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P. Sainath

@PSainath_org

Jul 14

1/8. Most Indians see the Big Fat Indian Wedding as a national achievement and are not put off by it, according to TV commentary, including on BBC. Really? Did BBC, anyone, do a poll/survey of most Indians? People hit the streets for what they see as a national achievement – like to greet the returning T20 world cup winning team. Anyone seen Mumbaikars dancing on the streets to celebrate the Ambani wedding? #ambaniwedding #psainath

2/8. In our decades-old ongoing agrarian crisis, lakhs of weddings in farming communities have collapsed. In one year, Maharashtra officially recorded more than 3 lakh families in just six districts with daughters whose marriages they could not afford. That was a factor in some farmer suicides – followed in some cases by the suicides of the daughters, feeling responsible for their fathers’ deaths. I doubt the countryside sees the BFIW as a national achievement. #ambaniwedding #psainath

3/8. Sure, there’s celebration in some media. You know who India’s biggest media baron is. Those media Mukesh Ambani does not own – he’s likely the biggest advertiser. And this is the era of Editor/ Anchor as Event Manager. There may be dancing in some TV studios, and breathless prose in print. What stands out is the absence of an iota of embarrassment in the wedding’s hosts and their celebrity guests both national and global – only the arrogance of excess, and a scarcity of shame. This crowd manages to give vulgarity a bad name. On this occasion, though, there was some stout scepticism on social media. #ambaniwedding #psainath

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P. Sainath

@PSainath_org

Jun 5

1/5. And so the BJP lost the Faizabad (Ayodhya) Lok Sabha seat. Has Lord Ram fought his last electoral battle for them? Or did he resent being politicized for cheap partisan gain? Or maybe he figured out who the ten-headed monster really was?
#ElectionsResults

2/5. Truth: the seat has never been all that favourable to the BJP. In 1989, even as the mandir agitation raged, the Faizabad LS seat went to Mitrasen Yadav of the Communist Party of India (CPI). He faced more than one assassination attempt.
#ElectionsResults

3/5. The Akbarpur segment of the Faizabad constituency would return to the assembly a CPI(M) candidate named, yes – Babar! That year (devout) voters told me they didn’t mind those two being from godless parties – at least these guys can be impartial, they said.
#ElectionsResults

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P. Sainath

@PSainath_org

Apr 23

1/6. Tata Institute of Social Sciences suspension of Dalit scholar P. S. Ramadas for alleged ‘anti-national’ activity is appalling. This must mark the lowest point TISS has seen in its distinguished history in both leadership and action.#TISS #DALIT

2/6. To one who has been part of and later followed student activity on Indian university campuses for 50 years, Ramadas signifies the finest trend – that of the conscious, informed, student who always connects to the society around him with sensitivity and empathy. #TISS #DALIT

3/6. The peculiarly vicious and vindictive action of the present TISS authorities damages an otherwise highly respected institution more than it does Ramadas. Their claims of what are ‘anti-national’ activities are a dead giveaway. #TISS #DALIT

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P. Sainath

@PSainath_org

Jun 7, 2023

1/6. ‘Tipu Sultan was the only prince who died fighting the British… With (his death) Indian Independence was extinguished for a century and a half.’ Not quotes from Karnataka’s new government but from a BJP founder-member. Story link at end of thread.
#Karnataka #TipuSultan

2/6. BJP founder-member and foremost RSS journalist K.R. Malkani wrote decades ago: ‘The more I read about Tipu, the more I am impressed with his rich personality.’ His heartfelt praise of Tipu appears in his book ‘India First’ (Ocean Books 2002).
#Karnataka #TipuSultan

3/6. K. R. Malkani was Vice President of BJP from 1991-94. And editor of the RSS weekly Organiser for 35 years, while also editor of its Hindi counterpart Panchjanya. No other RSS man ever climbed such heights. L.K. Advani wrote the foreword to his book.
#Karnataka #TipuSultan

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P. Sainath

@PSainath_org

Aug 14, 2022

1/8. Was Independence the gift of a few Oxbridge elites? As Gandhi put it, not great men, but ‘the people themselves are the cause’ of revolutions. My book The Last Heroes: Footsoldiers of Indian Freedom (Penguin) out in November, looks at 16 such people.
#IndependenceDay2022

2/8. In the next 5-6 years, there will not be a single person alive who fought for this country’s freedom. Our new generations will never get to meet, see, speak, or listen to India’s freedom fighters. Never directly learn who they were, what they fought for.
#IndependenceDay2022

3/8. The youngest freedom fighter in this book is 92, the oldest 104. Ordinary people who stood up to the British, unsure if they would ever see the freedom they fought for. They never went on to be ministers, governors, presidents, or hold other high office.
#IndependenceDay2022

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P. Sainath

@PSainath_org

Jun 28, 2022

1/7. Home Minister Amit Shah recently declared that “No one can stop us from writing history anew” (ToI June 11). The outrageous arrest of Teesta Setalvad shows we’re not just rewriting the past. But our contemporary era and present as well.
#TeestaSetalvad #MohammedZubair

2/7. So all we knew about the Gujarat riots was wrong. Especially about who the victims really were and who the villains. A human rights activist who has stood by and fought for the (real) victims for 20 years now pays the price of her ‘audacity.’
#TeestaSetalvad #MohammedZubair

3/7. The efforts of Teesta and her team led to 117 perpetrators of the Gujarat riots of 2002 being handed life sentences by trial courts. Including a former MLA and minister. Perhaps we’ll now see the rewriting of those judgements and sentences.
#TeestaSetalvad #MohammedZubair

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