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Comment by AverageDude | Hacker News Reader

It’s the usual protocol of astroturfing. Accuse the whistleblower of something vague and discard them with name calling. Straight out of playbook of authoritarian governments. Nothing new.

I searched the name Nupur Sharma and it gave me this article which explains everything.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-61716241.amp

It says that the fact checker shared a video of what she said.

View on HN

That's correct. Nupur Sharma's comments on the Times Now news channel were incendiary enough that Times Now decided to delete the video of the debate she was featured in and also issue a statement:

> Views expressed by BJP Spokesperson on Newshour@9 last night are her personal views. TIMES NOW does not endorse views of participants. We urge participants on our debates to maintain restraint and not indulge in unparliamentary language against fellow panelists.

It's not someone else's fault that Sharma decided to make those comments on live television in the first place.

https://www.jantakareporter.com/entertainment/times-now-dele...

https://twitter.com/timesnow/status/1530137204999475201

If you watch the full debate, the Muslim panelists were continuously mocking Hindu Gods, Nupur got fed up and replied to them in the similar manner.

What this fact checker cunningly did was to edit out the Muslim panellist mocking and simply showed her part of the clip. He has a mass following in Islamic nations and it got blown out of proportion.

Political leaders are expected to conduct themselves appropriately in public view because they are selected to represent all of their constituents. If a politician makes an appearance on live television and says something that is offensive to their constituents, they can expect political repercussions regardless of what anyone else said on the TV show.

That other people in the debate compared a Shivling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingam) to roadside signs and poles does not excuse Nupur Sharma from the repercussions of what she said. Sharma made comments that she knew would be offensive to a religious minority, and she was expelled from her position as the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party because that was not the behavior the public expected from a high-ranking political figure.

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/bjp-suspends-nupur-s...

When someone like Mohammed Zubair makes a supercut of Sharma's comments to highlight the fact that a politician is not appropriately representing her constituents, it's not Zubair's fault that Sharma made those comments in the first place.

At the end of the day one is a human being who gets triggered on repeated offensive things. If you look-up, what she said was not incorrect since several Islamic scholars make the same claim. I guess the aggressive tone in what she said made all the difference.

For the record, Nupur does not represent any constituents in the purest sense. She was the spokesperson, that’s it. She is neither an MP nor MLA.

She should be able to say anything she wants on Islam and Muhammed. The only consequence to her should be what is in the Indian Penal Code, and ostracisation by her constituents. She doesn't deserve to be lynched by a muslim mob for that.

People like you who justify mob lynching don't belong in civilised society.

Sharma made incendiary comments on live television. Zubair and many other people called her out for her comments, and in response, her political party (the BJP) expelled her from her position as national spokesperson. She was not "lynched".

When a politician chooses to make incendiary comments that are then met with anger from the public, that politician has nobody to blame but herself for the negative response.

Gaslighting at it's finest right here. Nupur Sharma can never live a normal life. The moment her security is removed, and whereabouts are known she will absolutely get murdered by some Muslim fanatic, just like Kamlesh Tiwari.

This is mentally sick.

You're abusing the word "gaslighting". Nobody is claiming that Nupur Sharma deserves any retribution beyond expulsion from her position.

High-profile figures are more vulnerable than average individuals and it is not in anyone's interest to make incendiary statements that expose themselves to higher security risks. Sharma should have taken this into consideration before saying what she did on national television, even though any violence against her would be unjustified.

And guess what Muslim fanatics have butchered few Hindus already on this issue. These were the normal people who simply liked or expressed support for Nupur.

The amazing thing is that even after killings, these fanatics cry victim hood.

Personal attacks will get you banned on HN, regardless of how wrong someone else is or you feel they are.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

As bad as that is, and it is helpful you've provided some context here, I still don't think that's worthy of jail or any sort of formal state punishment. Which obviously is not a controversial take in most western countries. But more importantly I don't think it's an effective strategy to deal with the problem. Censorship rarely ever works unless you go full-bore and destroy plenty of good will and legitimate human progress in between.

Twitter has a great feature for that not where citizens can provide context / 'fact check' an article without deleting it. That's the best (and IMO only legitimate way) to deal with this stuff, countering bad information with better information. While still exposing publicly that this person is lying to you. As opposed to deleting or censoring it, you put up a big flag that says "there's more to this story".

The fact that you have to search for the name shows you are not enough clued in about what is happening in India. Wish you take some time out and get the facts straight from some Indian friends to understand both side of the story. It will become a long comment, all I can say , BBC, NyTimes etc has some axe to grind with the current dispensation.

Being Indian, I am clued in well enough.

I understand by "Indian friends" you mean upper caste Hindu Indian friends who are Modi acolytes and his primary voting demographic. Not Indian Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Dalits or Shudras who form greater than 50% of the Indian population.

No, I mean people with loads of common sense who can tell you both side of the story.

>> Not Indian Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Dalits or Shudras who form greater than 50% of the Indian population.

Acc to you, if they are more than 50% AND not happy with Modi, why is Modi winning back to back elections and almost certain to come to power again in 2024?

You only need 35% to win in Indias multiparty elections.

Additionally, Muslims in Gujarat and UP have been coerced into voting for BJP candidate by threatening them with shut down of municipal services when BJP wins. This is enabled because EVMs report summary statistics from each location which the government employees have access to.

>> You only need 35% to win in Indias multiparty elections.<<

That reinforces my point.

>>This is enabled because EVMs<<

This EVM story has been peddled by your ilk ad-infinitum but with no substance.

If that were the case, BJP should be winning all state elections right? Delhi, WestBengal, Rajasthan…

So as and when party of your choice win, EVMs are good when opposition party wins , oh they are manipulated.

Did you even read what I said? EVMs are not being tampered. But they make per polling booth data available to candidates. The BJP candidates use that summary data to withhold municipal services from constituents who didn't vote for them.

They are able to make this threat because of summary data made available by EVMs

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/maneka-gandhi-s-vo...

He doesn’t want to read. It’s always hit and run with the fanboys of these authoritarian regimes.

No more interested in further discussion because of HN Guidelines, as suggested by Dan.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

You also posted several flamewar comments to this thread. This is not ok and we ban accounts that do it.

If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.

Please do something new than the other authoritarian shills. It’s the same playbook.

Why do you assume that everyone outside of India is incapable of understanding things on their own and need help from Indian friend? Why do you patronise? Isn’t that racist? Isn’t the that some kind of twisted supremest thinking?

I can read the stats and make up my mind on my own.

Of course when you come here with a half-baked knowledge and accuse someone* of astroturfing , one has to call you out.

By your own admission, for the first time you heard Nupur’s name, you did a quick search and within minutes you reached the conclusion what you wanted to reach.

Since when asking to understand the issue in depth - rather than a 2 mins cursory look up - racism?

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