Dear Anonymous writer,
I am an average Indian. I wouldn't have responded to your vile and misinformed piece. But given the clear lack of understanding and (deliberate) factual inaccuracies in your conveniently "anonymous" article, I thought, one should humor you.
I can safely presume you're just a copywriter tasked with putting together unsubstantiated disinformation and presenting it in a way to show India in a bad light. You had one chance, but you blew it.
Yes, there are many things where my nation could do better (as we are evolving), but the ones you've listed couldn't be farther from facts.
"I worry about my family's safety in India – they face violence, arrest, and death for defending their livelihoods", you write; may I humbly ask, what exactly is it that your clearly fictional family in India does for a living that they have to worry about such things? If it's espionage or working for foreign intelligence agencies, then their fears are valid.
You see, I am an Indian, and I also worry about the safety of my family here. But not because of my government, but the incessant meddling by global special interest groups who, by defaming my nation, are making a failed attempt at weakening our democracy and hurt our economy.
We, the people of India worry about this sudden interest of vested international powers to demean and disturb the peace in my beautiful nation. We are the world's youngest and the biggest democracy and we understand that we are not perfect. Despite our set of challenges, we learn, we grow and we persevere.
At a time when our neighbour gave the world a virus, we worked towards developing and offering our vaccines to anyone in need. I am not going to defend our government, it's their job. But I will take this opportunity to vehemently call you out on your misleading and propaganda piece.
One look at your motivated write-up, and any one of the 1.5 million++ (2011 census) British Indians will respectfully disagree with you and perhaps even laugh at the sheer naivety.
"Every day my mother and I attempt to contact my relatives to make sure they are still alive. Each night she sits in tears and I wonder if the government will listen", you say. Why exactly is it that your delusions of grandeur or paranoia make you believe that any government has the time and energy to listen to the conversations of an 80-year old lady speaking to her family in India or anywhere else?
When you say, "Phone lines go dead", I mean, are you a fictional character from the early 80s? Who still thinks Indians use landline phones when we offer the cheapest mobile internet in the world and have billions of smartphones in the country?
"I turn to Twitter for news but accounts have been shut down at the request of the Indian government," you say — as if any Government in the world would allow social media platforms to be used to wage a war against it and attack its sovereignty?
Did you bother to mention why the government asked for those accounts to be 'withheld in India' (not shut down)? No, you didn't and you wouldn't. Disinformation is the oven you bake your daily bread in.
No sovereign nation can and should tolerate attempts of foreign nations and disinformation groups to disrupt its peace. And the world knows how India has suffered and has been fighting global terror factories nurtured in our neighborhood. The same nefarious designs keep changing names and shapes to fit their Anti-India narrative.
Every Indian has the right to protest, our farmers among others are still protesting and our courts are safeguarding their interest. The government is in talks with them and eventually there will be a solution. These are all domestic issues and the sudden spurt of disinformation campaigns over it makes it amply clear that something is amiss.
Disinformation is the oven you bake your daily bread in.
This article of yours only proves it further, that there is an international conspiracy against India. And by the looks of it, supported by a self-proclaimed reputed foreign media organization like The (not-so) Independent. I won't even comment on how the said media house which claims to fact-check everything has faltered here and managed to let such a propaganda piece pass through its editorial process. But that's what most foreign media houses like to do best when it comes to India: Truth goes to the trashcan.
I won't respond to your conveniently misleading observations about the farm laws. Please read them, also to burst your misinformed bubble, the government has offered to put a hold on these at this juncture.
Your "concerns" are all over the place. Under the garb of pretending to be someone worried for the safety of a make-believe family, you are very "interestingly" touching upon the same domestics issues and propagating the mischievous narrative of certain foreign special interest groups, backed by the enemies of my nation.
"I have known my cousin Bahadur all my life. He traveled to Delhi last month – leaving behind his wife, son, and grandchildren – to peacefully protest and stand up for what he believes in", so by your own admission, nothing has happened to your 'Bahadur' (brave) cousin but still, his other coward non-existent cousin claims otherwise.
"Independence activist and former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's words in August 1947 crackled over my grandfather's wireless", so you heard your grandfather's "wireless" in 1947? Must say, you're quite a relic.
Again, as I wrote earlier, I would not respond to what you've claimed about the Prime Minister or the government, and I hope they don't either because I wouldn't want my nation paying any heed to a propaganda piece by a non-existent entity.
I won't even comment on how the said media house which claims to fact-check everything has faltered here and managed to let such a propaganda piece pass through its editorial process. But that's what most foreign media houses like to do best when it comes to India: Truth goes to the trashcan.
The "peaceful protests of 26th January" that you mention itself prove that you have no interest in our farmers. If you or your masters did, you would know that even our farmers condemned it. What happened to the U.S Capitol, unless you defend that, no sane person would defend what happened on 26th Jan in my national capital. Our police in Delhi were lauded for exercising utmost restraint, but please don't expect the law and order machinery of any nation to allow vandalism in the name of protests.
Also, if you heard your grandfather's "wireless" in 1947, how old is your mom exactly? Nevertheless, convey my regards to her and tell her, India is a fine nation, and she can rest in peace and tell her non-existent son to let us do the same.
For readers, the "writer" who claimed to hear his grandfather's radio in 1947; claims to be a 57-year-old chartered accountant from Berkshire. Such vivid imagination.
Truly,
A not-so-anonymous Indian (DM).
The open letter by the reader is published in response to this piece.
