Few weeks ago I had said that the three mayors of Delhi will do crazy shit for two years to get attention because they are all facing a political existential threat.

Like this...

https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1518514214562050048

BJP has passed a law to merge and take over the MCD. Now there would be one single powerful mayor, instead of three.

So people like Mukkesh Suryaan are going nuts to stay relevant.

Take a walk around Gorakhpur to see how much UP has been 'developed' by the number 1 CM.

Scratch that... just walk around the Gorakhnath Mandir where Adityanath lives and you'll see open drains + garbage everywhere. You can see sewage spilling out of the temple into open drains that flow into residences in Adityanath's ward.

Drip feed of propaganda by paid media has managed to hide this reality from the world.

THIS is what Kerala should learn from UP? Seriously?

The political situation in #Punjab is quite funny and interesting.

Here's a simplified thread for those who are trying to figure out WTF is going on: In multiple constituencies, Congress candidates and ex-congress candidates and their family members and relatives are busy trying to backstab each other.

Bohot bawaal ho raha hai by god. If you go seat by seat to figure out these micro-battles, you'll go bonkers.

Sansad TV youtube channel was hacked and the name was changed to Ethereum.

Channel has been terminated.

(Image via @redditindia: reddit.com/gallery/ssiv5c) Last video posted was 9 hours ago. Link redirects to a channel that doesn't exist.

Strangely enough, no updates have been given from their Twitter handle.

https://twitter.com/sansad_tv/status/1493270059011170313?t=BMlIcdlk1pAQs-K2-XZwFA&s=19

Want to see something funny?

This is how the draft 2019 bill defines #cryptocurrency.

If this is the definition they'll go by in the new bill too, you can guess how absolutely bonkers the new law is going to be. In case you missed it, this definition would technically cover Fortnite money as well. Or Assassin's Creed money. Or PUBG money. Or any other 'information or code or number or token' which has inherent value.

Fun times.

Say hello to India Today Group's latest offering -- Good News Today.

It was launched by Kalli Purie who threw a giant ball of swirling energy into a wall and CGI Helicopters belched out the words "GNT" in the sky.

Not kidding.
#Thread They have shows like "Chai Par Charcha" (not to be confused with Adarniya Modiji's Chai pe Charcha).

Here, 5 anchors (yes FIVE) assemble to give "good news" while eating samosa and jalebis while discussing what they are eating at length.

Republic TV did a show yesterday on the garbage conspiracy theory that Coronavirus is a bioweapon that came from China.

Feel like this is a test baloon being released to see audience reactions. Desperately trying to shift blame from the Modi govt. Remember last year when they did all the SSR nonsense for months?

If TV media picks this bioweapon trash conspiracy theory up and blows it up, giving it coverage consistently, we're doomed.

Here's how political violence in Bengal works, in short:

When CPIM was in power, some party people left the party and joined TMC. Then CPIM unleashed violence on TMC.

When TMC came to power, they unleashed violence on CPIM. For revenge and also for territorial control. When CPIM lost relevance, bunch of pissed off beaten & battered CPIM people joined BJP. Then TMC unleashed hell on BJP.

Essentially, ex-CPIM-ex-TMC-ex-BJP people are unleashing violence on current-CPIM-TMC-BJP workers, depending on who won in which area of Bengal.

TMC lead count is racing past while BJP's leads seem to be fluctuating around the 80 mark. Suvendu Adhikari's lead has gone down from 8K to 3.7K in the last few hours. But he's still leading.

#Storytime!

In the late 90s, at a dank Ganpati Pooja celebration in Nagpur, people were sitting around all tensed up. The veriety entertainment night was stopped abruptly.

One person had just come running to the venue and screamed, "Chaddi Banyan Gang is coming!" For us kids, this was terrifying. I mean sure we made fun of "Chaddi Baniyan" gang. That they rob people in their underwear, because wtf lol.

But on this night, the fear was very real. Soon, a colony-president-type uncle screamed, "TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!"

Darkness.

We travelled through 6 assembly constituencies to find out how voters are doing to make their decision in #WestBengalElections2021.

The idea was to figure out which govt schemes have been effective & have reached the voters.

Here is what we found.
#Thread West Bengal State Government’s schemes for women are effective.

The most popular schemes are all directed at women & they are responding positively. Women certainly have a good opinion about Mamata Banerjee.

But, there's a catch.

In June 2020, while India was dealing with COVID-19 as the cases were ramping up, 9 top Ministers were holding meeting after meeting to discuss how gormint can improve its image better.

Priorities. Here's the glorious list of the "prominent personalities" they met to take feedback on how the govt can communicate better.

This report is truly wild!

#EXCLUSIVE: We spent more than 2 months observing the Hindu Ecosystem group formed by Kapil Mishra.

And without us asking, were added to bigger splinter groups which work day & night to create misinformation, hateful content and fake Twitter trends.
newslaundry.com/2021/02/15/we-… These groups share PDF compilation files which are full of sharable hate content. Here are three titled "Sikh Terrorism" which were circulated last month.

FULL STORY: newslaundry.com/2021/02/15/we-…

"BestMediaInfo found that more than 40 of the country’s top brands (names withheld) had stopped advertising on Republic Media Network between October and December 2020."

And Republic has sent them a notice to stop them from revealing it.
bestmediainfo.com/2021/02/arnab-… Ever since the Arnab-Partho chats story broke, I have been wondering if it would have any effect on advertisers and whether they would pull out.

We are seeing the first signs of it.
newslaundry.com/2021/01/15/one…

सुधीर जी का आज का स्क्रिप्ट भी लिख ही देते है:

"किसानो की अंतर्राष्ट्रीय षड़यंत्र का आज खुलासा हो चूका है. आइये करते है इसका DNA टेस्ट. आज हमने देखा की इंटरनेशनल सेलेब्रिटी Rihanna, जिसे गाना गाने के सिवा कुछ आता नहीं है, वो कैसे किसानो के बारे में बात करने लगी है." "आप ही सोचिये. ये Rihanna जो की एक आलीशान बंगले में रहती है, जो की ऐसे वैसे गाने के वीडियो बनाती है, क्या उसे हमारे किसानो के पीड़ा का अंदाजा हो सकता है? ये जरूर भारत के खिलाफ एक षड़यंत्र की तरफ इशारा करता है."

#storytime

So there is a news channel, a new kid on the block, which is trying to get ads for itself. When it launches, they are ranked #5 on viewership.

All the channels are doing stories on govt corruption & how a minister colluded to give kickbacks to a company. Now the marketing dept of this new channel is like, "Yaar, we need to do something different. We need to do a story that nobody else is doing so that we rise in the ranks."

So they come up with a plan.

They do a test story on the health benefits of cigarettes.

SCOOP: BARC hired a social media agency which allegedly offered services like "a troll army of verified handles".

#BARCleaks reveal how ex-CEO and ex-COO initiated trolling attacks against critics and journalists.

A story by me and @anukritimalik_
newslaundry.com/2021/01/18/bar… INSTANCE #1

Ex-BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta asks Arnab Goswamy if he can get someone to troll a critic. He suggests Minhaz Merchant and Aditya Raj.

"Working" is what Arnab says.

One day, in a certain school, a notification was issued.

"ALL STUDENTS WILL MANDATORILY SHAVE THEIR HEADS AND WEAR BANDANAS WITH A SWASTIKA ON IT IN THE SCHOOL PREMISES."

Students and parents were like WTF just happened? A delegation of parents tried to talk to the administration, telling them that it's unfair and they just cannot make such rules without consulting anyone.

The admin was like, "Oh it's alright we can discuss this."

"Discuss what," asked the parents.

Arnab is that babysitter who is hired when going to restaurants.

Whenever the child citizens start asking annoying questions to the adult government fam, they scream, "YOU HAD ONE JOB ARNAB! TAKE CARE OF THE KIDS!?!"

Then Arnab takes the kids to slide down the slide of bigotry. After the kids are bored of the slide of bigotry, he'll make them get on the ideological see-saw.

After that, comes the sandpit of conspiracies where kids can make up their own fun theories.

Meanwhile, the adult govt fam are coming up with important plans like electoral bonds.

Sakal Media group -- owned by the Pawar family -- has been carrying out a relentless campaign of harassment against my colleague @tweets_prateekg.

Why?

Because he reported how they laid off their employees and violated government directives.
newslaundry.com/2020/11/03/how… First, the Police showed up at his house to arrest him. They said @tweets_prateekg has 'cunningly' used Sakal's logo.

Next, after Prateek got anticipatory bail, they are trying to seize his laptop. They refuse to show him the order and say "verbal" order is enough to do so.

"You know what will fix this country? A dictator."

If you belong to a middle class upper caste family, you must have heard this line being uttered often.

You know why they say it so confidently?

Because the basic assumption is that this dictator is *always* on their side.

https://twitter.com/Advaidism/status/1314535861669650432

Those who say "need a dictator" think that they are the ones who are being good citizens while others aren't.

In their heads, the rowdy folk who lack discipline need to be "fixed" by using force.

This is a sign that the people who want dictatorship are ok with being slaves.