Anand Ranganathan Profile picture
Author: The Land of the Wilted Rose (Rupa). Love & Honour; The Rat Eater (Bloomsbury). Soufflé (Penguin). Consulting Editor: Swarajya. RTs, Likes ≠ Endorsements

Oct 8, 2017, 21 tweets

Traffic jams in the digital age.

Well that escalated (16000 times too) quickly.

Quick reading suggests the Wire piece is riddled with more elementary errors than Sonny Corleone was with bullets. opindia.com/2017/10/the-ja…

To be sure, the Wire piece on Jay Shah doesn't allege any illegality. But for me, there's a CLEAR conflict of interest - the PSU loan.

Unbelievable. Make an awful mistake, admit to it a day after it goes viral, and then in the same clarification, make another awful mistake.

Hilarious. When pointed out, the Wire quietly corrects even the correction. Watch this space for what comes next. Fast-developing story.

Fair point. [But If I were Jay, I'd have explained by now the reason for the crest & the trough in the revenue wave]

Yes, wrong. Brutus' son must be above suspicion.

Dozens of media orgs but the ONLY fact-checking of the Wire piece comes from non-journalists. Kudos, @attomeybharti & @muglikar_. #NewIndia

Victimhood is a bakery round the corner and everyone wants their daily bread.

Brilliant piece by @UnSubtleDesi, where investigative journalist @shaliniscribe explodes a few myths. Must-read. opindia.com/2017/10/shalin…

A superlative one-man demolition job by @muglikar_, of the blatant, hateful propaganda being peddled by Padma Shri (2008) Vinod Dua. Must-read. opindia.com/2017/11/dissec…

1/n The Wire says 732 million Indians don’t have access to toilets.

This report went viral and was widely quoted, esp by Mr Vinod Dua who tried to balance this against the Moody's upgrade in his video broadcast.

So what's the truth?

2/n In its report, The Wire also published a chart, clearly showing 732.2 million Indians (56% of the population) without access to toilets.

3/n The Wire sourced this info from an NGO WaterAid and it's document, Out Of Order: The State of the World’s Toilets 2017.

The WaterAid metric is NOT 'Toilet' but rather the phrase 'Without access to at least basic sanitation'. wateraid.org/what-we-do/our…

4/n WaterAid in turn sourced this info from yet another NGO called WashWatch, that also uses NOT 'Toilet' but the phrase 'Without access to at least basic sanitation'. washwatch.org/en/countries/i…

5/n WashWatch in turn sourced this info from WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, that also uses NOT 'Toilet' but the phrase 'Without access to at least basic sanitation'. washdata.org/data

6/n According to the WHO/UNICEF report – which is the primary source –

A. This data is not actual but a trend estimate gleaned from meta surveys
B. "Without access to at least basic sanitation" means a toilet that is NOT shared by households. washdata.org/data

n/n 210 million Indians use either shared or unimproved toilets (WHO/UNICEF).

Therefore, the statement that 732 million Indians don’t have access to toilets is WRONG.

Too late. Headline is viral. "Pathetic India" is now the talking point. And this govt couldn't care less.

Will never understand this. @PMOIndia has billions at its disposal; it spends millions on useless ads.

But it can't assemble a small team to fact-check reports that malign India. Will never understand this.

Vinod Dua once went to interview Romesh Bhandari. He returned to the studio, put on his interview jacket, switched the camera on, and cooly changed the questions.

This deceit is now the norm among TV channels. But he was the first. A pioneer of sorts.

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