sharma of the Women's Economic and Social Think Tank (WESTT) named IINS, a Srivastava organisation, as sponsor. The report, citing The Quint, says 22 of the 27 came from parties it calls far-right. The trip was described as taken in a personal capacity, not sponsored by the Indian government (Newslaundry, https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/10/29/whos-behind-the-obscure-ngo-sponsoring-the-european-union-delegation-to-kashmir).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a group photograph with Members of the European Parliament, New Delhi

28 October 2019, New Delhi: the prime minister with the visiting MEPs, the day before the Kashmir trip. Prime Minister's Office (India) via PIB, Government Open Data License - India. The photograph shows the meeting only; who sponsored the trip rests on the letter and reporting cited above.

26 Nov 2019. EU DisinfoLab, "Uncovered: 265 coordinated fake local media outlets": 265 outlets in 65+ countries, many named for extinct local papers. Times of Geneva and 4NewsAgency are tied by servers to EP Today. Full PDF, "Influencing Policymakers with Fake Media Outlets": https://www.disinfo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/20191213_InfluencingPolicymakers-with-Fake-media-outlets.pdf
9 Dec 2020. Main report: 750+ outlets in 116 countries (summary PDF; 119 on the report page), 550+ domain names, 10+ accredited NGOs, 11 MEPs writing or endorsing EU Chronicle op-eds within six months.
11 Dec 2020. India's Ministry of External Affairs: "India as a responsible country does not practise disinformation" (Tribune India, https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/no-role-in-disinformation-campaign-mea-183119). Pakistan's prime minister called the findings a vindication; Pakistan asked the Council to delist "10 fake NGOs" (Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/11/eu-ngo-report-uncovers-a-15-year-disinformation-campaign).
26 Jan 2021. The European Parliament's Special Committee on Foreign Interference hears EU DisinfoLab. Pakistani press reports an MEP asking how such a network could run independent of a state (Dunya News, https://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/585207-Indian-Chronicles-European-Parliament-MEPs-question-state-sponsorship). No Parliament or Commission finding on the report was located.
23 Feb 2023. EU DisinfoLab, "#BadSources": ANI quoted a think tank dissolved in 2014 about twice a week, plus personae the researchers could not find. Newslaundry reports over 200 quotes between May 2021 and January 2023. Source: https://www.disinfo.eu/publications/bad-sources-how-indian-news-agency-ani-quoted-sources-that-do-not-exist/
July 2024 to May 2025. ANI sues the Wikimedia Foundation in the Delhi High Court over a Wikipedia passage saying ANI "has been criticized for having served as a propaganda tool for the incumbent central government, distributing materials from a vast network of fake news websites" (The Diplomat, https://thediplomat.com/2024/09/will-indian-courts-tame-wikipedia/). On 9 May 2025 the Supreme Court set aside a takedown order (Columbia Global Freedom of Expression, https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/wikimedia-foundation-v-asian-news-international/). The sources opened show no ruling in the suit on the accuracy of EU DisinfoLab's findings.

Sides on the record

ANI: on 11 December 2020 its editor Smita Prakash tweeted that Pakistan "& its proxies" sought "to hurt ANI's credibility", and that partners "fully understand the politics that is behind all this" (Scroll.in). In February 2023 she called the #BadSources report "Defamatory and False" (Newslaundry). Al Jazeera (asking ANI) and the BBC (asking ANI and the Srivastava family, per Scroll.in) reported no reply at publication.
Casaca and Silva: in a right of reply EU DisinfoLab published on 15 January 2021, former MEP Paulo Casaca disputed elements as unsubstantiated and alleged an agenda. EU DisinfoLab corrected two passages, rejected the agenda claim and noted that he did not contest one domain registration. Former Canadian MP Mario Silva said in 2019 he had no connection to the groups named.
EU DisinfoLab's own caveat: the report says the same could be searched for on the Pakistani side and that it is "in no way a judgement of the situation of human rights in Pakistan".

Comparators on the same evidence base

Pakistan, 1 April 2019 (Facebook): 103 Pages, Groups and accounts (24 Pages, 57 accounts, 7 Groups, 15 Instagram accounts) that Facebook linked to employees of the military's media wing ISPR; about 2.8 million followers; about $1,100 in ads, first May 2015. India, same post: 687 Pages and accounts linked to individuals associated with an Indian National Congress IT cell (about 206,000 followers, about $39,000) and 15 assets linked to the firm Silver Touch (about 2.6 million Page followers, about $70,000). Facebook found no links among them and acted on behaviour, not content. Source: https://about.fb.com/news/2019/04/cib-and-spam-from-india-pakistan/ ; see Facebook's April 2019 takedowns in India: a Congress IT cell, a BJP-linked IT firm and a Pakistani military network.
Pakistan, 2011 to 2012 (US court): Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai pleaded guilty on 7 December 2011 and was sentenced on 30 March 2012 to 24 months for concealing that the Kashmiri American Council was funded, by at least $3.5 million, by Pakistani government officials including the ISI (US Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/vae/news/2012/03/20120330fainr.html). Pakistan's embassy said the government "had no knowledge of such an arrangement" (CBS News, 20 July 2011). Belgian broadcaster RTBF (Belga copy, undated) reported that a Brussels Kashmir Centre was monitored by Belgian state security, which regarded it as a screen for Pakistani intelligence: https://www.rtbf.be/info/belgique/detail_le-kashmir-centre-de-bruxelles-se-replie-a-londres?id=8033170
Scale and evidence differ. The Fai record is court-documented and names a state funder; Indian Chronicles rests on a research group's open-source analysis and names none. The Facebook removals are single-platform and behaviour-based; Indian Chronicles is mostly off-platform (websites, accreditations, a newswire). These are different cases with some of the same tells, not proof of equivalence.

What would falsify this read

A registry, hosting or DNS record showing the shared servers and registrant emails were not common to the Srivastava organisations. Evidence that ANI's items were commissioned wire copy it verified, or that the "experts" exist. A showing that the MEPs and Human Rights Council speakers knew, and said publicly, who supplied their platforms (which would shift the Testimonial and Astroturfing reads toward disclosed lobbying). A second research group failing to reproduce the domain and server links. Documents showing a state client would move the colour and the attribution; documents showing none would keep it at private-group level.

Literacy counter

Before repeating a "European" or "UN" source, check its masthead, its named staff and whether they exist elsewhere. Look up an NGO's accreditation history and whether its recent activity matches its founding purpose. Read a headline against the underlying letter: one MEP's letter is not the Parliament's position. Count a network of look-alike local sites as one source. Apply the same checks to every side's lobbying, and keep the finding on who ran a network apart from any view of the underlying dispute.

Indian Chronicles:revived NGOs, look-alike outlets and a newswire relay (2005 to 2023)