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P. Sainath

@PSainath_org

20 Nov

1/7. Why is it so hard for the media to admit that the farmers at Delhi’s gates represent the largest peaceful democratic protest the world has seen in years – that too, organised at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic? Story link at end of thread.
#FarmLaws #FarmLawsRepealed

2/7. Prime Minister Modi ‘apologises’ to the nation not for bringing in obnoxious anti-farmer laws but because, he says, he failed to persuade ‘a section of farmers despite best efforts’ to accept them. So which sections of farmers did he persuade?
#FarmLaws #FarmLawsRepealed

3/7. Denying them entry to Delhi, blocking them with trenches, barbed wire and water cannons, converting their camps into little gulags, vilifying them daily – these were the government’s ‘best efforts’ at persuasion? I’d hate to see their worst ones.
#FarmLaws #FarmLawsRepealed

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P. Sainath

@PSainath_org

18 Nov

1/4. Chikapar was thrice displaced, first for the HAL MIG project, then for a naval munitions depot and once for a Military Engineering Service station. The only village to have taken on the army, navy, air force – and lost. Story link at end of thread.
#displacement #ruralindia

2/4. All three times, the displacement of this Koraput village was for ‘development.’ Mukta Kadam was evicted the first time herding her five children through jungle on an angry monsoon night. The second time, she was thrown out with her grandchildren.
#displacement #ruralindia

3/4. The Chikapar land taken for the MIG project was not used for that purpose, nor returned to the original owners. That is, Gadaba tribals (like Mukta Kadam), other Adivasis like Parojas and Doms (a Dalit community).
#displacement #ruralindia #Dalits

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P. Sainath

@PSainath_org

15 Aug

1/7. Bhagat Singh Jhuggian, 93, is one of India’s last living freedom fighters. Expelled from school, an official circular called him ‘dangerous’ and a ‘revolutionary’ – at age 11! He became a courier for the radical underground. Story link at end of thread.
#IndependenceDay2021

2/7. His reaction to being thrashed and thrown out of Government Elementary School, Samundra in Hoshiarpur, Punjab was: ‘Now I’m free to join the anti-British struggle.’ He did. By the time he was 16, the police were more scared of him than he was of them.
#IndependenceDay2021

3/7. This foot-soldier of freedom fought for humanity during Partition which for him was the saddest year ever. He often risked his life to save innocents from frenzied communal mobs. Post-I947 he fought for farmers and workers and still does – at age 93.
#IndependenceDay2021

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P. Sainath

@PSainath_org

7 Jul

1/4. Journalists should not accept awards from governments they cover or critique. If the external auditor of a venture you were invested in was accepting the company’s awards, you would be furious. The journalist is an external auditor to government.
#Media #Awards

2/4. In this respect, journalists are different from musicians, artists, sportspersons, and some other groups. Unlike journalists, those other groups are not likely to be subsequently called upon to scrutinize the government’s functioning.
#Media #Awards

3/4. The point of non-acceptance is less about governments and more about the personal and professional ethical protocols of the journalist. I do not seek to impose mine on other journalists – others who choose to accept state awards have a right to do so.
#Media #Awards

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P. Sainath

@PSainath_org

19 May

1/7. The number of schoolteachers who died of Covid-19 after compulsory duty in UP’s panchayat polls has risen to 1,621 – 1,181 men and 440 women. And the toll could rise further. Link to story (with full list of those deaths) at end of thread.
#COVID19 #Elections2021

2/7. The UP government says there is no proven connection between the holding of the elections and the deaths of these teachers who, as the Allahabad High Court noted, did not volunteer to render their services “but it was all made obligatory.”
#COVID19 #Elections2021

3/7. The UP government, the unions point out, sought no postponements. Rather, its pleader had assured the Supreme Court “that guidelines for protecting people from Covid infections would be strictly followed during counting of votes.” That never happened.
#COVID19 #Elections2021

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P. Sainath

@PSainath_org

14 May

1/6. 𝗙𝗮𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 (not for the speaker, but countless thousands of others): “Remember, victory in the Mahabharat war came in 18 days. Against Covid it will take 21 days.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi. March 25,2020. (Do add your own favourites).
#COVID19India

2/6. 𝗙𝗮𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 (not for the speaker, but for countless thousands of others): “Today, India is ready to protect humanity with not one but two Made in India Corona Vaccines.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pravasi Divas meet, January 9, 2021.
#COVID19India

3/6. 𝗙𝗮𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 (not for the speaker but for countless thousands of others): "India has been successful in saving so many lives, we saved the entire humanity from a big tragedy.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Davos, January 28, 2021.
#COVID19India

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