'Renowned historian Ramchandra Guha on Saturday said he believes that the government at the Centre led by Narendra Modi is the most "anti-intellectual" the country ever had and is manifested in the appointments it had made in various educational and cultural institutions.
'Noted British sculptor Anish Kapoor, a critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was removed from a panel in Rajasthan. Only two days ago he was nominated by the BJP government to the governing body of the culture-related panel. Mr. Kapoor, who was among the 12 members nominated to the Governing Body of the Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK) — a multi-arts centre — at Jaipur on November 16, had recently objected to Mr. Modi’s visit to the U.K. In an article published in The Guardian on the day Mr. Modi landed in London, Mr. Kapoor accused Mr.
'Indians in Britain beamed the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding a sword behind a Nazi Swastika sign, accompanied by words in bold that read "Modi not welcome", onto the walls of British Parliament in the evening on Sunday, 8 November. Modi will be in the UK from 12 November on a three-day visit, wherein he is expected to meet Queen Elizabeth at the Buckingham Palace over lunch. However, his much-anticipated visit has also drawn flak from several quarters in Britain.
'On Tuesday, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by Sanjiv Bhatt, the former Indian Police Service officer from Gujarat, asking for two police cases against him to be transferred out of Gujarat and investigated by an independent agency. Bhatt said he feared the state was trying to falsely implicate him since he had given testimony against Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat. One of those two cases pertained to a complaint filed by Tushar Mehta, then Additional Advocate General of Gujarat, alleging that Bhatt had hacked into his email account.
'Sometimes you sit in a corner and watch a country and you learn a lot. You learn to listen, to wait for the right time, the right pitch. You hear people talking and you realise power fascinates them. They realise quickly that power, no matter how potent or distant, loves flattery. You can seduce power as it seduces and entraps you. Sitting on pavements and hearing conversations at bus stops, I realise that people felt that Modi was like a demon god. He was all-powerful, for there was no one to oppose him. There was no child to announce aloud that the emperor had no clothes.
'Passionate crowds of protesters greeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with loud slogans and a sea of placards upon his arrival at San Jose’s SAP Center for a carefully choreographed Silicon Valley “community reception.” The posters, chants, and surprise banner drop challenged the Modi PR team’s attempts to whitewash the controversial politician’s record. The protest was the culmination of a month-long campaign to educate Silicon Valley leaders and elected officials about Modi’s troubling human rights record.
'...Since Modi took office last year, more than 9,000 humanitarian and human rights groups have lost their registration to receive foreign funding, effectively shutting many down, and dozens of activists have been threatened with arrest. “Governments in general don’t like criticism,” said Teesta Setalvad, an activist fighting for the survivors and victims of the Gujarat riots who has been repeatedly harassed by authorities.
'Zakia Jafri, a frail 76-year-old, has begun what may be the last legal battle to pin blame on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for deadly riots that shook Gujarat when he was chief minister, and claimed her husband's life. Modi denies any involvement in the 2002 unrest, one of the worst outbreaks of religious violence in independent India. In 2013, a panel appointed by the Supreme Court said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him. It was the third investigation to come to the same conclusion.
"What causes anyone who offers a critique of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the functioning of his government to be attacked by his supporters as anti-Indian and anti-Hindu? Worse, as terrorists whose efforts have been orchestrated by—take your pick—the security agencies of the United States, the Christian Church, or unnamed colonial masters?
Over the Labor Day weekend, most signatories of the “Faculty Statement on Narendra Modi’s Visit to Silicon Valley” received threats from individuals in South Africa and Canada and email harassment from the Hindu Vivek Kendra, a Hindu nationalist organization affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a member. Several letter signatories have also been targeted by a board member of the Hindu American Foundation, another Hindu nationalist organization.
