🧵Thread: Indians fleeing Ukraine are being assaulted, harassed.
The US had been mulling evacuations since December, repeatedly told its citizens to leave.
India’s ‘advisory’ came only on 15 Feb.
But across BJP-run WhatsApp groups, none of this matters:
In this parallel world, the Ukraine evacuation of Indian students is a smashing success. So smashing that it has never been done before.
All on the basis of a video by ONE student who said he was treated warmly as he travelled across Ukraine.
“Why this was not before 2014?”
In this parallel world, the last few days have shown what a superpower India is.
Where Ukraine called PM Modi “the world’s most powerful leader” (nope) and where the world is asking India to intervene and “help” and where Russia has promised to bring Indians to safety. (Nope)
In the parallel world, all this is possible because of PM Modi.
“Kuch toh dum hoga chai wale mein.”
Sadly, the reality is very, very different.
No food, no aid, no intimation.
A solid thread that lays out the evidence of how the Indian government delayed planning for #IndiansInUkraine :
For 150 years, 5 generations of the Khan family lived in a village with 600 Hindu, 4 Muslim homes. The village was an oasis of communal harmony.
In August, a mob of Hindutva vigilantes lynched their son.
Last month, they left the village forever. I report for @Article14live
In the last few years, relatives would keep convincing Rahim Khan to move to a Muslim ghetto. He refused. He trusted his fellow villagers-friends, friends-like family.
Till his son was lynched by a mob consisting his childhood friends in August.
Spent a few hours in #RamNavami processions outside Mumbai's International Airport:
*Slogans like 'Aurangzeb Ki Kabr Khudegi, Maa Ch*degi, Maa Ch*degi'.
*Songs with words: Bharat Mein Jo Desh Drohi Hai, Unki Ma Ka Bh*sda.
*Songs that threaten brutal violence against Muslims.
The crowd, in thousands, consisted of young men in their 20s and 30s, with some women and some older men.
These songs are so widely known that most sang along, dancing to the exact beats. The tempo went up each time a song had explicit targeting of Muslims.
The organisers even got a Yogi Adiyanath-lookalike--a big hit with the crowds.
Maharashtra over the last 2 years has seen a systematic, coordinated attempt by amorphous Hindu right-wing units to target Muslims, polarise Hindus and inject communal hate.
All this has visible BJP support. A thread:
Between January and October last year, there were 41 communal instances, and at least 10 were killed. In 2023, 30% of all hate speeches in India were delivered in Maharashtra.
That’s one hate speech every 2.5 days. I wrote about it for @Article14live
But this has only intensified in 2024, led by various BJP leaders.
Nitesh Rane is one of them. What's special about him is that he's been delivering hate speeches across Maharashtra, even as his father served as a Union Cabinet Minister in the Prime Minister's cabinet till June 2024.
There's no action against him. Just a growth in his stature.
New Work: Before the polls, PM Modi made a big annoucement--he had been silently working on a development roadmap and had consulted more than 15 lakh people.
I decided to file RTIs with the Prime Minister's Office to know more about these consultations.
This statement was circulated widely--tweets went viral, news reported it and it was even a part of a PIB Press Release.
PM Modi, then, repeatedly the claim in April. "I contacted all the universities, I had contacted different NGOs."
He even spelt out what had happened after these suggestions had come in: He had used AI, classified it subject-wise. He even made a dedicated team of officers.
All this made me curious, and I asked the PMO to tell me the details, the dates of these meetings.
Like this charity-funded hospital in rural Maharashtra: the Bombay Sarvodaya Friendship Centre (BFSC) funded it to ensure it could perform crucial surgeries for locals. The nearest hospital is at least 50km away.
But the Centre’s FCRA was not renewed. The hospital barely functions now.
In the case of one Delhi NGO that recently lost its FCRA, 220 of its 250 staffers had to be laid off.
They are all struggling to find jobs now, especially those not involved in core NGO programming work, like the admin staff, the helpers, office staff.