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Vasundhara Sirnate

@vsirnate

29 Jan

I have no idea what this is doing In The Indian govt’s Economic Survey but ok let’s go scratch our backs against a tree.

I think the 800 odd migrant workers who died because they were stranded in the heat without transport or food would disagree with this opening para of the Indian govt’s economic survey.

Bayesian updating? They most certainly didn’t do any updation. Ye log samjhe hain ki yehi log gamewa theory pade hain kya?#EconomicSurvey2021

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Vasundhara Sirnate

@vsirnate

29 Jan

Just a thought. The damage to institutions in a decade of BJP rule will have been so thorough and awful, that whoever comes next will have to have a road map to build them back up. And I’m not sure we have those sorts of visionaries in India anymore.

India was built on the foundation of accommodative politics and coercion. Now it’s just pure coercion and bullying. There is massive distrust in all state institutions and rightly so, given how they no longer act independently of the ruling ideology.

I personally don’t think the BJP regime will last. But who knows.

What worries me at night is how to build India back and restore Democratic institutions and systems of accountability. If your systems of accountability at an compromised then it’s Lord of the Flies.

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Vasundhara Sirnate

@vsirnate

17 Jan

I’ve finally managed to get through the Arnab Goswami Chatgate pdf. Everyone has already highlighted those portions that needed highlighting. I have a slightly different tack.

1. The messages tell me that news is a carefully constructed consumer product.

This is something we all already know but it’s nice to see confirmation. Events are presented in the high-decibel manner that has become the standard because the product is crying for attention.

2. These folks don’t care about what has actually happened and to whom. They’re

callous about it. Their eye is firmly on the ratings. There is no empathy in their conversation. The empathy on screen is constructed.

3. Overall the chats reveal varying degrees of competition between channels to get real close to those in office. One thing that stood out

Read 16 tweets

Vasundhara Sirnate

@vsirnate

16 Jan

I don’t understand. Why would you give up a two decade illustrious anchor career to teach in an extension program?

I will add that the extension school may bear the frills and trims of the main university but the website clearly says EXTENSION. It’s very different from being a prof at Harvard. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Another thing that doesn’t make sense is the visa process. We all know that the Individual has to apply for the work visa in person. A work visa cannot be acquired by a third party to the best of my knowledge. Paperwork can certainly be put together by a third party but you still

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Vasundhara Sirnate

@vsirnate

15 Jan

I’m not gonna lie when I first heard that Nidhi Razdan was joining Harvard as an associate prof, I was like “how?” Because you don’t just get appointed as an associate prof without a PhD. But I didn’t say anything because I thought maybe it’s one of those fellowship appts.

I also didn’t know if she maybe had a PhD. So I did but question it. But I did see the red flag and again I thought maybe it’s because of a high public profile.

Note to self: don’t dismiss your instincts.

Also Harvard is notorious for denying tenure to very capable people (esp women). So this was very very odd. I’m very sorry she made life altering decisions and I daresay she has a lot of experience which journalism students can learn from. Hope she lands on her feet.

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Vasundhara Sirnate

@vsirnate

24 Nov 20

Someone I used to know very well and considered a good friend did this thing where they turned into a BJP supporter and I saw them being swallowed up by that ecosystem of hate and totally change into something I did not recognize. What hurt is that at some point I

could no longer have a conversation with this person because of the hate speech about various groups that came into that conversation. I never knew this person to be this way and I had to disconnect because I couldn’t support those views and engaging in a discussion

meant opening myself up to ridicule and barbs.

The failure here was to be unable to get this person to see things minus the lens of hate and propaganda. I couldn’t do anything after a point. Today I saw some tweet by this person engaging in the right wing narrative

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