Thread on the @adrspeaks PC yesterday on alleged "criminal candidates" in Bihar elections. I will explain why ADR's methodology is unprofessional, inaccurate and non-transparent. It equates activists falsely accused of crime (Delhi riot probe style) with criminals-turned-netas

The @adrspeaks released a graph showing that 100% of @cpimlliberation MLAs declared criminal cases. CPIML wears those criminal cases against MLAs as badges of honour, because they are obviously false, punishment for standing with the poor, read: https://www.cpiml.net/.../12/no-excuses-continued-injustice

Criminal cases do not imply guilt, they show that the ruling regime and administration has filed cases against you, cases which are often false & motivated. The @adrspeaks report does not mention this fact.

If a lay reader were to read @adrspeaks 2014 report, they would come away with the impression that the most notorious criminal candidates in Phase 6 of the Lok Sabha polls were Koodankulam anti-nuclear movement leaders Udayakumar & Pushparayan (382 and 380 criminal cases each).

Likewise, this time the candidate with the second highest number of cases against him is Manoj Manzil of @cpimlliberation. His struggles for schools for the poor & Dalit kids are met with criminal cases: read here https://thewire.in/politics/jnu-hcu-and-once-upon-a-time-in-bhojpur

In disseminating information re criminal cases minus any context, @adrspeaks reports actually allow real gangsters-turned-politicians (or their relatives who contest as their proxies while they are in jail) to camouflage themselves in the crowd – mere trees in a thick forest.

An eg of what @adrspeaks cd do if serious: in a 307 (attempt to murder) case, find out who is the alleged victim? If the circumstance was a public protest and the alleged victim, a cop who wasn't even hospitalised and is hale and hearty, then the public should be told this.

Btw cops routinely file 307 cases against protestors in every agitation when cops beat up protestors. The cops have no injuries but they claim injuries in order to be able to arrest protestors under a serious charge, and justify their unprovoked violence.

It's really not difficult to do a little work and state some more details about the cases filed against every candidate. Why can't @adrspeaks which enjoys (foreign) funding, pay employees to do the due diligence we require of, say, a journalist who files a ground report?

In 2014, ADR made a costly error, never apologised to us. See screenshot of 2014 note issued by @cpimlliberation: a false @adrspeaks claim that our candidate was accused of buying a minor for prostitution (section 373) made headlines. It was merely 379 (theft) for a protest demo

That false allegation (because it was a shocking sex crime) made headlines in national and local papers all over India and Bihar. Since it was the last day of campaigning, there was no time for us to correct the widespread slur that was spread about him thanks to @adrspeaks

For an organisation that speaks of transparency and accountability, why does @adrspeaks have none? They never acknowledged our letter to them, never admitted their grave error and false allegation, let alone apologised for it.

As citizens we should demand that @adrspeaks be obligated to maintain the same standards as expected from (real) journalists. Verify, fact-check, provide context, so that you actually help the voter & general public make sense of the raw data about "criminal cases".

Am tagging @dhruv_rathee in this thread because his post citing the @adrspeaks report has 1000s upon 1000s of likes and shares on Facebook. Persons with such influence shd tell their audience how the powerless & their advocates are often the ones facing the most criminal cases.