A photo showing a list of the world's ‘20 Deadliest Terror Groups’ released by the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP), a think tank headquartered in Australia, is viral claiming the Communist Party of India was termed a terrorist outfit.
BOOM found that the IEP had mistakenly added the CPI and later rectified the same by removing its name and clarifying that it had included Communist Party of India (Maoist) in the list of the '20 Deadliest Terror Groups Of 2022'.
Several media outlets including the digital wing of Republic TV, Republic World published stories regarding the initial report and did not later update it with the clarification.
View the archived article here.
News sites such as News Bharati and Kerala Kaumudi also did not update their articles stating that it was a mistake by IEP.
The graphic is being shared on Twitter with text claiming ‘20 Deadliest Terror Groups Of 2022’ which shows the Communist Party of India ranked 12 in the list.
Pratheesh Viswanath, founder of Hindu Sevakendra tweeted the image and said, “Congratulations Communist Party of India for being named in top 20 deadliest terror groups of 2022. Your name is found amoung your sister concerns ie jehadi outfits. Try to be in top 10 next time.”
Click here to view the Tweet and here for an archived link.
The same graphic is being shared on Facebook with the caption as, “Institute for Economic and Peace (IEP), Australia. 20 Deadliest Terror Groups of 2022. Take a relook at the 12th in list.”
Fact Check
BOOM ran a keyword search with the phrase, ‘Global Terrorism Index 2023’ and found the latest report released in March, 2023 on the website of IEP.
On page number 12, we can see a list of total ‘20 Deadliest Terror Groups Of 2022’, where it has ranked the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
See the full list here.
BOOM found a Twitter reply on March 17, by IEP Global Peace Index where it clarified that the CPI's name was mislabelled in the list.
The tweet reads, “The GTI report utilises Dragonfly's Terrorism Tracker data and incorporated the terminology used in their database, which mislabelled the Communist Party of India as it did not include the correct (Maoist) attribution.”
“As soon as we were made aware of this mistake, we took immediate action and corrected the report to accurately reflect the title of Communist Party of India (Maoist).” IEP said in their second tweet.
The list also includes the Islamic State followed by the Al-Shabab and Islamic State - Khorasan Province (ISK).
According to reports, the Ministry of Home Affairs banned the CPI(Maoist) organisation in 2009.
Communist parties in India
India has several communist parties which take part in the electoral process. Among them the CPI(M) was formed in Calcutta from October 31 to November 7, 1964 at the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of India. The party is currently heading a state government in Kerala. It also has representation in Legislative assemblies in the states of Kerala, Tripura, Bihar, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra & Assam.
Besides, the CPI(M) other major communist parties are Communist Party of India (CPI) (oldest among them), All India Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist Party (India) and Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation.
BOOM has reached to IEP for their response, the article will be updated upon receiving one.