There are a lot of scary things in the world but what Modi is doing in India is right up there. I dropped by Twitter to look for an old post and (spoiler: mistake) hit Trending and found a flood of Modi-fan racists screaming obscene insults at Muslims. Modi is consciously whipping up racist rage against a 200-million-strong group of citizens. If this gets out of control the cost in human lives could exceed many big wars put together. #India#BJP#Hindutva
Shashi Tharoor, Supriya Sule, Farooq Abdullah among 49 Opposition MPs suspended from Lok Sabha
Earlier on Monday 78 MPs were suspended from both Houses of Parliament. With this the total number of suspended MPs in this session are 141, a figure unprecedented in the history of the Indian Parliament.
At a weekend rally, Prime Minister Modi claimed the opposition wanted to take Hindus' money and give it to "infiltrators." The opposition Congress Party said he meant Muslims, and lodged an official election complaint.
A proposal to allow 12 hour work shifts for women in place of 8 hour ones has been dropped due to pressure from #labour#Unions . This is a consequence of the defeat of the #bjp in May this year. Clearly a link between #secular#democracy and #labourrights in #india. #Tamilnadu likely to follow suit.
Modi Government in Tearing Hurry to Propose but Not to Wed
If the Modi government truly wanted to implement reservation for women, would it not have passed the Bill at the inception of its takeover of state power, giving itself room to accomplish the historic deed? Badri Raina writes.
What Arundhati Roy and the secular intelligentsia get wrong about Modi’s India
It is not that violence against minorities is not a serious issue, but that outrage while doing nothing has invisibilised the restructuring of the country, writes Amrita Shah.
Vidarbha Literary Festival Curators, Organiser Step Down After 'Right-Wing Threats'
Sources privy to the developments at the festival said that activists belonging to right-wing organisations raised objection over four of the many speakers who were invited to the festival.
From Nijjar to Pannun, Modi Government’s Recklessness is Undermining National Interest
If true, the allegations levelled by three US federal agencies against an Indian official of planning an assassination in New York paint an unflattering picture of the country’s national security leadership.
Why We Can't Forget What the Modi Government Did to the Tablighi Jamaat
That such a vicious falsehood was allowed to be spread deliberately should tell us much of what we need to understand about where we are today, writes Aakar Patel.
"A defining feature of life in India today is the suffocating atmosphere of menace and threat to critics of the government. Shah is the face and embodiment of this fear, which lurks everywhere, from the newsrooms to the courtrooms, and which inspires a sense of alarm that is bigger than the sum of the facts and anecdotes that can be amassed to illustrate it"
Chilling long read on the rise of Amit Shah, Modi's right-hand man.
"Partly owing to his days in Gujarat and partly owing to the Indian government’s widely documented use of Israeli spyware to target journalists, activists and critics, the image of Shah in the public imagination is that of a man who holds everyone’s secrets. “Modi has a certain charm, which is perhaps the most dangerous thing about him,” the Indian novelist and activist Arundhati Roy told me. “Amit Shah is a single-string instrument: the only note he can strike is fear.”
"India matters. Our 1.3 billion people are on track to overtake China as the world’s most populous nation, and will leverage all the financial and strategic influence that position entails. India’s loss of tolerance is thus a global loss. Our country is a new superpower acting to destroy basic freedoms. Our government is defined by its authoritarian tendencies, paranoia and desperation for control" #Manipur#India#Modi#Fascism#BJP#Hindutva
Delhi LG approves prosecution of Arundhati Roy, Kashmir professor in 2010 ‘provocative speeches’ case
The FIR against Ms. Roy and former professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain was registered following the orders of the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate, New Delhi.
Brij Bhushan Singh sexually harassed wrestlers at every opportunity: Cops tell court
In the alleged sexual harassment case lodged against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the Delhi police said that Singh never missed an opportunity to sexually harass women wrestlers.
Rise in Attacks on Christians in India, Up Four Times in 11 Years (2012-2022)
There have been 525 attacks against Christians in India just in the first eight months of 2023. This year will likely cross the violent record set in 2022, and in 2021 before that. The data does not include incidents from Manipur.
Electoral Bonds legalised a route for political parties to secretly funnel unaccounted money from India and abroad into their coffers. But, no one is punished. No one expected they would be. We have been trained by experience to expect so little of democracy and its institutions. Nitin Sethi writes.
Indian voters reject Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for a one-party state in win for competitive democracy.
CNN reports: "In what opposition parties have declared as a victory for pluralism, voters in the world’s largest democracy partially rejected Modi’s populist vision for a Hindu-first nation, reducing the BJP’s share of the vote by 63 seats – bringing its total down to 240, far below the 272 required for a parliamentary majority."
India's Modi accused of anti-Muslim campaign hate speech (www.dw.com)
At a weekend rally, Prime Minister Modi claimed the opposition wanted to take Hindus' money and give it to "infiltrators." The opposition Congress Party said he meant Muslims, and lodged an official election complaint.