2️⃣ #BJP’s political quest for the Babri Masjid only began in the late 1980s. In #Karnataka, the ground to reclaim Baba Budangiri, a Sufi shrine in #Chikamagalur district, had been laid a decade before #Ayodhya became common parlance, in 1978.
3️⃣ In 1990, when L.K. Advani’s ‘Rath Yatra’ passed through #Karnataka, seven people died in Bidar in communal riots. But 600 km away, in and around #Bangalore, at least another 33 people died in clashes in 5 locations. It was not an accident.
Map: courtesy Prof Mushirul Hasan
4️⃣ In the Ram Janmabhoomi movement that resulted in the demolition of the #BabriMasjid in 1992, the head of the #PejawarMutt in #Udupi was a key behind-the-scenes player—and mentor to the likes of Uma Bharati. His successor is a member of the Ram Temple trust.
5️⃣ The temple town of #Udupi has been home to #Hindutva politics for a full 54 years. In 1968, a young doctor called V.S. Acharya was elected president of the town municipality, representing the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, which became #BJP 12 years later.
6️⃣ Unlike the East Coast, #RSS and #BJP have been able to gain a foothold more easily on the West. The influx of “Gulf money”—shorthand for Muslim prosperity— in the town of #Bhatkal, resulted in a #BJP MLA’s murder—and the rise of Ananthkumar Hegde. thequint.com/amp/story/news…
7️⃣ In 1921, the Anjuman-e-Islami got the Idgah Maidan in #Hubli on lease for 999 years. But the Sangh Parivar contested the constructions on it in the 1960s. When #UmaBharati tried to hoist the national flag in 1994, riots claimed five lives.
8️⃣ Although he was born in #Bangalore, the late #BJP leader and former Union minister Ananth Kumar cut his political teeth in #Hubli, where his mother Girija Sastry was a member of the Jan Sangh and the deputy mayor of the local city corporation.
9️⃣#Karnataka’s coastal belt has been a happy hunting ground for #Hindutva. In 2009, the Sri Rama Sene attained national infamy for barging into a pub in #Mangalore and beating up young men and women at lunch. They claimed the women were violating “traditional Indian values”.
🔟 Moral policing is an old story in #Karnataka. In 1998, an eve-teasing incident involving a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl in #Surathkal resulted in riots. 10 died. Hindu Jagran Vedike, a Sangh Parivar outfit, allegedly fanned the communal flames.
1️⃣1️⃣ From hassling boys and girls holding hands or sitting in a bus or park, it was a short leap to claims of conversion. In 2009, long before @myogiadityanath woke up, sangh outfits in #Karnataka were sharpening their rhetoric on “love jihad”.
1️⃣2️⃣ Hindutva’s thali in #Karnataka isn’t complete without cow protection—and a ban on cow slaughter. Here again the state was first off the blocks with the Ramachandrapur Mutt in central #Shimoga playing a pivotal role in mainstreaming it, in 1998. daijiworld.com/news/newsDispl…
1️⃣3️⃣ Add the demonisation of Tipu Sultan, and the picture is complete. From Hubli in the North, Udupi-Mangalore in the West, and Bangalore-Mysore in the South, the discourse is polarised on issues of food, flag, land, love, livelihood. #HijabRow churumuri.blog/2018/10/26/onc…
1️⃣4️⃣ Besides Maharashtra, many #RSS honchos like H.V. Seshadri and K.S.Sudarshan have hailed from #Karnataka. Dattatreya Hosabale is said to be next in line to succeed @DrMohanBhagwat. And the link between #BJP and #RSS is another Kannadia, @blsanthosh.
1️⃣5️⃣ Once-progressive #Kannada media is a now an embedded wing. Seven out of nine dailies have sangh links, television is a barefoot soldier, and fake news enjoys deep political patronage. So the #HijabRow is just the latest manifestation of a state in deep rot.
1️⃣6️⃣ With @BSBommai having nothing to show after six months in office, and rumours of his replacement rife, the #HijabRow is the perfect slide to show for a performance appraisal in #Delhi. Especially with #UttarPradesh elections due. End of rant.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
90 years ago, today—27 February 1933—the German Parliament (Reichstag) was burnt down. Adolf Hitler had been appointed as Chancellor three months earlier; national elections were due in six days. The arson was blamed on communists, but it was an inside job by the Nazis.
A 24-year-old Dutch communist was held responsible and sentenced to death for the #ReichstagFire. But in reality Nazi storm troopers—guided by Joseph Goebbels—had used a tunnel connecting Parliament with the President’s residence to scatter gasoline and self-igniting chemicals.
Hitler’s dictatorship began the day after #ReichstagFire, He got the President to sign a decree for the “Protection of the People and the State”. It dispensed with constitutional protection of all political, personal, and property rights. Opposition was jailed. Media was stifled.
Jo Johnson, the brother of former UK prime minister @BorisJohnson, has resigned from the board of Elara Capital—a London-based investment firm 99% of whose holdings are Adani stocks.
About time @JoJohnsonUK revealed more on how he ended up at a company linked to Ketan Parekh.
Boris Johnson visited Adani headquarters in April 2022.
Jo Johnson joined Elara in June 2022.
The timing could just be a coincidence. But what kind of background checks did Jo Johnson—a former India correspondent of ‘Financial Times—do before lending his name to the firm?
@FT reports that when Jo Johnson joined Elara last June, the firm intended to tap his expertise on investing in technology and education.
In his statement, Jo Johnson says he hoped to make a contribution to UK-India trade and investment ties.
Adani bought the Roys’ stake in @ndtv by buying up Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt Ltd (VCPL), from two shareholders: Nextwave Televentures and Eminent Networks, for Rs 114 crore.
This gave him 29%.
3️⃣ VCPL, Nextwave and Eminent share the same 4th floor address in Gurgaon.
The common director in all three companies with the same director identification number (00548276) is a Anil Kumar Jain.
Is he an Ambani man or a front? Jain sits on more than boards.
Does India’s “most gifted businessman” @gautam_adani have a sense of humour? He has acquired 99.5% of the 29% stake of @ndtv founders Prannoy and Radhika Roy through a subsidiary called “Vishvapradhan”. Hopefully not a portmanteau of Vishwaguru and Pradhan Sevak.
Adani Media Networks Ltd CEO @sanjaypugalia is quoted as saying “AMNL seeks to empower Indian citizens, consumers and those interested in India, with information and knowledge” by acquiring #NDTV.
As a media watcher who reads ‘Manufacturing Consent’ every night, do you think?
“This is a baseless rumour. Radhika and Prannoy Roy are not in discussions, nor have been, with any entity for a change in ownership or a divestment of their stake in NDTV”
@ndtv clarification to BSE. So, has Adani made the open offer after a deal with Mukesh Ambani?
2️⃣ When Uber was trying to “get Delhi back live” after the Dec 2014 rape ban, an Uber general manager in Asia wrote that “he planned to set up meetings for co-founder Trevor Kalanick “with prime minister @narendramodi and cabinet officials”. @washingtonpost@PMOIndia#UberFiles
3️⃣ Sivakumar Sundaram, the chairman of the executive committee of Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd, denies Times Group facilitated Uber “with any form of political access”.
But the @EconomicTimes editor’s email to Kalanick suggests much.
Times Group actively courted Uber after it was banned; urged its founder Travis Kalanick to present his “insights [to] set the agenda for policy formulation” at ET summit, in Jan 2015. Two months later, Uber invested Rs 150 crore in @TimesInternet.