Hacker News Reader

Comment by asenna | Hacker News Reader

The media control and censorship here in India is definitely getting our of hand!

Setting aside the absolute criminal mismanagement and planning of the Covid situation in the past few months, the fact that the people in power are still applying their brains and might into figuring out how to manipulate the narrative and how to squash dissent in this moment when the country is going through an unimaginable disaster.

Just today, a guy was slapped with some serious charges (which could lead to Jail time) because he tweeted that he needed Oxygen for his Grandfather. [1][2]

I know this is sounding alarmist but I've seen the change in the past 8 years and the country is heading in the direction of China at breakneck speed right now (not in the good way).

[1] https://thewire.in/government/amethi-up-police-arfa-khanum-s...

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/mzx3zb/youth_sought_...

View on HN

I don’t understand what Modi is doing. It seems like many huge companies based in the west will be looking to leave China (as much as possible) in the next 5ish years and India is a democracy perfectly situated to grab all of that economic productivity. They have the education, the infrastructure, and the population. All they have to do is be a bit less dictator-y than China and a bit more respectful of human rights.

That should be a pretty low bar. But for some reason when Modi should be positioning India as “we’re not like China” he instead seems intent on repeatedly pointing out the similarities on the international stage. It just seems really short-sighted to me.

Absolutely agree with this. In fact even if the minimum they do is walk back to how the country was before Modi, that would be a huge step forward. Not talking about politics here but just to a time when comedians and journalists didn't have to fear harassment for doing their jobs.

Also a fun fact - Modi has not done a single open, unscripted press conference in his entire 7 years of being in power! Can you actually believe that. He hasn't taken a single question on camera that was not pre-determined. Most likely because of the lesson he learned after the one interview he did with a reputed Journalist a while back before coming to power - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAGAYL8dtic

The effort that he puts into forming his public-image is actually impressive at some level.

No press conferences, massive rallies during a pandemic, and demonizing foreign powers for not solving problems they are responsive for solving? Sounds familiar ...

probably the likes of arfa khanum are not of interest to modi.

Many Indian politicians learned the exact opposite lesson from the 90s to 2000s when China's economy far outgrew India's despite the supposed geographical, labor, and education similarities between the two (i.e. see the debate from a western perspective in [1][2][3]).

The idea that democracy and free markets help with economic growth simply didn't pan out for India w.r.t. its neighbor and biggest rival. As far as Modi is concerned, why keep trying something that doesn't work? Especially when the alternative is self serving.

[1] https://foreignpolicy.com/2003/07/01/can-india-overtake-chin...

[2] https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/06/india-plays-catch-up/

[3] https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/07/05/think-again-indias-rise...

One needs to be heavily inebriated to call India a market economy even today, after 3 decades of supposed economic "liberalisation."

I myself is in the process of scouting an opening for a satellite office in India now.

The progress India made towards freer markets since a decade ago is this ->_<- much.

Best to compare it with Bloc of late eighties, early nineties.

Didnt China open up to the world before India, so they had a headstart.

>I don’t understand what Modi is doing.

I assure you, neither does he.

Not a particularly intellectual or introspective man. He is a living example of the Peter Principle.

Too bad a billion people have to suffer for his incompetence.

It is better to be a consumer than a west leaning producer. One would never advance when the primary market is outside the country.

India doesn't have the infrastructure to beat china.

First the wire is known to be very alt-left but even then the patient didn't had any requirement for oxygen, his grandfather died of heart-attack. Not sure which part of article or twitter thread says a normal guy got screwed up ?

Here's the tweet:

https://twitter.com/khanumarfa/status/1386757457393770496?s=...

It's in the article as well. The text message was tweeted out.

I understand the wire can be considered left-leaning but does that automatically make everything they report on as false?

You can ignore their "alt-left" opinion but screenshots of texts and tweets are actual facts that happened.

the correct tweet is the one where the local elected leader was targeted[1]. the leader made police run around to help the person. cops found foul play.[2] What am I missing?

[1]https://twitter.com/elsamariedsilva/status/13867600304818954... [2] https://twitter.com/amethipolice/status/1386982878328758273?...

I’m not sure why we should be inclined to trust the police in an environment where the government is clearly making an effort to play down the seriousness of the crisis and their hand in it. It’s also a bit hard to believe that someone would both be trolling hard enough to lie about their grandfather needing oxygen during an oxygen shortage AND give enough information for the authorities to show up and realize he was trolling.

He has charges against him for trying to find oxygen for his sick grandfather. What part of that does not involve the guy getting screwed?

Also, instead of criticizing the source, criticize the content.

https://www.cedars-sinai.org/health-library/diseases-and-con...

> Often a person who is having a heart attack is given oxygen, which also helps heart tissue damage to be less.

COVID isn't the only disease that requires oxygen.

So far as I can see, “alt left” is a recent neologism to denigrate anyone who opposed Trump. What do you mean when you describe them thusly?

Alarming but otherwise China and to a lesser extent Pakistan take control of the narrative to their own advantage. At least the Modi government doesn't lock people in reeducation camps. India should remain a secular state though.

Well a little more context will do. The man tweeted he needed oxygen to a famous celebrity. A union minister herself called him twice to help. As he was not answering she asked district magistrate to help. They found that man's grandfather is not suffering from covid and not admitted to any hospital and under private care. So the man just fired a tweet thus police has questioned him and let him go.

The real reason is government tried to help. Cabinet minister reached out to help[1] . Sent cops to help . cops ran around calling, tracking and finally found the truth. Since there was no real need for oxygen in this case, cops suspect he tweeted to sensationalise.[2] if there was a need for oxygen then we could expect there would have been no arrest.

[1] https://twitter.com/smritiirani/status/1386763271835774980?s... [2] https://twitter.com/indiantweeter/status/1387293380212715524...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com