India

Posted by: John Phoenix BJP and Modi brought down to earth The 7-phase multi-week election in India ended on 2 June.  642 million of the 1 billion registered to vote actually did vote.  From the relatively small states like Uttarakhand to the huge provinces such as UP (Uttar Pradesh – which has more registered voters than the entire population of Pakistan) participated in this electoral exercise. Stunning shock to the BJP The results of this election were declared on 4 June and they came as a stunning shock to the BJP and its supporters among the business elite, the media, and the communal fundamentalist portion of the Hindu population.  Not only the Muslims, who had been the target over a 10-year period of the BJP’s poisonous polarising agenda, but also...

BY BINOY KAMPMARK Photograph Source: Prime Minister’s Office – GODL-India Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi really wanted to make an impression for his guests and dignitaries, and coarse realities would simply not do. The occasion of the G20 summit presented him with a chance to give the city an aggressive touch-up, touching up a good number of its residents along the way, not to mention the city’s animal life as well. As for those remaining nasties, these could be dressed up, covered, and ignored. Elements of the Potemkin Village formulae – give the impression the peasants are well-fed, for instance – could be used when needed. One Delhi resident, Saroaj Devi, informed The Guardian about the sharp treatment meted out to him and those living in pove...

Posted by: John Phoenix by: John P. Ruehl John P. Ruehl – Source: Independent Media Institute 01-26-2024 ~ A burgeoning relationship between India and a select group of English-speaking allies has been held back by various disagreements and historical realities. It will be further tested by assassination scandals that have emerged in recent months. Since mid-2023, a series of assassination plots have strained India’s relations with Canada and the U.S. In June 2023, a Sikh separatist activist living in Canada was reportedly killed on orders from Indian security services. Subsequently, in November, it came to light that U.S. authorities were investigating an assassination attempt against another Sikh separatist figure on U.S. soil. While India vehementl...

Posted by: John Phoenix The ethnoreligious violence in the Indian state of Manipur between Meiteis and Kukis has been ongoing since May, but it was only in July 2023 when a video went viral in India showing two women being paraded naked that the world began to pay attention to the situation in earnest. One of the women was reportedly sexually assaulted after the conclusion of the video. Calls for accountability came from all quarters, including the Indian Supreme Court, and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was forced to break his conspicuous silence on the conflict in the northeastern state. The majority of the conflict has been dominated by Meitei mobs, who are mostly Hindus, attacking the predo...

tor_1957@yahoo.co.inChennai14.02.2024 TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN The Water Transport Workers Federation of India representing more than 3500 workers at the 11 Major Ports in the Country has decided to refuse to load or unload weaponized cargoes from Israel or any other country which could handle military equipments and its allied cargo for war in Palestine. We the Port workers, part of labour unions would always stand against the war and killing innocent people like women and children. The recent attack of Israel on Gaza plunging thousands of Palestinians into immense suffering and loss. Women and children have been blown to pieces in the war. Parents were unable to recognise their children killed in bombings which were exploding everywhere. At this juncture our Unio...

G.N. Saibaba, a former professor at Delhi University, was arrested in 2014 and subsequently convicted under India’s anti-terror legislation over alleged ties to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). By Peoples Dispatch G.N. Saibaba The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court acquitted former Delhi University professor and activist G.N. Saibaba on March 5, 10 years he was arrested and jailed on allegations of ties with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). Saibaba, who is wheelchair-bound and is 90% disabled, was arrested in May 2014. In 2017, a trial court convicted Saibaba and five others — journalist Prashant Rahi, Mahesh Tirki, Hem Keshwdatta Mishra, Vijay Nan Tirki, and Pandu Narote — under various sections of the draconian anti-terror Unlawful Activities...

BY BINOY KAMPMARK Photograph Source: Prime Minister’s Office – GODL-India Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi really wanted to make an impression for his guests and dignitaries, and coarse realities would simply not do. The occasion of the G20 summit presented him with a chance to give the city an aggressive touch-up, touching up a good number of its residents along the way, not to mention the city’s animal life as well. As for those remaining nasties, these could be dressed up, covered, and ignored. Elements of the Potemkin Village formulae – give the impression the peasants are well-fed, for instance – could be used when needed. One Delhi resident, Saroaj Devi, informed The Guardian about the sharp treatment meted out to him and those living in poverty b...