I have noticed that the Indian media establishment closes ranks remarkably. Vir Sanghvi, Tarun Tejpal, MJ Akbar, etc etc. Now Arnab. Western media readily call out each other's sins. Indian media, except for a few upstarts, is right out of a Madhur Bhandarkar movie.
https://twitter.com/asmitaghosh18/status/1350385567725359105
They closed ranks around Vir Sanghvi so completely and complicitly that every time I say something about him, a bunch of folks are like "what wrong did sanghvi ever do?".
That's the level of whitewashing and willful ignorance in the Indian media about their own.
That's the level of whitewashing and willful ignorance in the Indian media about their own.
I'll still have otherwise intelligent and principled people in my mentions making excuses for that Sanghvi with "but he writes well yaar...Yes yes he lies.. But writes well...Yes..No facts but you must admit, intriguing hypothesis.. well he isn't a scientist. Writes well..."
Indian culture has a huge willful blind spot about things like collusion, plagiarism, cheating in exams, giving and taking bribes, and any kind of moral lapse. "Hota hai yaar". When I was at Penn State, a desi grad student was caught in an online pedophile sting. The reaction...
..from many on the desi mail group was, "what's the big deal? He wasn't stalking. She invited him. She wasn't even 15. But rather a 25 year old cop. Such mistakes happen. Should not destroy life over error of judgment."
Even pedophilia can be explained away.
Even pedophilia can be explained away.
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