Journalist. Words @the_hindu, @washingtonpost, @frontline_india, ForeignAffairs, EPW, The Telegraph(IN), @thewire_in, Scroll, IndianExpress, TheBookReview.
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May 4 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
In the last ten days, two things have occurred that should ideally make all state institutions in India place sexual assault as THE most critical security threat that HALF of all Indian citizens (500 million women) face every single day.
The first is the set of revelations by victims of #PrajwalRevanna who sexually assaulted, harassed, and molested several women and filmed them. He is a sitting member of the Lok Sabha. The number of video clips is over 2900.
Mar 16 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Okay, looks like this is going to be a longish one. Hold on to your hats!
1. The media's job is to ask questions. Hard questions. Annoying questions. Questions that make the powerful want to toss custard at you. That's not being like the opposition. That's what the job is.
The state of the Opposition is not the media's fault. True. Literally no one is saying that. What they do say, and what I have also said in the past, is that opposing voices should be given fair air time. In India they don't. What the opposition does is barely covered.
Mar 6 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
Hi David, I am deeply empathetic about what you have reported as your experience in India w.r.t. sexual harassment and sexual assault. Yes you’re quite right in your assessment, it’s what many, many of us have been saying and reporting for many decades.
I must express my discomfort with YOU being the person articulating this.
I’ve gone over your note on Gaza and find it deeply disturbing. There is really no case to be made to colonize anyone, anywhere, anytime. Period.
Feb 7 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Okay let’s get to the most controversial part of the #UttarakhandCivilCode. I reserved judgment until I had waded through the whole pdf.
Here’s what I noticed.
👇🏽
The bill mandates live-in relationships to be registered with the Registrar. It then gives the Registrar the power to look further into this relation and summon the partner(s) OR ANY OTHER PERSON to verify this relationship and provide more evidence if needed.
Apr 5, 2023 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
I’m going to link some tweets below about what the news isn’t showing you in India. A massive #WorkerFarmerRally today. Thousands of agricultural and industrial workers reached Delhi to rally in opposition to the govt’s neoliberal policies that favor corporates.
They began travelling to Delhi two days ago. thehindu.com/news/national/…
Apr 3, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
So this is something I am going to ask people to read. It is a story about Prof. Tamara Kay who has faced harassment for writing about reproductive rights. Her co-author on these pieces is one of my best friends, Prof. Susan Ostermann.
thecut.com/2023/04/tamara…
I’ve seen their work hitting back at the denial of reproductive rights and care for women in the US. Everytime a piece came out Susan would send me a message about it. They’ve written widely and strongly. I had some idea of the harassment they faced.
Sep 30, 2022 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
A story that every national media should be looking into.
Yashwant Sahdev Shinde is/was associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. On August 29, 2022, he filed a sworn affidavit before Extra Jt. District and Sessions Judge, Nanded.
What was in the affidavit?👇🏽
Shinde says he was 18 when he became associated with RSS and VHP in 1990.
Later he served as Chief of Bajrang Dal (it isn’t specified at what level or which state), and left that to join Garjana which is an “aggressive” part of the ABVP (a students Union).
Sep 29, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Term 'Women' in MTP Act judgment includes cis-women, persons of other gender identities requiring access to safe abortion: Indian Supreme Court. barandbench.com/news/term-wome…
“the usage of the term 'women' is not limited to just cis-women (person assigned female at birth and continues to identify as female) but also include those of other gender identities who have the reproductive system and needs of the female sex.”
Sep 28, 2022 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
This is a fantastic interview with a very brave temple priest.
newsclick.in/modi-has-destr…
“They will never speak of Akbar building the Vishwanath temple. This is because their motive is to construct a narrative for creating an anti-Muslim atmosphere—and exploit the sentiments of Hindus to gather votes.”
This is a very very sophisticated way to justify and legitimize racism.
Sep 27, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Dude bro you should have hung out with my set. We literally all thought the Congress was awful because of 1984. I know exactly how many people the reports said were killed in 1984. I have literally read every one of those inquiry reports. But the thing is at least back then they
bothered to arrive at some number or some figure, however inaccurate. They didn't just hide behind non-available data or pretend that something didn't happen.
Lynchings have gone sharply upwards since 2014. I was skeptical until I started looking at the data myself.
Sep 27, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the usual male sport of name-calling women, and you seem to have no trouble in responding either way so that's one thing sorted. I also think the people you refer to as "loonies" are on to something and have written about it widely. But its probably hard to
read when one's head is in a sand bucket. I don't blame you for that.
Have you looked at the lynching data recently? Have you asked the government where the data is and why they haven't released it? Have you spoken to anyone from the affected communities?
Sep 18, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I’ve seen the footage from #Leicester where about 200 supporters of Hindutva took out a rally shouting Jai Shri Ram in a Muslim area. Let me just say to all my fellow Indians, Hindutva has deeply broken our country. Please do not export these divisions worldwide.
Millions of Indians like me do not support Hindutva in any way, shape or form. We see it as a form of right-wing fascism which has brought nothing good to our home society. We have faced abuse, threats and ridicule for simply stating that we do not sign onto this project.
Sep 15, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I have a slightly different take on President Murmu attending the Queen’s funeral on Monday. She is India’s first president from the adivasi (original inhabitant) community. She is from the Santhal tribe and if you know anything about the tribal history of India
you will know that Santhals were amongst the first to fight back against the East India Company in the 1700s and 1855 (two years before the First Indian War of Independence). These are the main events we usually hear about but tribal rebellions against the state
Jun 20, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
The reason I’m opposing #Agnipath is because you don’t want every random, unemployed Indian man to be even basically combat trained. It’s very very bad for women. I am predicting a rise in VAW after the first stint ends.
Update: looks like rw trolls have discovered this tweet. Here’s the thing, study after study shows that those who work in professions that require coercion often bring back those behaviours home and back into society.
Jun 12, 2022 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
A couple of weeks in Uttar Pradesh and I’m convinced that the 2024 election results will be no different from 2019. People talk about how “there is no alternative” and how “development has accelerated in the last nine years.”
The ability to be perceived as committed to development on the one hand and to be seen as maintaining Hindu pride on the other, is a winning formula for the BJP. People aren’t terribly concerned about hate speech and it’s impact on marginalized groups.
Apr 25, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
As Elon Musk prepares to takeover Twitter, I urge everyone to listen to historian Jill Lepore’s podcast on Musk to understand the man and what strands of thought underpin who he is and what he does. The podcast is called The Evening Rocket.
He spent some time with his grandfather who was a leader of the technocracy movement in Canada, which advocated putting scientists in charge of everything. Politics, parties, etc were all part of what they considered the “price system” and had to go.
Mar 15, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Let's call a spade a spade. Every mean-spirited piece of legislation or court ruling done in the name of 'equality' or 'emancipation' is just one more legislative stick with which to beat the Indian Muslim minority out of the body politic. I don't support it. #HijabVerdict
From NRC, CAA, Triple Talaq judgment to the Hijab row, to the made up 'love-jihad' cases, what we are witnessing is a PROCESS of the dilution of rights for Muslims. This is institutional violence yes, but it is also accompanied by bullying, harassment, attacks, lynchings and
Feb 21, 2022 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
Do you remember the time when Dalit women had to bare their torsos to upper castes? And if they didn’t they had to pay a “breast tax” in Kerala? Do you know of or remember brave Nangeli who cut off her breasts and bled to death as resistance to the “Mullakaram” tax?
Today Muslim women are being hounded by Hindu Indian men to remove their head scarves. Tomorrow they will hound Dalit women, tribal women, women in jeans or skirts or saris, to remove items of clothing.
Jan 6, 2022 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
I've read this piece TWICE today. This should be the biggest story in India. Democratic conversations on social media were hijacked and trends were manufactured using #TekFog. Social media users were promised a govt job and more money to basically spread BJP propaganda.
The piece very correctly points out that a partisan information environment was manufactured in India and that public narratives are engineered.
Nov 17, 2021 • 9 tweets • 1 min read
Am I the only one who is a tad suspicious of Vir Das’ wokeness?
Let me explain what I mean. I think because some of his material is catering to a western audience he has this tendency to use orientalist tropes as material. I can’t distinguish between the internal orientalism and the punchline. I don’t know. Does this make sense?
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