Thread:
A year ago, at this hour exactly I was in Maujpur in northeast Delhi. For days, weeks & months, I -- like several other reporters -- filed multiple stories on the #DelhiRiots. On the violence, the perpetrators, the victims, the burnt homes & shops, the fear.

I remember every minute of Feb 23, 2020 -- from the speeches to smoke billowing from afar. What I can't ever forget is the face of a man who sat alone in front of a shop, his kurta dusty and torn, blood on his forehead, unable to answer who he was & where he wanted to go.
I've his photo, I never posted it anywhere, and I won't either. He was in such shock, and there was no help around. I tried talking to him but he didn't say a word. He was numb.
It'll take me years before I can fully write down what happened that afternoon -- a stampede, stones flying all around me, a colleague who held nu hand & ran, another who lost her slipper for a minute, tear gas, my inhaler, salt.
I sent my mother messages, my hands trembling. At 1 am, I was home -- my head buried inside a pillow between my parents.
For days and weeks after this, I, like many other reporters, visited northeast Delhi and witnessed fear, heartbreak, grief, helplessness. I met women who delivered babies that week, kids who missed school & friends, adults who sat atop rubble that was once home.
My own trauma of day 1 didn't mean anything anymore. It was entirely mine to work on & forget. Grateful to my parents & sister who understood my silence & nightmares + my colleague who put his hand above my head to protect me.
Many reporters are still doing their job, thankfully, of writing on what happened in Feb 2020 in the Capital of the country. Please read their work, share their work.
What reporters & photojournalists underwent in Feb 2020 -- harrowing & scary things -- are just a line in a story. 53 people died, 100s were injured, families torn apart, parents who lost kids, kids who lost siblings & parents & partners.
Let's never forget what happened, why it happened, who let it happen, who stood & watched.
Of all things, I'm also grateful to my boss who ASKED me where I wanted to be the next day -- the choice was mine. He told me it was okay if I didn't want to head back the next day to northeast Delhi, and it was okay if I wanted to go back.
I'm not here to pitch my pieces, they're online for you to find and read. I'm here to remind you that a riot happened in the capital of the country a year ago.

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Two things can be true at once:
1. There is an issue with hostility some academics have faced on some issues
2. Another academic who himself uses threats of legal action to bully colleagues into silence is not a good faith champion of the free speech cause


I have kept quiet about Matthew's recent outpourings on here but as my estwhile co-author has now seen fit to portray me as an enabler of oppression I think I have a right to reply. So I will.

I consider Matthew to be a colleague and a friend, and we had a longstanding agreement not to engage in disputes on twitter. I disagree with much in the article @UOzkirimli wrote on his research in @openDemocracy but I strongly support his right to express such critical views

I therefore find it outrageous that Matthew saw fit to bully @openDemocracy with legal threats, seeking it seems to stifle criticism of his own work. Such behaviour is simply wrong, and completely inconsistent with an academic commitment to free speech.

I am not embroiling myself in the various other cases Matt lists because, unlike him, I think attention to the detail matters and I don't have time to research each of these cases in detail.

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