The current Indian Government under Prime Minister, Nadendra Modi has been overreacting to the tweets on twitter, because the Government under him is so adamant on keeping what you call a false face with a false narrative that they have been managing the country well.
Take for instance, Indian law enforcement agency asking Twitter to take legal action against cartoonist Manjul for his tweets comprising of his cartoons, samples of which you will be shown here that in a cartoonish light way talks about how the Indian Government under the current PM Narendra Modi mismanaged the Covid situation in India.
To be frank, love such cartoons as during the recent times when one was depressed thinking about the terrible Covid situation in India, these cartoons made one laugh at the irony of things. Yup I have developed a dark sense of humor, as a new normal too these days.
Manjul’s Cartoon on Government organised election rallies responsible for this Covid super spread!!
Cartoonist Manjul's cartoon tweet
This tweet of Manjul just conveys that the Government held huge election rallies without following Covid-19 protocols in April while harping on the Nation to adhere to Covid protocol norms. The April season had Covid-19 cases increase in the country, leading to a horrible second wave infecting and killing thousands of people.
Twitter has not taken action against Manjul but intimidated him about the situation
Twitter had not banned Manjul’s account because it said that it believed in “respecting the voice of its users''. Twitter instead communicated to Manjul that they are pressured by the Government to take legal action against his account and told Manjul that he may take whatever recourse he deems fit in the circumstances.
The resources suggested by Twitter include that Manjul can - take legal action challenging the Government’s request in court, take the help of civil society organisations and work out a solution or delete the contents of the tweets.
Twitter's email communication with Cartoonist Manjul - taken from twitter
The Government says that Manjul’s tweets violate the laws of India, but they have not mentioned which particular tweet of Manjul did actually do that or hurt the sentiments of the esteemed Govt. authorities.
Manjul’s cartoon on India’s healthcare system having failed to have managed the Covid situation
Right, now let’s look at another of Manjul’s cartoon tweet
Cartoonist Manjul's cartoon tweet
There were a lot of deaths due to Covid because the country's health infrastructure was not equipped to handle the influx of Covid patients. There was a lack of essential things - oxygen, medicines, beds, ventilators etc. So there were literally a lot of dead bodies about.
During this time, there came about an unnecessary issue with a popular businessman, who has successfully marketed himself as a saint yoga guru selling ayurvedic products under the Patanjali brand. Ramdev had severely criticised allopathy, as he said the medical treatment given failed to save Covid infected.
Patanjali's sales men Ramdev who has marketed himself as a yoga, saint man of India
His intention was to promote his Pantanjali products, particularly Coronil, claiming that it is based on Ayurveda and can cure Covid-19 when there was no evidence presented like results from a trial study to prove his claim.
This incident upset India’s medical fraternity, as doctors during this time worked very hard to treat the Covid infected at great pains. Eventually, India’s Union Health Minister, Harsh Vardhan was compelled to condemn Ramdev’s statements with the Indian Medical Association demanding the minister to condemn Ramdev’s statements and have him apologise for his appalling statements against allopathy.
Earlier, India’s Health Minister had attended the launch function of this Coronil, which was marketed saying that the medicine was approved by the World Health Organisation(WHO). WHO had clarified via a tweet that they have not approved any ayurvedic medicine for curing Covid.
Union Health Minister present at the launch of this obscure ayurvedic drug Coronil
Also the Ministry of AYUSH, which is the ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy told Patanjali to stop marketing Coronil until the ministry evaluates Coronil to verify if it is an effective cure against Covid.
Anyway, the point is that instead of spending time, and resources on enhancing medical infrastructure, Government authorities like India’s Health Minister have encouraged rubbish things, because Coronil definitely is no proven cure for Covid, Ramdev should not have been supported by the Government ministers this way!!
Twitter had to take down many tweets due to Government orders
52 tweets at least were deleted from twitter on Government orders in the month of April, because those tweets critiqued Government on its handling of the Covid situation which had escalated too far, with a Covid crisis that was damn severe with hundreds of dead bodies floating on the sacred Ganga river and thousands of bodies a flame with funeral pyres about, there was shortage of wood to burn the bodies!!.
Of course, the Centre claimed that those tweets had to be deleted because they were spreading fake news, ha, ha… The experts of spreading fake news are mostly the Govt. through their loyal trolls, great PR muscle they have...anyway.
Special cartoon by Manjul on the 7th year of the PM Narendra Modi!!
Cartoon tweet of cartoonist Manjul
And finally Manjul’s special cartoon that was sponsored by his readers. Although for this cartoon he requested people to give their sponsor money to those who are helping Covid patients.
Seven years of Modi in power and this year Covid overshadows Prime Minister Modiji. Under his leadership the Government had failed to develop India’s health care infrastructure to tackle a very imminent health crisis.
He had failed his people by not giving them funds during lockdown as people get poorer with job losses taking place. This year the lockdown was announced way too late, after the Covid-19 situation got out of control and lakhs of lives were lost and these deaths are under reported too!!
And hell, Oxygen plants were not set up in the break period from September to March when Covid infections were not much . There has been no basic preparation to tackle the attack of the second wave of Covid, that was bound to happen sometime,
Cartoonists can sing “I will survive”, as Manjul gets support of other cartoonists
Cartoonist Manjul's cartoon tweet
The second way of Covid-19 peak has passed and cases are declining so Indians can breathe a sign of relief. Of course PM, Narendra Modi vanished from the scene all this time, will appear back on screen to take the credit for the decline of Covid-19.
Anyway… it’s good news I suppose that I survived this Covid pandemic without getting hit, so may be I should sing “I have survived”, in the tune of this song “I will survive” by Gloria Gaynor …
Also, cartoonists like Manjul seem to be singing “I will survive”, because after this incident where Manjul made public that the Government told twitter to take legal action against his account, there was an out pour of satirical support for Manjul. Indian cartoonists drew cartoons ridiculing the Government in their attempt to attack Manjul’s twitter account .
Take this cartoon by Satish Acharya for instance that shows that the Government is scared of twitter cartoons.
Cartoon tweet of Cartoonist Satish Acharya
PenPencilDraw draws this cartoon in solidarity with Manjul against muzzling of cartoonists.
Tweeter cartoon of cartoonist PenPencilDraw
Nala Ponnappa's cartoon shows that our Prime Minister is ashamed of his own imagine in the cartoon gallery and is intent to hide it. Haa...haa...
Cartoon Tweet of Cartoonist Nala Ponnappa
Manjul, backed up all his support by sharing his cartoon tweet that shows India's PM Narendra Modi being busy taking action against people who did tweets and face book posts on him rather than on handling the Carona pandemic, hee...hee...how true.
Cartoon tweet by Cartoonist Manjul
Independent journalism in India is under threat and is getting crippled by Government measures
India’s Press Freedom Index is “bad” as the country ranks 142 out of 182 countries, as this authoritarian Government is intolerant, they just can’t stand anyway expressing a view that is critical of the Government. This of course shows that the health of democracy is very bad in India now.
And ya!! Watch this classic clip that will explain why PM Narendra Modi is against independent journalism.
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