'Hounding of senior officers, protests across the country and attempts — perceived and real — to change the constitutional ethos of the country have sparked a kind of unrest among civil servants, who have taken to WhatsApp groups to share their concerns and grievances. Several IAS, IPS and IRS officers who ThePrint spoke to said there is a palpable sense of vulnerability, insecurity and concern among officers, which they are wary of expressing publicly, but do so in the safety of closed WhatsApp groups with their peers from the services.
'“No leader probably anywhere in the world is as obsessed with social media as Modi is, he even gets a detailed list of which social influencer has tweeted what about him every evening,” claims a former government official. Every prime-ministerial tweet is vetted by more than one individual before being officially “cleared”, each tweet is aimed at shoring up Modi’s stature as the country’s tallest leader.
'A photograph of several men pelting stones has been shared on social media in the view of nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). In the middle of the group is an elderly man wearing a skull cap hurling stone. The image is circulating with the claim, “रहमान चचा 500 रु लेकर पत्थर फेंकने गये थे…. यूपी पुलिस ने उन्हें 1,50,000 का नोटिस भेज दिया (Rehman uncle had gone to pelt stones for Rs 500. UP Police has sent him notice of Rs 1,50,000 -translated)”.
'Citizenship Amendment Act protests (CAA protests): In a healthier and more robust society sportspersons would have plenty to say about our problems — from the cancer of Hindutva, to the vast inequities in our society, to the very idea of sport as something that binds people together... One subset is the Copy Paster. The athlete content with doing what the PR says. And it isn’t as if this is a first time. The only saving grace here is the fantasy that perhaps these guys are great trolls, doing this deliberately with the intention of being caught. A second subset is the clarifier.
'As the unrest over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) continues to boil, the official handle of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) deleted one of its most controversial tweets on Thursday, 19 December. During the Lok Sabha elections, in one of his campaigns in the first week of April, Home Minister Amit Shah had caused controversy when he said that his party would ensure the implementation of NRC in the entire country.
'With protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) continuing on educational campuses across the country, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has asked all technical education institutes and universities to keep a tab on the social media accounts of students and teachers. The educational institutions have been asked to monitor Twitter and Facebook accounts, and also WhatsApp groups, of students and teachers to keep themselves abreast of the activities happening on the campuses in the wake of the CAA.
'In the wake of massive protests across various cities over the Citizenship Amendment Act and the NRC, a set of photographs has been posted on social media with the claim that it represents a massive crowd that gathered in West Bengal in support of the act... The text in Tamil, with which the photos have been posted states, “குடியுரிமை சட்டத்திற்கு ஆதரவாக திரண்ட மேற்கு வங்கத்தின் தேசபக்தர்கள்” (Patriots of West Bengal who rallied in support of Citizenship Act. Terrorists are on sight- Google translation).
'As protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) continue across the nation, violence was reported in some states. On December 20, Surajit Dasgupta, Founder, Editor-in-chief, Sirf News tweeted an image of police officers with head injuries and claimed, “#ISupportCAA_NRC This is unacceptable. Our custodians are not cannon fodder. This is what the so-called peaceful protesters did to cops in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, ruled by a so-called Fascist party.” It was retweeted over 500 times...
'On the night of December 18, former cricketer and incumbent BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly posted a tweet in reference to his daughter, Sana Ganguly. “Please keep Sana out of all this issues .. this post is not true .. she is too young a girl to know about anything in politics.”... Ganguly’s tweet came as multiple users on Twitter posted a purported screenshot of Sana’s Instagram story – an excerpt on fascism from Kushwant Singh’s book ‘The End of India’. A part of the passage reads, “Every fascist regime needs communities and groups it can demonize in order to thrive.
'Mohit Bharatiya, General Secretary of BJP Mumbai, issued a threat to Kunal Kamra after being offended by a tweet shared by the comedian. Kamra had shared a graphic that read: “Dear PM Modi, Media is with you, Bollywood is with you, 353 MP's are with you, all the Indian bigots are with you, corrupt criminals and rapists are with you, RSS is with you, NRI dhokla mafia is with you, but we stand rock solid against you, because the nation doesn't need you.” He captioned it, “*FIXED IT*”...
