Who Is “Badruddin Rashid”? The Manufactured Identity Being Used to Silence Dhruv Rathee.
The same lie, the same photo, the same agenda — but a new election season. Here’s the truth behind the coordinated campaign to destroy Dhruv Rathee’s credibility.
YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, one of the most vocal critics of the RSS and the Modi government, is once again facing a coordinated smear campaign online. Right-wing social media accounts are spreading claims that he is a Pakistani spy who receives foreign funding to produce content targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The same posts that circulated during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections have resurfaced now, timed once again to coincide with another election cycle. What is the truth behind these allegations?
Dhruv Rathee built his reputation as an uncompromising critic of the Modi government. His sharp commentary on government policies and the mainstream media — which he refers to as “Godi Media” — sparked nationwide conversations. He brought to light political issues that mainstream Indian outlets were reluctant to cover, and during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, his videos targeting the BJP went massively viral. Indians both inside the country and abroad flocked to his channel, making him one of the fastest-growing voices in Indian political commentary.
His videos on demonetization, the farmers’ protests, and corruption allegations surrounding the Bihar elections drew millions of views. His pointed questioning of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Modi is widely believed to have had a significant impact on the 2024 general election outcome.
Naturally, Rathee became a prime target for the far right. His social media accounts came under government scrutiny, and Sangh Parivar-linked handles have relentlessly attacked him. There have been repeated attempts across various phases to suppress and block his content online. Now, as another election approaches, that same campaign has returned — once again driven through right-wing pages.
The latest wave of posts alleges that Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has revealed Dhruv Rathee to be a Pakistani citizen living under the protection of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. The posts further claim that his real name is Badruddin Rashid, that he is funded by foreign sources, and that his content is part of a coordinated effort to destabilize India and undermine Modi.
These posts have been widely circulating since early April on most right-wing Kerala Facebook pages, including ones like “Kavi Puthaykunna Bharatham,” as well as numerous private accounts. A Facebook account called “True Thinkers,” with over 128,000 members, posted this content on April 1st. Another account known for sharing communally charged content — “Bahudeiva Vishwasi Matrame Mathetharan” — also shared the same post. It further appeared on the “Rajeev Chandrasekhar BJP Kerala Team” Facebook page, which has around 65,000 members.
The post has received 349 likes, 124 shares, and 77 comments. The comment section is filled with deeply inflammatory remarks — “Both are traitors,” “He should be hanged for sedition,” “You can tell just by looking at him — ISI product.” Others wrote, “Everyone knows these people are extremists,” and similar sentiments. All accounts are sharing the identical text alongside the same photo — a clear sign of coordinated copy-paste distribution.
A reverse image search revealed that the photo currently being circulated has been making the rounds for years. The English version of the same content was circulated in previous years. The same allegations appeared during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and the posts resurfaced again in 2025 — mostly on X (formerly Twitter). One post on X claimed that Dhruv Rathee’s real name is Badru Rashid and that he was born in Lahore — this was spotted on September 17, 2025. That same post was shared through an account with over 17,000 followers, tagging both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, and garnered over 600,000 views. The post also claimed that his wife’s name is Sulaikhah and that she too is Pakistani, and that the account operates on foreign funding. In other words, the Malayalam posts currently circulating are simply translated versions of what was being spread in English in previous years.
The posts claim that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency released a report exposing Rathee’s true identity. However, a thorough investigation by OBC found no such report anywhere online. There are no official news reports, press releases, or any verifiable source that corroborates the existence of this so-called Mossad report.
Rathee himself addressed these false claims back in April 2024, stating clearly that the propaganda was fabricated by people who were unable to counter the substance of his videos. He responded to this on April 29, 2024, and several news outlets reported on it at the time, including a May 2024 Hindustan Times report.
Major media organizations including the Times of India and Al Jazeera have extensively profiled Rathee, describing him as the Indian establishment’s most prominent digital critic. Al Jazeera detailed how Rathee, once an admirer of Narendra Modi, gradually became one of the government’s sharpest critics after observing its failures.
According to a July 2024 Times of India report, he holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a postgraduate degree in Renewable Energy from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, where he currently lives.
His partner’s name is Julie. She is a German national, and the couple married in Vienna in 2021.
What we are seeing now is nothing more than a recurring cycle of election-season cyber attacks against Dhruv Rathee. Since 2024, right-wing accounts have been consistently recycling the same content at calculated intervals. OBC’s investigation found that the information being spread has never been confirmed by any official media outlet or verifiable data source — making this a clear and deliberate disinformation campaign.
(This is an AI-assisted translation of an article originally written in Malayalam, produced under editorial supervision).
