'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”.
'The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deny or prove his alleged statement that top pharmaceutical companies bribed doctors with women escorts. The country’s largest doctors body demanded that the PM should apologise if he fails to do so. “Reports have appeared in the media regarding the purported statement by Hon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi that top pharmaceutical companies bribed doctors with women escorts. IMA takes strong exception to the statement if it has been really made by the Prime Minister,” a media release from IMA said...'
'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.
'With Narendra Modi visiting West Bengal on Saturday, Left groups organised to protest against the prime minister and his government’s plans to introduce a religious criterion in India’s citizenship laws... The day started with unprecedented efforts by Kolkata Police to ensure that Modi’s route from the airport to the city was barricaded and closed to protestors. In the end, even that failed, and Modi has to take a helicopter to travel the 16 kilometre distance.
'A minister in the Uttar Pradesh government threatened, saying that he will bury alive those people who raise anti-Yogi Adityanath and anti- Narendra Modi slogans. Uttar pradesh minister Raghuraj Singh said, " I will bury all such people alive who make objectionable comments against prime minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath." He was referring to those students who had raised slogans against the prime minister and chief minister during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest in the Aligarh Muslim University campus.'
'India woke up on January 8, to witness the largest ever strike with an estimated 25 crore (250 million) workers, employees, farmers and rural labourers stopping work and hitting the streets to protest against the Modi government’s economic policies and divisive politics. Reports coming in from various states indicate that the strike was complete in the country’s massive public sector across sectors, such as steel, coal, other mining, defence production, port & dock, oil & natural gas, telecom, power generation, etc. Ancillary industries also were mostly shut...
'At least 100,000 people gathered Saturday in Hyderabad, India’s technology hub, to protest Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a new law they say will strip the country of its secular foundations, maintaining steady pressure on the government as demonstrations entered their fourth week. The protests have drawn massive crowds across India, with more than 200,000 people gathering in Kochi city, in the southern state of Kerala, on New Year’s Day.
Submitted by narendramodifacts on Wed, 01/01/2020 - 00:00
Surveillance is going be a major theme in 2020. The good news is that there will be lots of dissent and protest this year. But how will an authoritarian government without a concept of compromise - or even tactical retreat - deal with widespread protest? Especially if this protest involves a large number of Muslims?
First, protestors will be demonised mercilessly. A propaganda attack must be the first response according to their war manual. We have had six years to see how the violent, communal rhetoric of the "proud to be followed by PM Narendra Modi" twitter army sets the tone of more mainstream discourse. The protestors will be anti-national, extremist, illiterate, puncture-wallahs who can be identified by their clothes. The Sangh twitterati will find evidence of a foreign hand - where there are signs of intelligent life, they see a foreign hand. The importance of a foreign hand is that once there is a foreign hand, nothing is off-limits. The propaganda is to pave the way for a "law and order" response to the protests. Dissenters need to be monitored, controlled and punished. We have already seen this language in use.
'Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday extended New year greeting to top leaders of Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives via telephonic conversation. PM Modi skipped Pakistan...'
'Jaggi Vasudev, also known as Sadhguru, released a nearly 22-minute long video on the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens. This was even shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called it a “lucid explanation’ and said that Jaggi provides “provides historical context, brilliantly highlights our culture of brotherhood.
