Bits & Banter with Bala and Raj Bala and Raj

The early matches of this edition of the IPL has once again shown that teams have had to necessarily buckle down and adapt to conditions for which they had probably not picked their teams. Teams had started picking players that suited their home pitches in the past in the hope that this could help them win most of the seven games they had to play at home and then hope for a win or two that takes them to the playoffs.

We debate whether franchises need to pick all weather teams and not just from the point of winning at home. 

This edition of #TweakTheWeek has an interesting format. Rather than discussing one happening news of the week, three topical events have been taken and laid bare by our hosts. And they kind of come up with a single strain of thought that binds the three different issues.

What has been happening to WhatsApp in India is pretty interesting. Last week, we had the Competition Commission of India taking suo motu cognisance of WhatsApp's new Privacy Policy and ordering a serious investigation into it. An Indian government organisation is cracking the whip on a big company like Facebook (which owns WhatsApp) makes for intriguing analysis.

Talking of WhatsApp you cannot but bring up election campaigns, as much of it these days happens over the instant messaging platform. Electioneering in places like West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu has plumbed new lows. For instance in Tamil Nadu, former Union Minister A Raja has questioned the parentage of the Chief Minister. Another DMK speaker had talked of women's hips. It is obscene and outrageous.

And talking of being outrageous, what is happening in Maharashtra over police and politics nexus is nothing less than it. The State's Home Minister is being accused of ordering a police officer to give Rs 100 crore in bribe money every month (hafta vasool). If it were not on papers, you would have thought the whole thing to be a fake WhatsApp forward. When actual events are worse than fake news, you know you are kind of living in a dystopian world.

The unsavoury battle between Twitter and the Government played out in full view of the world. First the microblogging site appeared to take a stance over removal of handles that the government wanted it, then acted like an errant school kid, removing 97% of them. While one could question government's motive over asking Twitter to take down handles that were ostensibly spreading misinformation around the farmers' agitation, what one couldn't figure is how Twitter tweaked its own rules in India while sticking to its guns over Donald Trump. Suffice to say that it put both the government and the microblogging site in poor light - the first for making a mountain out of a molehill and the second for allowing the molehill to dictate terms. In the process, we heard of a new Made in India microblogging website tackily called Koo, which saw all activity from government supporters for a while. This makes up the discussion point for #TweaktheWeek​ on #BitsandBanter​ this week.

Ever wondered what makes Twitter a favourite platform for debates? Because, it seldom results in any resolution and people just keep amplifying their views without ever listening to the other's point. Take a look at how tweets supporting the Farmer Agitation by musician Rihanna and environmentalist Greta Thunberg have created a storm.

In this week's #TweakTheWeek, we discuss the curious case of India's courts, including the Apex Court, regularly issuing summons on cases related to movies and web series.

What generated more memes than the news of Rajinikanth’s political statements? His decision to exit politics without ever entering it! But that’s not what we took up for 2021’s first #TweaktheWeek episode. Balakumar and Raj go back into history of modern India to understand why movie stars are such a rage in politics.