'Around 5,000 migrant workers from Assam and other parts of the country were rounded up in a supposed 'document-verification drive', after a pro-Hindutva organisation alleged that they were illegal immigrants. On Wednesday evening, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Kodagu, Suman D Pennekar issued an order to all police stations in Kodagu to conduct a document-verification drive.
'Kailash Vijayvargiya, the national general secretary of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, on Thursday said that the construction workers at his house had “strange eating habits” that aroused suspicions about their nationality, PTI reported. The labourers were only consuming poha, a popular dish made from flattened rice, Vijayvargiya said at a seminar on the Citizenship Amendment Act in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. “I suspected these workers were residents of Bangladesh,” he said. “Two days after I became suspicious, they stopped working at my house.”...'
'A 36-year-old engineer and MBA-holder, Aditya Rao, surrendered on Thursday to the Bengaluru police stating he had placed the bag of explosive materials at the Mangaluru International Airport. Aditya Rao’s surrender came in the wake of massive speculation, both by political parties, leaders and certain sections of the media that “jihadi forces” were trying to “spread communal unrest” in the country. Aditya’s arrest has brought to the limelight Islamophobic statements made by members of the ruling BJP, pro-Hindu groups and by a certain section of the media.
'When Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s government hastily served notices to more than 300 people for allegedly damaging public property during the recent anti-CAA protests, many recalled how hundreds of serious criminal cases against him and his Hindu Yuva Vahini members are still pending. But a bigger indictment than these cases are the annual reports of Uttar Pradesh Police’s intelligence units – which I have accessed – against the Hindu Yuva Vahini, an outfit that Adityanath established...
'Historian Irfan Habib was slapped with a notice by an Aligarh Civil Court advocate for taking a jibe at the Prime Minister during a speech at the Aligarh Muslim University, calling him “illiterate”.
'BJP state president Dilip Ghosh courted controversy on Sunday by threatening to shoot and kill those involved in damaging public property “like the same way in Uttar Pradesh“. Addressing a public meeting in West Bengal’s Nadia district, Ghosh came down heavily on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee “for not opening fire and ordering lathicharge” on those destroying railway property and public transport during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in the state in December last year...
'ight wing organisations will on January 13, Monday, take out a massive rally at Kanakapura in the Ramnagara district in Karnataka, in protests against the construction of a statue of Jesus Christ. Several news portals have reported that the rally is being organised by the Hindu Jagarana Vedike, an organisation whose leaders are known for making inflammatory speeches, and will see the participation of nearly 5,000 workers from the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
'In a statement, a group of human and civil rights lawyers of South Asian descent have expressed grave concerns about “ongoing legal abuses and human rights atrocities” in India. Their statement covers the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens, and the way protests against the two have been cracked down on by the government, as well as the Central governments actions in Kashmir.
'On 8 January 2020 evening, I attended a Concord, New Hampshire town hall for presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard and raised signs regarding her association with the Nazi-inspired RSS paramilitary. I was immediately violently assaulted by Gabbard campaign thugs, who attacked me for quietly and peacefully holding signs reading “Tulsi: Mascot of India’s KKK” and “Tulsi Whitewashes India’s KKK.” Before that point, I was silent and doing nothing but holding signs. I was joined by five other people doing the same thing.
'Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched a door-to-door campaign in Madhya Pradesh to drum up support for the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA) and the National Population Register (NPR), it has been unable to quell discontent brewing among its own workers. The anger was apparent when two senior office-bearers of the Madhya Pradesh BJP Minority Cell resigned from the party in protest against CAA-NPR-NRC. Now, many of their colleagues have decided to follow suit and plan to hold a meeting on January 11 to discuss ‘en masse’ resignations from the party.
