Mohandas Pai, Manish Tewari wade into #SmashBrahminicalPatriarchy row, but end up fighting on the same side

Congress leader Manish Tewari and entrepreneur Mohandas Pai waded into the controversy over Twitter CEO’s alleged ‘Anti-Brahminical’ stand. The duo was locked into an exchange on Twitter, but apparently, they both were fighting on the same side. Days after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey apologised for posing with a poster which read, “Smash Brahminical patriarchy”, Tewari commented on the issue with an acerbic tweet.

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

Tewari’s tweet mocked both the politics of ‘Mandalisation’ and the general trend of oversimplified opposition to any particular group as a whole. However, several people seem to think that Tewari was backing Dorsey for the picture. Pai too replied to Tewari with a steaming tweet asking if the move was not quite like anti-Semitism, which is condemned globally. He even accused Tewari of carrying ‘hateful biases.’

@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

Tewari responded to Pai clarifying that his tweet did not endorse anti-Brahmin sentiments, and said that what Dorsey did was uncalled for.

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

Tewari further clarified that all that he meant to do with his tweet was “flag 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,” he tweeted. The controversy started last weekend when the Twitter chief met a group of journalists, writers and activists in Delhi to hear about their experiences on the website and app. He was gifted a poster by an activist at the beginning of the closed-door session, which he was still holding at the end when a few photographs were clicked. Journalists present at the event clarified this later , but till then the picture tweeted by a prominent journalist and film critique had already kicked up a storm. Facing severe backlash mostly from members of the upper caste, one of company’s leading policy officer for the company has apologised to users and told them neither Twitter nor Dorsey endorsed the sign’s message.