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Indian lawmaker arrested after tweet criticising Narendra Modi

theguardian.com

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Re: Indian lawmaker arrested after tweet criticising Narendra Modi

#21

Post by leephillips »

zozbot234 wrote: post #5
amriksohata wrote: post #4

Bit of an odd article, man makes defamatory and false tweet, gets arrested for defamation, cries free speech? Making such a remark is equivalent of calling someone here a nazi etc. Hardly newsworthy

Adding to your point, people have been arrested for similarly offensive tweets in the U.K. too. Yet I have not seen much concern for free speech rights in the Grauniad. Why is India being singled out here? It looks like old colonial attitudes resurfacing again, where exotic colonial dependents are always stereotyped as "backward".

Same weird misspelling of the newspaper’s name in two different comments? How does that happen?

Re: Indian lawmaker arrested after tweet criticising Narendra Modi

#22

Post by FpUser »

zozbot234 wrote: post #17
leephillips wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is “here”? In the US, for example, defamation is a tort, not a criminal offense. And calling the president or any other public figure a “Nazi” would be totally safe.

The Grauniad is a U.K. newspaper. They're criticizing India for something that happens all the time in their own country. A total double standard.

Interesting. In regards to some countries this type of comparison is "whataboutism" and for others it is "total double standard"

Re: Indian lawmaker arrested after tweet criticising Narendra Modi

#23

Post by morekozhambu »

srvmshr wrote: post #16
amriksohata wrote: post #4

Bit of an odd article, man makes defamatory and false tweet, gets arrested for defamation, cries free speech? Making such a remark is equivalent of calling someone here a nazi etc. Hardly newsworthy

[parent] > Making such a remark is equivalent of calling someone here a nazi etc. Hardly newsworthy ---- [answer] > Indeed and better reasoning explained here over guardian [...] Are you trying to answer from alternate account @amreeksohata, to hustle traffic? Making a comment & replying it as an legitimate answer looks bit confusing & suspicious otherwise.

No post body was provided.

Re: Indian lawmaker arrested after tweet criticising Narendra Modi

#24

Post by nabusman »

leephillips wrote: post #21
zozbot234 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding to your point, people have been arrested for similarly offensive tweets in the U.K. too. Yet I have not seen much concern for free speech rights in the Grauniad. Why is India being singled out here? It looks like old colonial attitudes resurfacing again, where exotic colonial dependents are always stereotyped as "backward".

Same weird misspelling of the newspaper’s name in two different comments? How does that happen?

It's a reference to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian#:~:text=Frequent%....

Re: Indian lawmaker arrested after tweet criticising Narendra Modi

#25

Post by zozbot234 »

tootie wrote: post #14
amriksohata wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

This actually has less details than the Guardian article. It just recites the government's argument. It doesn't seem that he incited violence but rather accused Modi of doing so.

The tweet baselessly accused Modi of worshiping the terrorist who killed Mohandas Gandhi. That would be highly offensive to many Indians, and easily construed as "fighting words" and inciting violence.

We know this especially well because earlier fringe attempts to "rehabilitate" the perp have caused widespread offense in India; also as far as can be ascertained, Modi has not given any support whatsoever to these extremist fringe efforts. So any such claim is complete misinformation as well as trying to stoke offense.

Re: Indian lawmaker arrested after tweet criticising Narendra Modi

#26

Post by stickfigure »

1024core wrote: post #6

Boris Johnson arrived in India. Rabble-rousers know that the world's media attention will follow; and they use this opportunity to garner some of the spotlight. It's just a shameless ploy to get their names out. Such is democracy, I guess. And the Guardian doesn't help by adding flame bait such as this: "In the capital, Delhi, bulldozers have demolished the homes of Muslims accused of rioting." Illegal construction,…

About the content of the tweets, the article says:

But Mevani tweeted this week that Modi “worships and considers Godse as God”, accusing the prime minister of fomenting religious division.

He also demanded that Modi apologise for communal violence in Gujarat, where Mevani is a member of the state legislature.

Assuming this representation of the tweets is accurate, are you saying that posting them should be an arrestable offense?

Re: Indian lawmaker arrested after tweet criticising Narendra Modi

#28

Post by JumpCrisscross »

zozbot234 wrote: post #5
amriksohata wrote: post #4

Bit of an odd article, man makes defamatory and false tweet, gets arrested for defamation, cries free speech? Making such a remark is equivalent of calling someone here a nazi etc. Hardly newsworthy

Adding to your point, people have been arrested for similarly offensive tweets in the U.K. too. Yet I have not seen much concern for free speech rights in the Grauniad. Why is India being singled out here? It looks like old colonial attitudes resurfacing again, where exotic colonial dependents are always stereotyped as "backward".

> people have been arrested for similarly offensive tweets in the U.K. too

A member of Parliament? For something as vague as “attempting to disturb ‘public tranquillity and peace’”?

> old colonial attitudes

When non-MP Brits were arrested for similar nonsense, was the public’s response whataboutism and appeals to colonial victimhood?

Re: Indian lawmaker arrested after tweet criticising Narendra Modi

#30

Post by srvmshr »

koshergweilo wrote: post #3

I admit I'm not super familiar with India's freedom of speech, is this a backslide or has it always been like this?

Freedom & freedom of speech aren't equivalent ideas, and most of us Indians do not correctly identify the subtle difference. Hence speech and opinions come under vicious attack instead of productive participation.

India sees journalism taking camps (since the era of Mrs. Indira Gandhi' premiership). There are national newspapers & media channels who very overtly align with the political parties. Speaking your mind out comes with its own consequences.

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