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Is the Right Wing on Social Media becoming paranoid?

Gaurav
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Is the Right Wing on Social Media becoming paranoid?

What ideally should have been a funny gif, sparked of quite a few battles on Social Media. I’ll elaborate how it happened. After their joint address as Angela Merkel was walking towards Modi for a photo-op, Modi thrust his hand forward, in a bid to shake hands with Merkel. Merkel did not shake hands, but passed him, touching him and showing him the way to a spot next to him. This much action is captured in the following gif:

Apart from being an entire story on Buzzfeed, this was used with hilarious captions by many Twitter users. Good fun some would say. I would too. But there was more to it. Apparently, Pakistani media was using this bit to spread propaganda that “Merkel snubs Modi”.

The truth however, is visible once you see the entire video. Merkel merely asks Modi to come near the 2 countries’ flags, so that they can shake hands there and have an even better photo-op. When this part is omitted for comedic reasons, it seems innocuous, but when it is omitted for propaganda, it can hurt people.

This is where many Social Media users rallied and pointed out the whole video, to people who were using just the edited portion. They even forced Buzzfeed to update their article with the full details. This behaviour, was disturbing to many, including me till I was made aware that this video was being used for false propaganda. And this reaction, has forced many people including me to wonder: Is the Right Wing on Social Media paranoid?

Answer is both Yes and No. I have explained the Yes, a harmless video of a seemingly awkward moment of a PM is always a funny video, which can be used in multiple ways for good clean humour.

Now I will come to the No part. Unfortunately, in past few months, many damaging news reports have begun from tomfoolery or “flippant” tweets on Social media. The best example of this the “Rs 10 lac Modi suit” story. We had traced the entire story here. It started with Social Media realising the monogram print, trying to estimate the cost based on other examples, Print Media picking this up as a “story”, Main stream media holding TV debates, and it even reached the speeches of Rahul Gandhi. Much much later, the person who gifted the suit revealed that the cost could not be Rs 10 lacs because he couldn’t afford it. Till then, the damage had been done, and some people guessed, that the actual cost of the suit was the Delhi Election defeat. This story, if it was nipped in the bud, by “paranoid” Right Wingers on day one itself, would not have spiralled out of control into a device to malign Modi.

And this worked so well, that Adarsh Liberal journalists tried it again. We showed you how Rana Ayyub tried to claim Modi’s Shawl was from Louis Vuitton. That was the first step, second would be the cost, third would be juxtaposing “humble chaiwala” with “luxuries”, fourth would be to question the source, fifth would be to allege it is a gift from an Industrialist to do his bidding, and so on. Luckily this story was stopped at stage one. Thanks to “paranoid” Right Wingers.

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Yesterday again, there was another potential propaganda tool. Times Now managed to confuse the Government of India’s Dadasaheb Phalke Award, with a similarly named award from some private body, which was conferred on Vivek Oberoi. Within minutes various people posted multiple links which proved that Times Now has got it horribly wrong. The GoI Phalke award for 2015 was already declared in March 2015 to Shashi Kapoor. This had to be a fake news. And it was. Within 30 minutes, Times Now deleted their tweet without an apology or clarification. They had even managed to get a quote for Vivek Oberoi!

Again, on the face of it, the story is about a seemingly less deserving Bollywood actor, getting a very prestigious award. Most outrage on social media was only on this. But again, there could have been undertones. Vivek Oberoi is a vocal supporter of Narendra Modi. On his recent visit to Germany, Prime Minister Modi, met Vivek Oberoi.

Given these facts, it is extremely easy for someone to allege that Vivek’s closeness to Modi allowed him to jump the queue and get this award from the Government. Once again sullying Modi’s name as being partial to his friends etc. In this context, Times Now’s highly misleading tweet can very well be considered to be mischievous, to say the least.

And just today morning we had the “2AB” “controversy” where some people who did not understand the metaphor, began ridiculing the PM. ANI tweeted this abridged version, probably because of space constraints:


Which actually should sound like this, to make perfect sense (Below image is a transcript of an earlier speech where Modi used the same metaphor). And if one sees the actual video, this is exactly what Modi said.

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Again it was up to “Paranoid” Right Wingers to clear the air, over something as trivial as a metaphor, but which was being misused to spread propaganda.

So is this paranoia? To my mind, it will be called “paranoia” when this fact-checking doesnt yield any result. Egs if Modi had indeed used a stupid illogical Math metaphor. Till then, it will be on the other side of the thin line which separates paranoia from prudence. And most of this, is because of the ever depleting standards of Indian media. MSM has plummeted to depths never seen before. From asking General V K Singh to be more sensitive to people he is personally rescuing to blatant Lies peddled day in and day out. In such times, Author Sidin Vadukut’s advice sounds perfect:


Bihar Diaries – How Political Climate is shaping up in Bihar

Rahul Raj
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Bihar Diaries – How Political Climate is shaping up in Bihar

As you travel 2-3 Km away from the Jayaprakash Narayan Airport, Patna, you will suddenly find huge white bungalows melting into densely populated coarse buildings sprouting from the ground, wide clean roads degrading into choked dusty roads, and green leaves getting replaced by political hoardings. Politics and political discussions enjoy a special space in Bihar, everywhere – in Pan Shops, in auto-rickshaws, in buses, universities, in shopping malls – everywhere.

With Bihar Legislative Assembly election, 2015 just around the corner, political activities have started gearing up. The naked reality of the state is hastily covered in posters, hoardings and banners. Political parties including Congress, BJP, JDU, newly formed HAM are putting all their efforts to harvest the maximum. Due to absence of any prominent faces in the opposition, the political battle – as of now – is expected to be fought between Nitish Kumar and others. Nitish Kumar clearly holds a strong upper edge.

Given the fact that the social-economic circumstances of Bihar are more deplorable than other states, the politics which is expected to shape in the next months will be quite different from politics in Delhi, Maharashtra or Haryana. On 17 March 2015, Jitan Ram Manjhi led Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) launched Gareeb Swabhiman Rally against Nitish Kumar in which Manjhi claimed that Nitish Kumar is wasting money on unnecessary projects and when he is questioned about salary enhancement of teachers, guards, police he cries for resource crunch. As expected, Manjhi focused his agenda around women, Dalits, minorities, farmers and poor.

Even before Bihar could catch the election fever and BJP could start getting actively involved in it, RJD chief Lalu Prasad confirmed that six parties – SP, RJD, JD(U), JD(S), INLD and SJP – have merged together as Janata Parivar to “drive out” the BJP from Bihar and the Centre. Amit Shah will be holding a rally in Gandhi Maidan, Patna tomorrow (14 April 2015). The rally will give an initial idea about how BJP will unfold its politics in coming days. Some other recent interesting political news include some unruly behaviour at a Congress rally.

While traveling along Ganga on the Patna University lane, I talked to a few random chaiwallas , rickshaw wallas, college students about Bihar; I also discussed present and future of Patna and Bihar with some of my relatives. Some of the perspectives were really interesting. One of my relatives said, “Nitis ke andar Bihar ka bahut Vikas hua hai” and then he explained how poor oldies and widows are getting cheap ration and monthly pension. When I asked him, “How will the government sustain this for long”, he replied, “Jaise abhi tak kia hai…waise aage bhi karenge”. One rickshawalla whom I enquired angrily said, “Inka bhi wahi haal hoga jo Lalu ji ka hua tha”

Beyond ideologies, promises and politics, conditions of the older part of Patna remain strikingly pathetic. Narrow adrift lanes of Mahendru, Mussalahpur and Patna Sahib are stingingly stuffed with garbage and flies. I saw a kid defecating in an open drain under a poster which read “Gareeb Swabhiman Rally.”

Words like Gareeb and Swabhiman have been floating in Bihar for long. Hope we find someone who can not only improve the condition of Patna, but also conditions of entire Bihar.

The Politics behind Net Neutrality

OpIndia Staff
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The Politics behind Net Neutrality

We explained the basic concepts of Net Neutrality here, and from that, its pretty clear that this is far from being a political debate. But we cannot escape from the fact that what finally happens on this issue, is governed by Politicians, and hence it is important to know where everybody stands on this matter.

Firstly we have to assess the response of the ruling party BJP and its Government. The Government (via TRAI) let people send in their views, to help decide on this issue. Among other things, AIB in their video on Net Neutrality say “TRAI put up the consultation paper on 27th of March with a conveniently tight deadline of 24th April, to hear any complaints that we might have against it” trying to insinuate that somehow the TRAI is hand in glove with the Telco lobby. While, no-one outside TRAI can say this for sure, it certainly doesn’t seem so since TRAI actually invited public responses.

Also, the “conveniently tight deadline” of 1 month odd, is in fact a standard time frame for such exercises:

TRAI released a consultation paper on 1st April 2015, the deadline for which is 22 April 2015

Another TRAI consultation paper released on 27th Feb 2015 was open till 19 March  2015

The Law Commission of India released a consultation paper in May 2014, for which the time frame was again 30 days.

Considering the above, it would be uncharitable to the Government to claim that 30 days was a “conveniently tight deadline”. On this front, the Government via TRAI has taken the right step, by not bowing down to pressure from the Telco lobby, but asking opinions from the public

Where, the Government, rather the BJP as a party can be faulted is its extremely slow response to this debate. IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was one of the first politicians to bat for Net Neutrality, with this tweet:


But the party spokespersons never quite picked up the tempo on this issue. It was upto Ravi Shankar Prasad to again come on TV channels, just two days back, to speak on this issue. But couldn’t directly articulate the party’s stand since he was part of the Government. He however dropped enough hints to show that BJP was pro Net Neutrality. For a party whose leader is believed to very tech savvy, BJP took far too long to take a stand.

Considering that BJP owes its astounding victory at-least partly to Social Media, and that its Social Media team have shown their capabilities earlier, BJP waited for the outrage levels on Social Media to reach sky high before coming out in support of Net Neutrality. It almost seemed a forced response, where BJP could have siezed the initiative and run the campaign on its own.

On the other hand, Tathagata Sathpathy, an MP from the regional party BJD, took the initiative and wrote a dissenting letter to TRAI. Among other regional parties that reacted, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal tweeted the following:

It is indeed a welcome move to support Net Neutrality, but AAP may have been guilty of violating this principle themselves. As we pointed out here in February, way before Net Neutrality was the hot potato it is today, AAP’s plan to provide free WiFi is against Net Neutrality. According to AAP’s promise, they will provide free WiFi but will decide which which services can be used via free WiFi. This is in violation of the basic principle of Net Neutrality that All Internet traffic should be treated equally, because AAP wants to decide what services you will use. In light of the new-found love for Net Neutrality, we guess AAP might have to reconsider their free WiFi plans  

As for Congress, with Youth Icon Rahul Gandhi missing, it was upto Ajay Maken to take up the cause. In a press conference today, Maken came in support of Net Neutrality, becoming one of the last major parties to speak on this topic. Even in this, Maken chose to take pot-shots at BJP instead of keeping politics aside on this issue.

(Update: Ajay Maken had shared AIB’s NetNeutrality video two days before his press conference. )

A Dummy’s Guide to understanding Net Neutrality

Guest Author
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A Dummy’s Guide to understanding Net Neutrality

It’s almost certain that most of you have not only heard about the term “Net Neutrality” but also support the cause. Most certainly you have also gone through various articles explaining the issue, including a video by AIB that is being talked about by everyone in the mainstream media.

The video by AIB makes an analogy where a person is asked to pay different prices for different rides in a park. This is termed unfair and akin to violation of network neutrality. However, if you’ve gone to an amusement park, that’s exactly how it operates. That might make some people wonder if Net Neutrality is unfair to private businesses, for what is already happening in an amusement park is being termed wrong when replicated in the digital world.

To the credit of AIB, it’s never easy to come up with a perfect analogy. They have done enough to spread the awareness, and this article is an attempt to complement their effort by using a different analogy, which I believe is nearer to what it is in the virtual world.

Broadly, the principle of Net Neutrality says that all internet traffic should be treated equally.

Since it’s about internet traffic, I will use traffic on roadways to explain the issue.

Roads which are built by Private Companies (on contract from the Government) can be considered as equivalent to Spectrum (3G etc) provided by Private companies like Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Telecommunication Service Providers (TSPs). Now the road building companies have other interests too, like they own some shopping malls. Similarly, ISP/TSPs provide other services like SMS and Voice calls.

Taking our analogy forward, we will take a road that connects two cities, say Delhi and Noida. There is actually a toll booth that is on the Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND) highway.

Consider the vehicles plying on roads as packets of data and information travelling between your computer and a website or an app. So your computer is in Delhi and the website’s server you are accessing is in Noida. Accessing a website or an app means you are travelling from your car from Delhi to somewhere in Noida. You pay toll tax in shape of your broadband bills or the data pack that you have bought on your mobile connection.

Now consider this. The DND asks you to pay higher toll if you are going to meet a rival company’s shopping mall, but normal toll if you are going to a shopping mall. They lose money when you go to some other shopping mall (read when you use Whatsapp instead of SMS), hence they charge you for the same.

This is discrimination based on the origin or destination of a data packet. This is violation of Net Neutrality.

And the telecos want to do this i.e. charge a certain rate if you access WhatsApp while charge another rate if you just browse some other website.

But your toll booth guy is good. If you don’t want to pay a higher toll tax to visit your a rival mall, you can pay normal toll tax but the toll employee will deflate your tyres a little so that your car starts running slow. This flexibility too is wanted by ISPs and telecos! This is throttling of speed based on origins and destination of data packets, which many ISPs want to indulge in.

Clearly these rules can’t be allowed to be introduced. But you may wonder what about real toll booths charging different toll rates to different vehicles e.g. heavy vehicles are asked to pay higher toll tax? Or what about introducing fast and reserved lanes for those who value their time, and charging differently to them? These appear logical and fair business propositions.

ISPs on their part use this analogy to claim that traffic to something like a WhatsApp or YouTube is like four-axle truck so they should be allowed to charge more. But this is a wrong analogy. Yes, WhatsApp or YouTube indeed guzzle a lot of data, but that means most of the cars are going to the same shopping mall; it doesn’t make every car a truck!

And surprise! They are already charging tolls for fast and reserved lanes. Don’t we pay more to get a higher speed for our broadband connections? Similarly websites and apps pay more to get dedicated ports to handle higher traffic. What they are not allowed to do is to force a car into a different lane, or deflate the tyre, after realizing the source or the destination of the car’s journey.

So what is Airtel Zero? How can this analogy explain the outrage that has finally forced Flipkart to drop out of Airtel Zero?

Airtel Zero is like a particular shopping mall in Noida placing their salesmen at DND toll booths. These salesmen offer to pay the toll tax if the car promises to visit only that shopping mall and nowhere else in Noida.

But that sounds like a good marketing and sales strategy, no? Why so much outrage?

Yes and No. While it might sound like a fair and innovative marketing and sales strategy, it risks car owners seeing toll taxes as unnecessary burden, which can impact the way toll booths operate elsewhere. People could start demanding even a small shop in Noida to pay for their toll and thus smaller businesses will die down.

The way I see it, the main problem is the salesman standing at the DND toll booth. The toll road was supposed to be a contract between the government and the DND, and a third party was not expected to be there. His presence is changing consumer mindset. It is alright if the shopping mall refunds the toll when the car reaches there, but they have no business standing at the toll booth giving free toll tickets thus change the way a person sees the meaning of toll tax.

So are all ISPs and telecos evil and they don’t have a point at all?

Not really. But they need to articulate well. They can’t say they should be allowed to put toll on faster lanes, as they are already doing it (as explained above). What they are essentially asking is the right to deflate tyres, which can’t be given in my opinion.

Telecos in particular claim loss of revenues due to services like WhatsApp and Skype, as they compete with their traditional services. This is not strong enough an argument. They were given the spectrum, not a technology. It is like toll booths cribbing that people have started using carpooling so their collections per car have come down. They need to innovate to compete with the new technology, rather than ask for rules to be changed in their favor.

However, their point about charging differently for cars and trucks is valid. But they need to explain that. A car doesn’t become a truck just because it is going to a particular destination or coming from a particular origin. Some other issues from the perspectives of ISPs can be read here.

Let the ISPs explain their concerns that don’t violate net neutrality principles. Meanwhile thousands are explaining the above points to TRAI. You can also do it by clicking here.

(Disclaimer: I am not a techie. If you think I have slipped up somewhere, do notify in the comments section, and I would consider updating the article to make people understand the issue better. Just keep it simple and don’t make it too technical and complicated, as this is supposed to be a dummy’s guide!)

– Rahul Roshan

(The above post originally appeared here. It has been slightly modified and reproduced with permission of the author)

Anupam Kher’s reply which Firstpost did not publish

OpIndia Staff
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Anupam Kher’s reply which Firstpost did not publish

It all started when an MLA from Jammu and Kashmir, rather foolishly declared that Kashmiri Pandits should apologise to the majority community for having migrated from Kashmir. In response to this, Anupam Kher, himself a Kashmiri Pandit, criticized this remark. Anupam Kher, was quoted by ANI as saying:

“Some Er. Rasheed has the gall to say that we should apologise for migrating out of Kashmir. What kind of an idiot are you? So all the Jews should apologise to Germans?”

Apparently this analogy perturbed a certain Mr Wajahat Qazi, who then wrote a piece criticising Anupam Kher and questioning his intentions. Kher, chose to respond to this post by drafting his reply, and he offered it to Firstpost.



As things stand, Anupam Kher’s response has not been carried by Firstpost. Hence he published it on his own. We reproduce the letter here:

In a democratic debate, everyone has a right to express an opinion; subjective as it may be. In that spirit, I welcome Mr Wajahat Qazi’s views on what I have said about the issue of Kashmiri Hindus. But I join issue with him when he is ignorant of facts and is economical with the truth.

Firstly,  I object to Mr Qazi’s assertion that I am ‘discovering’ myself through the recent imbroglio. That is arrant nonsense; for decades I have always been asserting my Kashmiri heritage. In fact in my autobiographical play Kucch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai  — of which over 350 performances  have been staged in over a dozen countries – I begin by saying that I was born into a Kashmiri family! So I do not need to smoke out the Kashmir Pandit issue to proclaim my identity. But even if I was born in Shimla, the issue does not get diminished at a personal level. My ancestral house too has been abandoned and the lives of several of my cousins and other relatives have been uprooted savagely.

Secondly, Mr Qazi admits that the statement made by an MLA — that Kashmiri Pandits must apologise to their Muslim brethren for leaving them – is rather ludicrous. But he goes to grave lengths to criticise my critique of that same comment! In his anxiety to knock down my criticism, he insinuates that by me finding the situation analogous to Jews being asked to apologise to the Nazis, I am implying that the Kashmiri Muslims are ‘barbaric’ Nazis and the Kashmiri Pandits are victims of genocide!  All this implication is in Mr Qazi’s imagination; I have never stated anything akin to a genocide. I was merely responding to a question on the MLA’s statement which Mr Qazi himself finds ludicrous.

Mr Qazi might find my assertions, which I have not made in the first place, ‘insulting, damaging and unacceptable’. But he cannot offer any reason for the mass exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, beyond  giving the Kashmiri Muslims a clean chit and saying that ‘it was not the majority community that drove them out.’ He also says that it was  ‘neither genocide, nor ethnocide nor a forced exile..’ Pray tell us then  Mr Qazi, what made over 350,000 Kashmiri Hindus walk out of their homes on the days following January 19, 1990 and abandon the land they have lived in for thousands of years? Are you saying that there was no complicity on the part of the Muslims at all? And how come many of the properties of the Kashmiri Hindus are currently occupied by the majority community. Yes, many of them were purchased at rock bottom prices on the very days preceding or following  January 19,1990 when the anti-Hindu stance of the majority community became amply clear.

Come, come Mr Qazi, you cannot be so naïve after all!  Yet even if you do not see the hand of the Muslims in the tragic exodus of the Hindus,  I am gratified that you have agreed to term the flight of Kashmiri Pandits as an exodus at least; and not a mass walk out!

It is ironic that after exculpating the majority religion, you make a grand statement: “Why dwell on the past when the future awaits us?” Because, if you have read the great Spanish  philosopher-novelist George Santayana, you will realise the import of his saying: Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it!

I too want a reconciliation. I too do not wish to flame the embers of hatred or communalism. But let us not kid ourselves with semantics. You ask, how can people be refugees in their own country? Let me tell you Mr Qazi, neither I or the Pandits have termed themselves as refugees. Even the BBC has been referring to displaced Kashmiri Hindus as refugees. You, and the others of your mindset just need  to visit the ‘refugee’ camps of the Pandits in Jammu to realise the plight of over two lakhs of people who have driven out of their homeland.

In the end Mr Qazi, remember that the borders of a country can be drawn and re-drawn, as has happened with India.  But you can never redraw the map of your homeland…

UPDATE (15 April, 2015): Firstpost has finally published his response today.

Indian Express works overtime, produces 2 propaganda based articles in a single day

OpIndia Staff
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Indian Express works overtime, produces 2 propaganda based articles in a single day

Indian Express has been the beacon of baseless stories in the past few months. While some of them could be plain idiocy, some could be termed malicious in their intent. They started 2015 with the dubious Terror Boat article by Praveen Swami which was eventually thrashed by all and sundry. Then they decided to communalise even a gang Rape, and twisted the Archbishop’s statements. Then came the Julio Ribeiro letter, which by his own admission was exaggerated, and whose claims were later found to be unsubstantiated. They also refused to publish this reply to the same letter. And then they claimed BJP is replacing Newton in school textbooks, only to publish the true interview a few days later which rubbished their claims.

Today, Indian Express went one step ahead and tried to pass off a Facebook post by a page called “Unofficial Dr Subramaniam Swamy” as a quote by BJP leader Subrmaniam Swamy. Express alleged that Swamy had blasted the recent film “Dharam Sankat Mein” which also stars BJP MP Paresh Rawal. Express Quoted Swamy as having written the following:

Look at these Hindu gurus. Always cunning perverts. Lusting after wealth, women and whiskey. We have been telling the same story for decades and will continue to do, in the name of freedom of expression. Also disappointing is the fact that these movies prominently feature an actor who happens to be a BJP MP.

Its funny and sad that a behemoth of MSM fell prey to a page which clearly says it is the “Unofficial” Dr Swamy page. In fact, in the details, this Facebook page says it is run by another Facebook Page called “Shankhnaad”. There is no involcement of Dr Swamy in either of these pages. Are Indian Express journalists so foolish or are they deliberately playing mischief. It could have been a gamble, hoping Dr Swamy would not rebut or would ignore and this propaganda would spread. But they messed with the wrong guy. Dr Swamy immediately tweeted this:


And within 5 hours, Indian Express removed the story, with an apology:


We have a screenshot of the story stored for posterity.

Next, Indian Express decided to communalise schools. This tweet was tweeted from their Official Handle:


The title of this story reads: “Divided colours of Ahmedabad: Saffron uniform for Hindu kids, green for Muslim“. From these two lines, an ordinary reader would assume religious segregation is going on in a school in Gujarat where Hindu students wear saffron colour clothes, and muslim students from the same school wear green colour clothes. But Alas, Indian Express was lying again.

The first 3 sentences itself of this report make it clear that Indian Express lied both in its tweet and in its headline:

Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s Shahpur Public School and Dani Limda Public School are unique for being its only English-medium schools. They also have another distinction. While the uniform at Shahpur school where most of the students are Hindus is saffron-coloured, the Dani Limda school where almost all the students are Muslims has a green uniform.

From the above it is clear that there are 2 schools with 2 different colour uniforms. This is the first lie, where they initially claim in 1 school, 2 uniforms for 2 religions are used. The second part of this lie is that Hindus are made to wear saffron and Muslims are made to wear green. By their own admission, in the Shahpur school, a majority of the students are Hindus which means, it has some Muslim children. The same applies for the other school, where a small number of Hindu children might be present. So in Shahpur, even Muslim students are wearing saffron uniforms, whereas in the other schools, even Hindu children are wearing green uniforms. So where is the religious segregation?

Indian Express later claims these schools are located in Hindu majority and Muslim majority regions respectively and hence the colours of the uniforms. This inference could also be challenged since it is pertinent to note that these are the only 2 English Medium schools. All other 454 schools run by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation are non-English Medium and have the same blue and white uniform. IF indeed, there was some religious segregation based on regions, why don’t these 454 schools have uniform colours based on their locality or student religions? Or are we to believe all these 454 schools are located in areas which have perfect equitable balance of all religions?

Indian Express seems to be desperate to find stories where there are none. In fact, many MSM journalists are now doing the same, and unfortunately on highly trivial issues, as we wrote here.

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How Twitter changed the way I see Politics

Guest Author
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How Twitter changed the way I see Politics

Approximately a year ago, I was sitting in my hostel, wondering how to drag a slow Saturday evening. I was in my final year of engineering and had a good amount of time to spare. I considered myself an informed citizen as I used to regularly watch NDTV and read The Hindu newspaper on a daily basis. That sounds like a lethal combination now, but I did trust their reportage before I started using Twitter.

I was not mature enough to distinguish between ‘left’ and ‘right’ in politics. I must also confess that I was almost convinced that Narendra Modi was a monster emanating from Gujarat who got away from the clutches of law after murdering thousands of Muslims (all credit to the consistent media coverage regarding to the issue) and he didn’t deserve to be PM. We used to have some debates on the issue in hostel. A friend who lived in the next room believed that Modi was a great candidate for PM, while I felt someone with a ‘cleaner record’ was suitable. I had somehow come to this conclusion without going deep into the issue, because I was unaware of the devious ways in which media could be manipulated. My prejudice drawn from TV reporters and newspapers made me raise my eyebrows whenever he made pro-Modi arguments.

For me, the Hindutva bandwagon seemed to be a divisive force largely due to the Babri Masjid demolition. However, I was totally unaware of the hidden divisive agenda of the Congress and Left parties which was sold as an ideal i.e. secularism. That was mainly because; my trusted media houses never highlighted their shortcomings while the word ‘Hindutva’ was attached with a negative connotation by default.

All these notions existed before I logged into my barely functional Twitter account. Initially, I restricted myself to tweeting quotes and replying to some random people I knew. Slowly I understood the concept of following strangers on Twitter and voicing out ‘opinions’ in 140 characters or less along with hash-tags. As the number of free hours increased and tensions of placement subsided, I found myself spending more time on Twitter. This time around I shared links with some opinions and random people started replying to these. I was pissed off by these replies in the beginning because those opinions were contrary to my own. The first instance of surprise came when somebody ridiculed ‘The Hindu’ as a leftist newspaper. Slowly, I started to see the opinions of the ‘right’ wing or the saffron party supporters and their legitimate arguments.

I realized that I was not aware of the historic blunder by Rajiv Gandhi’s government in the Shah Bano case. I was unaware that the Congress government was also equally responsible for inadequate measures to protect the masjid. No media house investigated the progress of court cases related to other riots that had happened under the nose of ‘secular’ governments. Only the Gujarat cases were receiving international attention. This seemed unfair. Didn’t other riot victims deserve justice? I was unaware of the brutality of Sikh riots in Delhi. I sense some sort of agenda behind the filtered news and one sided story that was being sold to people on a daily basis. I smelled twisted articulation when I read news articles where we are repeatedly told ‘terror has no religion’ but recent attacks on churches are always by ‘Hindutva elements’ (even before investigations).

By the end of September 2013, the Narendra Modi campaign had taken off and many discussions began on my Twitter feed. This time around the stark differences between the right and left showed up on my mobile screen. This time around I searched in the internet to see if those arguments were true or not.

I also felt that I had to see what Narendra Modi had spoken in the past about ‘development’ and how serious he was about it. I started to search some videos on the internet and finally ended up watching this Narendra Modi speech at the Hindustan Times leadership summit. I found this fellow to be an impressive orator and an innovative thinker. I felt that India could actually progress with the approach he outlined in that speech.

Later, I read up on the independent SIT that probed the Gujarat riots and its findings. The argument of ‘lack of trust’ in the nation’s highest court’s verdict among leftist media seemed to be dubious. I was also appalled to see that no such attacks were made on perpetrators of Sikh riots for a sustained period of time. The hollow arguments of Modi haters became more obvious as days passed.

Some of the vague comments and multiple faux pas by Rahul Gandhi became a rage on Twitter. In fact the entire hostel block shared the video of Rahul Gandhi’s interview and laughed in glee at his naïve demeanour and incoherent answers. Most of us dubbed it as a comedy show. The choice had become almost obvious by then. The Congress leader had proven his lack of clarity regarding several issues in his interviews and speeches. Twitter was vociferous on these shortcomings though the mainstream media was milder in its critique. And slowly, I started to critically analyze the programs and articles of my erstwhile trusted sources of news.

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In addition to the larger argument between ‘right’ and ‘left’, one cannot ignore the way in which rise and fall of standards in AAP created huge ripples on Twitter. It oscillated from sheer optimism to utter disappointment due to the way they conducted politics. Other issues like public anger over mysterious death of DK Ravi made sure that politicians heard the sentiments of the public through sources other than mainstream media.

The presence of alternate views and sources of news on Twitter had indeed raised my level of awareness. I believe there would be many people who might share a story similar to mine. The quality of debates we had at college on politics was enhanced by our exposure to views on Twitter. In the end we all travelled home and made sure that our vote was cast and our voice heard through the ballot box. I hope that this platform remains vibrant and makes sure people’s voices are heard and the inaccurate/ biased reporting is exposed to the public.

written by-@mlessp

How Adarsh Liberal Journalists on Twitter covered Modi’s Europe visit

Gaurav
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How Adarsh Liberal Journalists on Twitter covered Modi’s Europe visit

In another attempt to strengthen foreign diplomatic ties with various countries across the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on his Europe Tour, where he would meet various leaders, in France and Germany, over a span of four days. While Modi was discussing some serious issues like Defence deals and UN seat for India, Adarsh Liberal Journalists on Twitter were dissecting each and every move of Narendra Modi.

Although Modi signed 20 key agreements in France, Ace Detective & fashionista Rana Ayyub had made a startling discovery:


Pune Mirror took Ayyub’s word as gospel truth and even reported in their news piece that Narendra Modi was wearing a “flashy shawl” from Louis Vitton, “as per twitterati”. consulting Editor of Times of India Sagarika Ghose, picked up from where Ayyub left and preached some fashion sense to Modi:


This tweet was reminiscent of such past gems from Sagarika:


Shekhar Gupta even went to the extent of pointing out how he had dedicated a paragraph in old article, to Modi’s dressing sense. 


All the Adarsh Liberal promotion of Louis Vuitton seemed to have worked, when somebody asked their Twitter handle, where he could buy this product, only to be disappointed:


It’s a shame that Adarsh Liberal’s made a “mistake” in identifying the products of a high-end fashion brand, which they must be patronizing on a daily basis. As it was later pointed out, a similar looking shawl, sold by the very Indian “Vimal” brand, was available on Flipkart for Rs 930

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Up next: Editor of “The Telegraph” Sankarshan Thakur. Thakur, a commonly seen face on Arnab Goswami’s Newshour, showed that he had a keen eye for detail and made a very astute observation which was critical to Modi’s France visit.


Luckily MEA Syed Akbaruddin managed to provide the necessary pictorial evidence, or our investigative media would have scored another major scoop and exposed the lies flowing from Modi’s Ministries.


Next, Mihir Sharma, a journalist from Business Standard, raised another important doubt, questioning Modi’s attentiveness in a meeting:


Sharma, who by now must have been habituated to being run over by facts by ordinary twitter users,  was again shown his place by an official who was present at the same meeting:


Sharma then tried to use the standard escape available to Adarsh Liberals, when caught deep-throating their feet:


But it was too little too late as other Adarsh Liberals like Former Journalist with India Today, Pierre Fitter were suckered into a serious debate on what was a “joke”.


Although Mihir Sharma might have been joking, we sincerely urge Prime Minister Modi to release video evidence and detailed transcripts of this meeting. Until then we will put our tin-foil Pierre Fitter hat on and believe that this meeting never happened. 

Why Maharashtra Government’s Prime Slot Arrangement is making people both Glad and Sad

Guest Author
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Why Maharashtra Government’s Prime Slot Arrangement is making people both Glad and Sad

Marathi Cinema first spoke in form of a movie ‘संततुकाराम‘(SantTukaram) in 1932.  The industry has ever since grown from mythological set ups until 1970’s to Dada Kondke’s monopoly with rural comedy in 1970’s. The Marathi film industry thus has the oldest history of all regional language film industries in India. Ever since 1940, the industry has been losing talent to its brethren Bollywood industry which was and still is more lucrative due to its naturally broader population base in the country and beyond. I am not too sure if Marathi film industry couldhave retained this fleeting talent had Bollywood industry been established somewhere other than Maharashtra.

While the Marathi industry was enjoying success in non-urban Maharashtra its audience in urban parts started depleting. It was not because they loved Marathi movies any lesser than before but because they could not relate to the content.Thus playing Marathi movies in urban Maharashtra also became less and less profitable. Marathi movies were no more the crowd pullers. Immigration of non-Marathi speaking population to urban parts of Maharashtra for business and livelihood, general apathy of the government in early times to sustain the cultural threads of the society by the means of public libraries, policy making in education etc. added to the woes. The number of children moving from vernacular medium to English medium schools increased through 1980 and onwards. English and Hindi became the natural language of choice in public and Marathi as a language of business, communication and education medium took a back seat. Thus Marathi movie not only lost its crowd because of its content but also due to lack of societal measures to sustain its language in mainstream.

The cycle in a case like this is vicious. Lack of exposure to good literature and local art thwarts creativity, that shows in the outcome and the outcome determines exposure. Had Marathi remained the language of choice in urban Maharashtra, Marathi movies would have done better than they did or still do. How do you expect people who do not speak the language, do not enjoy its literature, are unaware of the local art to come and sit through a movie in that language? The other reasons that are evident are lack of innovativeness to adopt and market in a changing environment. That will come with talent but where will the flow of talent come from?

The initiative of Maharashtra government to have the theater owners play Marathi movies from 12:00 – 9:00 PM time slots has found supporters and has outraged some. I want to share a set of words with the outraged few but first I would like to address the supporters of this decision. Yes, it is good news for some who want to see the industry revived and stand on its own two feet. However, it is a sad state of affair that a regional movie industry like Marathi film industry in Maharashtra, second most populous state in India needs incentive for revival. I think it’s a shame for both the rejoicing audience and policy makers. The fact is that no one can keep the industry on arm shots and ventilator for too long. Either the government will run out of gas or the industry will give up.

Every art needs believers. Believers are formed from the audience. To believe they need to understand. To understand they need to know. To know they need to be exposed to that source of knowledge. That source of knowledge as I understand is the medium which in this case in part is Marathi language. If more and more of Maharashtra’s population understands Marathi, speaks in Marathi, reads Marathi then I am more than sure that they would be willing to add to the existing participation both as quality audience and quality movie makers. To bring about this change is a transformation. However, small steps of speaking Marathi at home, making Marathi literature available in home and school libraries, making quality Marathi education available in Maharashtra can set the ball rolling.

A few words for those who are outraged; if someone comes in as a guest in your house, you make him/her feel at home, the person becomes a part of your family literally and the person tries to take control of your only TV in the house. Will that cause you rage? An active Marathi film loving man is having a similar feeling currently. He is probably more outraged but for a different reason. Not because the theaters are not playing Marathi movies in the prime time slot but because the place no more feels like home. He is equally responsible for the situation and is trying to deal with it. The Maharashtra government is just making him another TV available. Your TV with its remote will stay with you. I leave you with that thought.

– @ShwetaAroskar

[About the Author – Shweta Aroskar is a Senior Business Analytics professional working in Houston, Texas. She is an avid writer and regularly blogs at http://shwetaaroskar.blogspot.com/]

Important 10 days for Modi Government’s PR Machinery

Ullas
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Important 10 days for Modi Government’s PR Machinery

As PM Modi embarks on a three nation tour to shore up India’s improving foreign policy credentials, his government could be in for some trouble at home. With media threatening to come together to counter MoS External Affairs General V K Singh’s tweet against Arnab Goswami and Times Now, the next 10 days are likely to be a huge test to the government’s PR machinery. Unless PM Modi strikes historic deals during the visit, the narrative is unlikely to change in the national media. With the Parliament session to begin later this month, the government would have liked the focus to remain on its achievements. However, handling of the present situation may well dictate the direction in which the upcoming parliament session will go.

If twitter is assumed as a fair representation of the mood of the nation (by the way, Arnab Goswami assumes this when he quotes top trends), the General has huge support for his statements. After all, #TimesNowDisaster, #Presstitutes and #HatsOffGeneral have been top trends over the last 3 days. Common populace consider Gen V K Singh’s statement solemn truth to the bone – however, BJP is not toeing his line. Other than looking lame in TV debates, the party spokespeople haven’t come up with smart retorts to this controversy. Opposition will accept this unexpected gift and will continue its criticism of the government, deviating from the key legislation at hand – the Land Acquisition Act which will fall down the priority order.

The government and BJP must use to its advantage the new announcements made by the Prime Minister – increasing subsidy to distressed farmers by 50% and also making distressed farmers eligible for subsidy even when only 33% of their crop is destroyed. This will increase the quantum of relief to the affected farmers and will also increase the number of farmers receiving the benefit. The RBI has also directed the banks to restructure loans to farmers in distress.  Also, the Agriculture ministry has asked all state governments to provide immediate assistance from the “State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF)” – a fund where three-fourths of the contribution comes from the Center. In addition, the Center has also promised to increase the corpus of SDRF if more help is sought.

These are important announcements that are likely to be drowned in the shrill of mainstream news.

However, this also gives the government and the BJP the chance to change their media strategy. It is already established in the past 10 months that, within the government, only PM Modi has the wherewithal to alter national media narrative. PM Modi has set a good platform for the party with his interview with the Hindustan Times. He has smartly downplayed his industry friendly credentials and highlighted the common man led growth. With him out of country, the party must deploy its local leaders to the ground with these messages. To ensure that the message is heard, the party must by-pass the national media and talk exclusively and extensively to the local/vernacular media. After all, PM Modi did the same during the early stages of the election campaign by talking to TV9, E TV and Thanthi News.

The BJP must also seek help from leaders of coalition partners. Local leaders will have more sway in getting the message across, as they do not have to fall to the trap of national conversation. In poll bound state of Bihar, this can also work as a good ground work prior to the real battle. The new announcements to the rain-affected farmers – along with the prior announced schemes like Soil Health Card, Per Drop More Crop, launch of Kisan TV (24/7 channel for farmers), etc gives the karyakartas ample ammunition to get support from the agrarian community. If the misconceptions of the Land Acquisition Act are cleared and bill is successfully passed, it will represent as a huge win for PM Modi and will further demoralize the opposition ranks.

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