Congress leader Manish Tewari came out in support Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who is in the eye of a storm after his photo holding a poster during a round-table with women journalists that read "Smash Brahminical Patriarchy" went viral on social media.
Taking to his Twitter handle Tewari wrote that anti-Brahmanism is the reality of Indian politics which got heightened in North India post-Mandalisation of politics.
Tewari went to add that Dorsey should not be blamed for any of this and added that Brahmins are the new Jews of India and should earn to live with it.
“Why blame @CreatorOfTwitt. Anti Bhrahmisam is the reality of Indian politics. Got accentuated in the North post Mandalisation of Indian politics. We are the new Jews of India and we should just learn to live with it,” former minister Tewari said as the Twitter saw a widespread debate over whether Dorsey had any business to carry the poster.
Challenging Tewari, former Infosys leader Mohandas Pai said the Congress man’s remarks were shameful.
Why blame @CreatorOfTwitt . Anti Bhrahmisam is the reality of Indian politics. Got accentuated in the North post Mandalisation of Indian politics . We are the new Jews of India and we should just learn to live with it . pic.twitter.com/mYXcgt9hx3
— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) November 20, 2018
“@ManishTewari New Jews? Live with it? Then should hatred be acceptable once you apply your new label? is this not equal to Anti Semitism globally? Is such hatred acceptable? Your illogical and hateful biases are out for the world to see. Shameful,” said Pai forcing Tewari to step back and condemn Dorsey’s action besides seeking his apology.
“You missed the irony in the tweet completely so did everyone else. Of course anti-brahminism is wrong as much as being anti any other comm. What Twitter CEO did was totally uncalled for and he should apologise. All that I was flagging was a harmful strain in our ethos which seems to be growing. The thought behind that tweet was to deprecate the Twitter CEO’s action of holding that placard not support it. I UNEQUIVOCALLY CONDEMN HIS ACTION. Hope things are clearer now @TVMohandasPai,” Tewari rushed to damage control.
@ManishTewari New Jews? Live with it? Then should hatred be acceptable once you apply your new label? is this not equal to Anti Semitism globally? Is such hatred acceptable? Your illoggical and hateful biases are out for the world to see. Shameful. https://t.co/oOkLrz5PNn
— Mohandas Pai (@TVMohandasPai) November 21, 2018
Dorsey’s picture irked Twitterati and many prominent Indians slammed the CEO for hate mongering against the Brahmin community. Several prominent Indians slammed Dorsey of holding the placard without understanding its meanings and implications. The CEO was also trolled severely and many Twitter users accused him of "bigotry" and "racism".
Later, Vijaya Gadde, Global Head of Legal, Policy, Trust and Safety Lead at Twitter, apologised and said that Twitter strives to be an impartial platform for all and that the company failed to do that in India.
You missed the irony in the tweet completely so did everyone else. Of course anti- brahminism is wrong as much as being anti any other comm. What Twitter CEO did was totally uncalled for and he should apologise. All that I was flagging was a harmful strain in our ethos which 1/1 https://t.co/JRMjrl2hkJ
— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) November 21, 2018
"I'm very sorry for this. It's not reflective of our views. We took a private photo with a gift just given to us -- we should have been more thoughtful. We failed to do that here & we must do better to serve our customers in India," she added.
According to the social network, it hosted a closed-door discussion with a group of women journalists and change makers from India to better understand their experience using Twitter.
The CEO had earlier accepted that people working for the social media giant are “more left-leaning” but added that it doesn’t influence company policy.