Why is social media rife with conspiracy theories about ‘rail jihad’?

On Sunday, the railway police in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh arrested two men for a failed attempt at stealing an iron pole. In a press note, the police said that the two men, Sandeep Chauhan and Vijendra, were addicts who regularly committed minor thefts to buy alcohol and drugs.

Last Wednesday, they started to carry away a pole from railway property. But as a train approached, they fled, leaving the pole on the tracks.

On the face of it, this would appear to be a case of petty crime. But several news websites ran a report by the Press Trust of India news agency citing officials claiming that this was a case of sabotage. TV news anchors also claimed that an attempt at sabotage had been foiled.

These reports appeared after social media posts by Hindutva supporters asserting that the pole had been placed on the tracks as a conspiracy against the railways to cause an accident.

#SRPMoradabad के निर्देशन में #जीआरपी_रामपुर द्वारा थाना जीआरपी रामपुर पर पंजीकृत मु0अ0सं0 22/2024 धारा 150 रेलवे अधिनियम व 303(2) बीएनएस में वांछित 02 अभियुक्तों को गिरफ्तार किया गया।@Uppolice@upgrp_grp pic.twitter.com/pOz2QKQjtR— SP GRP Moradabad (@spgrpmoradabad) September 22, 2024

This was not an isolated instance. Over the past few weeks, many claims about sabotage and conspiracy against the railways have appeared both in...

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