#Politics News India

[maintohthakgayibhaishaab]

[mysharona1987]

[reasonsforhope]

"It was widely described as the week that India’s beleaguered democracy was pulled back from the brink. As the election results rolled in on Tuesday [June 4, 2024], all predictions and polls were defied as Narendra Modi lost his outright majority for the first time in a decade while the opposition re-emerged as a legitimate political force. On Sunday evening, Modi will be sworn in as prime minister yet many believe his power and mandate stands diminished.

For one opposition politician in particular, the humbling of the strongman prime minister was a moment to savour. Late last year, Mahua Moitra, one of the most outspoken critics of Modi and his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), found herself unceremoniously expelled from parliament and kicked out of her bungalow, after what she described as a “political witch-hunt” for daring to stand up to Modi.

The murky and allegedly undemocratic circumstances of Moitra’s expulsion from parliament was seen by many to symbolise Modi’s approach to dissenting voices and the steady erosion of India’s democracy. She was among several vocal opposition politicians who were subjected to investigations by government crime agencies.

But having won a landslide re-election in her home state of West Bengal, Moitra will return once again to parliament, part of the newly empowered opposition coalition. “I can’t wait,” said Moitra. “They went to egregious lengths to discredit and destroy me and abused every process to do it. If I had gone down, it would have meant that brute force had triumphed over democracy.”

While he may be returning for a historic third term, many have portrayed the results as something of a defeat for Modi, who has had to rely on coalition partners to form a government. The BJP’s campaign had been solely centred around him – even the manifesto was titled “Modi’s guarantee” – and in many constituencies, local BJP candidates often played second fiddle to the prime minister, who loomed large over almost every seat. He told one interviewer he believed his mandate to rule was given directly by God.

“Modi’s aura was invincibility, that the BJP could not win elections without him,” said Moitra. “But the people of India didn’t give him a simple majority. They were voting against authoritarianism and they were voting against fascism. This was an overwhelming, resounding anti-Modi vote.”

During his past decade in power, Modi and the BJP enjoyed a powerful outright majority and oversaw an unprecedented concentration of power under the prime minister’s office, where key decisions were widely known to be made by a select few.

The Modi government was accused of imposing various authoritarian measures, including the harassment and arrest of critics under terrorism laws, while the country tumbled in global democracy and press freedom rankings. Modi never faced a press conference or any committee of accountability for the often divisive actions of his government. Politicians regularly complained that parliament was simply reduced to a rubber-stamping role for the BJP’s Hindu-first agenda.

Yet on Tuesday [June 40, it became clear that the more than 25 opposition parties, united as a coalition under the acronym INDIA, had inflicted substantial losses on the BJP to take away its simple majority. Analysts said the opposition’s performance was all the more remarkable given that the BJP stands accused of subverting and manipulating the election commission, as well as putting key opposition leaders behind bars and far outspending all other parties on its campaign. The BJP has denied any attempts to skew the election in its favour.

“This election proved that the voter is still the ultimate king,” said Moitra. “Modi was so shameless, yet despite them using every tool they had to engineer this election to their advantage, our democracy fought back.”

Moitra said she was confident it was “the end of Mr Modi’s autocratic way of ruling”. Several of the parties in the BJP’s alliance who he is relying on for a parliamentary majority and who will sit in Modi’s cabinet do not share his Hindu nationalist ideology...

Moitra was not alone in describing this week’s election as a reprieve for the troubling trajectory of India’s democracy. Columns heralding that the “mirror has cracked” and the “idea of India is reborn” were plastered across the country’s biggest newspapers, and editorials spoke of the end of “supremo syndrome”. “The bulldozer now has brakes,” wrote the Deccan Chronicle newspaper. “And once a bulldozer has brakes, it becomes just a lawnmower.” ...

“This was not a normal election, it was clearly an unfair and unlevel playing field,” said Yadav. “But still, there is now a hope and a possibility that the authoritarian element could be reversed.”

Harsh Mander, one of India’s most prominent human rights and peace activists who is facing numerous criminal investigations for his work, called the election the “most important in India’s post independence history”, adding: “The resilience of Indian democracy has proved to be spectacular.”

He said it was encouraging that an “intoxication of majoritarian hate politics” had not ultimately shaped the outcome, referring to Modi’s apparent attempts to stir up religious animosity on the campaign trail as he referred to Muslims as “infiltrators” and “those who have more children”.

“The past decade has seen the freedom of religion and the freedom of conscience and dissent taken away,” said Mander. “If this election had gone fully the BJP way, then India would not remain a constitutional secular democracy.”"

-via The Guardian, June 9, 2024

[politijohn]

Source

[tiredguyswag]

"Criminalising marital rape would mean that the institution of marriage in India will crumble."

And what does this say about the institution of marriage in India?

For context, here's what's going on right now:

[workersolidarity]

🇮🇳🇵🇸 🚨

KASHMIRI INDIANS RALLY IN SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE ON INTERNATIONAL AL-QUDS DAY

📹 Scenes from a rally held in solidarity with Palestinians under siege and bombardment in the Gaza Strip in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir, in far-northwestern India, on Friday April 5th, 2024, celebrating International Al-Quds Day (occupied Jerusalem).

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Indian government has made a "fundamental error" as he accused it of supporting a campaign of violence against Canadians on Canadian soil. The prime minister spoke to reporters Monday, hours after the head of the RCMP laid out stunning allegations accusing agents of the Indian government of playing a role in "widespread violence" in Canada, including homicides, and warned that it poses "a serious threat to our public safety." Earlier in the day, Canada announced it's expelling six Indian diplomats. India has denied the allegations and quickly retaliated, ordering six Canadian diplomats to leave the country within a week.

Continue Reading

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

Article from October 14th, 2024.

[queer-azadi]

[wheniamamonster]

Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar was brazenly shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C. on June 18. Nijjar, a supporter of a Sikh homeland in the form of an independent Khalistani state, had been branded by the Indian government as a "terrorist" and accused of leading a militant separatist group — something his supporters have denied. "Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar," Trudeau said Monday in a speech to the House of Commons. "Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty."

Tagging @allthecanadianpolitics

[deadoveater]

Who spread suicide claim? Kolkata doctor’s colleagues say story originated in ex-principal’s office

The article:

KOLKATA: Colleagues of the 31-year-old postgraduate resident doctor whose body was found in the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on Aug 9 alleged that the hospital authorities’ initial claim that she died by suicide originated in then principal Sandip Ghosh’s office.

They questioned why the hospital authorities misled them when the death was a clear case of rape and murder. Supreme Court also raised concerns Tuesday about the hospital’s suicide narrative.

Hospital insiders disclosed that the decision to initially classify the death as a suicide was made in the office of Ghosh, who was later removed from his position following widespread protests and accusations of a cover-up.

According to the victim’s parents, they received two calls on the morning of Aug 9.

The first call at 10.53am from the hospital’s assistant superintendent Dwaipayan Biswas informed them that their daughter had fallen ill. Shortly afterward, a second call informed them that she had died by suicide. This news came as a shock to the family and colleagues, as signs of abuse and murder were reportedly evident on the doctor’s body.

The colleagues expressed outrage over the handling of the case, particularly the misleading information given to her parents. “Tell-all signs of sexual abuse and murder were all over her body. Why were the parents misled?” asked one of her fellow postgraduate trainees. Assistant superintendent Biswas had not acted on his own, another colleague said, alleging that “there was a plan to pass this off as a suicide”.

Colleagues also questioned the two-hour delay between the discovery of the body around 9am and when the parents were informed.

Ghosh had reportedly convened a meeting in the same seminar hall where the body was found, with at least two outsiders and several senior hospital officials. This meeting took place before the inspector in-charge of RG Kar hospital outpost was informed around 10.10am.

While Calcutta HC directed Ghosh to go on long leave, other hospital officials, including then medical superintendent Sanjay Bashist and the respiratory medicine department head Arunabha Dutta Chowdhury, have been transferred. “We are for a neutral probe and we also want the truth to emerge,” Bashist had said before he was transferred to CNMC.

(Poster's note: This article was posted on Aug 21, 2024. There have been significant developments in this case since then which I will try to post about as soon as possible. But I thought this was an important piece of information about what has been going on and all signs point to a significant coverup that indian public has been speculating since some of the other testimonies from the victim's colleagues.)

[just2bubbly]

omg scrolling through desiblr rn is so toxic and that's obviously because of the election results that happened yesterday. before I rant abt leaders, I need to say that the results were really humbling and that's a big win for democracy all in all (doesn't matter if you rightist or leftist)

what's shocking around here is that people are being hindu-phobic in the names of secularism, name any other religion that would tolerate this in India!! and please you tell me that you see leadership in a person that says that he will remove a reservation bar! - as general category person, this is like carving my own death. I understand that the right wing has leaned into a dictatorship in the recent months but if the leftist with their long chain of alliance comes in power then development is going slow down- leaders own need for power and money is going to result in internal struggle (not to mention the long standing history of alliance never working in the longer run) I'm not a rightist, have learnt that everyone is going to exploit us at the end of the day but it's better to have a party in power that atleast cares about the common people instead of just coming in power

[mysharona1987]

JD Vance to Usha Vance these days:

“I love you! I love our kids.”

“I’m still an evil racist, tho.”

[onetimetwotimesthreetimess]

Absolutely heartbroken (but not surprised) about this.

The Supreme Court of India has refused to legalise same sex marriage in india on the basis that it should be up to the parliament to create laws and not the judiciary.

The parliament of the country comprises of the ruling and the opposing parties. For any bill to be passed, a majority members need to discuss and vote on it. Even if the ruling party is not in favour, the bill can be passed and turned into an act.

However, the current ruling party, does whatever the fuck it wants, surpassing the procedures mandated by the constitution to pass a law so it’s highly unlikely that the current government will be passing any laws for LGTBQIA+ marriages in India for the next few years.

This is a major setback for all of us as the Supreme Court is the highest court of law in the country and it has the rights and authority to make decisions that have to be adhered by the Parliament.

If the Supreme Court is not on our side, this is a losing battle for us all (for now). I had really high hopes from this judgement because Chief Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud had raised some really valid points in our favor during the arguments.

I am deeply saddened by this.

To all my queer babies from India, I wish you all a kind day. We will not stop fighting. We will never quit.

Here’s to another day 🌻❤️

[goodthings777]

What is the method of opening the chakras in

the body?

This Chhath Puja, read the book 'Gyan Ganga' to know.

[workersolidarity]

(subtitles are autogenerated and are not particularly accurate)

🇮🇳 🚜 🚨

MASSIVE FARMER'S PROTESTS OUTSIDE INDIAN CAPITAL AND ACROSS THE NORTH OF THE COUNTRY

📹 Massive protests are confronted with teargas, armed police with rubber bullets and drones as thousands of farmers, mostly in India's northern Punjab region, protest on Tuesday demanding a Minimum Support Price or MSP for all crops to raise farmer's income.

Dozens of Farmer's unions participated in the strikes, calling for a "Delhi Chalo" or March to Delhi.

Police in and around the capital have erected barriers on highways surrounding New Delhi, and have begun firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the approaching farmers.

Tractors, along with thousands of farm hands, are seen in footage nearing the outskirts of New Delhi, in the northern Haryana state, being confronted by officers with gas and smoke bombs, including some dropped from buzzing drones overhead.

Authorities have shut down Internet services in some areas where protestors approach, and have erected concrete roadblocks and barriers, while local officials have banned public gatherings and are deploying extra security personnel.

Officials in New Delhi emphasized that sufficient police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed to all entry points to the city.

Farmers are demanding dozens of changes, including a new MSP or floor price for crops to increase and guarantee farmer income, as well as a full debit waiver, according to local union officials.

Political officials in New Delhi say they're open to talks, with Agriculture Minister, Arjun Munda telling reporters on Tuesday that the Federal government already is "bound to protect the interest of farmers."

"Farmers also need to understand that inconvenience shouldn’t be caused to the public,” Minister Munda said, adding the government was always ready for negotiations with the Farmer's unions.

“We are ready to do everything possible to find a solution to this issue,” he said.

#source

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews