'In a combative speech in Delhi on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that all the people protesting his government’s promise to conduct a pan-India National Register of Citizens were misguided and had fallen prey to untruths spread by the Opposition. He then sought to mislead people himself. “Has anything happened with the NRC yet? Lies are being spread,” Modi declared at the Bharatiya Janata Party rally in the capital.
'India’s federal government has warned television stations not to broadcast images of protests against a new religion-based citizenship law, as it intensifies attempts to quell growing anger over what demonstrators say is an attack on the country’s secular constitution. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants broadcasters to “abstain” from showing content that’s “against the maintenance of law and order or which promotes anti-national attitudes,” according to a Ministry of Information and Broadcasting letter tweeted by the country’s biggest media group, Times of India.
'...When a state starts beating up its students, alarm bells on its democratic credentials should go to red. When a democracy attacks its own students - the future -- it has lost the argument. Code red flashed in India as the Narendra Modi government has intensified a crackdown on largely peaceful mass protests against the flawed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and its bigoted twin the National Register of Citizens (NRC). This is the first time that religion has been made a criteria of citizenship of a secular republic and Indian democracy appears increasingly wobbly under Narendra Modi.
'Last week, when Union home minister Amit Shah defended the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (now Act) in parliament, he dismissed concerns that it was targeting India’s Muslims and asked the community not to have any fears.
The past few days have seen the most widespread and energised mass protests since the fascists came to power in 2014. And it hasn't been a great few years. People died in bank queues and trillions were wiped off the economy by the great masterstroke of demonetisation, but there were no large scale protests. There was anger and sympathy when Kashmiris were suddenly demoted to fourth class citizens, but that too didn't translate into large demonstrations across the country. The Citizenship Amendment Act, however, seemed to break a spell.
Students have been particularly courageous in protesting this Act, facing violence and demonisation, and demolishing the notion that India's youth have all been numbed to idiocy by years of relentless and repetitive propaganda. The scale of the protests have clearly taken the government by surprise. In Orwellian style, hate-monger-in-chief appealed to people not to let "vested interests" divide society. "Vested interests" presumably refers to young people some of whom wear vests. (Some also took off their vests.) And "society" presumably refers to the NDA, some of whose junior members are starting to feel a little awkward.
'Two days after prime minister Narendra Modi said those who were protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act could be “identified by their clothes,” the BJP’s West Bengal president and Medinipur MP Dilip Ghosh said lungi-clad terrorists had made their way to Bengal from Bangladesh. Ghosh was responding to Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who on day two of her three-day anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act and anti-National Register of Citizens rally, took the mic to condemn Modi’s ‘clothes’ remark...'
'While students protesting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Jamia Milia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University had to bear the brunt of police violence on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided it was the right time to ignite communal sentiments and suggest only Muslims were protesting the new law. Speaking at a Bharatiya Janata Party rally in Dumka, Jharkhand ahead of the upcoming polls, Modi said that those who were protesting violenlty against the new Act could be recognised by their clothes. The Congress and its allies, he added, were adding fuel to this fire...'
'...The fundamental difference between the gross abuse of the constitution, especially witnessed under Indira Gandhi, and that is being seen under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah over the last five years, is that while the former was seen with anger and revulsion, the latter is adoringly termed as Chanakyaniti. It is this shift in language and discourse that is the most dangerous for Indian democracy – every act of brazen challenge to the constitution is normalised and projected as brilliant political masterstrokes. It is why Amit Shah is eulogised by the mainstream television media.
Electoral bonds are bearer bonds, introduced as a mechanism for individuals and companies to donate money to political parties in India in 2018 by the BJP government. They were introduced without consultation and ignoring objections of the Election Commission and the RBI. Electoral bonds worth Rs.
'Though the Ministry of Finance had thought about sharing details of the electoral bond scheme with political parties and seeking the public’s comments on it, the idea was dropped after a presentation before the prime minister on August 21, 2017... RTI activist Bharadwaj says it is apparent that during the meeting with the prime minister, the decision to not consult political parties and not circulate the draft scheme to all national and state parties with a 15-day window to seek their comments was taken.
