Thread by @NoopurTiwari

#Thread for BOTH SIDE-ist journalists: 

1. You are not from BOTH SIDES, right? 
2. BOTH SIDES narrative feeds into and comes from archaic communal fears and biases.
3. Structural oppression is not faced by BOTH sides. You kind of know that? But then you forget too often. 1/n

4. Police not instructed to watch lynching, arson, passively for benefit of murderous goons on BOTH SIDES
5. Even murderers don’t expect pple to get quietly massacred. BOTH SIDES have the right to life.
6. Acts of self-defence not "violence" even when involve physical force. 2/n

7. Avoid internalising majoritarian labelling of dissenting people and minorities as "violent".
8. Gratuitous violence begets justified retaliation and some (not all) see it as last resort to reclaiming dignity. 3/n

9. Why is "who started it" central to your report and why should the ambit of this analysis of "where it began" start and end with the current spate of violence and not with the manufacturing of hate at so many other levels that PREDATE it? 4/n

10. If ultra conscientious about being “fair” in your journalism abdicate your upper caste Hindu privilege and let a Muslim reporter anchor your show (tho will they really be able to do their work freely. So, unfair advantage not BOTH SIDES but only on yours?) 5/5

PS: Yeah. Some of us not “on the ground”. You there only in the aftermath. When fires have turned to ash. Besides you’ve never been on ground where a powerful “side” oppresses you everyday of your life for yrs for your caste/religion/colour. You’re disqualified too. What now?