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SamSays

May 23, 2021 • 12 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X

Remember British Herald? In 2019, an obscure website ran a poll and declared PM Modi as the most powerful person in the world. Thread👇 1/n

Desperate for international endorsement for PM Modi, BJP leaders and supporters immediately lined up to congratulate each other for this ‘achievement’ 2/n

https://twitter.com/ddnewslive/status/1142852335950974977

DD News, our public broadcaster made a tribute video to announce that PM Modi had become the world’s most ‘powerful’ person leaving Trump, Putin and Jinping behind 3/n

https://twitter.com/ddnewslive/status/1142852335950974977

Referring to British Herald as a ‘leading British magazine’, Indian media declared it a ‘moment of pride’ for the nation. The usual suspects fawned over PM Modi’s latest achievement without bothering to check the details of the organisation behind the poll. 4/n

AltNews dug out more details about the website and found that it was owned by Herald Media Network Limited, a company registered in the UK. by an Indian. It was not a ‘leading’ British magazine as portrayed by Indian media. 5/n
altnews.in/media-celebrat…

The website had a low Alexa ranking, no wiki page of its own at that time, very few Twitter followers... Basically unheard of before it decided to cash in on the stupidity of the Indian right-wing and media outlets. 6/n

Sometime after the outrage, the results of the poll disappeared from the website of British Herald and so did its Twitter handle @HeraldBritish 7/n britishherald.com/narendra-modi-…

@BritishHeraldUK

Later, British Herald came back with a new Twitter handle @BritishHeraldUK which was basically a renamed/reclaimed one and somewhere in the transition, it acquired a large number of followers as well. 8/n

In months to come, the website featured several other world leaders but the poll was not repeated again. In an attempt to rebuild the brand, the owner, Ansif Ashraf was profiled in several publications including Forbes ‘Brand Connect’ 9/n forbesindia.com/article/brand-…

Ansif Ashraf sadly passed away due to Covid in Jan 2021 at the age of 37. British Herald continues to operate as a news platform and has a ‘print on demand’ eMagazine like the one that featured PM Modi. 10/n

There are 2 reasons for telling the British Herald story - 1) The image of 2019 eMagazine with Modi on the cover is still doing rounds in right-wing circles with silly messages. 11/n

And 2) to respectfully ask the media cheerleaders who covered the poll by an obscure outlet so enthusiastically, what happens to polls that show the PM in an adverse light? Are they outside their brief? 12/12

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More from @samjawed65

SamSays

@samjawed65

May 15, 2022

“At a time when the world is facing a shortage of wheat, farmers of India have stepped forward to feed the world”. It was not even two weeks ago that Mr. Modi had made this statement in Berlin. Let us talk about wheat and our ambitions of feeding the world. Thread.👇1/n

India is the world’s second largest producer of wheat. But as we are also world’s second largest consumer of wheat, bulk of the production goes towards feeding our own population. Less than 1% of the wheat consumed in the rest of the world comes from India. 2/n

Indian wheat exports form less than 4% of the global wheat exports. While Indian wheat exports have grown rapidly in the last few years, claims of being a global ‘annadata’ feeding the world are premature at this stage. 3/n

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SamSays

@samjawed65

May 9, 2022

Do you know how many foreign tourists visit India every year and which is top source country? There is a good reason why I’m asking this question. Read on. Thread 1/n 👇

In 2019, before the pandemic, India had 10.93 million tourist arrivals. Out of this 2.58m (23.6%) were from Bangladesh. In 2020, total tourist arrivals fell due to the pandemic but still 20% were from Bangladesh. 2/n

Bangladesh is India’s largest source country for foreign tourists. These are foreign nationals who visit India on valid visas issued by the Government of India. 75% for tourism, 18% medical and 5% Business/Professional. 3/n

Read 7 tweets

SamSays

@samjawed65

May 7, 2022

All reports and rankings are not perfect, but broadly this is how it works:

Negative = Flawed methodology, Anti-India conspiracy
Positive = Dynamic leadership

Thread 👇 1/n

**World Press Freedom Index ranking - 150/180**

‘Govt rejects ranking on Press Freedom Index, attacks methodology’ (2021)

2/n

**Global Hunger index rank - 101/116**

‘Govt rubbishes Global Hunger Index Ranking, questions methodology’

3/n

Read 15 tweets

SamSays

@samjawed65

Apr 4, 2022

Here is a reality check jhatka to help to understand Halal better. Thread 1/n 👇

What is common between these random items? The packet of Atta, sugar and a 3-minute snack are all imported from India and they are all certified ‘Halal’. 2/n

Companies around the world simply can’t afford to ignore the USD 1.3+ trillion Halal food market. Many products from all over the world are certified halal to tap into this market. 3/n

Read 10 tweets

SamSays

@samjawed65

Mar 17, 2022

“The world came to know about Gandhi after a film was made on his life by a foreigner in 1982”. Really? Thread👇 1/n

In 1930 with the Dandi March, Gandhi’s popularity had surged the world over. 2/n

‘Gandhi makes Salt’ was on the front page of New York Times. The paper also carried his appeal for expression of public opinion for India’s right to freedom.3/n

Read 14 tweets