The image-obsessed Indian government is intent on shutting down dissent. Rishika Pardikar examines the ploys in use.
On 4 June 2021, Manjul, an Indian cartoonist, tweeted ‘Jai ho Modiji ki sarkaar ki’ (‘Praise be to the Modi government’) with a screenshot of an email.1 Twitter’s legal department had written to notify him that Indian law enforcement had requested they take down @MANJULtoons, Manjul’s Twitter account, because the content ‘violates the law(s) of India’.
Which ‘law(s)’, it did not specify. Never mind the fact that the Indian Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech and expression.
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