Writer Salil Tripathi's Twitter account restored after brief suspension over poem on Babri demolition

Writer Salil Tripathi’s Twitter account was briefly suspended on Sunday over a poem on the Babri Masjid demolition. The account was restored later in the day. After Tripathi’s account was restored, he wrote—

Earlier, several writers, journalists, and activists slammed Twitter for suspending Tripathi’s account, with many, including Salman Rushdie, Nilanjana Roy, Amitav Ghosh, and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor describing it an “outrageous act of censorship” and publicly calling out Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The account of Tripathi, a senior journalist and chairperson of the PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee, was suspended Sunday after he posted a video of a reading of  one of his poems , written in 2009, about the Babri Masjid demolition on 6 December, 1992. Sunday was the 28th anniversary of the demolition. As per The Print , the poem was also “about 1947, 2002, and a call from his mother.” Soon after Tripathi’s account was suspended for the tweet flagged as “offensive”, several prominent writers flayed Twitter for the action against “one of India’s most important human rights activists" . Rushdie, calling the action “outrageous”, demanded the restoration of Tripathi’s Twitter account.

Ghosh, tagging the PEN International’s official account, called Tripathi an “outstanding journalist, writer, and human rights activist”.

Congress leaders Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh slammed Twitter and questioned whether the company was “trying to earn brownie points” from the government.

Other authors and journalists were also vocal in their support for Tripathi and demanded immediate action from Twitter: