G Sampath
@samzsays
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Social Affairs Editor @the_Hindu . Author of Autoplay, How to Make Enemies and Offend People. Staunch believer in 1-handed backhand. Opinions here are personal.
New Delhi
Joined November 2010
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Last Seen Profiles
Pinned Tweet
"If you want to know who rules over you, look at who you are not allowed to criticize." -- George Orwell
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People of India were given four hours notice for demonetisation, but they want more than four months to take a printout.
#ElectoralBond
donors
#SBI
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When technophiliac MBAs with zero exposure to humanities sit in corporate decision-making roles - you get "innovations" like gamification of health insurance.
NEW: Swiggy has gamified health insurance for its food delivery workers. Divided into gold, silver & bronze, their insurance changes weekly as per the category they fall under that week based on the points earned.
My latest for
@restofworld
:
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According to sources, five new 'idols' will be found in assorted Mughal monuments for every percentage point rise in wholesale inflation.
1200-year-old idol of lord Narsingh allegedly found in one of pillars of mosque inside Qutub Minar's complex.
@Milan_reports
with details
#ITVideo
#India
#QutubMinar
|
@nabilajamal_
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Btw, India is the world's largest democracy, with a Constitution, too.
घटना : मध्यप्रदेश के छिंदवाड़ा जिले के पिपला थाना क्षेत्र की।
बाकी सब आपके सामने है..
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All that you wanted to know about India's foreign policy but were too afraid to ask whom to ask.
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"The big change between pre-2014 and post-2014 is that no longer are political interviews conducted to question, challenge, or expose. They're done to endorse, or worse still, to provide a platform," Karan Thapar tells me in this
@the_hindu
interview:
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Among the three post-colonial democracies – India, Brazil and South Africa – it is the current crisis in Indian democracy that is most dangerous, explains political sociologist Patrick Heller in this paper. I write about it in today’s
@the_Hindu
. Some highlights 1/5
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Please show your tweet to an editor before tweeting. All of Cassandra's prophecies came true. Her curse was that no one listened to her.
There’s a bunch of Cassandras who are delighted that the Modi Governent is on the back foot with China. Folks, this is about the Indian Army. Can you put your petty politics on the back burner please. This is India vs China. Not BJP vs China. Politics can wait.
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Indian media has worked hard for this moment. A richly deserved compliment.
Donald Trump Jr: "I love the Indian media. It's so mild and nice."
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Twitter has officially said PM's account wasn't "compromised" due to "any breach of our systems". Has anyone seen a media story which reported the govt's claim that PM's account was "hacked" as a claim -- for that is what it is -- a claim and not a fact. 1/2
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What kind of a society and intelligentsia would be okay with punishing even an unborn life, by denying bail to a woman 21 weeks pregnant?
A comment by
@RanaAyyub
comes to mind.
#safoorazargar
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"Members who are wearing masks, please go out and remove it". This, on March 18.
Btw, what were the dates of the Tablighi congregation in Delhi? Please chk.
A week before the national lockdown, Modi & Shah were working hard to downplay the threat of Covid-19.
Directions were given to Presiding Officers of Parliament to ensure this so that toppling of the MP Govt happens smoothly.
Watch this SHOCKING video from 18 March of TMC MPs.
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When the fear of getting called out for being incompetent is greater than the fear of being incompetent.
You mean I can’t stand up in Lok Sabha & talk of how Indians have been betrayed by an incompetent government who should be ashamed of their hypocrisy?
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"Many economists who take a dim view of activists are actually activists themselves--for corporate sector or govt. This somehow doesn’t count as activism. But someone who supports minimum wages suddenly becomes an activist," says Jean Dreze. My interview:
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This needs to be said. In India right now, three battle-hardened and deadly viruses -- Islamophobia, caste, and class prejudice -- are acting as force-multipliers for the
#coronavirus
. No
#lockdown
can save us from these three powerful allies of the
#coronavirus
in
#India
.
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Exactly what I told my father in 5th std when he asked me why my rank was 27th in a class of 32 students.
Supreme Court says India ranked 161 in terms of journalistic freedom; SG Tushar Mehta says it depends on who gives the ranking
#SupremeCourt
#PressFreedom
Read more here:
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Interesting that someone would consider taxing the inter-generational wealth of the super-rich (say, people worth 500 cr and above) in a super-poor country to be a "terrible idea". How can it not be a progressive idea for anyone concerned abt inequality?
The Congress sounds more left than the left parties. Inheritance tax is a terrible idea. Also, they make it sound like those who make money are bad people. There’s nothing wrong with making money especially when you have worked hard and earned it. The Congress needs to figure
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A govt that, barely a week after lecturing people about the Emergency, passing resolution against Emergency, etc, gives the people this Emergency-MaxPro provision. Only possible in Mother of Democracy.
From today onwards, Police can arrest any person for 24 hours without giving ANY explanation.
Black Day for Democracy.
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Amazing. Basically, the Election Commission is saying they don't trust the people in the world's largest democracy - the people to whom they are accountable.
#BREAKING
Election Commission of India tells
#SupremeCourt
that uploading of Form 17C (record of votes polled) on website can lead to mischief, that there are possibilities of images being morphed, which can create “widespread discomfort and mistrust”.
#LokSabhaElections
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In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, had written this piece explaining - in painstaking detail -- why
#EVMs
are a disaster for democracy. Think today is a good time to replug it:
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Can someone explain this: BJP is super-duper amazing brilliant genius when it comes to outwitting opponents & winning elections. What happens to all those brain cells when it comes to managing a pandemic or the Ladakh situation? Or just doing the blindingly obvious right thing?
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Wish there was a milder way of putting this, but the passing of the
#RTIAmendmentBill
is an act of absolute vileness. For the common Indian citizen, esp poor & marginalised, it was last tool to hold 'public servants' accountable. What a sad and shameful day for Indian democracy.
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Ppl asking if there's precedent' for disqualification after defamation conviction. There certainly is inspiration, from the autocrat's playbook: Erdogan got his biggest rival Ekrem Imamoglu barred from contesting elections using a trumped up defamation case.
#RahulGandhi
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My five main takeaways from this thread: 1. Labour laws are bad for labourers. 2. While Indian labour remains one of the cheapest in the world, the actual truths is: labourers in India are not being exploited hard enough. 3. I have to stop drinking so much champagne.
States have already started dismantling some labour regulation, and my arguments on why this is a step in the right direction. 1/n
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Also, media in India enjoys absolute freedom.
‘Modi govt is being sensible by not announcing a large fiscal package to help revive economy’
Noted economist
@IlaPatnaik
in her column for ThePrint
#Ilanomics
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It's ridiculous that this even needs to be said: Indian Muslims have a greater right on India than Pakistani Hindus. Why? Because Indians have a greater right on India than Pakistanis. Otherwise, let's all agree to dissolve nation-states.
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Hey
@jack
, someone in your team needs to be held accountable for the breathtaking stupidity of suspending
@sanjayuvacha
's account. Please restore it.
We’re committing Twitter to help increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation, and to hold ourselves publicly accountable towards progress.
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It's the first time in 70 years that
#Nepal
has become a "front".
Modi Sarkar has failed on many fronts
But it’s the 1st govt in 70 yrs to fail on Nepal front
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A simple question to all those supporting the
#DoctorsStrike
: Will you support the formation of trade unions of medical/paramedical staff in every hospital, public and private? If not, then your support for this strike has nothing to do with working conditions of hospital staff.
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So this
#EMIMoratorium
has turned out to be another jhumla, like MGNREGA workers getting Rs2k hike. If u take the moratorium, u'll be charged interest for these 3 months, and ur loan tenure extended - banks offer this option even during normal times. So how's this a spl measure?
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All those reporting on
#ManoharParrikar
letter --isn't it a basic to do the due diligence and find out whether Rahul Gandhi actually invoked his meeting with
#ManoharParrikar
to make his points on
#Rafale
? So far, I haven't been able to find that reference in any of his speeches.
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Wow. Goosebumps. Where do they make politicians like this?
See this :
@RepKatiePorter
made the CDC Director Robert Redfield commit to offering free testing for coronavirus all American independent of their insurance status
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Why this biting urgency to exonerate
#EVMs
after every sub-par outcome for BJP? Citing results, one way or the other, as evidence that EVMs are/aren't tamper-proof is a misreading of
#EVM
debate, which is abt transparency & public verifiability, & both these remain ZERO for
#EVMs
The BJP has slipped just below 100 in Maharashtra. At least now the opposition should stop blamimg EVMs, the media and everyone else. There is an opposition on the ground. What is in dearth is leadership. Pawar & Hooda have showed what consistency looks like
#ElectionResults2019
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Q: Why is Opposition unable to put govt under pressure on any issue?
Rahul: Opposition operates on the basis of strength of institutions -- judiciary, EC, media, etc. Becoz all institutions are with the govt, Opposition's protests not having as much impact.
At Rahul presser.
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Great mindset -- exactly what's needed to host Olympics.
What Foolishness. They are Pakistani fans, police not allowing them to chant Pakistan Zindabaad 🤣
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This is such a major story, and an obvious one to do -- and yet, until the Delhi elections got over, nobody did it (except Quint, which pointed to it without categorically establishing the police's arbitrariness). 1/2
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Excellent report by
@Rehman91asad
, tracking down the 5 sanitation workers whose feet PM washed at Kumbh. They wish they had been allowed to ask PM for permanent jobs, for better pay, to end untouchability. There's no 'badlav' in the country, they say.
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"The revamped aircraft will include a press conference room".
But WHY?
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1. How is independence of judiciary affected by reportage on sexual harassment allegations? 2. Why should media show "restraint" in covering a woman's sexual harassment allegation? 3. Is reporting on misconduct of constitutional authority in public interest or not?
#CJI
We are not passing any judicial order at this moment. We however ask media to show restraint,
responsibility and wisdom so that independence of judiciary is not affected by baseless allegations, Supreme Court.
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How did the Sangh Parivar infiltrate the ascetic-minded community of sadhus and induct them into Hindutva politics? And how did it build, brick by brick, Ram Mandir into a national issue? Dhirendra Jha has the answers. My interview in
@the_hindu
:
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Agree.
@jigneshmevani80
was not only within his rights to do what he did, he was also fully justified in doing so. And he deserves to be applauded for taking a courageous stand against savarna supremacist slander masquerading as journalism.
Media, Chennai media, you've to do better. You have to take a stand against unethical practices of rogue, propaganda TV channels. You can't remain silent on their misuse of power, & then band together with them against their victims +
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His claim is verifiably untrue. I have seen many times he takes around 30-31 seconds and umpire says nothing. Footage from this year's Australian Open and RG in public domain. Or better still, ask
@denis_shapo
in his next press conference.
Rafael Nadal on John McEnroe claiming he is not following the 25-second serve clock rule. Classy response 👏
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Even the
#Taliban
-- most regressive, most anti-democratic, most anti-free speech, etc -- have addressed a press conference.
#Justsaying
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Asking for a friend: when was the last time the SC gave an order that was an unequivocal pushback against executive excess and in favour of a marginalised/oppressed/exploited group or community?
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Is anyone compiling a list of all the companies that have donated to PMCARES fund AND have gone on to do paycuts/lay-off employees? It would be a very interesting report.
Chronology
Reliance Industries donates 500 cr to PM CARES Fund
Reliance Industries cuts employee salaries by up to 50%
WTF
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It's not that there are no Angela Merkels in India, it's just that we might find her too decent, too secular, too democratic, and too egalitarian to vote for. We have more respect for leaders who treat us like idiots.
This is how it is when an elected head of government talks to citizens as adults & equals, sharing honest, important, transparent information with them. Note Chancellor Angela Merkel doesn't treat them as idiots, try to distract them with bells&whistles or ask them to sing &dance
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Have we decided to keep schools permanently closed in the larger public interest of raising a generation of maladjusted morons?
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The child's father "doesn't want to take legal action against the teacher because he doesn't believe that there's any scope for justice."
He has no doubt whatsoever that there is zero "scope for justice."
Sad commentary on the country and its judiciary.
@alishan_jafri
reports:”Irshad, the father…told me that he has stopped sending his eight-year-old son to school. He doesn't want to take legal action against the teacher because he doesn't believe that there's any scope for justice. “It can vitiate the communal amity,” he added”
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So many respected Indian liberals have been so busy this week mainstreaming Savarkar. Is it normal for liberals in other countries also to deploy their liberal cred to highlight the redeeming qualities of certified, documented bigots? 1/2
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Shocking that the UK Supreme Court did not put "national interest" above democracy and the Constitution.
UK PM Boris Johnson's decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks was unlawful, Supreme Court rules
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Behind every big atrocity in New India, there is an electoral calculation. Why hold superspreader event in middle of pandemic, despite warning about looming second wave? Coz u want mahants on your side for UP elections!
Perhaps biggest story of year so far
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Tired of hearing the term 'fringe groups'. Does it make sense to describe any group that enjoys the overt support of half a dozen state govts and tacit support of ruling party at the Centre as a 'fringe group'?
Not if you allow these fringe groups to run riot everywhere.
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If these are the potential replacements of
@RahulGandhi
as president of
@INCIndia
, it's better the party continues headless, or dies a natural death. Not one of this so-called younger lot has 1/10th the moral sense or understanding of the man who quit the post.
Hey young
@INCIndia
, the public mood is also that Muslims are here at the mercy of Hindus. You going with that too? | ThePrint via
@ThePrintIndia
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Very well explained, how the govt, by removing indexation, is virtually encouraging black money in real estate.
Removal of ‘Indexation’ benefit from the Investor is a grave mistake by the Government.
I explain in detail. Please watch.
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Excellent metaphor for chauvinism and
#fakenationalism
in this video by
@akashbanerjee
: Toxic nationalism is just a dummy horse without legs, only a matter of time before it gets exposed for what it is.
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The tax raids on
@DainikBhaskar
have the clean clarity of cause-and-effect. A reporter friend had predicted this based on their COVID coverage -- and it happened faster than he expected -- even before his column saying that this was going to happen, came out.
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So, from defending Congress till yesterday, to bashing Cong from today? How does misbehaviour of Cong workers justify joining a BJP ally? What's the value now of all that was said as a Congress spokesperson? All the invocations of Nehru? Asking for a friend.
#priyankachaturvedi
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A dangerous perspective that effectively gives a free hand to the govt to pass any unjust law during a pandemic -- because it would be 'irresponsible' to take to the streets in protest.
Isn't the onus on the govt to roll back the laws in the interest of the farmers' health?
Protests by Farmers during this calamity are just as irresponsible as Kumbh Mela or election rallies were. Opposition parties backing them playing with lives. Anything that encourages mass gatherings at this time is an affront to health workers and those who have lost loved ones
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Can anyone explain how does a Nehuruvian with a public track record of defending the "idea of India" turn into a Shiv Sainik overnight? Or is that all the 'idea of India' worth - a ticket?
#PriyankaChaturvedi
So, from defending Congress till yesterday, to bashing Cong from today? How does misbehaviour of Cong workers justify joining a BJP ally? What's the value now of all that was said as a Congress spokesperson? All the invocations of Nehru? Asking for a friend.
#priyankachaturvedi
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"We live in a country in which 63 billionaires hold more wealth than the Union Budget outlay for a year. If you can consider emergency labour laws that make starving, traumatised people work a 12-hour day, you can have emergency laws for the wealthy too."
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India's demographic dividend -- for once, the phrase is accurate.
When media asked y r u protesting today?
Plz Listen to the young.Always listen to the young.
They are the ones who protest with all their heart when they see wrongdoing around them.
#IndiaHatesTadipaar
#CAA_NRC_Protest
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More proof, if any was needed, that India fully deserves the leaders it has got. Jai ho.
Ninan: In his conversation with Raghuram Rajan, Rahul Gandhi chose to ask questions instead of providing answers. It’s hard to imagine any opposition leader anywhere in the world choosing such poor optics.
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Only way left for NGOs to receive foreign funds is by turning into political parties and asking foreign donors to contribute via electoral bonds. Becoz foreign funding of political parties via electoral bonds doesn't 'destabilise sovereignty of nation'
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So a first-time MP delivers a rousing speech in the Indian Parliament on the 7 signs of fascism in India, but none many seem to find it worthy of comment. Much more than a
#glassceiling
has been broken by this woman politician. She has broken some major silences.
#MahuaMoitra
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#Karnataka
will emerge out of this move as a state that promotes slavery. Keeping a bunch of ppl captive against their will in order to exploit their labour is called slavery.
Stoppage of inter-state trains by Sri
@BSYBJP
is a bold and necessary move.
It will help migrant labourers who came here with hopes of a better life to restart their dreams. Also, it will kickstart economic activities full throttle.
Karnataka will emerge out of this stronger!
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"Just because somebody says so, we all have to jump?"
“Are we living in some collective madness”
@ptrmadurai
hits it out of the park repeatedly citing the Constitution to Sitharaman
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"In many ways, Mahua’s story is a cautionary tale about how women in Indian politics are treated when they deviate from traditional patriarchal norms in their private lives," writes
@bainjal
. Absolutely correct.
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A simple question: In the history of independent India, has ANY Indian cop EVER been given life imprisonment (or any other penal sentence) for custodial death? And India is not a country where custodial deaths and 'encounters' are uncommon.
#SanjivBhat
Breaking : Sanjiv Bhatt Sentenced To Life Imprisonment In 30 Year Old Custodial Death Case
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So we're officially a country where one journalist can say "amen" to the murder of another journalist and make it her pinned tweet.
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Taking inspiration from India's national carrier, I end every para of my column with 'Jai Hind.' I challenge truly patriotic Indian journos to prove their patriotism by ending every para they write or sentence they speak on TV with 'Jai Hind'. Jai Hind.
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Why is
#Rahul
Gandhi -- an irrelevant, failed 'Pappu' of a politician who nobody takes seriously -- the topmost concern for this regime now -NOW?
Does the govt want us to believe that he has the power to single-handedly "weaken the resolve of the country"?
#Covid_19india
"Rahul Gandhi is trying to weaken the resolve of the country in fight against
#coronavirus
. This campaign is based on falsehood and deliberate twisting of facts": Law Minister RS Prasad
#COVID19Pandemic
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So sad to see that even NYT editors have been co-opted into the globally orchestrated multi-million dollar campaign to malign Aadhaar. Guess you can't blame them, they'll do anything for wine and cheese.
Aadhaar, India's ambitious biometric ID project, was supposed to bolster welfare and check corruption. It has only created new problems.
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"India is not a democracy -- it is a lie to claim India is a democracy. The action taken at the behest of the Prime Minister to freeze Congress bank accounts is a criminal act that has immobilised the largest Opposition party on eve of elections," says
#RahulGandhi
at presser.
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And Indian nationals in India?
India and UAE share the value of non-discrimination on any grounds. Discrimination is against our moral fabric and the Rule of law. Indian nationals in the UAE should always remember this.
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"This was not a Hindu-Muslim riot. People had been brought from outside to foment trouble.” Do read this ground report from Mustafabad-Shiv Vihar for
@the_hindu
by
@abaruah64
:
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Scoop: "We are not unduly worried about the third wave. We look forward to working closely with the Indian govt on the third, fourth, fifth & many more waves in the years to come," award-winning variant B.1.617 tells me in this exclusive interview.
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Pointing out double standards and hypocrisy to add much needed political context is not whataboutery. Rather, it is to say: don't undermine the moral principles that we use to rightly condemn Putin, by using/abandoning those principles selectively.
Palestinians are treated as an inferiour race. Denied access to food and water. And yet no sanctions on Israel for its apartheid regime. Utter hypocrisy.
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The MEA statement was a measured one that eschewed jingoistic rhetoric or chest-thumping. Tone was: 'IAF did a job that needed to be done'. Will the media adopt the same tone in reporting it, and not lace it with incendiary hysteria?
It was a "non-military preemptive strike" that was planned in such a way as to avoid civilian casualties: MEA
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What a pathetic cop-out of an answer -- apparently TV news channels' 'revenue model' would collapse if they stop spewing hate day-in and day-out.
Indian Express reader not impressed with TV news agenda. Good to see young people read papers and question anchors on their news priorities.
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Actually, it's quite mischievous to refer to them as "migrants', precisely because they are in their own country. The correct term is "migrant workers' or 'migrant labour', & that's in a sociological context. In public health context, they're just citizens who need to get home.
Constitution guarantees every Indian right to movement, work, dignity & equality of rights. Yet we treat those who build our cities & fill our bellies with so much contempt. Why do we call them migrants ? Aren’t they in their own country ? It’s the NRIs who are migrant laborers
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So
@HappymonJacob
wrote foreseeing this in
@the_hindu
more than a week ago: "If an aircraft is shot down or pilots are captured, it could become a bigger headache for the government."
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Wrong question. Their avowed reason for not going isn't 'bias' but the fact that anchors they have named have been spreading communal poison doing Hindu-Muslim 24x7.
In principle, naming journos is wrong. But in this case, their intent seems to be to name-and-shame hatemongers
In your opinion, is it a good idea for certain political parties to not go on shows of certain anchors they see as biased?
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"Income inequality in India today is greater than what it was in 1921, at the height of British rule": P Sainath.
Enjoying those
#AmbaniWedding
Reels?
Prof P Sainath last month in June at a Conference in Kerala shared the great grand weddings happening across rural India, the brides he met.
Listen if have two minutes, more Ambani Reels are in the making for your entertainment. 🙏🏾
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The
#Tablighijamaat
positives is a cluster. To imply that data of cluster-led testing reflects the total universe of Covid-19 infections in india is deeply problematic. When other clusters are unearthed in coming weeks, Tablighi percentage will go down - this 56% wud mean nothing
Such a disgrace. And to think I once worked for this group. Pure poison
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Next time I hear an EVM apologist say EVMs are better because they are faster/quicker than ballot paper.... suggestions welcome on how one should respond to such technophiliacs.
SHARE MAX
AAP Press Conference by
@SanjayAzadSln
on EC not declaring the official Voting percentage in Delhi Elections
Whats conspiring? Whats the agenda? EC must answer!
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