Indian Government's Volunteer Programme to Report 'Anti-National' Content
thewire.inEdit : sorry I am on mobile.
I am against any restriction on free speech but this one has some context. the farmer protests are happening in two states of India only which had a history of violent separatist terrorist movement (khalistanis). when this farmer protest started, it started getting a lot of attention in international media , NYT, WaPo which are usually critical of India. Canadian PM also put out a statement. the farm bills have their issues but they are more liberal and pro-environment. Canada criticizes India on global forums for not doing these reforms and when India does these reforms, Canada PM puts out a statement against the bill. it is entirely 180. Rihana and Greta start tweeting about it. Germany has a farmer protest happening too but no coverage. because the main reason is link to khalistani propaganda to spread. they don't care about farmers. they want to re-ignite the fire of Khalistani separatist movement. the farmers didn't do a good job of separating themselves from this organisations. The toolkit linked by Greta was created by a Khalistani supporting group. these are NOT speculation. search for poetic justic india and SJI. so govt is rightly looking for anti national content because it has been there for months.
More edit : Really ask yourself. Why a farmer protest within a country is so much advertised all over the world ? There is no serious violence by the govt . Ppl are getting space to do protests too. It is not just farmer movement, it is a launchpad for fanning anti india sentiments. Indian embassies have been attacked, superbowl ads have been shown at some places, massive rallies on US - Canada cities. Twitter celebrities are posting on it. Really ? Is this really only about farmers. Can they really list the 3 farmer laws and their problems ? The answer is NO. They haven't bothered to read the bills. They are expecting a bloodbath in India and the govt is smart enough to not do it even when India had its own Capitol riot style attack where a religious flag was flurred on Red fort and khalistani flags were raised, hurting the symbol of Indian republic.
Kind of long livestreamed video but explains it well : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZHCiIFfc1Q
As someone who has to deal with this sort of censorship employed "against me" online by the dictator, who wants no one to criticize his actions, the government and everyone subservient to his whims, it doesn't even sound like 1984 anymore. Big brother was supposed to be an exercise in what "not to do" or am I thinking wrongly? Instead, these people are using it as a playbook of what to do next.
The HN crowd will not really understand how "misuse of social media" means criticism of government that has landed thousands in jail with no recourse. You are treated the same as a terrorist who might have blown a plane or committed mass murder or a rapist.
I have always tried use a different handle online, avoid services that require a phone number, I dont post my photo or have a YouTube channel / whatsapp/telegram.
Just the day before, in a crowded street in the middle of a city capital with a population of 1 mil+, the army organised a sudden "cordon" when EVERY CIVILIAN was forced to stand in a queue, remove any "traditional winter clothing" that might hide a weapon and stand in line for over 2 hours while each person was frisked and made to prove their identity (ID cards, etc) while the whole thing was recorded by them.
Whatsapp/Facebook Admins are ordered to report to the police to get their groups "registered" or else face criminal prosecution.
I dont want sympathies. No kashmiri does. Just the idea that the attrocities committed by India and Pakistan need to be put out and known because these people sugarcoat their versions so brilliantly.
I have a cartoonist friend who is regularly banned from social media because pages get "forced to delete content" and all because he draws stuff critical of government.
I see no light at the end of the tunnel for India or Pakistan also for that matter. They simply have dug their own graves
The context and timing of this is what matters.
India is currently hosting the largest protest in human history. It was sparked by three ordinances which sought to regulate farming, by re-structuring how farmers may grow and sell their crops. The bills were passed with such haste and indifference towards the sentiments of opposing members in parliament, that something seemed very off right from the start.
And then farmers in Punjab began to accuse the government of siding with corporate interests (namely two billionaires, Adani and Ambani, and their various companies) and handing over an already exploited agricultural market to the corporate sector to be further exploited for profit. It was at this point, when after two months of heavy protests in Punjab, which the government did not directly respond to, and carried on non-chalantly with propaganda creation, that the anger began to spill over, and farmers began marching towards the capital, Delhi, forcing a reaction from the government.
That forced exchange between the farmers and government has led to a fascinating turn of events.
On one side, the farmers who have not even had a unified voice within India, let alone internationally, have gradually been given international attention and platforms to openly express themselves via social media.
On the other side, the Modi administration, which has far reaching influence and connections, while being directly called out to respond to the very valid points raised against them, chose to go with a strategy of playing ignorant and deflection, all the while ramping up propaganda to malign their accusers.
The main problem faced by the government is that while they keep trying to pin distinct groups as being a rogue anti-national 'elements' who have sparked protests for their own benefits, the protest sites have only kept on increasing in numbers as well as in diversity, rendering the government narrative as more and more disconnected over time.
And all of this has been continously documented by an impressive counter-movement to pro govt media, made up of daring freelance journalists using social media, many of whom have been arrested and detained without cause.
So while Indian democracy is being exposed, the Modi administration, despite mass protests spreading across the country, has only continued to pump out the same forms of propaganda and divisive speeches which have grown rather stale with Indians.
I've been paying close attention to the situation since late November, and it's been fascinating to see how Delhi's IT cell has been working in overdrive to restore trust in government sources of information by any means, resorting to anything from spamming flat out lies, to publishing photoshopped imagery, to mass reporting activist Twitter accounts to get them banned.
And all the while, on-the-ground social media journalism continues gain more and more public trust, eroding away the need for conventional sources of information.
The public's trust in pro government media outlets has gradually degraded to the point where reporters of those networks are being quizzed and questioned by citizens on sight regarding the ongoing protests, thereby completely nullifying the network's freedom to create and influence narratives in the ways they would like to (and have been used to).
Their reporters are also being heckled and harassed, and one reporter for Zee news (one of the biggest news stations) actually ended up quitting while live on the air, after protesters began to question whether his loyalty lay with the government or the people of India.
I think the current situation in India is testament to the idea that the so called information age may have run it's course, and we are now entering into an era where information is so abundant that the demand is centered around the quality of information and it's relativity to our own experienced reality, rather than perceived, because our perception can and has been influenced,through brute force if nothing else, to our own detriment.
So now the trustworthiness of a particular source of information is becoming far more important than the quantity of information provided by it.
Would you be able to explain why the farmers don't like the new laws?
I personally don't trust thewire.in either because as far as I understand, thewire.in is left wing. Just like I won't trust swarajamag or republictv.
The current way that (all?) farming works in India is that farmers take their produce to some (government run?) wholesaler and they get at least some government-mandated minimum price for their produce. Somehow this makes its way into the rest of the local and global economy. The new proposal is advertised as economic liberalisation of this system and involves scrapping the minimum price guarantee.
It is advertised as allowing more efficiency in the market and giving farmers the option to sell their produce to more discerning buyers at higher prices. Others worry that farmers will be worse off and won’t get such good prices, or may be exposed to more price risk (obviously it is unreasonable to tell these smallholders to sell futures and buy insurance against low yields). They suggest allowing farmers to choose who they sell to but still giving the option of getting a minimum price, but this would be terrible for whoever guarantees the min price due to adverse selection. The law’s proponents claim that this opposition is merely fear of any change.
I think there is also a general mistrust of the government and an expectation of corruption and that a big law might be secretly designed to benefit the lawmakers who implement it.
The comment below me gave an overview, but in the simplest terms, it just comes down to what the government says vs what the government is doing.
Farmers already felt oppressed and unheard in India, so naturally, when the government suddenly said: "here are three new laws and we promise they're going to be good for you" without consulting a single farming union, and passing them in such a haste, it raised all sorts of questions, and a sort of grassroots investigative effort uncovered a blatantly corrupt scheme, which i will get into, but first, a few facts about farming to add context:
A) Farming income in india has not increased in 40 years. Even if we just take this fact and inflation into account, it shows how unsustainable farming is becoming and helps us understand why 27 farmers a day were committing suicide in india, before the laws. Most farmers are incredibly poor and in debt.
B) Political parties have promised to aid them during campaigns, but once in power they've just carried on not caring.
C) a similar system of privatization has already been implemented in two states: Bihar and Gujrat. Since then, Bihari farmers have sold much of their land, and now seek labor work in other states such as Punjab, where farming is still the bulk of the economy. They had already been warning everyone against privatization due to their experience. When groups of farmers from both of these states attempted to travel to Delhi to join the protest, Police deployed checkpoints and used heavy-handed tactics to submit and scare them, putting those caught under house arrest. Even so, small groups of these farmers ended up reaching Delhi by obscuring their identities/ hiding through checkpoints. They then gave interviews detailing as such and expressed solidarity with the Punjabi and Haryana farmers who had reaching Delhi after breaking through various police barricades. They further warned the country that what had happened in their own states would happen in the rest of India because of the new bills.
D) every single one of the advantages touted by the government of the three bills, only sounds good to someone who doesn't understand the above context, making farmers further mistrustful of them. For example, Modi has repeatedly said that farmers will now have the freedom to sell their crops to anyone, anywhere, and they should be happy. What he ignores is that the vast majority of farmers currently have trouble getting their crops to local Mandis( grain markets) where they barely break even, and if they do it's because of MSP.
E) govt officials began to say that farmers don't need to worry about losing MSP, and it will continue, but it is literally discontinued as per the bills, and unless the government revises the law or makes a new one, there is zero reason to believe this. When directly asked whether they're willing to put the continuation of MSP into law, the government simply deflects and distracts from the question.
F) the bills make it legal to infinitely store goods, where previously there was a hard limit on how long someone could purchase and cold store grains, to prevent market manipulation. This single bill is extremely suspicious as it ties into existing fears that farmers have, because they have been seeing their land bought by large out of state companies. These companies will often bully several neighbouring farmers into selling their land, and then simply let it sit in some areas, while building giant warehouses in other locations.
G) Reliance, a telecom company owned by billionaire Ambani, has a mobile branch called Jio. Jio made Indians savvy to a particular model which corporations in India (or really anywhere) seem fond of. When the company first started, they offered users unlimited data, no strings attached. This of course led to the demise of competing companies, and everyone and their dog signed up with Jio. However, only a couple years later, when the competition was non-existent jio began to charge for data, and then kept on increasing the rates, to the point where today, they are charging more than all their competitors used to. This is seemingly it's own separate issues but it will tie into the farmers protest.
So what happened in Punjab was that during the two month long protest there where farmers blocked railroads and highways, a local journalist began to investigate the construction of the giant warehouses, and then published a piece about it. He basically concluded, with evidence, that the two main corporate powers backing the current government (Adani and Ambani) had already built many warehouses Punjab, while the construction of many others was ongoing.
Basically, the corporate powers were ready to purchase and cold store goods, as per the new laws, while the protesting farmers felt that not only were the bills passed completely behind their backs without any consultation, but their protests were now being ignored and maligned.
So this news caused mass outrage, and people began to boycott Jio, and some of their towers were even vandalized. The owner of Reliance being Mukesh Ambani, the Jio boycott became a natural way to support to farmers, and all across Punjab and Harayana, Jio reportedly began losing hundreds of thousands of customers per day.
The journalist who had written the piece, was then kidnapped by police officers in civilian clothing, and later revealed to have been 'arrested'. At this point many people, professional journalists and lay people alike, began to speculate that the Jio model would be used against farmers as well. That farmers would actually be given above MSP rates by corporate buyers for a couple of years, rendering the traditional mandis, where MSP is legally required, useless. And when those Mandis are gone, they corporations would begin increasing the rates, forcing farmers into either selling their land, or entering oppressive contracts with large companies who could bully them, as most farmers cannot even afford the legal fees to take someone to court were there to be any disputes.
While this sort of information was spreading through daily rallies and protests, the government began a string of unconventional arrests targeting key figures using bogus charges, which only made people even angrier, and more and more people joined the protest. It really turned into a game of chicken, with the government betting that their next step would scare the people, and the people believing that their next escalation would force the government to listen to their demands.
This kind of escalation has resulted in the protest today no longer being limited to just farmers, or just the farming states, as people from all walks of society from all over India are openly defying the government by reaching the Delhi protest sites.
I have been in USA and has experienced first hand the convenience of buying vegetables and fruits from the likes of Walmart or Target or Costco. They provide consistency in quality and price most of the time. I don't have to worry about the content of pesticides or other harmful substances. Right now, in India, I have no way of knowing what kind of farming practices the produce I am buying was subjected to. At least in Kerala, the prices shoots up a lot every now and then as well. From that perspective, I feel this change would be good for consumers.
Also, my understanding is that the current system of small scale farming will never be profitable. In US, I have seen 1 or 2 person operating huge machines to farm large areas of land. May be its time India also move in that direction. I don't know.
As for corporate tactics, I agree with you. I see similar tactics employed by many others-Amazon, Uber etc. So I wouldn't be surprised if farmers end up in similar situations in future. We already have an example of chicken farmers in US: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/human-cost...
Regarding the warehouses, according to the below links, they are not new. They say Adani had started their construction in 2007.
https://www.indiatoday.in/fact-check/story/fact-check-no-ada...
https://thelogicalindian.com/fact-check/adani-logistics-limi...
Also, Punjab government themselves invited Reliance to Punjab in 2015.
https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/food-entert...
Thanks for this concise explanation.
30-40 yrs back in south india, there used to be newspapers and weekly magazines talking about politics without saying who they were talking about like the name wouldnt be mentioned but there would be a little clue, they won't even mention is it a local issue or state or nation or world. The readers who were buying these magazines on weekly basis knows who they were refering to. Things were pretty much cryptic. We are reading everything in tech. A simple daily changing ceasars crypt would confuse people. I think that's gonna happen soon.
pertinent news article : https://thewire.in/rights/cyber-whispers-home-ministry-volun...
Thanks—that seems a bit more neutral, so I've changed the URL to it from https://internetfreedom.in/cyber-volunteer/.
thewire.in is not neutral and biased towards the left (Communism) according to here: https://www.quora.com/Is-Thewire-in-biased
Just to give you some more context on why I am wary of trusting leftist sources: Communists & BJP (and sometimes Congress) party members have been killing each other a lot (over 200 since 2000), often really brutally in the south Indian state Kerala. I don't know why BJP & Communists have this enmity towards each other. But one thing I find amusing is that Communists don't like religion because "religion kills". During the last 10-20 years, I haven't seen any religious killings in Kerala, but see a lot of brutal Mexican mafia style killings (except may be complete dismemberment), always with machetes & similar weapons and country bombs, in the name of politics.
https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/politics/030920/never...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36299827
https://www.mansworldindia.com/more/news/politics/rss-vs-cpm...
I said more neutral—it's all relative. If there's another source which is more neutral yet, we can change it again.
Keep in mind that we know nothing about Indian politics here. All I know is that threads about it lead to even worse flamewars than threads about U.S. politics these days, and that's saying something.
It really isn't neutral. It's massively left-wing which, while relating to most of HN's demographic, isn't really useful in this case due to the constant anti-India/Hindu bias on HN.