Action to protest against slowing economy and PM’s policies disrupts many areas
A 24-hour strike has disrupted much of India as workers took to the streets in several major cities to protest against the country’s worsening economic slowdown.
At least 10 trade unions called on employees to stage protests on Wednesday against what they described as the “anti-people” policies of Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government.
Continue reading...Students have protested in cities across India after a masked mob attacked students and teachers with weapons including sledgehammers, iron rods and bricks, injuring more than 30 people. Opposition parties and injured students blamed Sunday night’s violence on a student organisation linked to Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, which has increasingly targeted the institution
Continue reading...Opposition links violence to Narendra Modi’s BJP party and tensions over citizenship law
Students have protested in cities across India after a masked mob stormed a high-profile university in Delhi and attacked students and teachers with weapons including sledgehammers, iron rods and bricks, injuring more than 30.
Opposition parties and injured students blamed Sunday night’s violence on a student organisation linked to the prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which has increasingly targeted the institution.
Continue reading...Demonstration was organised by umbrella group of Muslim and civil society organisations
More than 100,000 protesters have taken part in a peaceful march in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, chanting slogans against Narendra Modi’s new citizenship law.
The protest, labelled the Million March, was organised by an umbrella group of Muslim and civil society organisations. More than 40% of Hyderabad’s estimated population of nearly 7 million people are Muslims.
Continue reading...Last week 25,000 protesters gathered in Mewat, in the Indian state of Haryana, to begin the historic five-mile walk to Ghasera village. It was here, 72 years ago, that Mahatma Gandhi made the same journey during the turmoil of partition, visiting the area with the promise of a dignified life for local Muslims.
While millions have retraced Gandhi’s steps before, this time felt different. Against the backdrop of a new Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) passed by the Indian parliament last week, which many believe is openly discriminatory against Muslims and relegates them to second-class citizens, honouring Gandhi’s words of religious harmony and reconciliation felt like a powerful political statement. “Mewat has witnessed many protests, but this is the biggest in our life,” resident Shahzad Khan told local media.
Continue reading...Police and protesters have clashed across India and six people died during standoffs on Friday in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where tensions exploded between majority Hindus and minority Muslims.
Thousands of protesters have been demonstrating since 11 December in several parts of the country to oppose a new law championed by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, which makes it easier for people from non-Muslim minorities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who settled in India prior to 2015 to obtain Indian citizenship
At least 14 killed in clashes between police and protesters since law passed on 10 days ago
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, met his council of ministers on Saturday to discuss security measures to end violent protests against a citizenship law, in one of the biggest crises his Hindu nationalist government has faced.
At least 14 people have been killed in clashes between police and protesters since parliament passed the law on 11 December. Critics saying it discriminates against Muslims and undermines India’s secular constitution.
Continue reading...Critics say Narendra Modi’s Citizenship Amendment Act ‘has declared war on Muslims’
Authorities have imposed an emergency law banning large gatherings in parts of India’s capital, Delhi, as nationwide protests escalated, injuring police and demonstrators.
A week after a controversial new citizenship law was passed by parliament, which has been accused of openly discriminating against Muslims, protests across the country showed no sign of abating.
Continue reading...BJP politicians have said ‘no Hindu family will have to leave India’ after national register of citizens
It was 81 days ago that Kamal Hussain Mondal, a 32-year-old brick factory worker from a remote village in West Bengal, took his own life. He had been a carefree man and attentive father to his two young sons, and was known throughout Soladana village for his devotion to his wife Khayrun Nahar Bibi. The pair had been married for 13 years but she spoke of their “puppy love”. He would feed her with his hands at mealtimes and on Sundays he would take her out on the back of his bicycle, telling others he loved simply riding through the fields together and chatting.
“He promised he would look after us for ever,” says Bibi. “But after he heard about NRC, everything changed and he fell into a deep despair. He told me: all Muslims are going to be driven from India now. They will lock us up or just kill us. Just wait and see.”
Continue reading...Paramilitary forces deployed at demonstrations in north-east over bill excluding Muslims
Indian police have fired blanks on protesters as thousands ignored a curfew in the north-east of the country in fresh demonstrations against contentious new citizenship legislation.
Officials said on Thursday about 20 to 30 people have been hurt in the protests in recent days, with vehicles torched and police firing teargas and charging the crowds with heavy wooden sticks.
Continue reading...Bill will allow refugees from nearby states to become Indian but not if they are Muslims
Indian lawmakers have approved legislation granting citizenship to migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan – but not if they are Muslim. Critics of the government said the legislation undermines the country’s secular constitution, as protests against the law intensified in some parts of the country.
The citizenship amendment bill seeks to grant Indian nationality to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs who fled the three countries before 2015.
Continue reading...India’s supreme court has ruled that a Hindu temple can be built on the country’s most hotly contested religious site, ending a legal dispute that has run for decades between Hindus and Muslims.
The restoration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya was a key pledge of Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government. The ruling, which came just six months after his landslide election win, is another huge victory for India’s prime minister
Continue reading...Supreme court says site where mosque was torn down in 1992 should become Hindu temple
The Indian supreme court has ruled that India’s most hotly contested piece of religious land rightfully belongs to Hindus, and has granted permission for a temple to be built on the site in Ayodhya.
The five supreme court judges based their unanimous and historic judgment on Hindus’ claim that the site is the birthplace of the god Ram.
Continue reading...British Indian Aatish Taseer believes move is intended as a warning to other writers
A British Indian author and journalist has been stripped of his Indian citizenship after he wrote an article criticising the regime of the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi.
Aatish Taseer, who was born in the UK but raised in India and spent a further decade living there from the age of 25, was stripped of his overseas citizenship of India (OCI) status on Thursday.
Continue reading...Prime minister’s announcement of an end to open defecation in India marred by claims of coercion and violence
Narendra Modi is to declare that his flagship sanitation programme has ended open defecation in India, amid accusations that the scheme has sparked violence and abuse.
India’s prime minister will make the announcement on Wednesday at an event in his home state of Gujarat, attended by 20,000 village chiefs and international dignitaries, according to the government.
Continue reading...Narendra Modi defends actions in Kashmir and accuses Pakistan of ‘hatred towards India’
Narendra Modi defended his government’s actions in Kashmir and, in thinly-veiled remarks, accused Pakistan of harbouring terrorists during a packed rally in Texas attended by the US president Donald Trump.
Trump sat in the front row as the Indian prime minister told cheering crowds his decision to remove all autonomy from Indian-administered Kashmir would bring progress and better rights for its people.
Continue reading...Imran Khan will use UN address to highlight alleged atrocities carried out by Indian army
Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, is to follow a speech by his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, at the United Nations general assembly by accusing him of being complicit in the torture and mass detention of protesters in India-administered Kashmir.
Khan will use his address in New York next week to highlight alleged atrocities being carried out by the Indian army in the Jammu and Kashmir state since Modi’s government revoked the region’s autonomy by abrogating article 370 of the constitution.
Continue reading...People who cannot prove links to region from before 1971 face being sent to detention camps
Millions of people in north-eastern India could lose their citizenship on Saturday in what could become the biggest exercise in forced statelessness in living memory.
Human rights experts have raised serious concern over the drive against suspected illegal immigrants in the border state of Assam, warning it could create a humanitarian crisis that disproportionately affects Muslims and the region’s poorest communities.
Continue reading...Indian prime minister also spoke of growing up poor and developing a love of nature
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, joined Bear Grylls on the latter’s survival TV programme Man vs Wild to talk about his relationship with nature and growing up in a poor family, all the while crossing a freezing river on a flimsy raft.
In the episode broadcast in India on Monday, the two men were filmed on the riverbank of the country’s Jim Corbett National Park, with deer and a herd of elephants seen in the distance.
Continue reading...Pakistan PM remarks come as tensions rise over India’s removal of special status
The Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, has likened the Indian government to Nazis, warning that global inaction over Kashmir would be the same as appeasing Hitler.
His comments came as authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir reportedly reimposed some curfew rules in parts of the territory, following an easing of restrictions in Srinagar, the region’s main city, that had allowed people to visit shops over the weekend and attend Friday prayers.
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