10th Feb 2020 was marked by the confrontation between #JamiaProtests participants & #DelhiPolice. This thread attempts to pick through how differing narratives were framed over the the day, as journalists, eye witnesses & protestors posted opinions, photos & video...
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ICYMI, this report summarizes the incident. Ironically (as you will realize), it uses the word "Lathicharge"...
news.abplive.com/news/india/jam…
news.abplive.com/news/india/jam…
A section of Twitter obsessed over it but strangely not about the actual clash itself. Instead the debate was about whether there was a lathicharge, & was triggered this tweet by @IndianMuslimahs at 4:19pm...
Perhaps the eye of the storm was @Zebaism's response at 4:30pm contesting their post, unequivocally saying there was no violence. It was weaponized by others to discredit any tweet reporting the use of violent force on protestors... 
.@Zebaism then tweeted a few times over the next 2 hours, ambivalently. Suffocation. Hurt in pushing. No violence. Hurt by chaos. Hurt by cops pushing back. She also retweeted several others who defended her 4:30pm tweet & her credibility...
At 8:09pm, a @Zebaism thread admitted force by police but re-iterated that there ws "no lathicharge". Concluded saying tht early posts by others claiming lathi-charge & panic suggested "widespread violence" & "excessive police brutality", both untrue...
Noteworthy is the stark contrast in engagement stats for her original tweet & the subsequent clarificatory thread. Don't know the precise time at which the screenshot of the original tweet was taken (tweet was live for 6 hrs): it had 1929 retweets/4450 likes...
The clarification has, ~72 hours after posting, 141 retweets/276 likes. Clearly the original tweet had been widely used, and because of the content, mostly misused...
At 10:18pm, she acknowledged that her 4:30pm tweet, which she apparently wrote to quell panic, was being used to falsify victims' testimonies and so would be deleted...
.@Zebaism's credentials & credibility aren't in doubt, but questions of
Why she felt she ought to authoritatively assert there wasn't violence & ask @IndianMuslimahs not to mislead
Why clarification emphasized "no lathi-charge" as if exculpatory of original "no violence"
linger..
Why she felt she ought to authoritatively assert there wasn't violence & ask @IndianMuslimahs not to mislead
Why clarification emphasized "no lathi-charge" as if exculpatory of original "no violence"
linger..
Then there were others:
Too much perhaps to expect @ANI coverage. Their only tweet on the subject at 6:06pm states that police have "stopped" protestors near an Okhla hospital and are "requesting" them to return to Jamia Gate 7...
Too much perhaps to expect @ANI coverage. Their only tweet on the subject at 6:06pm states that police have "stopped" protestors near an Okhla hospital and are "requesting" them to return to Jamia Gate 7...
.@DevjyotGhoshal, Reuters, wrote a thread that began and ended with "No lathi-charge or chemical substances". Can't find a story filed on Reuters India that covers the incident...
.@mohdasgar6, Navbharat Times, said there was no lathi-charge. Some protestors fainted and others were injured as they were being brought down from atop the barricades...
.@AnyaShankar, The Indian Express, said there was no lathi-charge. Police used "mild force" and "raised lathis/batons."...
.@TanushreePande, India Today/Aaj Tak, said there was "no lathicharge on all protestors. Protestors in front-line were hit with lathis by cops"...
Others (too many to include) pitched in too, broadly saying that they know what a lathi-charge is, and this was not one...
Inexplicably then, the focus was on whether there was a lathi-charge. The incident itself merely the background to what was a different subject altogether.
Simultaneously, there were others also reporting on the incident (Pande later wrote an article too)...
Simultaneously, there were others also reporting on the incident (Pande later wrote an article too)...
.@saahilmenghani, CNN News18, posted a student's description of what happened & a video in which police can be seen bringing lathis down on protestors...
Here is a student, Chanda Yadav, talking of beatings and other violence, posted by @bushrakhanum86...
An Al Shifa Hospital doctor describes the condition in which 16 victims arrived at the hospital, posted by @PadmajaJoshi...
Tanushree Pande's article in @IndiaToday detailed allegations that protestors, many female, were beaten below the belt so that cameras wouldn't capture the beatings...
indiatoday.in/india/story/fe…
indiatoday.in/india/story/fe…
Writing in @mpostdigital, @zafarabbaszaidi summarized different techniques used by the police in the confrontation, based on conversations with the victims...
millenniumpost.in/delhi/spray-an…
millenniumpost.in/delhi/spray-an…
.@PoorviGupta08 of @SheThePeople posted that 34 victims were treated at the Al Shifa hospital and described the violent tactics reported by those still in care...
Her report later appeared on the She The People website...
shethepeople.tv/news/delhi-pol…
shethepeople.tv/news/delhi-pol…
The accusation of the police using some kind of toxic chemical spray was also reported in @Telegraph UK who quoted a doctor from Al Shifa Hospital (full article requires subscription/registration)...
telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/1…
telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/1…
@Telegraph .@MedicAidSupport reported 5 people talking of some kind of chemical, and welcomes any other related observations...
There are literally dozens of accounts that posted text, audio and photographs testifying to the injuries suffered by protestors in the front-line of the march. Virtually no one now disputes that violence occurred & protestors were injured...
The puzzling focus on lathi-charge seems to have happened as one person walked back an emphatic assertion of no violence, followed up by others. Medical confirmation/denial of "chemical usage" still awaited..
In no way does this ascribe ulterior motives to anyone. We cd tho' bear in mind tht the path to Twitter purgatory is paved with hasty/ill-composed tweets. Twitter hell is already well populated with You Know Who.
h/t to @Shudraism, @Phoenix19942, @SwalihaAsiya for help compiling
h/t to @Shudraism, @Phoenix19942, @SwalihaAsiya for help compiling
