In light of Indigo and Air India suspending Kunal Kamra for inconveniencing one passenger on board a flight, just wanted to remind y'all that terror accused Pragya Thakur was rude to fellow passengers and delayed a Spice Jet flight by 45 minutes. Thakur has not been suspended.
Just learnt Indian team took the knee today, in solidarity with BLM. Good to know they're keeping themselves informed about current affairs in America. Perhaps one of these days they'll feel the urge to make a statement for those in India who are being marginalised and targeted.
According to IANS, the Guwahati outpost of Shiv Sena has run up a bill of ₹1.12cr so far at the Radisson Blu. If the Assam CM could convince Radisson + rebel MLAs to donate 1% of their earnings from this operation to flood relief, at least there’d be a silver lining to this mess
Props to Nidhi Razdan for admitting she fell for what was clearly a long con. By opening herself up to being mocked and ridiculed, she’s helped everyone be a little more alert and wary of being scammed. She didn’t need to do anything of the sort.
Just a friendly reminder that the origins of
#InternationalWomensDay
lie in a labour movement from the early 20th century, with women demanding shorter working hours, better pay and the right to vote. A little more than a hundred years later, we've only got the right to vote.
Delhi Police is now going to 'investigate' in 2022, a tweet from 2018, which shows a meme made from a screenshot from a rom-com released in 1983? What *excellent* use of resources. If this doesn't inspire faith in the courts and law enforcement, what will?
A whole page on the “UP model of Covid Control” in today’s Times of India (no mention of dead bodies in rivers, oxygen+ hospital bed shortage, or people charged with spreading misinformation when they asked for help on social media). This page is a “consumer connect initiative”.
Nishikant Kamat has NOT passed away. He is alive, on ventilator support, and in critical condition. (This craze for uploading news first — without getting reporters to confirm it — is really the last thing our struggling news media should succumb to, but well.)
India's Oscar entry, Village Rockstars, releases next Friday in Indian cinemas. It is utterly and completely charming. Also, it's written, shot, directed, edited and produced by
@rimadasFilm
. That's right. One woman did EVERYTHING. 💪🏽
Oliver: "For the foreseeable future, Hotstar, you can look forward to learning a lot more on this show because we're going to be sliding them into our stories like Chip and Dale slid into Richard Gere. That's right — 'Disney Fact,' motherfuckers."
Appalled at how badly made all the films — except Konkona's The Mirror — are in Lust Stories 2. It's easy to wag a finger at male directors, but at some point, you've got to wonder why the likes of Neena Gupta, Kajol and Tamannah aren't alert to the awfulness they're part of.
This, incidentally, is Luciano Silighini Garagnani, an Italian director whose latest film offers a positive take on former Italian PM, Silvio Berlusconi's infamous "bunga bunga" parties. Garagnani also reportedly donated money to Donald Trump's campaign.
Not sure what looks more dodgy — that the government is sending ANI screenshots of its official emails or that an official statement by the government of India that has no letterhead or insignia.
Remember that story about the swans and dolphins returning to the canals of Venice? The elephants that passed out in a tea garden in China? They were all false.
“Wherever lights were switched off, [the] sexual abuse was shocking.” (From the statement issued by
@harsh_mander
and an advocate representing some of the students detained during
#JamiaProtest
)
Mumbai Mirror shutting down is terrible, terrible news. It's done so many great stories, it didn't hesitate to take a principled stand on so many subjects and quickly became a favourite for city readers. Fingers crossed for everyone in Mirror's team.
Aside from the minor detail that
@newslaundry
does do actual (and excellent) on-ground reporting, samaaj seva is exactly what Newslaundry does by being a media watchdog.
Kaunsi samaaj seva kar rahein hain? It’s a business model that works for them. Fine.
Sitting in a room watching TV and critiquing is not really fraught with risks in the world of reporting.
Never mind our health minister's graceless rant in his letter to Dr. Manmohan Singh, it's sort of rich that the gent who most recently championed cow science is advising Dr. Singh to get with the scientific program.
Gaslighting: a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. Eg. When an apology is followed by claims of victimhood, a denial of guilt and ends with emotional manipulation.
It's not just Ranaut's now usual exhibition of ignorance and crude offensiveness on display here. Please note that director Ashwini Iyer Tiwari applauds Ranaut at the end of the clip.
#WATCH
Kangana Ranaut on senior lawyer Indira Jaising's statement,'Nirbhaya's mother should forgive the convicts': That lady (Jaising) should be kept in jail with those convicts for four days...Women like them give birth to these kind of monsters and murderers. (22.1)
Tear gas, BSF, water cannons, dug up highways, proposals to turn stadiums into "temporary prisons" — this is how the Indian state is responding to farmers exercising their right to protest. Friendly reminder: on paper, we are still a democracy.
#WATCH
Uttar Pradesh: Huge crowds gather to pay last tributes to Sepoy Prashant Sharma at his native place in Muzaffarnagar.
He lost his life yesterday during an encounter with terrorists in Zadoora area of Pulwama, J&K.
The ECI -- supposedly THE authority on EVMs -- is posting an article from Opindia, which relies upon answers posted in Quora, to establish EVMs are tamper-proof. I can't think of a better way to convince everyone who sees this tweet that EVMs are dodgy.
Strange how none of this courteous understanding was extended to activists like Disha Ravi, Safoora Zargar, Natasha Narwal etc who were branded as terrorists.
The woman who was arrested from Uttarakhand's Rudrapur in the 'Bulli Bai' app case belongs to a poor family and her father is not alive. It seems she got involved in such activities for money: Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar
Whether Amazon's decision to shut down Westland is motivated by the money Westland didn't make from book sales or its hard-hitting non-fiction list, this is a sad day for readers, writers and publishers in India.
Jayaraj (58) was picked up by Tuticorin police on June 19, allegedly because his woodworks shop was open beyond curfew hours during lockdown. If you ever needed an example of how a pandemic can be used to enable abuse of authority, here it is.
Fun fact: technically, police are supposed to be law enforcers whom civilians turn to for security when threatened by the more powerful. Here, you see what the police really is — the state's muscle. (Big props to all the journalists who are doing this hard, heartbreaking work.)
Until you can send me a YouTube clip that credibly dismantles patriarchy and sexism, the fact that
#MeToo
is a conversation we need to have doesn't change. Is it served well by potentially false allegations? No. Do false allegations mean the real accusations are false? Also no.
Natasha Narwal — who has been in jail despite there being no evidence to support the charges against her and wasn't allowed to see or speak to her dying father — delivers a farewell salute to her father, Mahavir Narwal. If this doesn't break your heart, I don't know what will.
BRB, just looking for the RW tweets supporting Prashant Kanojia et al when those journalists were arrested/ threatened by law enforcement for doing their job (as opposed to being named in suicide notes).
Hilarious that Salman Khan says he won’t comment on Tanushree Dutta’s allegations because it’s not relevant to this sporting event. Given Khan is an actor (whose abs are photoshopped), he isn’t relevant to any sporting event either.
At 2.45am, there were hundreds at Gateway of India, loud and unviolent. Many were determined to stay till morning. These are dark days but take heart, for we have candlelight and poetry (and internet).
My main takeaway form
#TuJhoothiMainMakkaar
— which is Luv Ranjan's 164-minute love letter to Sooraj Barjatya — is that someone needs to cast Ranbir Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia in a rom-com about a momma's boy. They're so darned cute together.
Sophie: A Murder in West Cork (on Netflix) is an excellent true crime documentary. Great story, wonderful portrait of a place and fantastic storytelling. Just the thought of Ian Bailey — he's a journalist — gives me the chills. Also, ladies, always invest in curtains. ALWAYS.
It took about 35 minutes after 9.09pm IST for electricity demand/supply to balance. A big round of thanks and applause to the different state electricity boards and distribution companies who managed to keep the lights on while so many in India chose darkness.
"I won Madhya Pradesh’s best dancer award three times in the eighties in competitions held in Bhopal." I believe him. No idea why people made fun of Sanjeev Srivastava's moves. They're excellent.
Full respect to those who watched the entire 2hr video of Kangana Ranaut 'interviewing' Sadhguru. On the basis of the 42 mins I watched, it's a PR exercise, not an interview. At best it's a conversation between two people with limited knowledge of the subjects they're discussing.
There's no reason celebrate Bloomsbury India bowing to outrage on social media & withdrawing Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story on the eve of its launch. Their original decision to publish it was disappointing as is publishers not being able to stand by their authors & books.
You know what happens when one person speaks up and is heard? More people find the strength to speak up. This one was sent to me by someone I trust, to share, about photographer Pablo Bartholomew.
“If you create panic out of the crisis, every government has a right to control the panic.”
As Covid critical posts are removed on social media platforms in India, the BJP's
@gopalkagarwal
responds with “tweeters have to comply" with the country's content regulations
#Newsnight
After hours of careful pontification, I have found one thing that I can applaud about
#Kalank
: Both the male leads left their chest hair on. Everything else about this film is a cringeworthy mess.
Google’s
#MeToo
visualisation shows India lit up. With victims coming forward & (most) perpetrators issuing defamation-flavoured threats, it’s clear that due process is being used to silence victims. Here’s to staying loud and burning bright.
Things I would never have known if I didn't work for a newspaper: India has a Locust Warning Organisation (it's under the ministry of agriculture). (And no, the locusts have not landed in Mumbai and neither are they likely to do so.)
You know how I know it’s a consumer connect initiative (which is presumably TOI-speak for advertorials)? The not-so-prominent label at the bottom of the page, which you’d miss if you weren’t looking for it.
Earlier this week, someone painted “Who will watch the Watchmen???” on the Mahim pipeline. In a month, the white paint will dull & fade, but for now, the almost 2000-year-old question gleams brightly against the dust and grime of a 21st century world city.
Adichie's piece is a subtweet masquerading as an essay. Which is why it's cute that she ends with an attack on social media in which she does what she's accused others of doing. Since she ignored this detail, here's why Adichie was called transphobic:
It's sad that this is what performers and artists are reduced to in order to stay safe in India. And of course, those trolling Agrima Joshua are ignoring the apology. Let's just hope it is enough to keep Joshua and those associated with the show safe.
“This is Manto’s
#Mumbai
, this is Kaifi Azmi’s Mumbai, this is Sahir Ludhianvi’s Mumbai,” said CPI(M) leader Prakash Reddy and a crowd of at least 10k at August Kranti Maidan cheered. And guess who joined in when the chant was “Hindu-Muslim ek hai, Modi-Shah fake hai”? The cops.
I think my favourite moment of this evening’s
#SupremeInjustice
protest in Mumbai was when the Mumbai Police jeep was used as a desk to quickly write up slogans on chart-paper placards.
Two days before its release date and long before even the press show for the film has been held, PM Narendra Modi the movie has a 10/10 rating on IMDb.
Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray in his address said the state borders would be sealed; that situation is critical; clapping and banging bartan won't drive the virus away; all places of worship will remain shut; and section 144 has been declared across the state.
Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie was issued in 1989. The man who attacked Rushdie yesterday is 24 years old. It’s depressing af to see fundamentalism-fuelled hatred, with all its ignorance and toxicity, is this resilient.
Safdarjung Hospital has confirmed that two
#Jamia
protesters were admitted with bullet injuries. Please note that the PRO of Delhi Police categorically denied there was any firing by the police yesterday.
Ummm, you guys, it turns out
@supriyan
and my podcast, The Lit Pickers, has been shortlisted for the People's Choice Podcast Awards. If you have a few minutes to spare, please sign up and nominate The Lit Pickers (we're in the Arts category). 🙏🏽
Funny how it's ok to assume that all women employees are looking to implicate men in harassment allegations but it's not ok to assume that all male employees are relentless predators.
- No dinners with female colleagues
- Don’t sit next to them on flights
- Book hotel rooms on different floors
- Avoid one-on-one meetings
Wall Street's controversial strategies for the
#MeToo
era are making life even harder for women
Email says bomb stowed in bag that's in the cargo of an Air India flight, RAF scrambles to action, high drama with the flight being diverted to Stansted. Where's the bag? In Mumbai since most of the check-in luggage had been left behind.
#HeartIsFull
Pinjra Tod is a student group, not a "far-left" organisation. To protest the CAA is not "obstructing a public servant" or "assault or criminal force to deter a public servant". No action taken against BJP's Kapil Mishra so far, despite his hate speech.
If you haven’t seen any of Mrinal Sen’s films, then here’s a 5-film intro: Ek Din Pratidin, Akaler Sandhaney, Kharij, Khandhar and Bhuvan Shome. They are stories that were deeply rooted in their times but continue to feel relevant, modern and idealistic.
The FIR lodged on June 19 says Jayaraj & his son Bennix were both at the shop when police showed up: "We told them to disperse ... Jayaraj and Bennix sat on the ground and abused us verbally and rolled on the ground. In this, they suffered internal injuries.” That's some rolling.
Most cops (men + women) are in vans or in the shade. The slogans and poetry continue. There are too many packets of vada pav/sandwiches coming around. Placards are being painted. Neither the flag nor the anger is flagging. Gateway of India has been occupied.
#OccupyGateway