PERSECUTING THE GLOBAL CRUSADER OF FREE SPEECH IS IRONY OVERDOSE
Annie Domini
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2020-12-07 10:00
When writer-journalist Salil Tripathi, who’s a universally-renowned free speech activist and the Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee of the PEN International, posted a 2009 poem titled ‘My Mother’s Fault’ on the Babri Masjid demolition, Gujarat and 1947 on Twitter, he soon realised that his friends and readers back in India were unable to see not just the said tweet, but his entire account. The curt, bureaucratic minimalism of the Indian counterpart of the American social media giant notified to residents of India that Tripathi’s account was suspended; the fine print said his tweet/s violated Twitter rules. Global literary superstar Salman Rushdie personally chided Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for the ridiculousness of his company’s Indian executives; Indian-American author of This Land is Our Land Suketu Mehta said “India needs Salil’s voice”, while liberal Indian Twitterati reposted Tripathi’s moving poem making it “go viral”, exactly what those who were offended by the poem wanted not to happen.