"This report is an attempt to document intense and multi-pronged attack unleashed on the democratic rights of citizens and secular values enshrined in the constitution of India. Since the present regime came to power we have witnessed that the citizens rights and secular ethos, secured during the past sixty years, have been trampled upon with impunity..." Read the full report.
'Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s overseas fan club is swelling. Among his new fans are the leaders of Germany’s Pegida ‒ a German acronym for the Patriotic Europeans Against Islamisation of the West group that was formed in Dresden in October. The organisation hit the global headlines in January when, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France, 25,000 sympathisers turned out to protest Muslim immigration to Germany.
"India will awake to a spectacular show on June 21, which the United Nations has declared to be the International Day of Yoga. On that day Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead a mass yoga session at Delhi’s India Gate, striking physical poses, or asanas, and doing breathing exercises, which are supposed to bring about the unity of body and mind. As is true of most of Bharatiya Janata Party’s pet projects, the observance of the International Day of Yoga will combine elements of cultural nationalism, commercialisation of the ancient India physical exercises and subtle coercion.
'The BJP's misuse of the media has echoes of Indira Gandhi's Emergency. Yet when out of power, the party is in campaign mode for the autonomy for Prasar Bharati... Before the 2014 elections, Doordarshan was attacked repeatedly for censorship and unfair coverage of opposition leaders. Post May 2014, the BJP and its Prime Minister have shown no hesitation in using the state-run media, AIR and Doordarshan as a major propaganda vehicle, mostly for fireside chats of the Prime Minister which deal with what development communicators would call Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) and some try to justify the policies initiated by the government...
'Noting that voluntary disclosures of information have been "below par", a CIC-constituted panel has said that details of domestic and foreign visits of Union ministers should be proactively disclosed and kept updated. The committee said this against the backdrop of the PMO not disclosing information about expenses incurred on foreign visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister's Office(PMO) has been refusing to disclose information related to expenses incurred on Modi's foreign visits, citing various excuses such as the records that are sought for being "vague"...
'Two IAS officers in Chhattisgarh have been issued notice for not wearing the bandhgala prescribed by protocol when they greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the latter's visit to Naxal-affected areas of the state last week. Amit Kataria, the district magistrate of Bastar, has also been reprimanded for keeping his dark glasses on when he met PM Modi on an air strip along with Dantewada Collector KC Dev Senapati. Neither officer wore a bandhgala. They have violated IAS rules, the state's BJP government alleged in its notice...'
'In this season of discontent with Narendra Modi, academic and writer Madhu Purnima Kishwar is yet another admirer who is disappointed with the prime minister's leadership, goals and aspirations. In a free-wheeling interview, Kishwar outlines what has gone wrong and gives a caustic report of Modi’s first year in office. Excerpts:
'Top industrialists and CEOs, including Adani group chairman Gautam Adani and Vishal Sikka of Infosys, will be part of a high-level business delegation that will travel to China during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Communist nation this week...'
'With the Narendra Modi-led BJP government completeing a year at the Centre, one organisation which has benefitted the most in this period is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). As the BJP recently became the world's largest political organisation with 10 crore membership, the Sangh's base has also swelled at 10-15% rate over the past four years. The saffron institution has opened 6,000 more shakhas (branches) from April 2014 to March 2015. It now has 51,330 shakhas operating in 33,222 places across the country, states the annual report of the saffron organisation for 2014-15.
'Among the many advantages that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has enjoyed during his term in office so far is a press that has fawned over him and his government. With the notable exception of Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani, the mysterious target of numerous hit-pieces -– some of them in very poor taste -– most of his ministers, too, have been showered with the accolades, and praised for their honesty, transparency, vision and efficiency, even when they have not exactly demonstrated one or all of those virtues.
