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Is There More to Dorsey’s Allegations Against Modi’s NDA Than Meets the Eye?
Dorsey's claims will only help the American Left in piling on the pressure on U.S. President Biden to make this alleged democracy deficit an issue in his upcoming bi-lateral with Modi. Thus far the Biden administration has resisted "going there" because of other larger geo-political compulsions as also a lack of conviction.
Updated Jun 13, 2023 | 06:05 PM IST
Is There More to Dorsey’s Allegation Against Modi’s NDA Than Meets the Eye?
Photo : TIMES INTERNET NETWORK
Jack Dorsey, the former owner and CEO of Twitter has renewed the largely facile debate around the health of democracy in India. He alleged that during the farmer protests at the height of the COVID pandemic the Indian government under PM Modi wanted Twitter to regulate opinion critical of his administration on the micro-blogging platform. Non- compliance, Dorsey reveals was allegedly not an option.
Dorsey claims he was issued a menacing "we'll shut Twitter down in India" warning.
Of course, Dorsey has thus far adduced no proof to substantiate his very consequential claim.
In the absence of nothing more than a sound bite, the Modi administration has accused Dorsey of spewing "outright lies".
The government has cited a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology where the I-T ministry’s secretary Ajay Sawhney questioned Twitter representatives in June 2021. This meeting was widely reported in the media at the time. The I-T ministry was upset with Twitter for continuing to drag its feet over removing handles that were trending the hashtag "farmer genocide".
The hashtag, the Modi government had told Twitter officials was incendiary and baseless. Worse, by not removing content pertaining to a non-existent, purely fictional “farmer genocide” Twitter was in danger of attracting punitive action.
After all the Centre felt that Twitter was encouraging propagandists that were abusing legally guaranteed freedoms to inflame public passion to disturb the peace.
While some would rightly say that it is inadvisable to take the government's version at face value there are some real reasons to be sceptical about Dorsey's revelations.
The timing is certainly one. Dorsey has spoken just ahead of a high-profile visit by PM Modi to the U.S. It is no secret that hard Left elements within the Joe Biden administration have reservations about Modi's record on rights and freedoms.
Whether these reservations are borne out by facts has never mattered to the American "wokery" that sees Modi's politics as an extension of the inclinations of right-wing populists like Trump that they seek to trounce to stay relevant.
Dorsey's claims will only help the American Left in piling on the pressure on U.S. President Biden to make this alleged democracy deficit an issue in his upcoming bi-lateral with Modi. Thus far the Biden administration has resisted "going there" because of other larger geo-political compulsions as also a lack of conviction.
This lack of conviction stems from the lack of proof. Shorn of rhetoric there is actually little hard evidence that links Modi to the archetype of the "dear" leaders that the left despises and that hold sway over some nations in Eurasia, Africa, West and South and South East Asia.
Another reason to question Dorsey's claims arises from his own record which hardly marks him out as a credible poster boy for promoting and defending free speech.
Dorsey's tenure as Twitter owner and CEO was marked by shadow bans and widespread de-platforming of ideological adversaries, especially those that subscribed to a conservative opinion.
During a Senate judiciary committee hearing in Washington D.C in 2020, Jack Dorsey found himself struggling to explain the alleged "inherent biases and contradictions" that underlined the actions of what was alleged to be a "super censor" appointed by his organisation to control the spread of "disinformation" on Twitter.
Today, many in India opposed to PM Modi are pouncing on Jack Dorsey's unsubstantiated claims to attack the NDA. Isn’t this rank opportunism?
For, if the Opposition's motives were not guided by political expediency it would have paused to think about the inherent contradiction in endorsing the accusations made by an individual who had given himself untrammelled powers to reportedly arbitrarily and opaquely decide who should be allowed to speak on his platform.
A prerogative that, readers will agree, is fundamentally undemocratic.
There's a third reason to not take Dorsey at face value. The Twitter founder had once conceded that "Twitter doesn't have the power to influence elections by swaying public opinion". He made this statement to stave off the charge that by playing “super censor” and curbing and cancelling right-wing opinion he had cheated the American public.
Now, if Twitter, as Dorsey says has no power to influence electoral behaviour or even public opinion why would the Modi government have gone out of its way to "bully" it?
The issue of timing and the contradictions listed above suggest that there's more to Dorsey's revelations than meets the eye.
End of Article
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