Thread by @gauravsabnis

The flimsiness and obvious orchestration behind the Zubair arrest isn't because of oversight but because of oversight, iykwim.

It's not like they missed the complaint tweet being an anon solo tweet. That's the point. That they can arrest you even if innocent.

There's also the whataboutery tactic so they can say "why are libruls not supporting noopoor if free speech". They think they are Jyllands Posten or South Park but JP-SP support jokes about ALL religions.

These petulant guys arrest folks for calling Bisht Bisht!

The message sent with the Zubair arrest, Teesta arrest, just like the Aryan arrest, is to send the chilling message that ANYONE can be arrested, even if they have done absolutely nothing wrong. And everyone knows how police treat people arrested out of political vendetta.

The Prime Minister brought up the Emergency in Munich knowing fully well how it would be responded to by the few progressives still left in India vocally opposing him. It was not intended for a foreign audience. The foreign audience couldn't care less about 1975 India.

It also feels like a depraved shot across the bow. And also a nudge nudge wink wink suggestion for people to say "emergency was less brutal than this", this moving the Overton Window towards thinking that the Indira emergency is a good enough bar for what is acceptable.

A desi friend's Murrcan spouse once sincerely asked, why do Indians obsess over an Emergency so much? We get emergencies declared in the US all the time! Every tornado or hurricane brings an emergency. Aren't our vaccinations also emergency law enabled? What's the big deal?

Heh

That's when we realized that the word "Emergency" doesn't exactly conjure up images of a Dictatorship in the minds of a non Indian audience. It conjures up what it is, a temporary crisis during which some laws and rights are temporarily suspended.

We told her what it was, obvi.

The threat to a democratic republic isn't an Emergency Declaration. The threat to a democratic republic is the be state's willful violation of constitutional rights. The excuse is irrelevant. The intent matters. Sometimes the intent is national self interest. Not ideology.

This though is straightforward ideological. No emergency or crisis is even needed. The sangh has been against the Indian constitution and its secular republic & union of states framework from the very start. It unabashedly wants a Hindu Rashtra. A centrally powerful one.

Remember how genuinely pissed off and outraged sanghis were when Rahul Gandhi quoted the constitution's first line to them, about us fundamentally being a Union of States that Delhi can't just run roughshod over? Because a union of states is antithetical to their dogma.

Why they hate Kerala the most. A union of states framework allows it to be a thriving general success of the secular republic experiment. Half the state is non Hindu. Huge percentages of Muslim & Christian. And that too often ruled by Communists! And Kerala calmly chugs along.

If Kerala keeps chugging along and Lucknow, until recently untouched by Hindu-Muslim clashes, keeps chugging along, and melting pot Mumbai keeps chugging along, then the Sanghi philosophy is shown to be the archaic proto-fascist philosophy it is.

They don't like that!

They want you to think of Gujarat as the example to emulate. And give them power everywhere.

The ONLY WAY India can continue to function without descending into chaos and civil war is as a secular republic that is a union of states. Where Hindus, Muslims, Dalits, Indigenous Folks, Christians, Sikhs, anyone & everyone stakes equal ownership. Not "Hindus First".

As an American citizen and a subscriber/donor, I hope @POTUS is asked by @nytimes @washingtonpost @NewYorker @NPR @PBS @AP about whether he raised this with PM Modi.

This is the most brazen attack on press freedom yet. In a supposed democratic republic.

cnn.com/2022/06/28/ind…

To explain in US media terms, imagine if the DC police, in cahoots with Trump when he was President, had arrested @BillAdairDuke over one anonymous single tweet account tweeting that some tweet of Bill's "hurts the sentiments of Christians".

That's what's happened

#FreeZubair