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<br /><ul><li><strong><keyword id="42749" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shashi-Tharoor">Shashi Tharoor</keyword> is making his debut as a stand-up comedian on Amazon Prime.<br /></strong></li><li><strong>The former diplomat will be featuring in a comedy show ‘<keyword id="2215945" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="one-mic-stand">One Mic Stand</keyword>’.<br /></strong></li><li><strong>The three-minute long video will air on the OTT platform on November 15.</strong></li></ul>Indian politician and author Shashi Tharoor is making a much awaited debut in stand-up comedy. As expected, his extensive English vocabulary will set the mood onstage. <br /><br />The former diplomat will be featuring in a comedy show ‘One Mic Stand’ on Amazon Prime. The three-minute long video will air on the OTT platform on November 15. Tharoor took to Twitter to give a ‘sneak peek’ to his humour. <br /><br />“Sneak preview of a minute of my stand-up comedy act (it does get better later!),” Tharoor tweeted. <br /><br /><div type="twitter" handle="ShashiTharoor" handlename="Shashi Tharoor" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/928582848784633857/sX6E0-GB_normal.jpg" favoritecount="28592" retweetcount="5616" status="Sneak preview of a minute of my stand-up comedy act (it does get better later!) #OneMicStand https://t.co/tgXVZEYOir" createdat="1573650282000" id="1194601984323506177"></div>

<br />"Daddy, please. I can't entertain this! Pardon my recalcitrance," Tharoor said in the snippet. The R-word went over the heads of a lot of people. Recalcitrance refers to the quality of being unwilling to obey rules.<br /><br />"Anything that I say is assumed by people to be more complicated than it really is," he says at one point, referring to people complaining that his English is too hard to understand. Within six hours, the video post on Twitter fetched over 217,000 views, as per IANS.<br /><br />The ‘One Mic Stand’ series sets celebrities against professional comedians before a live audience. Shashi Tharoor faced off with popular comedian Kunal Kamra.<br /><br />Tharoor, who can be labelled as the educator of unknown English words was recently in the news for his reply “to a student who asked him to give a new word in view of his reputation as a fount of exotic vocabulary”. <br /><div type="twitter" handle="ShashiTharoor" handlename="Shashi Tharoor" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/928582848784633857/sX6E0-GB_normal.jpg" favoritecount="16187" retweetcount="3950" status="My reply to a student who asked me to give him a new word in view of my reputation as a fount of exotic vocabulary: https://t.co/I6mr9DOX6m" createdat="1573493696000" id="1193945214928293891"></div>

<br />He responded to the tenth grader with one of the oldest and simplest words. “Read — that’s the only way I acquire vocabulary. I have barely opened a dictionary in my life,” Tharoor said. <br /><br /><strong>See also:</strong><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/rbi-governor-shaktikanta-das-is-giving-shashi-tharoor-a-run-for-his-dictionary/articleshow/70799176.cms">RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das is giving Shashi Tharoor a run for his dictionary</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tiktok-has-refuted-shashi-tharoors-claim-that-the-app-with-200-million-indian-users-is-sharing-data-with-china/articleshow/70036631.cms">TikTok has refuted Shashi Tharoor's claim that the app with 200 million Indian users is sharing data with China</a><br />

Download dictionary apps before you watch Shashi Tharoor’s stand up on Amazon Prime

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Thinkers/Thinkers-50-Shashi-Tharoor-says-Indian-management-thinkers-are-leading-Indias-growth-story/articleshow/47457629.cms"> </a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=shashi+tharoor">Shashi </a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=shashi+tharoor">Tharoor</a>-a politician, human rights activist, refugee worker, bestselling author and a regular has often courted controversy for all the wrong reason. However, this video of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Thinkers/Thinkers-50-Shashi-Tharoor-says-Indian-management-thinkers-are-leading-Indias-growth-story/articleshow/47457629.cms">Tharoor’s </a>gone viral for all the right reasons. Speaking at the <keyword id="2963197" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Oxford-Union-Reparations-Debate">Oxford Union Reparations Debate</keyword>, Tharoor, gives the Brits a taste of their own medicine, when he categorically and almost clinically decimates Britain’s false idea of ‘feeling bad’ for the wrongs they mounted on India during their 200-year colonization of the country!<br />
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Right from counting the billions of dollars <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=britain">Britain </a>still owes India for the amount India spent on its colonizer’s behalf during the first and the second world wars, which it has so conveniently forgotten about, to focusing their attention on one of India’s worst famine disasters, the great Bengal famine, resulting in the death of lakhs of bangalis across West Bengal and Bangladesh- a creation of Britain, masterminded by Britain’s then Prime Minister, <keyword id="102308" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Winston-Churchill">Winston Churchill</keyword>.<br />
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Standing affront several erudite Englishmen and women, along with a handful of ‘desis’, who undoubtedly cheered him on every time he landed a jibe on the famed British arrogance, including telling them that the so called ‘Aid’ Britain extends to India is less than 0.4% of the sub-continental nation’s total GDP, and lesser than India’s spend on its fertilizer subsidies!<br />
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Watch this video to know some surprising facts (yes, it even took us by surprise, the level of Britain’s apathy towards India) about Britain’s 200 yr long colonization of India.<br />
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Watch the full video here: <br />

Must Watch! This viral-Shashi Tharoor video tells us why India needs to wake up from its Post-colonial dream

<br /> Apart from the slogans for change, if anything significant has happened during these elections, it is way the e-world has arrived, officially this time. Every <keyword id="6355187" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Lok-Sabha">Lok Sabha</keyword> candidate worth his/her salt has a media manager who is updating the social media sites for the candidate – be it with campaign pictures, videos of speeches or interactions with the voters. And there are quite a few crackers in the <keyword id="6354616" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Twitter">Twitter</keyword> world as well. Like <keyword id="50339" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Ajay-Maken">Ajay Maken</keyword> hit Twitter almost immediately after the BJP released its manifesto. Today, if something is bound to change, it will be the mode of interaction with the people of this country. Only time will tell whether it is good for us or not.<br />
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The Lok Sabha polls this year have driven Twitter into the fever mode and here are 15 popular tweets by politicians that you wouldn’t want to miss.<br />
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1.       <strong><keyword id="4032986" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Rajeev-Chandrashekhar">Rajeev Chandrashekhar</keyword></strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/rajeev_mp">@rajeev_mp</a><br />
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2.      <strong><keyword id="18656" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Lalu-Prasad-Yadav">Lalu Prasad Yadav</keyword></strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/laluprasadrjd">@laluprasadrjd</a><br />
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3.      <strong><keyword id="30182" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Kapil-Sibal">Kapil Sibal</keyword></strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/KapilSibal">@KapilSibal</a><br />
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4.      <strong><keyword id="6354361" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Kiran-Bedi">Kiran Bedi</keyword></strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/thekiranbedi">@thekiranbedi</a><br />
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5.      <strong>Omar Abdullah</strong> -  <a href="https://twitter.com/abdullah_omar">@abdullah_omar</a><br />
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6.      <strong><keyword id="6355111" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Sushma-Swaraj">Sushma Swaraj</keyword></strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/SushmaSwarajbjp">@SushmaSwarajbjp</a><br />
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7.      <strong><keyword id="42749" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Shashi-Tharoor">Shashi Tharoor</keyword></strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/ShashiTharoor">@ShashiTharoor</a><br />
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8.     <strong><keyword id="42575" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Arun-Jaitley">Arun Jaitley</keyword></strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/arunjaitley">@arunjaitley</a><br />
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9.      <strong>Smriti Z Irani</strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/smritiirani">@smritiirani</a><br />
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10.  <strong><keyword id="6361795" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Vasundhara-Raje">Vasundhara Raje</keyword></strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/VasundharaBJP">@VasundharaBJP</a><br />
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11.   <strong><keyword id="42634" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Varun-Gandhi">Varun Gandhi</keyword></strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/varungandhi80">@varungandhi80</a><br />
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12.  <strong><keyword id="13850" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Rajiv-Pratap-Rudy">Rajiv Pratap Rudy</keyword></strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/RajivPratapRudy">@RajivPratapRudy</a><br />
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13.  <strong><keyword id="260213" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Arvind-Kejriwal">Arvind Kejriwal</keyword></strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/ArvindKejriwal">@ArvindKejriwal</a><br />
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14.  <strong>Milind Deora</strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/milinddeora">@milinddeora</a><br />
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15.   <strong>Gul Panag</strong> - <a href="https://twitter.com/GulPanag">@GulPanag<br />
</a><br />
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15 Most Popular Tweets From Politicians This General
Election

<ul><li><keyword id="3244240" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Facebook-India-Head">Facebook India Head</keyword> <keyword id="3056724" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ajit-Mohan">Ajit Mohan</keyword> has filed a petition in the <keyword id="6354977" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Supreme-Court">Supreme Court</keyword> that the Delhi Assembly’s ‘Peace and Harmony’ committee cannot force him to appear before it. </li><li>According to the petition, Delhi’s <keyword id="6354944" type="DEFINITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="aam-aadmi-party">Aam Aadmi Party</keyword> (AAP) cannot declare Facebook guilty prima facie, since it’s not a court of law. </li><li>A three-member bench of the top court — consisting of Justices SK Kaul, Aniruddha Bose, and Krishna Murari — will hear the plea via video conferencing.</li></ul><keyword id="736869" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Facebook-India">Facebook India</keyword>’s vice president and managing director, Ajit Mohan, has filed a petition with the Supreme Court against the Delhi Assembly’s ‘Peace and Harmony’ committee.<br /><br />Mohan had been asked to appear before the committee today. Instead, a three-member bench of the top court — consisting of Justices SK Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Krishna Murari — will hear the plea via video conferencing.<br /><br />Mohan is to be represented by former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.<br /><br /><strong>Why did Mohan file the Supreme Court petition?<br /></strong>Mohan’s petition asserts that since he is already appearing before the Parliamentary Panel on Information Technology — headed by Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Shashi Tharoor — the committee cannot compel him to appear before it. <br /><br />In his petition, Mohan questioned the national capital’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was declaring Facebook guilty prima facie — based on the first impression. According to him, the AAP cannot issue such statements since it’s not a court of law.<br /><br /><strong>What are the accusations leveled against Facebook India?<br /></strong>The Peace and Harmony committee asserts that the social networking giant was ‘complicit’ in the north Delhi violence that broke out during the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in February. The incident left over 50 people dead and injured hundreds. <br /><br />The committee’s premise is that they have ‘incriminatory material’ that has been produced on the record by witnesses, which can be used to prove that Facebook’s ‘deliberate and intentional inaction to contain hateful content’ in India led to the outbreak.<br /><br />On Sunday, the committee sent a fresh and ‘final’ summons to the company. “Any rebuttal or disregard to this subsequent notice shall be deemed as a wilful act of breach of privilege and thus, shall entail various proceedings initiated against Facebook India,” it said in a statement.<br /><br /><em>(With agency inputs)</em><br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/byjus-onboards-new-investors-edtech-decacorns-paid-subscriber-base-jumps-by-a-million-in-a-month/articleshow/78267761.cms">BYJU’S onboards new investors – edtech decacorn’s paid subscriber base jumps by a million in a month</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/banks/news/yes-bank-ceo-prashant-kumar-clarifies-that-the-forensic-investigation-isnt-restricted-to-the-top-10-defaulters/articleshow/78255868.cms">EXCLUSIVE: YES Bank CEO Prashant Kumar clarifies that the forensic investigation isn't restricted to the top 10 defaulters</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/dailyhunt-to-launch-family-of-bharat-apps-claiming-it-can-push-a-new-mobile-app-every-three-days/articleshow/78250283.cms">EXCLUSIVE: Dailyhunt is curating an entire family of 'Bharat' apps — claims it can push a new mobile app every three days</a></strong><br />

Facebook India Head goes to Supreme Court against Delhi Assembly Panel's summons on 'hate speech'

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6354862" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trump">Trump</keyword> was banned from <keyword id="6354616" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Twitter">Twitter</keyword> on January 8, and heavily restricted on other platforms.</li><li>Activists are urging similar action against other populist leaders, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jan/17/trump-social-media-ban-jair-bolsonaro-narendra-modi">The Observer reported</a>.</li><li>Those leaders include Brazilian president <keyword id="4410893" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="jair-bolsonaro">Jair Bolsonaro</keyword> and Indian PM <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>.</li></ul><p>President Trump's social media ban has opened a can of worms for tech firms who face calls from activists and academics to clamp down on other populist leaders such as Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro and India's Narendra Modi.</p><p>Trump was suspended from <keyword id="6354576" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword> on January 7, a day after supporters of the president sieged the US Capitol. He was subsequently booted off Twitter - his primary channel for broadcasting messages to an audience of millions - and YouTube.</p><p>Now that tech firms have shown themselves willing to clamp down on political leaders in extreme circumstances, critics and rivals wonder how long Bolsonaro and Modi can remain exempt, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jan/17/trump-social-media-ban-jair-bolsonaro-narendra-modi">The Observer first reported</a>.</p><p>Bolsonaro has been widely compared to Trump for his populist views. Like Trump, the Brazilian president has consistently downplayed the coronavirus pandemic, with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-facebook-block-jair-bolsonaro-coronavirus-misinformation-2020-3">Twitter and Facebook in March removing</a> some of his videos for spreading misinformation.</p><div type="image" title="FILE PHOTO: Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro speaks with journalists as he arrives at Alvorada Palace, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Brasilia, Brazil, May 22, 2020. REUTERS/Adriano Machado/File Photo" height="2331" width="3109" msid="80316853" hostid="261"></div><p>The Observer noted that Bolsonaro, like Trump, has questioned his country's electoral system. He also joined a pro-dictatorship rally, sister newspaper The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/20/jair-bolsonaro-dictatorship-rally-protest-brazil-president-denounced">reported</a>. Bolsonaro was also helped to his position by social media. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/11/world/americas/youtube-brazil.html">According to The New York Times</a>, he was already popular as a right-wing YouTuber while still a lawmaker.</p><p>Left-leaning Brazilian politician Marcelo Freixo tweeted on January 9: "And Twitter put a muzzle on Trump. We will need another one for Brazil <a href="https://twitter.com/Twitter">@Twitter</a>."</p><p>In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not as openly inflammatory on social media.</p><p>However, politicians from the ruling BJP Party <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-hate-speech-india-politics-muslim-hindu-modi-zuckerberg-11597423346">have been accused of hate speech on Facebook</a>.</p><p>Shashi Tharoor, a politician with the rival Congress party, tweeted on January 9: "For those crying foul on a <a href="https://twitter.com/Twitter">@Twitter</a> suspension: curbing the freedom of expression of those who incite violence &amp; other anti-democratic behaviour is needed here too.</p><p>"Those who try to curb the rights &amp; liberties of people they're elected to lead shouldn't be given an enabling platform."</p><p>The Observer also quoted an academic, the University of Arkansas School of Law's Khaled A Beydoun, who said booting Modi from Twitter would be the "logical next move."</p><p>Not all moderate politicians are so gung-ho. Several European figures, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, suggested tech firms should not be regulating political leaders.</p><p>A spokesman for Merkel's government said this week, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/angela-merkel-european-leaders-question-twitter-donald-trump-ban/">per Politico</a>: "The fundamental right [of freedom of expression] can be interfered with, but along the lines of the law and within the framework defined by the lawmakers.</p><p>"Not according to the decision of the management of social media platforms."</p>

After Trump's Twitter ban, critics want other populists like Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro and India's Narendra Modi booted from social media

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared in an episode of "Man vs Wild" alongside survivalist Bear Grylls on Monday night.</strong></li><li><strong>The episode appears to be an untimely publicity stunt as the Indian government continues to limit Kashmir's access to food and the internet for the ninth consecutive day.</strong></li><li><strong>Since Modi became prime minister in 2014, his government has spent more than $700 million on cultivating his strongman image.</strong></li><li><strong><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></strong></strong></li></ul><p>Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appeared on "Man vs Wild," the British survivalist Bear Grylls' show, while his country continues to choke off Kashmir's access to food and the internet for the ninth consecutive day.</p><p>In the episode, broadcast by Discovery Channel India on Monday night, Modi built makeshift rafts and discussed growing up in a poor family as he and Grylls crossed a river at the Jim Corbett National Park in northern India, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/12/modi-talks-of-his-positivity-on-bear-gryllss-man-vs-wild">The Guardian reported</a>.</p><p>While it's not clear how far in advance the episode was filmed, its Monday airing seems an untimely publicity stunt as Modi's government continues to cut off Kashmir from the rest of the world.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p>Indian security forces have blocked off most major roads, and cut off phone and internet lines around the region - a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-blackout-locals-dont-know-india-revoked-autonomy-report-2019-8">common strategy</a> to prevent large protests and the spread of information critical of authorities.</p><p>Some journalists on the ground have been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/news/journalists-in-kashmir-get-satellite-phones-after-internet-and-mobile-are-shut-down/articleshow/70530054.cms?_ga=2.92835550.21216054.1565594750-1569903452.1556696064">offered satellite phones</a> for 100,000 rupees ($1,400) so they can keep reporting.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-india-accuse-bbc-reuters-lying-about-protests-despite-video-2019-8">India accused the BBC and Reuters of lying about large-scale protests in Kashmir, even though they were recorded on video</a></em></p><p>This crackdown came after the Indian government <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-india-revoke-article-370-quasi-independence-internet-tourists-2019-8">removed a constitutional provision</a> that had guaranteed the independence of the Jammu and Kashmir region to make its own laws, and prevented outsiders from buying property or seeking government jobs in the mostly-Muslim region.</p><p>Critics believe that India's move last week will allow Indian Hindus to alter the state's ethnic and religious makeup.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p>Indian security forces have also sent in thousands more troops to the region, which is already one of the most heavily-militarized areas in the world.</p><p>The roadblocks have prevented food supplies from entering the region, and sick people are struggling to get to hospital due to the faulty phone lines and police blocking ambulances from moving around.</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/10/kashmir-protests-india-curfew">The Guardian cited</a> a man named Syed Asim Ali as saying that his family in Srinagar, the largest city in Jammu and Kashmir, had been eating dried vegetables because of the food shortage.</p><p>Other residents have been stockpiling medicine and food in preparation of further disruption amid Eid al-Adha, a key festival in Islam, which takes place this week, <a href="https://www.apnews.com/29f6bffe7a93438dbafb3461ecb75b30">The Associated Press reported</a> over the weekend.</p><p>Pakistan - which also claims Jammu and Kashmir as its own territory - has appealed to the US and UN for help to mediate the Kashmir crisis, while India repeatedly maintains that this is a regional issue.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><h2>The cult of Modi</h2><p>Monday's "Man vs Wild" episode appears to be another attempt by Modi to build his cult of personality in the country and drum up nationalistic support.</p><p>The strongman leader has participated in multiple photo ops to boost his image - as well as that of his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party since becoming prime minister in 2014.</p><p>His government has spent more than 52 billion rupees ($728 million) in pro-BJP ads and social media posts since the 2014 financial year, India's <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/govt-has-spent-over-rs-5200-cr-in-ads-since-2014-15-rathore-in-ls/articleshow/67077392.cms">Economic Times reported</a> last year.</p><p>The BJP also hires hundreds of thousands of people to recruit new voters via phone and door knocks, ultimately helping build "the most extraordinary personality cult in modern Indian history," according to Indian politician and prominent Modi critic <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/narendra-modi-india-election-personality-cult-by-shashi-tharoor-2019-05">Shashi Tharoor</a>.</p><p>Rajini Vaidyanathan, the BBC's South Asia correspondent, even <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-48332141">likened</a> Modi rallies to those of US President Donald Trump earlier this year.</p><p>The strongman image, a traditional persona adopted by world leaders throughout history, has been deployed to great effect by Modi's counterparts, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping, China's president.</p><p>Putin has taken advantage of numerous <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vladimir-putin-macho-stunts-that-arent-as-impressive-as-they-seem-2018-3">publicity stunts to assert his macho image</a>, famously <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-defends-shirtless-photos-i-see-no-need-to-hide-2018-6?r=US&amp;IR=T">riding shirtless on horseback while on holiday in Siberia.</a></p>

Indian prime minister Modi appears with Bear Grylls on 'Man vs Wild' as he cuts off Kashmir's food and internet for 9th day

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Trump-United-States-India/c635706bb5144bec9386352d86f2a0ea/17/0">Susan Walsh/AP</a></span></p><p class="caption">President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hug in the White House Rose Garden on June 26, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>The Indian government has repeatedly accused news outlets, including the BBC and Reuters, of reporting fake news about the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/kashmir">ongoing Kashmir crisis</a>.</strong></li><li><strong>Among other stories, those outlets reported that Indian security forces had shot at civilians with pellet guns and tortured people for information.</strong></li><li><strong><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">Indian officials are widely believed </span>to have intimidated newsrooms and academics into not publishing their critical work, and paid people to troll critics online for years.</strong></li><li><strong>Experts told Insider this climate of fear has ramped up since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, and has also been encouraged by US President Donald Trump.</strong></li><li><strong>"Targeting the freedom of the press is a popular tactic used by authoritarian regimes to govern through fear," Angana Chatterji from the University of California, Berkeley, told Insider.</strong></li><li><strong>Insider reporters have received an uncommon number of inflammatory and abusive messages on Twitter and email accusing them of "fake news" and promoting "jihadi propaganda" after writing about Kashmir.</strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</strong></li></ul><p>The Indian government is taking a page out of President Donald Trump's playbook by relentlessly accusing journalists of publishing false reports about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/kashmir">the situation in Kashmir</a>, where millions of people have been cut off from the internet and the outside world for over five weeks.</p><p>Indian authorities have imposed a state-wide internet and phone blackout in the disputed region of Kashmir since the beginning of August, which has seen ordinary people <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-blackout-locals-dont-know-india-revoked-autonomy-report-2019-8">unable to access the news</a> or communicate with people outside the region.</p><p>As of September 6, more than 3,800 people - including prominent local politicians - in the region have been arrested, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-kashmir-detentions/thousands-detained-in-indian-kashmir-crackdown-official-data-reveals-idUSKCN1VX142">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Men with pellet injuries being treated in Srinagar, a major city in Jammu and Kashmir state, on August 14, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Security forces have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-man-blinded-pellets-police-insist-no-major-injuries-2019-8">shot at people with pellet guns</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-villagers-allege-beatings-abuse-electric-shock-india-denies-2019-8">tortured people living in villages known to be hubs</a> of anti-India militancy by beating them with sticks, giving them electric shocks, and filling their mouths with mud, multiple journalists on the ground have reported.</p><p>India's crackdown came after it <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-india-revoke-article-370-quasi-independence-internet-tourists-2019-8">removed a constitutional provision</a> in early August which guaranteed the independence of the Jammu and Kashmir region to make its own laws, and prevented outsiders from buying property in the mostly-Muslim region.</p><p>India has repeatedly shut down all of these reports, resorting to the widely-used refrain that the journalists were falsely reporting the news, even when there was video footage of the events transpiring. Here are a few instances:</p><ul><li>After the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/49306816/article-370-tear-gas-at-kashmir-rally-india-denies-happened">shot video footage</a> of thousands of people in Srinagar, a major city in Kashmir, demonstrating against India on August 10, the Indian government denied the protest ever happened.</li><li>On August 10, Indian Ministry of Home Affairs spokeswoman Vasudha Gupta tweeted that a <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-india-kashmir/thousands-protest-in-indian-kashmir-over-new-status-despite-clampdown-idUKKCN1UZ0OV">Reuters report</a> that said Indian police used tear gas and pellets to disperse the Srinagar protests - based on the testimony of a police officer and two witnesses - was "<a href="https://twitter.com/PIBHomeAffairs/status/1160081078486368256">completely fabricated &amp; incorrect</a>."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-villagers-allege-beatings-abuse-electric-shock-india-denies-2019-8">The Indian army denied multiple allegations</a> of torture outlined in a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-49481180">BBC report from Kashmir</a> on August 29, calling them "baseless and unsubstantiated."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-man-blinded-pellets-police-insist-no-major-injuries-2019-8">Kashmiri police shot down a CNN report</a>, also published August 29, which <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/28/asia/kashmir-survival-pellet-wounds-intl-hnk/index.html">cited a Srinagar resident</a> as saying he was blinded in one eye after being hit by three pellets, and a local hospital's eye unit as saying that it's treated at least 30 victims of pellet injuries that month. Police claimed that there had been "no major injuries to anybody," save for "a few pellet injuries, who were treated and sent back."</li></ul><p><strong><em>Read more:</em></strong><em> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-villagers-allege-beatings-abuse-electric-shock-india-denies-2019-8">Kashmiris say Indian officers tortured them and shoved mud in their mouths so they couldn't scream. The army denies it ever happened.</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Adnan Abidi/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Kashmiri protesters run for cover as Indian security forces fire teargas at them in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir state, on August 23, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>India has been screaming 'fake news' for decades</h2><p>The Indian government resorting to fake-news accusations is nothing new - in fact, the government and its supporters have used this refrain for years. And it's only getting worse.</p><p>In 2014, the Press Council of India - the government's <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">media</keyword> watchdog - denounced the reporting of mass rapes in 1991 by Indian security forces in the Kashmiri villages of Kunan and Poshpora as "<a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/kunan-poshpora-rape-charges-baseless/story-e4EzYdSFmxnax6Kna0rogM.html">baseless</a>," even as multiple women came out with allegations.</p><p>Earlier this year, the Indian government also <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-slams-un-rights-office-report-on-jk-as-continuation-of-false-narrative/articleshow/70127923.cms">slammed</a> an official UN report on Kashmir as a "false and motivated narrative" that violated the country's sovereignty. India has for decades maintained that only Pakistan and itself can be involved in Kashmir's issues.</p><p>These denials are working in India, where the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is growing increasingly authoritarian.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption"> Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi in June 2019. </p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>India's climate of fear</h2><p>The Indian government is widely believed to employ an army of online trolls who attack journalists and critics online, as well as pressure people into reporting favorable coverage only.</p><p>It has never openly admitted to this, but circumstantial evidence all but confirms it. The government spent more than 52 billion rupees ($728 million) on pro-BJP ads and social-media posts between 2014 and 2018, India's <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/govt-has-spent-over-rs-5200-cr-in-ads-since-2014-15-rathore-in-ls/articleshow/67077392.cms">Economic Times reported</a>.</p><p>The BJP also hires hundreds of thousands of people to recruit voters via phone and door knocks, ultimately helping build "the most extraordinary personality cult in modern Indian history," Indian politician <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/narendra-modi-india-election-personality-cult-by-shashi-tharoor-2019-05">Shashi Tharoor said</a>.</p><p>"The government denies something on one level, and then its army of trolls and people in [civil] society follow," Hafsa Kanjwal, a South Asia and Kashmir expert and assistant professor at Lafayette College, told Insider.</p><p>"Basically if you question that, they say that you're being anti-national, or you're putting India at risk by questioning the state narrative, or that you're falling into Pakistan. They use these age-old tropes to bring people into line."</p><p>Insider has received an uncommon number of inflammatory and abusive messages on Twitter and email accusing this reporter and another at Insider writing about Kashmir of publishing "jihadi propaganda" and "fake news," and of being paid to report critical news on the region. </p><p>Insider is unable to confirm whether such messages are in any way directly linked with reports of state-sponsored trolls.</p><p>Arvind Rajagopal, a media studies professor at New York University, also told Insider: "I've seen several thousand people being employed to post BJP-friendly messages online and make life difficult for their opponents."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Adnan Abidi/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Smoke rises from teargas shells fired by Indian security forces in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir state, on August 23, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Civil institutions like universities and newsrooms are intimidated into silence. Researchers have told of advisers not allowing them to say anything too critical of the government, and critical reports being censored.</p><p>"Basically the media are terrified now of saying anything the government doesn't want them to say because they get attacked not necessarily online, they get attacked behind the scenes," Rajagopal said. "They get telephone calls from the prime minister's office saying: 'What do you think you're doing?'"</p><p>Those who do speak out are publicly smeared in an effort to intimidate them into silence.</p><p>For example, Indian investigative journalist Rana Ayyub, wrote a <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gujarat-Files-Anatomy-cover-up/dp/1533341524">book</a> about a state government cover-up concerning the 2002 Gujarati Riots, which left over 1,000 people dead.</p><p>Ayyub <a href="https://medium.com/global-editors-network/rana-ayyub-on-online-harassment-in-india-i-get-daily-rape-death-threats-c970f542e554">described in an interview with the Global Editors Network</a> getting daily rape and death threats, being doxxed, and having her image superimposed on a viral porn video after her critical work was published.</p><p>Kanjwal said: "The government finds a way to send a message across and let people know that if they push back against this narrative, then they'll make it very difficult for them."</p><p>She and Rajagopal both said, in separate conversations with Insider, that they personally know Indian academics who have been smeared or intimidated into silence.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Kashmiri residents throw stones at Indian security forces during protests.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The ongoing lockdown and communications blackout in Kashmir is also making it difficult for reporters to travel around the region and to file stories online.</p><p>Ordinary citizens are also unable to access the news online. Shortly after the blackout many <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-blackout-locals-dont-know-india-revoked-autonomy-report-2019-8">didn't even know that India rewrote its constitution</a>, Kashmiri journalist Fahad Shah <a href="https://time.com/5646005/inside-kashmir-communication-shutdown/">wrote in TIME</a> last month.</p><p>"Exerting harsh control over communications is being used to influence the public's impression and experience of governance," Angana Chatterji, the co-chair of University of California, Berkeley's Political Conflict, Gender and People's Rights Initiative, told Insider.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Greater Kashmir</span></p><p class="caption">The local Greater Kashmir daily newspaper's front page as on September 16, 2019. The front page has been blank since early August.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Trump is encouraging this 'textbook fascist' behavior</h2><p>Though this behavior has existed long before Trump and Modi, the US president's arrival on the world stage has encouraged it, experts say.</p><p>"There are so many similarities in general between an ideology like Trump's and Modi's, which is exclusivist, relies on fear of the other, which doesn't address real issues that people are going through but distract people," Kanjwal said.</p><p>"It's very textbook fascist."</p><p>Other countries with strong-willed authoritarian leaders have also launched attacks on critical journalists and intellectuals who they see as threatening their hold on power:</p><ul><li>Under President Xi Jinping, Chinese officials have routinely clamped down on reporting on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/xinjiang">oppressed Uighur Muslim minority</a> by repeatedly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/05/fake-news-china-dismisses-reports-about-detention-of-uighurs">denying</a> reports of their forced incarceration and claiming that the detentions are "free vocational training."</li><li>Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-fake-news-exporter-bans-putin-bill-2019-3">one of the world's premier sources of fake news</a>, and hosts campaigns that aim to spread misinformation around the world.</li><li>Pro-government newspapers in Turkey have <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46137139">published hundreds of false stories</a> and <a href="https://observers.france24.com/en/20160718-turkey-coup-attempt-fake-images">doctored photographs</a> about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's opponents.</li><li>Critical media outlets in the Philippines, <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3003752/philippines-arrests-rappler-co-founder-journalist-maria">such as Rappler</a>, have been hit with multiple criminal charges and arrests under President Rodrigo Duterte.</li></ul><p>"There is a growing authoritarianism within [these] countries that rely on similar strategies of suppressing dissent or trying to undermine these [civic] institutions," Kanjwal said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Carlos Barria/Reuters; Leah Millis/Reuters; Jacquelyn Martin/AP</span></p><p class="caption">A composite image of Modi, Trump, and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Will this ever end?</h2><p>Experts say these scare tactics are likely to continue in India, where the strategy of cowing critics into silence is working.</p><p>Despite being one of the world's largest democracies, a large portion of ordinary Indians tow the party line because of the traditional lack of political discourse in the country, Rajagopal said.</p><p>"At some level it's about the latency of India's political democracy and the lack of a deep tradition of debate, arguments, and public disagreement," he said.</p><p>"There is a cultural aspect to this conformism, which is basically an unwillingness to publicly disagree and a willingness to bury your disagreement - which is really the response of an old colonized population."</p><p>Chatterji added: "Targeting the freedom of the press is a popular tactic used by authoritarian regimes to govern through fear.</p><p>"In India, this is likely to continue, and perhaps even escalate, under a majoritarian government."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reporter-luke-harding-explains-life-under-fsb-surveillance-2017-12">A reporter who lived in Russia for 4 years reveals what it was like being stalked by Russian spies</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

India is replaying Trump's favorite strategy by accusing the media of fake news in Kashmir, where it cut off the internet and tried to silence journalists

<br /> What is the best gift you gave someone on his/her birthday? Can’t remember! Well it’s definitely not as grand as what <keyword id="14666" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="BJP">BJP</keyword> has given their beloved leader. <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> on his birthday has been gifted a mobile app, which lets people wish him on his birthday. Anyone can download the app in their phone and wish <keyword id="6354642" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Modi">Modi</keyword> on his birthday. Moreover, as a return gift the users will receive a personalized ‘Thank You’ video from the Prime Minister himself. Our tech savvy Prime Minister should be much elated to get this.<br />
<br />
The messages from top 50 prominent personalities of the country have gone live on the app today.<br />
<br /> Some of the messages were accessed by the <keyword id="6474066" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="economic-times">Economic Times</keyword> before they go live on the mobile app. <keyword id="6357912" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="amitabh-bachchan">Amitabh Bachchan</keyword>, Madhuri Dixit, <keyword id="31278" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lata-Mangeshkar">Lata Mangeshkar</keyword> and <keyword id="6355923" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aamir-Khan">Aamir Khan</keyword> have written in, so have <keyword id="3820" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mukesh-Ambani">Mukesh Ambani</keyword> and <keyword id="9171" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anil-Ambani">Anil Ambani</keyword>, Uday Kotak, <keyword id="46425" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Anand-Mahindra">Anand Mahindra</keyword>, <keyword id="190960" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Baba-Kalyani">Baba Kalyani</keyword>, Venu Srinivasan, Chanda Kochhar, <keyword id="45634" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jagdish-Bhagwati">Jagdish Bhagwati</keyword> and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. Shashi Tharoor, Vinod Rai, Sanjay Baru and Sri Sri Ravishankar have also sent in their greetings. Sports people like PV Sindhu, P Gopichand, Saina Nehwal and <keyword id="487" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sania-Mirza">Sania Mirza</keyword> have shared their reflections of experiences with PM.<br />
<br />
Here's a look at how a entrepreneurs wished the Prime Minister on his birthday<br />
<br />
<strong>Anand G. Mahindra</strong><br /> Over a decade ago when Narendra Modi visited Mumbai and invited businessmen to invest in <keyword id="6354766" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gujarat">Gujarat</keyword>, I remember thinking to myself: 'This man is different'. And over the ensuing years, PM Modi has indeed proved that he is a different kind of man. He is a man in a hurry to transform India.<br />
<br />
<strong>Sunil <keyword id="272096" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bharti-Mittal">Bharti Mittal</keyword></strong><br />
The last couple of years have been quite revealing. Under a visionary leader, India's potential, which was never quite in doubt, has suddenly found new meaning, and more importantly, acceptance and respect among global audiences at the highest level. The eloquence with which the PM communicated India's vision for the world...the way his charismatic statesmanship gets applauded, it makes each and every Indian proud.<br />
<br />
<strong>Cyrus P Mistry</strong><br /> One of my first meetings I had, along with <keyword id="3660053" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="mr-ratan-tata">Mr Ratan Tata</keyword>, after assuming a new role in <keyword id="8555" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tata">Tata</keyword> group in 2012, was with Mr Narendra Modi. I remember going into the meeting thinking that this would entail the standard exchange of pleasantries. That day, I came out of the meeting having learnt an important lesson in leadership.<br />
<br />
<strong>Anil Ambani</strong><br /> I recall the first time I met <keyword id="1267365" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Narendrabhai">Narendrabhai</keyword> in the 1990s when my father <keyword id="6418409" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dhirubhai-Ambani">Dhirubhai Ambani</keyword> invited him home for dinner. At the end of the conversation, Papa remarked: "<keyword id="110806" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lambi">Lambi</keyword> race no ghodo chhe, leader chhe, PM banse - he's a thoroughbred for the long run, a true leader, he will be prime minister. In the words of my father, Narendrabhai "dreams with his eyes open" and with <keyword id="6359315" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="arjuna">Arjuna</keyword> like clarity of vision and purpose.<br />
<br />
<strong>Kumar Mangalam Birla</strong><br />
Today, there is an air of confidence, a 'can do' feeling. Narendra Modi's has put in place the foundation for strong and sustained economic growth that benefits everyone. Not surprisingly, there has been a distinct improvement in the ease of doing business in India. Above all, Mr Modi is a man of integrity, a man of character, and that is what resonates the most.<br />
<br />
<br /> Here’s how <keyword id="143" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bollywood">Bollywood</keyword> wished the Prime Minister on his birthday on the app<br />
<br />
<strong>Lata Mangeshkar</strong><br />
You were opposed a lot but you have kept on walking on the path of truth. The whole world in the grip of violence but I am sure your policies will win over this violence.<br />
<br />
<strong>Aamir Khan</strong><br />
I always pray that your health always remains fine and you get all your desired happiness. This year has been more memorable for you compared to your earlier years.<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Amitabh <keyword id="6354348" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="bachchan">Bachchan</keyword></strong><br />
I first met you at your CM residence, Gujarat to seek tax exemption for Pa. An ordinary house, an ordinary room...you said let's watch the fi lm, took me along to a theatre and saw the film. Spoke a bit about Gujarat tourism... and Surprise, within a week Gujarat tourism offi cials were at my home in Mumbai to speak to me...and within a few days work started.

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