As
#NarendraModi
is expected to come back as India's Prime Minister, I write about how terrifying the next 5 years are going to be for India's 200 Muslims who have been vilified & demonized as "infiltrators" and dangerous undesirables by Modi himself.
It took me an year investigating Bajrang Dal’s role in radicalizing the majority & pushing India to a brink of Genocide.After long, depressing days, nights & therapy sessions, the story is out
@WIRED
Something essential inside me got broken during this.
Let’s not romanticize Uttar Pradesh as some of its upper caste, privileged residents & journalists are doing. Let’s be clear. The poorest of the poor, lower caste, Dalits and Muslims have fought back, and rejected Modi’s bigotry. UP remains the cow belt it has always been.
The slogans which were raised there, “Munh me gilori bagal me paan, Mullon Tum jao Pakistan”, is provocative when Muslims were celebrating Republic Day! Pls come out of the studio & social media journalism. Reality is not as catchy as your Twitter one liners! 😀
Modi government’s assault on media continues with ED raid on
@newsclickin
office, homes of owner Prabir Purkayastha and editor Pranjal, in Delhi. NewsClick was one of the last bastions of critical reporting on the government’s policies.
The radicalization of India’s majority has been quietly going on for quite some time. I spent few months embedded with Bajrang Dal, and wrote about how it happens.
#JaipurExpressTerrorAttack
Modi has reduced us to our immediate identities. As Muslims, we experience an existential threat that overrides all other aspirations. We once felt entitled to an honest life of dignity in India. That dream is over. I write on sense of loss
@thebafflermag
On
#KasganjViolence
Kasganj administrative officers are on record saying that it was unscheduled, unauthorised & illegal bike rally of ABVP cadres and their subsequent provocative slogans which led to the clashes and stone pelting.
BJP lost
#Kairana
despite the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigning hours before the bypoll. Opposition won the seat when even Akhilesh Yadav had not campaigned in Kairana.
I am grateful to
@sajahq
for the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting on South Asia 2021 for my profile of a Hindu vigilante in
@WIRED
It was an investigation into the process of radicalization of India’s Hindus using a dangerous cocktail of social media & Hindutva.
One fact which went unnoticed is that BJP lost from the hotbed of communal tension-Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Kairana, Meerut. Despite Yogi Adityanath’s election rallies, BJP, for the 1st time aftr the 2013 riots, lost the municipality seat of Muzaffarnagr & Meerut
#UPCivicPolls2017
At a time when some journalists have chosen to peddle fake news & have turned into hate mongers, interrogating a senior BJP leader like Katiyar requires immense courage. It’s a moment which offers me hope. You
@TanushreePande
are an inspiration for all of us!
The big expose of the Rightwing lies about
#kasganjclash
So Hindutva groups marched in Muslim area with guns, sticks, fired at Muslims, hurled stones. See the video! It was at that point
#ChandanGupta
was hit by a bullet Solid story from
@arvindcTOI
I met a Pakistan Administrative service officeer who is a Fulbright scholar at MIT today. He said Pakistanis love Modi because Modi managed to do to India what Pakistan always wanted but could never be successful in doing-destroy it’s democracy & the country. 1/2
You refused to give scholarships to Muslim children in Gujarat as CM, as PM do nothing to prevent lynchings and now do these good for nothing gestures!
Man declared ‘dead’ in Kasganj speaks up: ‘People were using me to incite violence’, says Rahul Upadhyay about
@abhijitmajumder
@sardanarohit
prominent among other hate mongers!
Yogi Adityanath govt plans to withdraw 9 criminal cases against all the riot accused BJP leaders including MP Sanjeev Baliyan, MLAs Sangeet Som & Suresh Rana who are accused of making provocative speeches which led to violence in Muzaffarnagar, Shamli in 2013
और कितने चंदन गुप्ता की बलि चाहते हैं ये टीवी एंकर? सच तो ये है कि आप हिंदुओं के पक्ष में भी नहीं बोल रहे हैं आप सिर्फ़ एक राजनीतिक दल के अघोषित प्रवक्ता बने हुए हैं हिंदू-मुस्लिम तनाव पैदा करके आप उनके राजनीतिक हित साध रहे हैं strong piece
@abhisar_sharma
The Modi govt’s tacit support to violence against Indian Muslim goes along with its destruction of Islamic heritage of the country. In this dispatch
@nnooreyezdan
and I write about the erasure of Indian Muslims’ collective historical memory.
Every 15th August Sartaj, son of Akhlaq who was lynched in Dadri over rumors of beef, shares hopeful messages of claiming India as his own, something most Muslims still do. Sartaj is waiting for the Indian state to love him back & punish his father’s killer who are roaming freely
There was a proposal to adapt my Wired profile of Bajrang Dal into a series/docu. But in the first meeting itself the streaming platforms told Condé Nast that they won’t be able to do anything with it because it’s an extremely sensitive subject in India.
New: Under pressure from the Hindu right, Netflix and Amazon in India drop projects touching on political, social issues and documentaries. After "Tandav," Amazon's head went into hiding and surrendered passport. Netflix execs feared risk of arrest.
It’s heart wrenching the way every Independence & Republic Day, Sartaj, the Indian Air Force Corporal & son of Mohammad Akhlaq who was lynched by the Hindu Rightwing goons, is the first one to greet me! Despite that, the majoritarian India will always suspect his patriotism!
I feel a deep sense of loss knowing that my country can disown me at any time, that my motherland has become bewafa. It is too painful to talk about this because we want to hope for the idea of India to survive. I write for
@thebafflermag
To counter the Rightwing propaganda: Muslims of Kasganj were celebrating Republic Day & decorated the lanes with balloons Tricolour when the ABVP workers took their unscheduled bike rally & started making extremely provocative slogans & insisted taking rally through Muslim area
Hindi newspapers invent an ISIS sleeper cell/Al-Qaeda cell twice a month especially in western UP and they will publish those completely false & baseless reports & their follow up which demonise Muslims & peddle Islamophobia as a staple regular diet for the cow belt!
“Shab bhar sardi khane wale, water canon Se darte nahi/tum humko kitna maaroge/Hum darde badan se darte nahi...tum aaag lagate jaoge/hum aaag bujhate jayenge...”
@hussainhaidry
at his best!
In India Islamophobia and violence against Muslims, is preferred way to behave for the Police. The agency Apologize for Beating Lawyer, 'We Thought You Were Muslim,' They Say
Thanks for your kind words. I don't think there is anything HEROIC about it. As journalists, this is what we signed up for. It's our DUTY to document what is happening around us.
Yet another Indian connection with Oman! PM
@narendramodi
visited the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, which is the biggest mosque in Oman. The mosque is built from 300,000 tonnes of Indian sandstone sculpted by 200 craftsmen from India!
Adityanath govt slapped NSA on Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar for protesting against attacks on Dalits. Now Karni Sena is burning cities, threatening every one, attacking school buses, challenging SC &the very idea of law and order. Let's see if any law is slapped against them!
Its gonna be part of an echo chamber but sharing this essay I had written on death of hope for Indian Muslims. “Modi has reduced us to our immediate identities. As Muslims we once felt entitled to an honest life of dignity in India. That dream is over.”
It was a very painful piece to write, because it meant acknowledging that the idea of a life of an equal citizenship for Indian Muslims, is over in Modi’s India.
People asked me to share the link of the piece WIRED Magazine featured as its top culture story of 2020. This story is being taught at various universities & colleges in the US as part of programs on South Asia, populist democracies, tech & fake news.
ABVP’s so called “Tiranga Yatra” had many Bhagwa flags and extremely problematic slogans, alleges Munazir, an eye witness from Kasganj. Some video clips of the incident show the saffron flags. It is a case of police lapse, alleges another who called police which reached late.
The fact that members of both the communities were hit by bullets, one succumbed to injuries and other is being treated in a hospital, suggests that firing was done from both the sides. I am writing just the facts here
#KasganjViolence
It was on the suggestion of the riot accused BJP MP Sanjeev Baliyan that Yogi Adityanath govt decided to withdraw Muzaffarnagar riot cases against BJP leaders.
Civil society of Cambridge city protesting the presence of Indian Consul General in New York, Sandeep Chakravorty at the Harvard India Conference 2020. Mr. Chakravorty had called for Israel style settlements in Kashmir.
He thinks Modi is India’s Zia-ul-Haq. “We are still facing the worst consequences of Zia’s Islamization of Pakistan- dangerous radicalization of the majority, total erosion of democracy & destruction of every major institution of the country.”