It was one of those delicious conspiracy theories that took on a life of its own in only a matter of days, thanks to social media. And it continues to spread widely, even though Saman Habib, daughter of historian Irfan Habib, has denied that she is married to the author of a Moody’s Analytics report warning the Indian government against growing intolerance in the country.


Shortly after the report was released on Friday, Bharatiya Janata Party supporters began to suggest that Faraz Syed, who wrote the report, was actually Habib's son-in-law. In recent months, the respected academician has been very critical of what he perceives to be the growing climate of intolerance in the country. In a speech on Monday had compared the BJP's ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, to the Islamic State militant group.


Syed's alleged relationship with Habib was seen as further evidence of the historian's malevolent campaign against the ruling party.


Moody’s Analytics, an economic research and analysis firm that works independently of its credit rating wing, had released a report on Friday, warning that rising tensions in India could harm its economic prospects.

“While Modi has largely distanced himself from the nationalist gibes, the belligerent provocation of various Indian minorities has raised ethnic tensions,” Syed wrote. “Along with a possible increase in violence, the government will face stiffer opposition in the Upper House as debate turns away from economic policy. Modi must keep his members in check or risk losing domestic and global credibility.”

On Wednesday, the government issued a petulant press note painting the report as a “personal opinion” of a junior analyst and criticising the manner in which the media had reported the Moody's warning.

Yet back on Twitter, users were still furiously repeating another canard.  Noted BJP supporter and columnist Tavleen Singh joined the fray early.

Soon after, Rupa Subramanya, a Twitter user who is popular with Modi supporters,  retweeted this with a rider.



And there were many others.



 



By Wednesday night, no less than the Bharatiya Janata Party national secretary Sidharth Nath Singh had appeared on a Times Now television debate, blaring this alleged relationship to viewers.


Saman Habib’s statement should ideally put an end to these rumours. Yet an entire day after she posted it, there are still people on Twitter convinced that Irfan Habib hatched a plot with his son-in-law (or grandson, or son) Faraz Syed (or "Mr Moody") to write a report that would appear to originate from an internationally renowned rating agency but was actually a strategy by the Congress (or paid press) to embarrass the Modi government.

Where it really started

As people began to share Habib’s Facebook post, they began to ask where the rumour could have emerged. Some blamed Subramanya, who while a convenient target, was only repeating Tavleen Singh’s thoughts.

On October 31, the day the Moody’s Analytics report was released, user Rati Parker posed a question on Twitter:

But as is the nature of Twitter, the rumour began, perhaps, with people who did not read a question mark. Within minutes, people had begun to retweet the question as fact. In an hour, people transformed Syed into Habib’s grandson, then son, before finally settling on the original son-in-law of Parker’s original tweet. Five days later, that question has been retweeted 300 times.

Parker is no Twitter lightweight. She has over 25,000 followers, including Narendra Modi. At 12.21 on Thursday, she clarified that she had seen the statement posted on Facebook first, and seemed to have changed her mind.

She should have perhaps looked at the timeline of Saman Habib's husband Amit Misra.