Dr. Sanjukta Basu, M.A., LLB., PhD

New pinned Tweet: I presented my research paper at the International Conference on Social Media and Society, held at London College of Communication from July 16 to 18. The title of my paper was "Women's Shrinking Political Space on Twitter: An Autoethnography from India."

Bilkul lagega. Section 498A of IPC or Section 85 of BNS applies to cases of mental or physical cruelty by husband and in-laws. It doesn't necessarily have to be about dowry. Cruelty for any reason is punishable under this section including but not limited to dowry demands.

I just called a sub-inspector, I won't take the name, at Uttam Nagar Police Station asking why have they not registered my client's FIR yet, despite her visiting two times. He said, "Madam DV case mein FIR hote hai kya? Woh toh family court mein jaati hai." I said, "of course FIR hoti hai, Section 498A ka FIR karna chahiye tha aapko, BNS mein Section 85, upar se hurt, grievous hurt ka case banta hai, cognizable offence hai, aapko FIR turant karna chahiye tha." His reply: But madam 498A toh dowry matter ke liye hai. This shows the pathetic level of ignorance of law amongst the police officers. Police thinks a woman being beaten black and blue by kicks and punches is a matter for Family Court and not a fit case for FIR. How can the police be so ignorant? @DCPDwarka, sir/madam, this comes under your jurisdiction please take note. Let me know if your officers require a refresher course on IPC/BNS. ◾️Husband and in-laws cruelty, be it physical or mental, is a cognizable offence under Section 85 ◾️It does not necessarily have to be connected to Dowry issues. Any kind of violence is a crime under S-85 (498-A of IPC). ◾️Police need not wait for the woman to give a written complaint, the mere fact that she physically visited the PS and waited for hours is enough for the FIR. ◾️FIR can be registered even if the report is not given directly by the woman but by somebody who is related to her by blood, marriage, adoption etc., or some other public servant. Incident occurred last evening/night, when my client faced physical violence at the hand of her in-laws / jeth / mother-in-law. The whole neighbourhood was witness. She was thrashed so violently that she fell down and lost consciousness. On gaining a little bit strength she called the police, then visited the Uttam Nagar PS at the night. She stayed at the PS for 3 hours in the night, waiting for the SI to meet her but nobody visited her or registered any FIR. This morning, she visited again, but again the FIR was not registered. Thereafter, she visited the hospital for MLC. She has now obtained the MLC and we will visit the Uttam Nagar Police Station tomorrow morning again to ensure that an FIR is registered.

Just received a call from a domestic violence victim. She went to the police station and the cops did not take her to the hospital to get a medical test. Why can't the police do something so basic. @DelhiPolice please raise awareness amongst your officers that if woman is reporting domestic violence, they must help her to get the MLC certificate. How hard is this?

Universal basic human rights is the word. Time people read up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which should be the core values binding upon every nation, culture religion.

Puja, things don't add up. You talked of “Basic rule of consent” but did you take consent of Hindu women who celebrate karwachauth before debating it? You said change and reforms in Muslim women's lives should happen from “within” but karwachauth criticism can barge into Hindu women's lives because you are a Hindu? At one hand we talk of secularism and the other we have Hindu women Muslim women. Every year, as the season arrives and it becomes a trending topic, Hindu liberal feminists specifically create content to criticise #KarwaChauthVrat. Nobody asked them but they still express their opinion on it but when it comes to hijab burqa they avoid criticism either in the name of “charity begins at home” or “I don’t wear it so why should i criticise it” or some other excuses. The hypocrisy is so obvious that it pisses off the right wing for good reasons. If one is a public commentator, a content creator and a feminist then it’s their utmost duty to critique all kinds of patriarchy without excuses or justification. Otherwise, leave all festivals alone and respect choice. In my opinion, there’s no such thing as choice. All choices are results of conditioning. We must criticise the whole idea of “choice feminism” but this critique can’t stop at Muslim doors.

I am guilty as charged. Literally can't call the city anything else but Bombay. Like literally even if I try the letters m u m b a i will not come out of my mouth without sounding like Bombay. I don't know why.

I am all for #KarwaChauth debate as long as we are also debating religious dress codes and why most Muslim women and girls in India are still practicing hijab burqa? I will not debate the former while tiptoeing around the latter.

People of London are memorializing the shutting down of the iconic Oxford Street for vehicles. They are marking the significant moment through photos videos and social media posts. But people of Delhi didn't even bat an eyelid over the historic moment when Jantar Mantar got denotified as a protest site. What does this show? It shows we don't care about our city, we don't pay attention to what's happening to the city and that we are weak and cowards.

Must attend this event today. There's nothing more important in today's time than to hold the judiciary accountable. The last defence against an authoritatian regime is the judiciary and if judicial accountability is lost, democracy is lost.

Woh sab side main rakh, come to the topic, why are musanghis so much more dangerous when it comes to harassing and silencing dissent from within the community particularly women? No Muslim women wears hijab burqa out of choice. I was in Mumbai recently, on the metro train, at the Juhu beach, everywhere I saw 7-8 year old girls wearing hijab. They are just kids. They do not understand choice what they are facing is religious compulsion and indoctrination. There's tremendous level of pressure from the Muslim radical men and the religious leaders upon women to follow religious diktats. And any disobedience is met with real world violence including murder. We can see what Iran is doing to their women. Same violence is seen in digital spaces against any Muslim woman who expresses dissent or criticizes burqa hijab or even merely wants to engage with someone who does. So why you guys so intolerant to women's independence? Explain that.

Rahul Gandhi's convoy met with a minor accident at Sultanpur. He was at Sultanpur to personally attend the court hearing in which he was acquitted of defamation charges. The defamation case was filed against him by a BJP member for saying that Amit Shah is a murder accused.

Lots of chaos at Mumbai airport. People having fights with airlines staff because all flights are delayed or cancelled and nobody is giving any proper information. My flight is already delayed by an hour and we still don't know how much longer we will have to board. Amidst all this there's an uncle who is saying he have to go to Jantar Mantar ❤️

The National Advisory Council created by @SoniaGandhi which consisted of some of India's best Left-liberal intellectuals is the greatest most iconic and empowering political event in post independence India. The best thing that happened to India.

It has been recently revealed that everything is open to critique. Nothing is beyond criticism. Except burqa/hijab polygamy nikah halala and unequal property rights of Muslim women.