Tweet thread re Op-Ed pieces and essays following the #JNUTerrorAttack
1. Wriring in @IndianExpress @pbmehta argues that India's democracy is imperiled by the violent crackdown on dissent.
indianexpress.com/article/opinio…
But there is a new twist now
1. Wriring in @IndianExpress @pbmehta argues that India's democracy is imperiled by the violent crackdown on dissent.
indianexpress.com/article/opinio…
But there is a new twist now
It is the co-option of self appointed vigilantes with a grudge (against so called 'leftists', 'intellectuals' anyone sho does not toe the line) to carry out the violence, and the co-option of the Police to facilitate the attacks: 
This is not hyperbole: Listen to this self-styled leader of Hindu Raksha Dal (Hindu Defence Party). He is openly admitting that his group's members were (at least some of) the masked men who carried out the terrorist attack on #JNU.
His sheer brazen impunity can only suggest that he enjoys the patronage of the highest authority in the land.
Then there is this brave and frank editorial in @the_hindu.
thehindu.com/opinion/editor…. I'll post screen shots of it here:
Then there is this brave and frank editorial in @the_hindu.
thehindu.com/opinion/editor…. I'll post screen shots of it here:
@the_hindu editorial goes on:
And then:
And finally, @the_hindu demands:
There is a clear preponderance of evidence that the 5 Jan Terror that was unleashed on #JNU was commissioned by the BJP and that it had the connivance and complicity of the Police. This is not possible without the advance knowledge and sanction of the highest authority in India.
Of course we'll never get the 'Smoking Gun' kind of clinching evidence that will establish this beyond reasonable doubt. It will probably never go to trial. That's because those who might have gathered the evidence are themselves complicit.
Then there was this piece in @TIME by Madhav Khosla, an acdemic in Law and Politics from Columbia U and Ashoka U. He sees it as clinching evidence that the present rulers of India seek to redefine both India and what it means to be Indian. It's an epochal struggle.
He defines 2 fundamental changes taking place: One is the now familiar denigration of any thing that has to do with the secular ideal. Religion and religious identity is centre stage and there has to be an heirarchy of religions.
The second stage is the use of extra-constitutional force and violence often by op-opted self=appointed vigilante armies that have tacit support and are even sanctioned by the state because they support the new religious heirarchy.
The parallel with colonialism is eerily frightening. If General Dyer saw no regret in shooting dead hundreds of unarmed civilians in #JalianwalaBagh it was because he saw them as a mob that had disobeyed a curfew order. They could not be allowed to challenge the King's authority
Under Modi, India has gone one step further than under Indira Gandhi's Emergency Rule. Then the Press was censored suppressed. Now the print and TV media has been co-opted, controlled and coerced into doing PR FOR the Govt Party and to question the Opposition.
