Theres more about what the official numbers conceal:

Our democracy cannot do without a free press. As a convinced democrat, I will never call for greater regulation or controls on the media. But is it completely futile to hope for better standards of journalism in our country? Not less journalism — just better journalism?

I write this thread in sorrow, not in anger. You cannot blame anyone for being themselves. This is sadly what our journalistic culture has become: scant regard for accuracy or veracity, lust for clickbait headlines, breathless obsession with the speculative and the trivial.

I have long been a faithful reader of the
@indianexpress.com, which has a remarkable history and still has the best op-ed pages in the Indian media. But this episode has merely added to my profound scepticism about Indian journalism altogether, which has again maintained its utter unreliability.

Except for the crucial detail that the entire story was baseless, and the spin given to my words was clearly neither what i had said nor the intended meaning of what i did say!!

Some people woke up to issues they had been complacent about and others found reasons to vent their feelings. Suddenly my place in Indian politics was being discussed — in a few cases enlighteningly and with insight.
All of this has been hugely instructive and eye-opening for me.

While this kerfuffle might blow over, it has brought a lot of issues out into the open. I suddenly discovered what a lot of people really thought of me and learned from others’ speculations about options that i hadn’t ever considered exercising.

I am yet to receive an apology from anyone involved.

But some good has come out of all this….

aninews.in/news/enterta...

m.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ6n...

youtube.com/live/Mpk7luS...

x.com/thewire_in/s...

4/4 When I challenged this claim, I was provided an English “translation” of my Malayalam interview in which I had allegedly said this. When the video emerged yesterday, it was clear that I had said no such thing. A correction has now been belatedly issued — after all the damage has been done.

3/4 Second, the Express ran a fake news story claiming i had decried the absence of a leader in
@inckerala.bsky.social. This resulted in a front page story in @thehindu.com and other media and triggered three days of discussions on Kerala’s television channels.

2/4 First, they took an innocuous statement (I said i had multiple options to spend my time in literary pursuits) and made a headline out of it in English that implied i was exploring other political options.