Dr Sanjukta Basu, PhD

My trip to Atlanta, Georgia for the TEDNext Conference 2024 was truly an experience of a life time not just because it was my first visit to USA but also because I reconnected with my @TEDFellows community after 15 years or so. I got the TED Fellowship in 2009 for my blogging and digital activism.

What the hell happening to Harvard University? Can Trump really do that? Can he stop a university from hiring foreign students?

Register for PAP Summit | Join the Conversation on Gender & Society Secure your spot at the PAP Summit! Register now to engage in critical discussions on patriarchy, gender inequality, workplace diversity, and more. Be part of the change!

I am delighted to announce the launch of the first ever People Against Patriarchy Summit.

One of India's rare platforms which brings feminists and men's rights activists on the same table for meaningful, uncomfortable and thought provoking conversations.

Register at thepapsummit.com/register/

What Has Gender Got to Do With Misinformation? Despite a rapid rise in its threat perception, the discourse around mis/disinformation, both in media and academic texts, remains surprisingly narrow.

My recent publication, a research based deep dive on gendered misinformation disinformation in India. Produced as part of The Full Picture Campaign by the @apc.org and Our Voices, Our Futures (OVOF) and published by @thewire.in m.thewire.in/article/arti...
@globalvoices.org @ethanz.bsky.social

Madhya Pradesh: 5-year-old Girl Child Brutally Raped by 17-year-old boy, Victim Fighting for Life After 28 Stiches - Women and Gender News 5-year-old girl child violently raped, battling for life. Jokes offend us but child rape does not, no nation-wide outrage.

In Women News India, a 5-year-old girl child was brutally raped by a 17-year-old boy. The victim was found lying unconscious in a pool of blood. She is now fighting for her life after undergoing live-saving treatment including 28 stitches in her private parts.
womennews.in/madhya-prade...

YouTube video by MSNBC BREAKING: Trump tells Zelenskyy he's 'gambling with World War III' in tense exchange

Full on verbal war between Zelensky, Trump and JD Vance. This is like a bunch of school boys fighting. It's both scary and funny.

At this rate there will be a third world war.

youtu.be/DZ56ibIel1U?...

I read this book on why and how did modernist artists in Germany support the Nazi regime even while many were persecuted. Key reasons:
⏺️Opportunism
⏺️Self-importance (thinking art won't survive without them so they must "adjust" with Hitler's "needs"),
⏺️Survival mechanism
⏺️Real support for Nazism

Twitter has become so overwhelmingly Right-Wing, so male dominated. It was not like this before. In have been on Twitter for 18 years. There was balance. There were nice people, lots of talented women. But gender trolling by Right-Wing drove the women away. Now it's a bunch of violent RW men.

Every Tweet by Elon Musk reek of hate, cruelty, and some sort of sick sadistic violence. It's depressing to read them. Only thing more depressing are the hundreds of replies on his Tweets supporting the cruelty. Why is there nobody to oppose? Did they all leave Twitter for Blue Sky?

From Trump's Executive Order meltdown to buying countries attempted bullying efforts to now Elon Musk trying to buy Open AI and Sam Altman saying, "Musk tries many things, I don't think he is a happy person, I feel for him"— I never thought following American politics can be so entertaining.

Both left and right have failed to focus on Liberalism, Enlightenment and the values of reason and rationality and diluted the discourse on political economy with post-colonial, post-modernist fluff. Collectively, we failed in articulating political issues in terms of ideologies.

A Response to Prof Ranjit Goswami’s Claim That India Was Already A Post-Truth Society A counter narrative has emerged in India that there is nothing to talk about post-truth politics since India was already a post-truth society. Prof Ranjit Goswami’s 2017 article on The Conver…

I wrote this brilliant piece some years back but myself forgot just how good it was. It resurfaced when the legendary Meera Nanda came to my blog and read it and reached out to me. What a moment in my life. sanjukta.wordpress.com/2022/05/02/a...

China Aid logo

In my recent visit to Nepal, everywhere at the Kathmandu Durbar Square I saw this sign, China Aid. Most of the heritage sites, infrastructure in Nepal were restored/maintained by China Aid. As Trump+Musk kill USAID, China will expand China Aid, and grow its influence and soft power.

Following it now. Trying to understand as an Indian, what's going on in US is exhausting. I can't imagine what US citizens are feeling. I mean those who didn't vote for Trump.

If it's true that the law suits will come by the dozens because Americans will fight for their rights and what's right, it's going to be the tax payers money going into litigation costs. Has Trump thought this through or is he playing another game altogether?

We have seen in tv/movies that Americans file law suits all the time. I always thought that arbitrary authoritarian actions like we saw in India can't happen in USA because people have rights, they care about fighting for rights, and there's rule of law and access to justice.

Is it just the movies?

Trump's actions taken without due process are bound to have repercussions on hundreds of contractual obligations across world and affected people will all have a ground to sue for compensation.

If they do, won't they go to court challenging Trump?

👉 Essentially, Donald Trump is inviting law suits at every action he is taking. Shutting down websites, not allowing people to access their emails, hundreds of research paper and data deleted from govt census website.

👉 Hundreds of employees have reportedly lost their jobs across various departments including govt watchdogs or nonpartisan Inspectors General and thousands of FBI officials.

Don't they have things like Tenure or other statutory protection from arbitrary/illegal removal?

Every Trump action defies everything we believed about US, and it's getting exhausting to try to understand.

👉 Is there no system of checks and balances on the US Presidents at all?

Did US presidents always have unlimited powers on paper via Executive Orders and Trump i? the only guy who used it?

I was searching for this. Wanted to know when are the law suits coming and how many.

I Submitted my research paper for a prestigious Sage Journal. Only 8 out of 10 will make it. My paper doesn't have hot topics like AI or machine learning or climate change or identities like Dalit Muslim Black Palestine. It just has lived experience of 15 women who were trolled. Will it make it?

Govt in every country is so scared of social media. What a shame. Since invention of printing press a nexus of power and media controlled the narrative. Internet gave the masses a voice for the 1st time. Even if there's fake and hate speech but we still need internet free from govt control.

Govt in every country is so scared of social media. What a shame. Since invention of printing press a nexus of power and media controlled the narrative. Internet gave the masses a voice for the 1st time. Even if there's fake and hate speech but we still need internet free from govt control.

I will Speak at this Panel Discussion tomorrow on Building Gender Inclusive Spaces in Public Transport, sharing the findings from a study I conducted to identify the challenges faced by women bus drivers of DTC at their workplace. I spoke to 15 women bus drivers and DTC officials for the study.

Trump's EO which says there are only two sexes and completely bans gender ideology also says that "Federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology." This is most likely to affect lot of NGOs. Anybody have more on this? Any reaction from feminist organizations?

Now folding @weareceu.bsky.social who just announced their migration from Twitter to Bluesky. I am still conflicted about a migration. I am in both places as of now.

One Subbaraya Shastry wrote the book in early 20th century. He claimed that ancient Hindu sage Maharshi Bharadwaj revealed the book to him in his dream. Apparently, he dictated the book in a trance like state. Even hired an engineering student to make drawings of "ancient aeroplane". 😂

The Hindu Right have created some mind-blowing intricate fake news that are in circulation for over 70 years and even made it to the History channel docu Ancient Aliens. Like the book Vaimanika Shastra, claimed to be ancient Vedic text containing "aeronautical science" but actually written in 1930s.

Similar housing crisis is seen in India too. Vast majority of urban Indians live in slums or unauthorised builder's colonies. Millions are homeless. Worst is that even high earning class can't afford a house because prices are artificially jacked even when there are not enough buyers.