Shams Ur Rehman Alavi شمس Profile picture
Journo for 24 yrs. Covered crime, uncovered scams. Reported extremism of all hues. Ex-HT, HuffPo, DB, FirstPost, AI, Wire Urdu, NewsD, NewsBits. I block trolls.
May 6, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
Today I'm trying to clarify this issue for the educated people as well as dishonest 'journos'. Just like Muslim population has grown in India, Hindu population has grown in Pakistan and Bangladesh too.

1. Hindu population in Pakistan has grown nearly 8 times since 1951. It was… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Today I'm trying to clarify... 1. I stand for minority rights and side with Hindus who face injustice in any country, either India or Pakistan.

2. Cunning people use 'percent increase' to use data for their own narrative. Like, if one Jew lives in a city and another Jew comes, there will be 100 percent… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Nov 16, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
Tikki. A shop owner who doesn't sell Tikki can't be termed chaat seller. At the most, he'd be termed a Golgappa wala.
For those who hail from outside India, the pronunciation is 'Tick Key'. ٹکی टिक्की. Tick, tick, clock strikes 8 pm. The time when you leave home for Tikki. 1/n Image Standard Tikki and the maker don't need be told about preparation. But use of different types of curd, has been a bone of contention for long.

The new age chaat walas throw everything including thin 'sev' and what not on Tikki, because the majority of customers don't have.. 2/n
Nov 16, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
Sanjay & Rafiqa were in a relationship, she'd asked him to marry. He killed her, drugged & murdered 9 people including Rafiqa's entire family.
It was ONE man's crime, he was jailed. MEDIA must not create false perception, divide & communalize society.
thenewsminute.com/article/death-…
1/n
Around 10,000 incidents of rape, molestation and murder happen in a month in India. Naturally some'd be inter religious too..

..the criminal must be arrested, jailed, get harsh sentence. There should not be support for him or early release. And no need for communal angle... 2/n
Nov 14, 2022 6 tweets 2 min read
'Info pirate' is an evil man who has no idea about a thing but will keep on asking Qns till he gets juice out of you.
After gaining all insight, he is now well armed, counters you & your idea. Aim was to get to depth to knows all points, then prepare all arguments. ilme Qayafa... Image ...or ilme-e-Qayaafa is learnt in order to identify such people on whom doors of knowledge must not be opened as their intentions are evil.

Eg. He hates Z, knows nothing about Z' role, how Z saved innumerable lives or his works silently in 1947.

So he poses, asks, then once...
Sep 24, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
False news, fraud statistics and read carefully how wild headline misleads. 3-1/2 TIMES i.e. more than 250% though it was not even 5%, nothing in copy.
I've been collecting paper clippings since teenage. Role of vernacular press always been such. This was in Punjab Kesri in 1995. Image Actually since 1986, all this has been hammered into the heads of readers in the country. The statistics tell ten things, might say that Hindu population grew faster than Christians or Muslim population growth rate falls, BUT the game of FALSE HEADLINE always works. #Journalism
Sep 23, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
For centuries, Hafiz has been one of the most popular & widely read poet. I recall stanza of his Persian couplet, Transln:

Main ne kaha tera gham* rakhta hoon
Usne kaha, 'tera gham aakhir khatm hoga'
Main ne kahaa, mera chaand ban
Usne kaha, 'agar ittifaaq hoga'

*pain of love Image Be my moon, O my beloved.
Hafiz is buried in Shiraz. He loved his land and hence wrote the famous couplet where he talks about sauntering and enjoying the sight of the stream at Ruknabad, the scenic beauty and his town that never let him go.
Aug 7, 2022 7 tweets 4 min read
Rise in population of a small group is always more in percent terms because base is small. The smallest possible increase in 1, is 1, so it becomes 2, but say 'double' or 100% increase, create scare while100 turn 130, 30% rise, yet difference widens more..
Lies are spread day in & day out to create a scare about growth in Muslim population, they are clever, talk in 'percent' , not real increase in [numbers] population, how much more Hindus in India than Muslims today, compared to past.
#MuslimPopulation #Population #Journalism
Aug 7, 2022 6 tweets 2 min read
News 18: अनपढ़ या शातिर? ये मैथ नहीं जानते, छोटा ग्रुप या अल्पसंख्यक की तादाद में कम इज़ाफ़ा, परसेंट में ज़्यादा नज़र आता है, जैसे कोई 1 है और मिनिमम 1 बढ़ा तो दो हुआ, आप दुगना या 100% कह कर डराइए जबकी मेजोरिटी 100 से 130 हुई, डिफ़रेंस और बढ़ गया मगर परसेंट में 30 ही बढ़ा. 1/3 समुदाय छोटा है तो उसमें ज़रा सी भी इंक्रीज, परसेंट में ज़्यादा होती है. इसलिए चालाकी, % बताया जाता है. जबकि बहुसंख्यक इतने ज़्यादा हैं कि वह डिफ़रेंस कभी कम नहीं हो सकता, सिर्फ बढ़ता है. विदेश में भारतीय बढ़ते हैं तो वहां राइटविंग ऐसा झूठा डर इमिग्रेंट्स को ले कर भड़काते हैं 2/3
Aug 20, 2021 11 tweets 4 min read
When Indian Muslims do so well on key social indicators like gender ratio, this is ignored while talking about communities.
Such an indicator that shows attitudes towards girl child, daughters, Muslims are ahead. See figures.
shamsurrehman.medium.com/forward-commun…
#Media #IndianMuslims #Muslims On some indicators, it is govt support or action that can make any community do better in a few years, but this shows inherent attitudes, a real progressiveness
Remember, the discrimination, 'son preference' led to situation that millions of girls missing thehindu.com/news/national/…
Mar 23, 2021 4 tweets 2 min read
Don't we feel sad when houses are razed whimsically. When people are dislocated for no reason. But even this is normalised.

Politicians take oath, have basic responsibility, must not discriminate, but no empathy. Even incite mob, use admin to target. And society! Justice??? First this dirty nexus between politicians who communalise and officials who serve their bigoted agenda.
Media, we know. Then, our society, those around us, such perverted & sick people who even seem happy and click 'haha' over others' pain when incident posted on FB, SM.
Mar 22, 2021 6 tweets 2 min read
If private school forces students to leave third language which they studied for 3 yrs & abruptly asks them to switch to another language, what's the recourse?

They learnt for 3 yrs, 6th-8th, suddenly asked to take new language--at a higher level (9th), tough
#CBSE #Missionary As third language, you have Telugu, Bangla, Sanskrit, Urdu, Tamil, even French, any language depending on state or city.

But when teacher is available, yet, school principal gets rigid, wants to force. Parents can't speak up, fear kid would be targeted, if they raise issue more.
Aug 15, 2020 23 tweets 5 min read
*You may not like. But it's very easy to dismiss someone by throwing a label at them, there is a lot between being 'liberal' and 'illiberal' in real world
*Despite not claiming to watch news, how headlines can shape your thought process & a victim becomes a hooligan in your eyes *First, a basic thing if someone abuses a woman or man, targets or indulges in character assassination, its termed 'harassment' & there are proper sections under IPC for registration of case.
*If action not taken, there is harsh criticism of authorities. People stand with victim.
Jul 25, 2020 15 tweets 5 min read
*When you write 'ghazal' or even a nazm, it's not just radeef & qafia, but 'beher', 'wazan', the meter too you need to be aware of.
*The ghazal has to be in one 'beher' & all couplets follow this system. For ages, 'faaylun, faaylaat' has confused young writers #Urdu #Arooz *To some, it comes naturally. You remember 'dohas'--the laghu & guru or even in lyrics in Bollywood, the 'dhun'.

*Classical masters, bards who never studied, knew it well, it came naturally to them. Others learn it, it appears too tough & master poets tell you basics, correct.
Jul 24, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read
*Guy came from a town 500 km away from State capital. No great qualification, not even command over Hindi, but as uncle in media, gets job in paper, soon becomes journalist

*Without knowing city or making acquaintances, no idea about town but believes 'Muslims here too backward' *Amazing sense of entitlement, armed with half-baked notions but ready to shoot his mouth, everywhere

*Hasn't met people in the town despite having lived a couple of years now, never ventured into lanes or entered into households, but reflected in writings too about city, region
Jul 23, 2020 9 tweets 3 min read
A cab driver who was not earning well, even before Coronavirus, still felt that 'all Muslims were poor'.
It was well entrenched in his mindset that he may not be rich but 'all Muslims are poorer' than him. Enough to give him satisfaction! All communities have rich, poor..1/3 *Another guy finding difficult to pay his rent, casually said that 'ye log bahut bol rahe hain', because Muslim youth were holding a protest, then
*He said he was sick 'with them'. He wanted them to be shown their place more. The dominance, majoritarianism gives him happiness 2/3
Jun 4, 2020 4 tweets 2 min read
*Man lynched--no reaction
*If he is Muslim, term him 'thief' or bring any other negative angle to make him appear a criminal, even before basic probe
*Once you find he is Bangladeshi, then predicable reactions
*Person's name was 'RANJIT'. So, now, blame WB govt. But sadness? *No sadness, no tears because you are incapable of empathy.
*You are capable of just hate, if incident is in one district, find a nearby 'Muslim district' to create more confusion.
*Not just loonies, papers too carry reports on these lines. Same pattern. #Humarn or #Elephant
Jun 2, 2020 6 tweets 2 min read
*Local papers played major role for decades in shaping public opinion in states in India
*Within states, a victim can be defamed & passed off as 'culprit', after all, many reporters (more than them paper owners) want good relations with officers. Why go against DM-SP, irk them? *A reporter generally associated with mass circulated papers in North or Central India, won't pursue with zeal a story about policemen who cane-charge a common man, though it affects everybody
*In fact, he'd generally praise such cops as 'Singham', because it suits him & his Seth
May 11, 2020 8 tweets 4 min read
Early 90s. None of the other ministers in that region was doing exceptional or great work. But during discussion, they'd focus on one minister because he belonged to a minority community. It'd take someone to take stand, 'WTF, he is not doing bad, look at it', to shut others. Point is that majority in the society decides, & it judges 'other' very harshly. If person is 'apna', then all is forgotten, even after his policies harmed us. He will be made devdoot, the narrative of his greatness would be established. 'Atalji' could've transformed Lucknow but
May 8, 2020 8 tweets 2 min read
Today, about an interesting 'puncture wala'. He runs the shop on the road side, it is a decent sized shop, a couple of times I went past & saw him call his young assistant to check the tyre when a car or bike stopped at the place. Also noticed how he had lot of things in the shop Going to nearby general merchants' shop, I often saw him make elaborate arrangements before lunch & dinner. Doing things stylishly, towel on peg, proper chair to sit and eat, a big lunch box opened, never in a hurry, even an iron cot. Saw him sleep too on it in afternoons. Aish!
Apr 24, 2020 10 tweets 5 min read
Things Muslims talk about so often--30 days, 3 lakh mosques, anything at even one place, real, exaggerated or cooked up & the madmen on TV can give a twist, put each Muslim accountable & make every person in India, believe that it is 'they' who're responsible. World is not perfect, one or two mistakes bound to happen. But when there are dozens of attacks on doctors but one incident where a Muslim gets in conflict with health workers is run 24/7 & shown as 'Muslims attack...', while rest ignored or 'Villagers attack' in brief in paper..
Apr 11, 2020 6 tweets 2 min read
*Friends in MP journalism. It's my clear stand today--If you post any false news, put up fake video, refuse to delete, then I'm past civility.
*If you allow hate, abuse on comments in your Facebook status, and refuse to remove them comments, even 'like' them, you are accomplice. I am even past the limit where I can tolerate. I will ensure whatever in my capacity, to take legal action or ensure there is a proper complaint. Journalists have following on social media & people takem them seriously. Don't spread any false news. All screenshots are kept.