As the film The Kashmir Files by director Vivek Agnihotri gains traction in theatres, the left-liberal cabal is attempting to discredit it as propaganda and using whatever means imaginable to minimise the atrocities endured by Kashmiri Pandits. The open-source encyclopaedia Wikipedia plays a critical role in defining the narrative for the left-liberal segment of society and media. TrangaBellam, the left-wing Wikipedia contributor who vandalised author Vikram Sampath’s Wikipedia page, is now targeting the Kashmir Files Wiki page.
TrangaBellam made 23 modifications to the film’s Wikipedia page in the last 50 days, according to the Revision History. Please keep in mind that the list was compiled about 5 p.m. IST on March 14. The Revision History of a Wikipedia article changes constantly based on how editors add, remove, or reverse changes. Over 100 of the 250 additions made by the same editor between March 13 and March 14 were related to the Kashmir Files.
Several Wiki editors accused him of being biased towards the film and said he was eliminating real good ratings while adding negative ones to the Wiki page. OpIndia investigated the conversation between the editors and uncovered some startling revelations.
TrangaBellam was found to have reversed modifications made by a user called Krish, among others, on Wikipedia many times. When Krish protested to the alterations, TrangaBellam advised him to use Wikipedia’s Dispute Resolution Requests or Administrators’ noticeboard/Incidents (ANI), and then mentioned that he had previously kept a watch on Krish’s edits.
Krish started the discussion by calling out TrangaBellam and said, “The two editors who are editing this article with bias and with no regard to Wikipedia rules and it’s a clear case of I Don’t Like It. This is appalling and a red signal for the NPOV stance of Wikipedia guidelines.” He sought support from another editor and added, “How do you describe the film as such without no source actually saying that the film has received “negative reviews” and is a “propaganda” film? This is highly suspicious.”
TrangaBellam had replied to him and asked him to approach ANI as he did not care. He further said, “Though this is the last article, that I am editing, before taking a break from S. Asian discourse, I have no intentions of ceding ground to long-idle POV pushers; your edits across the last few years have not escaped my attention.”
Generally, if a website gets blacklisted, it is not used as a source for any Wikipedia entry. Shahid specifically called out for making changes that fit into his preferred version. he said, “While I do not want to comment on the hostility between the two editors – the great problem here is with the film article The Kashmir Files, which has been highly unstable over the past few days. TrangaBellam has reverted the article to their own preferred version numerous times, with no consensus and clear opposition on the talk page. That’s what should matter here and what I would ask admins to take note of.”
However, in this case, TrangaBellam claimed even if a website was blacklisted, it could be used as a source and said, “Individual articles by independently notable critics can be whitelisted.” He renowned Desai, who wrote the review on Film Companion as a “notable critic”, and stated for that reason his article could be used as a source.
Interestingly, while stating the reason for removing India Today’s review, TrangaBellam said, “India Today’s reliability is increasingly suspect, and neither is Narula, a film critic nor has she reviewed any other film for any publication.” The review was written by Chaiti Narula, deputy editor and news anchor at India Today. Narula has been in the field of a journalist since 2008 and has over 14 years of experience in the field. TrangaBellam further added, “If I am not wrong, there was some discussion at WT:INB about India Today’s falling standards under the Modi Regime.”
This is not the first time Wikipedia editors showed biased against the non-left section of Indian society. The same editor TrangaBellam was accused of being biased towards the leftist Hinduphobic and Aurangzeb apologist professor Audrey Truschke. From time to time, OpIndia has reported such bias of Wikipedia. As a matter of fact, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, who is no longer with the organisation now, had said on several occasions that Wikipedia is not trustworthy as it has been taken over by leftists who reject content that does not fit their agenda.
