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Sreenivasan Jain Profile picture
Sreenivasan Jain
@SreenivasanJain
Apr 11, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Its a mistake to assume that our present rulers are 'silent' about the hate wave engulfing India. They are not. Everyone from the PM downwards has had a hand in stoking the flames, from communal dogwhistles ('80 vs 20', 'kabristan-shamshaan ghat' etc) to outright bigotry. Just one example: amid the latest anti-Muslim communal offensive in K'tka, it is a *BJP gen secy* from the state who Tweets about halal = economic jihad. indiatoday.in/india/story/ha…
May 17, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
A govt. release says so far 15 lakh migrants have been sent home on Shramik trains, an impressive-sounding figure.

The finance minister put the figure of migrants at 8 crores, while announcing the govt's recent food package.

15 lakhs is less than 2% of 8 crores. 1/n The PIB release says the Railways ran 1150 trains to ferry the 15 lakh migrants. Which means each train carried 1304 passengers. The release says the Railways can operate 300 trains a day. 2/n
Apr 1, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Thread: India has an acute shortage of safety wear for medical workers treating coronavirus. It could get worse. As @arvindgunasekar and I find, the government gave out contracts too late, most as late as March 24th, the day of the lockdown. ndtv.com/india-news/cor… 1/n The government has so far not revealed who has got the contracts, only that it has gone to a dozen companies, to supply 26 lakh coveralls. We found the companies, in this list created by the Textile Ministry. 2/n
Mar 12, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
While this may seem like a rollback, needs greater clarity. The 'doubtful' classification takes place under the *NRC*, which is stage-2 of the NPR. When the Home Minister says no one will be marked doubtful, is he categorically ruling out a nationwide NRC? If so, Mr Shah needs to state that clearly. The govt's responses on the NRC (since the protests began) have been evasive at best and dishonest at worst ("we have never discussed NRC" etc.)
Mar 5, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
A short thread on our @OnReality_Check investigation into gun violence in the Delhi riots. For context, a third of all those killed have died of bullet injuries. 97 have gunshot wounds (these figures could rise). Entirely unclear whether the police has traced the shooters. 1/n We know of one shooter, Shah Rukh, who was arrested based on a viral video. But NDTV accessed two more videos of shooters, which do not seem to be on the police radar at all. ndtv.com/delhi-news/del… 2/n
Mar 4, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This was bound to happen. The attempts by the BJP + its media shills + the police to strip all complexity from the Tahir Husain story was waiting to backfire. 1/n There's little doubt that Husain's roof was used as a base for rioters. Husain, too was seen on the roof. But far too simplistic to paint him as the 'archvillain' of the violence that engulfed his neighbourhood (Khazoori Khas) *and* link him to the IB staffer's death. 2/n
Feb 25, 2020 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
Just back from the Maujpur-Babarpur metro junction with my colleague @MariyamAlavi and cameraperson Sushil Rathi. It's one of the many flashpoints of the riots. Very volatile, very tense, pitched battles between rioters. Acute hostility to media by both sides. 1/n @MariyamAlavi There is plenty of police/paramilitaries milling around, but the attempts to break up tviolence is sporadic. These are burnt bikes just outside the police chowki. 2/n
Jan 6, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
A number of ABVP activists appear to have been injured in yesterday's JNU violence as well, as seen in this Tweet by the BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi. ImageImage The ABVP says the injuries were sustained in clashes earlier in the day. On possible dayime clash may have been captured in this video, in which JNU's student union president Aishe Ghosh, representing the Left, is seen entering a hostel flanked by masked men.
Jan 6, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
ABVP role in JNU violence?

Image purportedly of Vikas Patel, an ABVP member on JNU campus with a group of young men with lathis.

Also seen (in blue and yellow hoodie), a JNU student identified as Shiv Poojan Mandal, said to be affiliated to the ABVP.

@OnReality_Check 1/n ImageImage @OnReality_Check Mandal also seems to appear in these images, of a lathi-wielding group on the move on JNU campus. Both Mandal and Patel have deleted their social media accounts. 2/n ImageImageImage
Dec 28, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
A peculiar logic is afoot, which seeks to justify violent excesses by the police by pointing to the violence of protestors.

"They threw stones, so we threw stones (or even fired bullets)". "They (supposedly) shouted pro-Pakistan slogans, so we asked them to go to Pakistan". Drawing an equivalence between a lawless mob and lawless cops goes against not just the grain of common sense, but of the police's own rulebook.

See here for a summary of Home Ministry guidelines on police conduct for crowd dispersal:
Dec 12, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
"This is not a law that concerns those it seeks to include — six minority groups from three countries. It is a political signal of a terrible narrowing, a chilling exclusion, directed at India’s own largest minority." indianexpress.com/article/opinio… "The responsibility for this law.. rests squarely on the BJP, the party of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. The party that proclaimed “sabka saath, sabka vikas” has diminished the people’s mandate in interpreting it as license to push through this impoverished.. idea of citizenship."
Oct 30, 2019 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
More twists in the tale. WESTT, the women's organisation headed by Madi Sharma, who led a delegation of EU MP's to meet the PM and visit Kashmir, shows up on the website of a EU lobbying watchdog.

Is it an NGO, or .. a lobbying outfit? @OnReality_Check ImageImage @OnReality_Check link to the Lobbyfacts entry on WESTT: lobbyfacts.eu/representative…
Oct 29, 2019 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
The invitation to the European MP's was sent out by someone called Madi Sharma. She promised a 'prestigious VIP meeting' with India's Prime Minister, in addition to the Kashmir trip. (Screenshot of her mail exchange with MEP Chris Davies, released by his office) @OnReality_Check Image @OnReality_Check Begs the question: who is Madi Sharma, and what are her credentials to deliver on such a big promise? Because she did deliver. Here she is on the right of the PM, along with other delegation members (with the yellow scarf). Image
May 26, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Rahul, much to agree with in this thread except for this. Sad to see that you too would perpetuate the tukde tukde smear, even after admitting that the videos were doctored! Of course those abhorrent slogans were chanted, but what did Kanhaiya et al have to do with it? The Delhi Police chargesheet itself admits that there is no video evidence to support the claim that those commonly referred to as the tukde tukde gang (Kanhaiya etc) were chanting those slogans. The slogan chanters sene in the videos, as per the cops, were 7 Kashmiri students.
May 24, 2019 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Jagan won. Naveen Patnaik won. Every single BJP dynast from Poonam Mahajan to Varun/Maneka Gandhi won. But.. 'dynasty is dead', 'new India' et al. Spare me the BS. Dynastic politics is (sadly) alive and kicking. If anything the BJP is almost as dynastic as the Congress. (see here, for instance: scroll.in/article/918234…) So lazy, knee-jerk dynasty-bashing may play well on WA, but gets nowhere close to the complexities of realpolitik.
May 17, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
In the normal course, under an earlier BJP, the comments by Pragya Thakur may have been a sackable offense. But this is a new BJP, and we are in a new normal. The bar of expectation is set so low that barely anyone is expecting - or demanding - anything more than an apology. Remember, this is the same BJP in which a Union Minister can go back to business as usual after apologising for garlanding a group of men convicted of mob murder.
Apr 29, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
After being on the road for over a month, it is pretty clear - based on conversations - that the Balakot strikes have been a turning point in this election. Specifically, in the BJP's favour. (Many) riders ahead. 1/n The exact extent to which they have bumped up the BJP's prospects are, of course, hard to gauge. (And may possibly never be accurately measured.) But it is noteable how often the strikes come up first thing when talking to BJP supporters - traditional or converts. 2/n
Aug 29, 2018 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
So our reporter, in Pune, has spoken to the Pune police. Here are some of the things they told him by way of the arrests. Am posting (largely) without comment. Police claim these arrests are result of huge data trove they seized after the June 'naxal plot' arrests. 1/n That data, they claim, had proof that the current set of accused were planning a 'big conspiracy'. (What this conspiracy is not clear) 2/n