A thread on the eve of the #MaharashtraPolls2024:

Maharashtra over the last 2 years has seen a systematic, coordinated attempt by amorphous Hindu right-wing units to target Muslims, polarise Hindus and inject communal hate.

All this has visible BJP support. A thread: Between January and October last year, there were 41 communal instances, and at least 10 were killed. In 2023, 30% of all hate speeches in India were delivered in Maharashtra.

That’s one hate speech every 2.5 days. I wrote about it for @Article14live

article-14.com/post/41-incide…

New Work: Before the polls, PM Modi made a big annoucement--he had been silently working on a development roadmap and had consulted more than 15 lakh people.

I decided to file RTIs with the Prime Minister's Office to know more about these consultations.

After multiple attempts, here is what I found: 🚨
thewire.in/government/mod… This statement was circulated widely--tweets went viral, news reported it and it was even a part of a PIB Press Release.

PM Modi, then, repeatedly the claim in April. "I contacted all the universities, I had contacted different NGOs."

A lot has been said about the Modi Government’s crackdown against NGOs.

But for weeks, I tried to find out what the impact of this crackdown on the ground is.

What I found: Job losses, financial distress, school dropouts and crucial amenities like hospitals shutting down.

I investigate for @ContextNewsroom the price that ordinary Indians are paying, for the Modi Government’s witch-hunt against NGOs:

context.news/money-power-pe… Like this charity-funded hospital in rural Maharashtra: the Bombay Sarvodaya Friendship Centre (BFSC) funded it to ensure it could perform crucial surgeries for locals. The nearest hospital is at least 50km away.

But the Centre’s FCRA was not renewed. The hospital barely functions now.

We know @narendramodi made hateful speeches in the campaign.

We know @ECISVEEP looked away.

The BJP lost miserably in Banswara, where he made the 1st hateful speech.

What happened in other seats, where he made hate speeches?

How voters shunned & punished hate: 🧵🧵 In Ghosi, Modi said Hindus would become "second-class citizens" if INDIA bloc comes to power.

Result: BJP LOST.

The #MiraRoad riots lay bare a thinly disguised secret:

After having put the 1992/3 riots behind, Mumbai has been, yet again, actively transformed into a communal cauldron.

This has been in the works for the last couple of years. A thread: Last year, an investigation around Maharashtra’s communal politics for @Article14live I did revealed that of the 41 hate incidents reported from Maharashtra, 13 happened in Mumbai and Thane (where Mira Road is).

From people being assaulted for not saying Jai Shree Ram to clashes around Ram Navami, it’s all been happening:

article-14.com/post/41-incide…

From Nepal to Bangladesh, from Brussels to Washington DC, India is increasingly facing a pushback from friendly powers, uncomfortable with the Modi government's Hindutva politics.

My latest, featuring sources across 6 countries:

foreignpolicy.com/2023/08/28/ind… Sources engaged in Track 2 diplomacy told me how whispers were growing louder in foreign diplomatic circles about India's slide.

The result can be mixed: from parliamentary resolutions to full-blown protests, from subtle digs by friends to whispers in the corridors.

🧵🧵A thread:

The #SansadTV is censoring + distorting Parliamentary proceedings and invisibilising the Opposition.

Here's how. This is Home Minister Amit Shah, presenting the #DelhiOrdinanceBill today.

See the video closely 1/n Its been ages since #SansadTV showed any visuals of MPs protesting in either houses of the Parliament.

But now, #SansadTV actively cuts away visuals with even the slightest glimpse of protesting MPs.

Example 1: Shah speaks, so an MP goes close to his chair. #SansadTV cuts away.

A thread on how Hindutva has gone global:

In 2014, months after the Modi gov. came to power, I met a 70+ year-old man from London--retired, prosperous Indian-origin British citizen.

His wife told me he operated several Twitter accounts, spent his entire day on it. I asked him what he did: "I expose the Congress and the liberal, anti-Hindu media."

I worked for HT then, which he called the 'anti-Hindustan' Times.

He didn't get paid a dime, but he had links to the RSS (HSS in UK) and other Hindu organisations. He didn't want money.

🚨Be very alert and cautious when you receive direct messages from absolute strangers on social media and messaging apps.

Someone I know has had a scary, nightmarish encounter: 🧵 This person, a well-to-do businessman in his 60s, not too tech-savvy, got a WhatsApp message from an unknown number. He responded to the 'Hello'.

Within minutes, he got a video call from that number.

🧵Thread: Indians fleeing Ukraine are being assaulted, harassed.

The US had been mulling evacuations since December, repeatedly told its citizens to leave.

India’s ‘advisory’ came only on 15 Feb.

But across BJP-run WhatsApp groups, none of this matters: In this parallel world, the Ukraine evacuation of Indian students is a smashing success. So smashing that it has never been done before.

All on the basis of a video by ONE student who said he was treated warmly as he travelled across Ukraine.

“Why this was not before 2014?”

Hours after this story was published, detailing how #MunawarFaruqui and #NalinYadav have been hounded, Yadav was detained for an hour by the MP Police at 2am outside his house in Pithampur, MP last night.

Short thread. @Article14live

https://twitter.com/kunalpurohit/status/1456834197868351497

Yadav was stepping out of his home when 6-7 police officials from the Pithampur sector 1 police station accosted him.

Yadav says they were drunk and were accompanied by members of local Hindu right-wing groups who have, often, targeted him after his arrest.

Inside the Hindutva campaign to derail #MunawarFaruqui ‘s career:

Coordinated online campaigns pushed by handles linked to BJP leaders, threats to organisers & police + asking portals to stop selling his show tickets.

Latest for @Article14live

article-14.com/post/hashtags-… Emboldened by six cancellations of #MunawarFaruqui shows in the last one month, Hindu right-wing groups tell me they won’t allow his shows anywhere in the country.

Next on their radar are upcoming shows in Mumbai and asking #BookMyShow to stop selling his tickets.

Exclusive: A firm with links to senior BJP leaders and Modi's ministers is at the heart of the Kumbh fake testing scam.

The firm got the work even after being rejected at first. Its wrongdoings were ignored, despite many red flags.
I report for @TheWire

thewire.in/politics/kumbh… After applying for the work, the firm’s founder-partner Sharat Pant, met with the likes of JP Nadda, Smriti Irani, Anurag Thakur.

Pant’s uncle was a close aide of the late Ananth Kumar and works in the Modi gov.

This proximity helped. Here's how: thewire.in/politics/kumbh…

Exclusive: How the frenzy around #SushantSinghRajput 's death was created:

Millions of users on Facebook Pages and Groups peddled wild conspiracy theories, conducted parallel investigations and targeted those it believed were "guilty." @Article14live

article-14.com/post/online-gr… Users posted wild, wild allegations--from how Salman Khan was harvesting children's organs for a chemical that kept him young, to how #SSR was trying to save a trafficked child, when he was killed.

Many said his death was beamed live to Dawood Ibrahim on the dark net.

Thread: Last week, I wrote in @Article14live how Facebook has been shielding the BJP for over the year, and the deep, commercial ties between them.
On Monday, I deposed before the Delhi Assembly's committee investigating Facebook's role in fanning hate.
For over 3 years, I have tracked how FB and WhatsApp have normalised hate. This is crucial because hate is a slow-trickling tap and it builds up overtime, solidifying biases and prejudice. FB and WA have played a very damaging role in this.

Over the last two days, I have seen first-hand the absolute collapse of health infrastructure in Mumbai. My uncle died of COVID-19 and here's what I know--be very scared.

A thread. Uncle was persistently coughing for 3 days, had breathlessness. For 2 days, he couldn't get a test. Third day, he got a test. Report only in 2 days.

But, 24 hours after the test, he was dead.

Spent the day on Mumbai's borders, amidst the unending exodus of migrant workers. Here is why #SelfReliantIndia is not really a choice. Illyas has been waiting on the highway in Thane for 2 days. He had 100 rupees, borrowed money from 20 people and now has 500. He wants to go back home to West Bengal.

I decided to fact-check Piyush Goyal's outburst against Amazon a week ago, and realised that he might have a point or two. A thread about Amazon's trade practices:
scmp.com/week-asia/econ… Over the last one week, I spoke to numerous traders as well as sellers who sell on Amazon and Flipkart. Flagging major issues they raise: Amazon Global owns 24% stake in two of the biggest sellers on Amazon-Cloudtail and Appario. Here's why this gets problematic:

A quick thread into the little-known world of Hindutva Pop Music. I spent a couple of weeks in Jharkhand, investigating hate crimes and polarisation. One big annual event that I found was driving tensions up was the local Ram Navami procession. Here's what would happen. Typically, armed processions would stop in front of mosques and play communally-charged songs. Songs were the weapon. That's when I discovered this parallel world of Hindutva music. It's what many, many youngsters are listening to, using them as caller tunes, popular ringtones.

Unpopular opinion on Twitter, but here's what I found in my travel across Jharkhand and UP. People are always not voting for Modi because they are rabid right-wingers, fans of nationalism etc. Many are voting simply because their lives are better off now. (Thread) Like Geeta Devi, who has always backed the JVM, in this village of Jharkhand. She got a free gas cylinder. She saw everyone else getting a free home, too. That's why, she like villagers around her, backed Modi.

The story of #Elphinstone is the story of Mumbai: each piece sold away by scum politicians, babus, builders, no care for the common man 1/n #Elphinstone was d heart of Mumbai's mill economy. When mills shut down, govt had land all around, which it could have used to plan better 2