Twitter Lied: Barkha Dutt on ‘Brahminical Patriachy’ Poster Row

Barkha Dutt speaks up on the Twitter Controversy and gives us an entire account of what transpired last week.

Senior journalist Barkha Dutt criticized Twitter India for “lies” and “poor handling” of the “interaction” last week.   

(Photo: Twitter/Altered by The Quint) 

Senior journalist Barkha Dutt condemned Twitter India on Tuesday night for the “lies” and “poor handling” of the “interaction’’ at Twitter’s roundtable meet that led to an online backlash, cornering social media giant Jack Dorsey for posing with a controversial poster.

A photograph, with Twitter CEO Dorsey in it, was tweeted out by journalist Anna MM Vetticad on Sunday where he is seen with a poster in his hand that reads, “Smash Brahminical Patriarchy’’.

Dorsey’s decision to pose with the said poster in tow, at a roundtable discussion with Indian women journalists and activists, has landed him in hot soup by virtue of the arguably sensitive social issues attached to what the poster implies.

While Twitter has been flooded with retaliations, counter-theories, and breakdowns related to the phrasing “brahminical patriarchy’’, Barkha Dutt, one of the senior journalists present at the meet, tweeted out her account, claiming that the “lies’’ by Twitter India reps are making her angry since Vijaya Gadde, Policy Head at Twitter India , had “apologised and even cried” for “being tone deaf on caste bias’’ during the roundtable discussion. But her apology, Dutt claims, is the “exact opposite”. Contrary to Gadde’s claim of the photo being “private”, the “photo (was) taken & mailed to us by Twitter, ’’ she further explains.

Dutt says that many of the women in the group had not seen the contents of the poster- gifted to Dorsey by a Dalit activist - till much later. She reveals that the decision to pose with the poster was that of the Twitter CEO alone- “that decision was his & his alone”. 

Here’s Dutt’s entire account of what transpired last week and her take on what was written on the poster: