GILLES VERNIERS & MAYA MIRCHANDANI New Delhi: With 50 women candidates, or 17% of the 291 seats from where it is contesting a heated assembly election in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) has once again taken the lead amongst states that offer the largest space for women’s representation in politics. In the outgoing assembly,… Continue reading How Mamata’s Trinamool Broke The Glass Ceiling For Women In Politics
Category: Politics
Twitter-Modi Govt Spat Could Catalyse Global Debate About Jurisdiction, Regulation
The clash between the Indian government and Twitter has once again exposed contradictions and double standards on both sides.The Centre has threatened to take legal action against Twitter, accusing it of bias in its resistance to taking down pro-farmers’ protest accounts that New Delhi claims could have caused a law and order problem. Information technology… Continue reading Twitter-Modi Govt Spat Could Catalyse Global Debate About Jurisdiction, Regulation
Political Mudslinging Over Facebook Bias Will Only Let the Social Media Giant Off the Hook
The Wall Street Journal’s expose of Facebook India’s internal communications indicating its apparently special relationship with the ruling party should have resulted in a serious, bipartisan policy discussion in parliament on the need to find ways to regulate weaponised information and hate speech on social media. This discussion would have been particularly important, given technology’s power to… Continue reading Political Mudslinging Over Facebook Bias Will Only Let the Social Media Giant Off the Hook
Populism, propaganda and politics: Narendra Modi’s electoral playbook
In Hérodote Volume 177-178, Issue 2-3, April 2020, Abstract: The media plays a vital role in a democracy. It informs the public and acts as a watchdog against any abuse of power. During election campaigns, the media provides information on electoral performance, political manifestoes and candidates. However, the prolific spread of social media poses a serious challenge to mainstream media in… Continue reading Populism, propaganda and politics: Narendra Modi’s electoral playbook
Meet Badlu Khan, a Symbol of the Syncretic India the Hindu Right Wants to Erase
The doorbell rings at 11 am, right on schedule. Delhi is still coming to terms with brutal communal violence that has left 53 people dead at last count, but Badlu Khan Nizami arrives for his weekly music class, determined not to allow the horrors of the previous week intimidate him in any way. His metro… Continue reading Meet Badlu Khan, a Symbol of the Syncretic India the Hindu Right Wants to Erase
On Misinformation and Hate Speech (notes from a talk)
In August 2019, police in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh decided to open an investigation into a local journalist- Pawan Jaiswal all because he had exposed a government school for feeding its children salt and a chapati as a mid-day meal. This meal was well below the government’s minimum nutrition standards. But the state didn’t care about the… Continue reading On Misinformation and Hate Speech (notes from a talk)
Kashmir: Betrayal, Uncertainty and Fear make a Potent Brew
The drive from Srinagar to Shopian in South Kashmir on the sixth Friday since the nullification of Article 370 is eerily calm. On one stretch of the road near Kakpora, just before Pulwama, stones and the odd, felled tree trunk appear as makeshift roadblocks- laid by local youth to prevent any vehicular movement- military or… Continue reading Kashmir: Betrayal, Uncertainty and Fear make a Potent Brew
Scaling the Media Mountain- Modi 1.0 and the Indian Press
Days before the results of the 2019 general elections came in, and just 48 hours before his own constituency went to the polls, millions of Indians watched Prime Minister Narendra Modi, election campaign done, labour his way up the steep hills of Kedarnath, pray inside the temple’s sanctum sanctorum, meditate inside a cave. Television channels… Continue reading Scaling the Media Mountain- Modi 1.0 and the Indian Press
Elections 2019: Democracy in the face of majoritarianism
If the strength of a liberal democracy is judged by the space it offers for critique and dissent; or by the protection it offers to all its citizens, irrespective of caste, creed or gender, then Indian democracy is on a perilous path. Whether it was in the case of a young Kerala girl’s right to… Continue reading Elections 2019: Democracy in the face of majoritarianism
The Parliamentary Panel Will Reinforce Bias on Twitter, Not Fix It
Round one of the bout between the parliamentary panel on information technology, led by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, and representatives of Twitter ended as expected – with an extension. The committee asked Twitter’s global CEO, Jack Dorsey to appear before it on February 25 to answer to charges of a ‘liberal’ bias that drowns out… Continue reading The Parliamentary Panel Will Reinforce Bias on Twitter, Not Fix It
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