N.C Asthana is a retired IPS officer and as per his Twitter bio he is a Nuclear Physicist, an Author of 76 scientific research papers and 49 books, and Former DGP Kerala & ADG BSF/CRPF and is followed by 58k followers on his verified Twitter handle @NcAsthana.
He is known for his controversial statements, recently again he sparked outrage and condemnation from the public after posting a series of hateful tweets directed at Indian wrestlers protesting the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Singh on charges of sexual exploitation. Asthana’s offensive remarks, including a threat of violence and derogatory language toward the athletes, drew widespread criticism on social media platforms.
Context:
Indian wrestlers took to the streets to protest the arrest of Brij Bhushan Singh, who was accused of sexually exploiting women grapplers. However, during these protests, the athletes were detained by the police and subsequently released following public outcry. It was during this time that NC Asthana posted a series of offensive tweets targeting the wrestlers, leading to a significant backlash.
The Controversial Tweets:
Asthana’s tweets included highly inflammatory and derogatory language towards the wrestlers and expressed a willingness to resort to violence. He even referred to them as “dirt,” “filth,” and “garbage bag” in a grossly disrespectful manner. One tweet, which has since been deleted, hinted at the possibility of shooting the protesters, citing Article 129 as a justification for such actions.
Outrage on social media:
The internet swiftly turned against Asthana, with his remarks being widely condemned by users across various platforms. The offensive nature of his tweets, along with the use of threatening language, added fuel to the fire. Social media users, including fans, fellow athletes, and prominent personalities, expressed their outrage and demanded an apology from Asthana. Following the widespread backlash, Asthana eventually deleted the tweet that contained the threat of violence. However, this act did little to pacify the public, as screenshots and records of the offensive content had already circulated widely. People from all walks of life, including journalists, activists, and the general public, have called for accountability from Asthana. There have been demands for legal action against him, highlighting the need for stricter regulations to combat online abuse and protect individuals from such vitriol.
Non-Verified Followers
Some non-verified accounts that follow him include, @iAmritapandey_, @VictoriousNamo, @rvaidya2000, @_SamikshaMishra, @AshiWords, @RaghvendraLive, etc.
Verified Followers
Below is the graph depicting the verified users who follows N.C. Asthana on Twitter. Some of the followers includes, @bhupendrachaube, @MODIfiedVikas, @AnoopKaippalli, @nkgurjar4bjp, etc.
He mentions in his bio that he always fight for justice like a Phantom’s Oath. But while scrolling through his Twitter Account we found that he is using his handle to spread hate speech like a third rate twitter troll.
From calling liberals “libbus” to “gadhe” (donkeys) to certain journalists, Asthana seems have lost control and civility while using social media.
He is not only restricted to this but his entire narratives are focused on much hatred towards a specific community.
HATE SPEECH 1:
There was a report of “The Wire” with the headline, “UP: Teachers who offered prayers in college sent on leave after protests by BJP, Hindutva groups.”
In a video viral on social media, SR Khalid, assistant professor at Varshney Degree College in Aligarh, is seen offering prayers in the garden of the college campus, after the BJYM made allegations of indiscipline and breach of peace against the professor, and was sent on leave for a month an inquiry has also been initiated into the matter.
To this, Asthana tweets, “This is a very good thing. A lesson must be learned, otherwise people will hold their hands while holding their fingers. This was possible only under Maharajji’s rule.”(referring to UP CM Yogi Adityanath)
HATE SPEECH 2:
Asthana in his several tweets promotes bulldozer as the means of justice to teach a lesson to Muslims. He tweeted many times congratulating and admiring BJP (Bharatiya Janta Party) and Yogi Adityanath for ‘bulldozer justice’.
HATE SPEECH 3:
On a viral video where policemen are seen beating brutally to destinies inside the police station Asthna chooses to celebrate and tweet it in Hindi “what a wonderful sight ……”
HATE SPEECH 4:
He called all those who left India to study in Ukraine “duffers” and argued that they shall be offered no jobs as the students and their parents both are greedy.
HATE SPEECH 5:
He mocked the students when Supreme Court rejects plea to postpone NEET PG 2022 exam.
Asthana’s Tricky posts:
- He favors unemployment by tweeting, “Unemployment has been in the country since eternity. In some era we also faced unemployment. Unemployment will not go away only on the basis of government job. This is an illusion. If all the government recruitments are pending, if we make appointments on all of them tomorrow, will the problem be solved overnight? The youth are being misled.”(Translates Hindi)
- The talk of unemployment was being done like this; crores of government jobs are kept in Akhilesh’s pocket. You just took the oath and there was rain of jobs. Do these brokers think the public is so stupid? What did the police beat up the boys in Allahabad, they accepted that only Yogi lost!” (Translates Hindi)
- Asthana, who is now admirer of Yogi Adityanath and his ‘bulldozer justice’ used to be one of his critics. On the release of Dr. Kafeel Khan Asthana didn’t chose the loose the opportunity to take on Yogi Adityanath in a subtle way.
Accounts Mentioned
Below is the graph depicting the accounts which were mostly mentioned by N. C. Asthana. @khanumarfa was mentioned maximum number of times i.e. 184. Followed by @ranjona with around 74 times, followed by @sonaliranade with 52 times.
The below pie chart shows the types of posts that N.C. Asthana does. Majority of the posts consist of replies with 59.4% followed by tweets with 39.8%. At last, the ratio of re-tweets is very low with 0.831%.
WordCloud
Below is the wordcloud that depicts the words that were majorly used in the tweets of the accounts. Some of the words that were include are, “देश”, “लोग”, “पुलिस”, “दलाल”, “मूर्ख”, etc.
Conclusion:
We have presented our analysis on Dr. N.C Asthana in this exclusive report. We have covered some of his hateful narratives. We have observed that it is a recent development that Asthana started indulging in hate speech.
