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JayEnAar Profile picture
@GorwayGlobal
Jan 17, 2023 • 11 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X
Scrolly
Hindu pride and India's 'Soft Power must not be based on and cannot be built upon lies and fakery. Hinduism is bigger and better than that. A thread.
@NDTV ran this story
It showed a tweet on the occasion of #Pongal (#Sankranti) by British Prime Minister @RishiSunak (see pic), and claimed that the PM hosted a meal for his staff that was served by men in #veshti on banana leaves in the traditional style.
The original source for the story in @ndtv appeared to be a tweet by the BJP Rajya Sabha MP, Sonal ManSingh.
She is a noted Odissi classical dancer. She tagged the Indian prime Minister and her Party's official handle. It uncertain who she meant by "UK PM Office and defence"
Not just NDTV but many other Indian news outlets ran similar stories. here's Money Control and India Today's
Shubhi Mishra.
Free Press Journal fell for it too. No body seemed to ask why Rishi Sunak did not himself appear in the video. They obligingly posted a file picture of Mr Sunak along side to create the illusion that it was his party
Indian and Indian origin Twitter users were delighted to be fooled
Until boom live pricked the balloon. With this story.
boomlive.in/fact-check/fac…
Reporter Hazel Gandhi told us that the video that had by now gone viral in desi websites and internet and whatsapp chats was part of an elaborate hoax. yes there was a pongal meal served on banana leaves but it was in Waterloo, in Ontario Canada in a community hall!!
Conclusions of the story: quite a few.
1. If the story is too good to be true it probably is
2. Thai Pongal is an important festival in the Hindu calendar. Our culture is our culture. We do not need the white man's valdiation of our culture.
3. Important people like @sonal_mansingh got taken in and in their haste to curry favour with Power tagged the Prime Minister.
4. More to the point several news outlets got carried away and did not do basic sense checks.
Now I fully expect some dumbfuck ass-hole to ask me: "So You bloody Urban naxal what is so wrong if @RishiSunak serves @10DowningStreet staff a #Pongal meal on a #bananaleaf? Um UMM?"
Answer: Nothing, except that it didn't happen.

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More from @GorwayGlobal

JayEnAar Profile picture
Apr 27
Of all the claims that @palkisu made in her fanciful @OxfordUnion debate on India under Modi, the most egregious was the claim about how, in the much dreaded queue at the UK Border Agency at Heathrow she observed throngs of Indians proudly presenting their INDIAN passports.
No longer did they have to shamefully and hesitantly reveal their Indian-ness. The implication was that before Modi arrived on the scene (and forced us to defend Indian democracy), all of us did precisely that - hide our passports as we slipped in shamefaced and embarrassed.
what utter bollocks! what balderdash!
If at all any Indian traveller arriving at Heathrow is not so knackered and bushed after a 9 hour flight that he presentes his Indian passport with a proud flourish its because of pride that he has obtained a Visitor Visa
Read 7 tweets
JayEnAar Profile picture
Mar 11
This #50WordEdit from @ShekharGupta really takes the biscuit. He seems to have swallowed the usual Govt hype and self-praise about the recently concluded India-EFTA trade deal, and its description as a 100 billion USD deal. Let's delve behind the deal a bit shall we? Image
I presented an analysis of this deal in this twitter thread done a few weeks ago when it was still under negotiation.
But to reiterate a few points:
EFTA may have Europeean in its name - European Free Trade Association - but for avoidance of doubt it is not the European Union. EFTA is a customs area of 4 countries, Switzerland, Norway, Lichtenstein (a tiny city state of a mere 40,000 people)
Read 11 tweets
JayEnAar Profile picture
Dec 21, 2023
Tucked away in the new Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita is Sec 148, under which a policeman can order
"any assembly of five or more persons ..to disperse;..." They need not be doing anything wrong. It's enough if the policeman thinks it is likely they will. Image
If they don't disperse as commanded, Sec 148(2) provides for the policeman to call up members of the public to assist him in making them disperse (These could potentially be goons from some saffron dal). Image
Sec 149 provides for the DM to summon the help ofthe army to disperse the crowd of 5 or more people. Image
Read 4 tweets
JayEnAar Profile picture
Dec 19, 2023
I think the Opposition is missing a trick. Instead of sitting on the steps to some side entrance into Parliament, they should run a 'parallel' parliament session. debating issues, considering bills clause by clause and passing resolutiions maybe even voting down bills.
It'll have no effect of course but it would make for good theatre. Put it on @YouTube. Invite journalists and experts for select committe style enquiries into policy issues, I am sure there'll be enough volunteers to provide secretarial support.
After all the suspended MPs come from almost all parts of India. Many are well-versed in Parliamentary procedure and language. Some are constitutional, legal and public finance experts. They could put on a greart show of erudition and elocution with humour and grace
Read 7 tweets
JayEnAar Profile picture
Oct 24, 2023
I currently have family over from India, on a visit. Educated, well off. Totally unaware of current affairs; claim they never bother with news, neither TV nor magazines. But that doesn't mean they have no opinion on issues that matter. So for instance, they assert that:
1. After 70 years in which nothing happened, India is suddenly now a world power.
2. By 2050, Muslims will take over India.
3. Hindus are discriminated against in favour of minorities esp Muslims and Christians who have the upper hand because of past vote-bank politics.
All these assertions crumble under cross examination.
"So they say.. on WhatsApp.. we don't know if true or not, but why take a chance.. " is the constant refrain.
It is maddening and frustrating. Logical fact based counter argument gets you nowhere.
Read 6 tweets
JayEnAar Profile picture
Sep 19, 2023
India has officially rejected @JustinTrudeau's allegation. They had no other option. They could hardly have said, हमने कनाडा में घुस के मारा साले को.
From the moral high ground it once occupied, India has been reduced to the level of Pakistan which routinely issued such denials.
This is a foreign policy failure for which I blame the weaponisation of the #GodiMedia which has been encouraged to turn every official statement of the Govt into a Modi MasterStroke.
The Private conversation between Mr Modi and Mr Trudeau should never have been broadcast.
Instead, the Indian side leaked it that the Indian prime minister had "read the riot act" to his Canadan counterpart about Sikh separatism, Godi Media outlets presented this as India's moment in the world soon after a successful #G2Lotus summit to act tough and muscular.
Read 7 tweets

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