Locals of Jhansi in UP met with an unusual sight on Sunday: journalists, with their shirts unbuttoned & torn, stood at traffic signals & roamed crowded markets holding out steel bowls, begging for money.

Why? This was a form of protest by the journalists against Rs 50 crore defamation suits slapped against 4 of them by BJP MLA Jawaharlal Rajput for reports they did regarding illegal sand mining in his constituency.

In Mizoram’s Aizawl, thousands gathered in protest last month against a Congress candidate from the Lunglei South constituency.

It was not because the candidate had a criminal record or was not qualified. The problem was who the 49yo woman had married: a non-Mizo.

Stay with me. An influential student group had called for the protest and issued a diktat to all political parties against nominating women married outside the community. It was not safe, they said.

Since Congress stood by her, the group urged voters to boycott her and the party.

A group of over 30 people attacked a stall belonging to a Christian non-profit at the World Book Fair today.

They tore "Free Holy Bible" posters, chanted Jai Shri Ram, & told the group to "stop converting people."

Read for details. @newslaundry
newslaundry.com/2023/03/01/men… At least 15 eyewitnesses & non-profit volunteers told us that the group of men approached the stall at around 2.15 pm. Some of them wore saffron scarves, some had tikas on their foreheads.

They sat down around the stall, refused to leave, & began reciting the Hanuman Chalisa.

Today, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea that challenged provisions of the Special Marriage Act that make it mandatory for couples to publish their private details publicly 30 days before marriage.

A 🧵 on the provisions & how they are misused against interfaith marriages. The Special Marriage Act is a civil contract meant to help interfaith & intercaste couples get married.

But its requirement to file an advance notice and put it up for public display is a loophole that has been weaponized by vigilante groups which oppose interfaith unions.

Small thread on a small, common incident.

Noticed half way in the metro journey this evening that 2 men, sitting diagonally opposite me, kept staring at me. I looked away + looked back a few times to check, and they were still looking. Opened my hair to cover more of my body, and held my press card tight in my hand - both to feel slightly more secure. Put my music off, so that I could be fully alert.

It's been a year of professional growth and I've gotten to learn so much - on the field and in the newsroom. A thread of some of my reports for @newslaundry in 2021 One of my first reports was on how a combination of inadequate shelters, poor facilities, and an apathetic administration is leading to Maharashtra lagging in implementing the Centre’s Shelter for Urban Homeless Scheme.
newslaundry.com/2021/03/03/no-…

2021 was a year dominated by news about farmers protests, vaccines, covid, elections, Afghanistan.

It was also a year flooded with misinformation on the same. I spoke to fact checkers in India about trends in fake news & how they tackled them.@newslaundry newslaundry.com/2021/12/28/mis… Data compiled by @boomlive_in showed that out of the 794 fact checks they carried, 422 were related to political claims, 160 were communal in nature, & 59 were related to health and Covid. The majority of the fake news was shared as videos, followed by as photos, and text pieces.