"Narendra Modi declared as the most popular world leader" (a short thread). Recently, an image started doing rounds where Modi was pronounced as the most popular world leader. Let me tell you how it happened. (1/n)

Some thoughts/excerpts on "I could not be #Hindu" by a former #RSS sevak/worker Bhanwar Meghwanshi, a #Dalit.

The book is really worth reading, just like #Ambedkar's "Annihilation of #Caste".

It is a unique 'testimony' to the RSS's #casteism.

Thread
1/23

Bhanwar has realised, in the end, that establishment of #RSS was also a partly reaction to the rise of #Dalit politics under the aegis of #Ambedkar whose first anti-caste mobilisations (including the Mahad satyagraha and temple entry movements).

2/23

In fact, Deendayal Upadhyaya defended '#casteism' even more explicitly, in Integral Humanism, a text that is still considered as its ideological charter by the RSS and BJP and other RW fringe groups.

Bhanwar experienced this as well.

3/23

4/23

Bhanwar, like so many other Swayamsevaks, joined the RSS at a very young age, mostly to exercise and play traditional games. But he was gradually presented the history and the culture of his society in a manner which made him proud of being a Hindu and angry because...

....of the decline of the sons of the (sacred) soil of Hindustan – which was largely attributed by his teachers to the “Muslim invasions”.

These “gurus” were pracharaks who were almost venerated by the young swayamsevaks.

5/23

It's done: The IT Rules, 2021, are officially in play. We cannot stress this enough - this fundamentally changes the Indian internet. Please RT this thread on the Rules and how they bring government control over digital media like never before.
https://t.co/S7K9wnIkvI
1/n

IT Rules affect social media, OTT, and news platforms. The latter 2 have been brought under the Rules for the first time. The Rules make platforms legally liable for not complying with government regulation, hence making user experience fall in line with the same.
2/n

Social media platforms with 50 lakh+ users will now be regulated as Significant Social Media Intermediaries (SSMIs) with different obligations than Social Media Intermediaries (SMIs). Government discretion in compliance can lead to discrimination which disempowers small SMIs.
3/n

SMIs are now more answerable to law enforcement, with lesser breathing space around compliance deadlines.

Content takedown after receiving orders: 36hrs
Providing info to law enforcement: 72hrs
Requests to remove sexual content: 24hrs
Redressal by grievance officers: 15 days
4/n

The data retention period for SMIs has been doubled to 6 months for investigative purposes. Data will be preserved even if accounts are deleted. We are challenging this in the Supreme Court because such data retention in the absence of a data protection law is dangerous.
5/n

India’s Rustom-2 UAV gets massive upgrade, will soar to 27,000 feet in April

Rustom-2, India’s medium-altitude long-endurance drone being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, is targeted to achieve a huge milestone in April when it will take off from its test range in

Karnataka’s Chitradurga to fly for more than 18 hours at a height of over 27,000 feet, people familiar with the development said.

Rustom-2, also known as Tapas-BH (Tactical Airborne Platform for Aerial Surveillance-Beyond Horizon 201),

successfully completed the last flight test in October last year when it successfully flew for eight hours at an altitude of 16,000 feet.

“This will be a huge step,” said a senior government official about the

indigenously-developed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for strategic reconnaissance and surveillance operations. Rustom-1

[QT: INDIA, THE GOLD STANDARD OF CLASS]
1/28
Some time last week, an American shared this on LinkedIn. A neutral (note the 3rd-person verbiage) observation of the goings-on in our capital with a legit @AP thumbnail. Of course India had to descend on him like an avalanche of poop.

2/28
This is a quick thread of some of the worst responses out there, just to illustrate the obvious, which in one way makes the exercise pointless. At the same time, such loss of a demography's class must never be out of the spotlight. So am doing it anyway.

3/28
Just before we start, here's a small bummer: I've redacted all identifying information even though it's all in public domain. This is to avoid any inadvertent code violation; Twitter doesn't seem to like doxing and neither do I.

So here we go.

4/28
1. Corporate affairs general manager at a Japanese auto heavyweight.
2. DB architect with a Silicon Valley giant. Sum total of his argument? Farmer leaders lean Left. Interestingly, also disses the IAC shindig the biggest benefactor of which was the party in power today.

5/28
Here's another, this time no less than the COO of one of the biggest electronics retail chains in India. From his English, to his demeanor, to his self-entitlement, tweet naming one thing that isn't oozing class.