Hindu supremacist Modi govt threatened to shut down Twitter: ex-CEO Jack Dorsey
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey revealed that the Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi government pressured Twitter to block accounts covering the farmers’ protests and criticizing the government while also threatening to raid and arrest its employees based in India.
“It manifested in ways such as: ‘We will shut Twitter down in India,’ which is a very large market for us; ‘we will raid the homes of your employees,’ which they did; and this is India, a democratic country,” Dorsey said in an interview with YouTube news show Breaking Points.
The protests by farmers over agricultural reforms went on for a year and were among the biggest faced by the government of Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). During the protests, the Indian government sought an “emergency blocking” of the “provocative” Twitter hashtag “#ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide” and dozens of accounts.
Twitter initially complied but later restored most of the accounts, citing “insufficient justification” to continue the suspensions.
Since Modi took office in 2014, India has slid from 140th in World Press Freedom Index to 161 out of 180 countries this year, its lowest ranking ever.
Muslim school principal, teacher arrested after Hindu supremacists protests
The Muslim principal of a school in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh state’s Damoh district and two other Muslim staff have been arrested, days after a series of protests by Hindu supremacist groups, who raised false allegations of religious conversion against the school.
The Hindu supremacist groups alleged that a poster celebrating the school’s success in 10th grade Board exams was put up outside the premises, featuring non-Muslim students in headscarves.
Following the incident, the Hindu supremacist government ordered a probe into the incident on May 31, and on June 2, the education department derecognised the school, citing inadequate infrastructure. The police later filed a case against 11 members of the school management committee.
Court acquits Hindu militants who burnt Muslims alive during 2002 Gujarat violence
A court has acquitted two Hindu militants, Harshad Solanki and Mafat Gohil, who were responsible for an attack on a small bakery owned by a Muslim family during the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002, killing 14 people, including 11 Muslims and 3 Hindu employees of the bakery.
In April, a court acquitted 67 Hindu extremists who were accused of the murder of 11 Muslims during the violence. The convicts included a BJP leader, Maya Kodnani, and Hindu militant leader Babu Bajrangi, who was caught on video boasting about how he had slit a pregnant Muslim woman open and that he enjoyed slaughtering Muslims.
The acquittal of these convicted rapists and murderers indicates the complete disregard for human rights, justice, and law and order in Hindu supremacist BJP-ruled India.
The move is part of a larger pattern of releasing Hindu supremacists convicted of gruesome crimes. Last year, the Supreme Court facilitated freedom for 11 Hindu extremists who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for gang-raping a Muslim woman and murdering several of her family members during the 2002 pogrom.
