Artistes & activists launch website to ’expose’ Modi, name it Pheku

Mangalore Today/India Today

New Delhi, August 23, 2013: After anti-BJP parties, the country’s civil society has taken on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in cyberspace. 

The new attack on the BJP leader comes via a website dedicated to "expose the daily scented droppings of a PR machine" apparently working for Modi.

Named Pheku, a popular Twitter hashtag used to describe Modi, the site went live on Friday.

 

"Pheku.in is a collective effort at producing not just breaking news and stories related to Gujarat but to serve also as a cleaning house for a vast array of material available on the internet," said the website’s sponsors in a message.

It also boldly lists the names of people who are sponsoring the site. They range from journalists to filmmakers and professors to actors.


Some are well-known names such as actor Naseeruddin Shah, poet Ashok Vajpayee, activists Harsh Mander and Kavita Krishnan, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and artist Vivan Sundaram.

They said the project "began in small discussions in several cities, over emails and social networks, and will grow because of the thousands who feel the same need to examine and shine the cold white light of truth on the man and his lies."

 

Pheku.in resembles a usual news website, with series of stories that are critical of the Gujarat government led by Modi.

These are put under categories such as ’scams/blunders’, ’economy/development’ and ’communalism/hatred’.

There are also many caricatures, videos and posters mocking the BJP leader, targeting him for the 2002 Gujarat riots.

"This is an attempt to open up a secular, democratic, non-dogmatic and enlightened space in our democracy," said Amit Sengupta, a journalist and a sponsor of website, said.

He said the website was being launched from 15 cities across the country.

Earlier this month, another such website Fekuexpress.com, mocking at the BJP leader, was launched, apparently by the Congress. 

The website promised visitors two tickets to the film Chennai Express if they could guess which of Modi’s "earlier lies" will he repeat in his next speech.

It offered a list of claims Modi has apparently made in his speeches with rebuttals to each of them.


Log in: www.pheku.in