Popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee has been featured on the list of TIME Magazine‘s ‘next generation leaders 2023’. Rathee has been named for his “fact-checking” work and presenting “educational content” on various topics through his channel, which has over 13 million subscribers and features more than 500 videos.
Using social media platform X to celebrate the news on Friday, Rathee posted, “TIME Magazine’s Next Generation Leaders 2023. I’m honoured to be included in this prestigious list and proud to represent India internationally. Thank you.”
It is noteworthy to mention that TIMES had negatively insinuated Hindu as “groups” in the Nuh violence while underplaying the role of Muslim mobs as “Muslim residents” who were instrumental in instigating the violence.
This fake news peddler @dhruv_rathee is getting space in Time magazine for Fact-checking Indian media💁
— Vijay Patel🇮🇳 (@vijaygajera) October 6, 2023
Article written by @astharajvanshi
Just look how she is Hinduphobic.
According to her, Hindus who participated in the religious rally with children and old age people are… pic.twitter.com/EpjVroqAyj
Rathee is known as one of the young critics of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government. His content often includes critiques of government policies, political parties, and public figures. He has been hailed as the next generation of progressive and left-leaning thinkers and due to his popularity, he is now a darling of the I.N.D.I Alliance because he has been critical of the BJP’s government actions and policies in India.
Dhruv Rathee gained a lot of prominence when he created several videos discussing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which Congress and other so-called secular parties and several Muslim organizations called a controversial piece of legislation.
The CAA was passed in December 2019 and grants a path to Indian citizenship for religious minorities (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians) from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014. However, it does not include Muslims.
Rathee in his YouTube channel criticized the law, as he assumed that it had a potential impact on India’s secular principles and the rights of Muslims. He also talked about his perspectives on the protests that took place across India in response to the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which is seen by many as being closely linked to the CAA.
This is where his ideology blinded his judgment and he started calling the CAA as anti-Muslim. But in reality, CAA was enacted as a law intended to protect persecuted religious minorities in neighboring countries, while critics, like Rathee, argue that it discriminates against Muslims and goes against India’s secular and inclusive principles.
A vlogger with a pro-Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stance, he released an analysis of the Delhi Riots on March 3, 2020, via a YouTube video. Nonetheless, Rathee’s analysis relies on sources that have faced public criticism for their inaccurate reporting, and he also omits significant details about the riots in his assessment.
He had also peddled fake news about the BJP during the Bengal elections saying that only the BJP was campaigning while giving clean chit to TMC, Congress and Left parties.
As a young person who is able to articulate in front of a camera, Dhruv Rathee soon gained significant followers on YouTube and now he is considered an important source of knowledge and information. Now since he has been recognised by Time Magazine, Rathee will now gain international recognition and become the darling of the woke brigade.