Category Archives: India

India appears to confirm extrajudicial killings in Pakistan

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Defence minister’s comments after Guardian report are first time India has acknowledged any assassinations on foreign soil

India’s defence minister has appeared to confirm that the government carried out extrajudicial killings in neighbouring Pakistan, after a Guardian report on the alleged assassinations.

Intelligence officials from India and Pakistan who spoke to the Guardian had alleged that India’s foreign intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (Raw), had been involved in up to 20 killings of individuals in Pakistan since 2020, as part of a wider policy to target terrorists living on foreign soil.

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Indian government ordered killings in Pakistan, intelligence officials claim

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Allegations of up to 20 assassinations since 2020 follow Canada’s accusation of Delhi role in murders of dissidents

The Indian government assassinated individuals in Pakistan as part of a wider strategy to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil, according to Indian and Pakistani intelligence operatives who spoke to the Guardian.

Interviews with intelligence officials in both countries, as well as documents shared by Pakistani investigators, shed new light on how India’s foreign intelligence agency allegedly began to carry out assassinations abroad as part of an emboldened approach to national security after 2019. The agency, the Research & Analysis Wing (Raw), is directly controlled by the office of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, who is running for a third term in office in elections later this month.

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Delhi chief minister must stay in custody for another two weeks, court rules

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Opposition parties accuse government of ‘match fixing’ for elections over Arvind Kejriwal treatment

Delhi’s chief minister, a key opposition leader, must remain in custody for a further two weeks, a court has ruled, with India’s opposition parties accusing the government of “match fixing” before the country’s elections later this month.

On Monday, a court ruled that Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, could remain in judicial custody till 15 April and will be sent to Delhi’s notorious Tihar jail.

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India’s opposition protest against Modi’s ‘match-fixing’ before election

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Parties unite at New Dehli rally to accuse PM of ‘tax terrorism’ and rigging the vote, after arrest of prominent leader

Indian opposition parties united on Sunday to protest against the arrest of a prominent leader weeks before a national election, accusing the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and his party of rigging the vote and harassing them with large tax demands.

“Narendra Modi is trying match-fixing in this election,” the leader of the opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, told a rally in New Delhi, as the crowd chanted “shame”.

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India summons envoy after US criticises Delhi chief minister’s arrest

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Calls for fair legal process for opposition figure Arvind Kejriwal amid claims rivals to Modi are being targeted before elections

Arvind Kejriwal: the Delhi chief minister jailed by Modi’s government

The chief minister of Delhi has been remanded in custody for a further four days amid international criticism of his arrest on corruption charges last week.

A Delhi court ruled on Thursday that a powerful central government agency could keep Arvind Kejriwal in jail until 1 April as part of a corruption investigation his party decried as a “political conspiracy” before national elections beginning next month.

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Delhi chief minister to be held for six days after arrest on corruption charges

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Judge says Arvind Kejriwal can be held until next Thursday, as his party’s leaders condemn accusations as politically motivated

An Indian court has ruled that Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, will be kept in custody for six days after his dramatic arrest on corruption charges.

Kejriwal, the top elected official for the Indian capital, was taken in by police on Thursday night as part of an investigation into an alleged scam involving kickbacks for alcohol licensing deals.

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Indian opposition claim ‘conspiracy’ as Delhi chief minister arrested

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Aam Aadmi party leader Arvind Kejriwal is held as part of corruption case a month before elections

Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, has been arrested in a corruption case, a move condemned by his party as a “conspiracy” by Narendra Modi’s government to target the opposition before next month’s elections.

Kejriwal, who is the leader of the Aam Aadmi party (AAP) and has been Delhi’s chief minister since 2015, was arrested at his home on Thursday night by a dozen officers from the enforcement directorate (ED), an investigating agency under central government control.

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India to hold world’s biggest election in seven stages from April

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Modi favourite to win third term in largest democratic exercise in history held across six weeks

India is to hold a national election in April it has been announced, in what will be the world’s largest election with nearly a billion people eligible to vote.

Many consider Modi’s re-election a foregone conclusion, owing to both the premier’s robust popularity a decade after taking office and a glaringly uneven playing field.

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UK and India put free trade deal talks on ice until later this year

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Latest round of negotiations end without breakthrough and talks will not resume until after India’s election campaign

The UK and India have closed their 14th round of trade negotiations without reaching a deal and will put the discussions on ice until later this year.

The UK government ended the latest round of talks on Friday night after two weeks of intensive negotiations with Indian officials failed to bear fruit.

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Narendra Modi’s BJP given £570m under scheme allowing anonymous donations

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Party of Indian prime minister was by far biggest beneficiary of electoral bonds, which were struck down as unconstitutional

India’s election commission has published details of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of political donations, exposing how much prime minister Narendra Modi’s party benefited from a controversial financing scheme.

According to the data that was released, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) received more than 60bn rupees (£570m) in donations through a scheme known as electoral bonds, which the Modi government introduced in 2017.

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India blocks access to documentary about death of Sikh activist in Canada

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CBC aired an investigation into the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose killing the Canadian government suspects India was behind

India has ordered prominent video-sharing platforms to block access to a new Canadian documentary probing the assassination of a prominent Sikh activist in Vancouver, in a move that highlights India’s mounting frustration with the allegations its government was behind the high-profile killing.

The request marks the second time in just over a year that India has sought to block a documentary critical of the Indian government or its leader, Narendra Modi. In 2023, India used emergency laws to block the distribution of the BBC documentary India: The Modi Question.

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Google restricts AI chatbot Gemini from answering questions on 2024 elections

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Change, made out of ‘abundance of caution’, now applies to US and India and will roll out in nations where elections are held this year

Google is restricting its Gemini AI chatbot from answering election-related questions in countries where voting is taking place this year, limiting users from receiving information about candidates, political parties and other elements of politics.

“Out of an abundance of caution on such an important topic, we have begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses,” Google’s India team stated on the company’s site.

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India enacts citizenship law criticised as ‘discriminatory’ to Muslims

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Citizenship amendment act grants Indian nationality to refugees who are Hindu, Christian, Parsi, Jain or Buddhist, but not Muslim

The Indian government has enacted a divisive citizenship law that critics say discriminates against Muslims, just weeks before prime minister Narendra Modi heads into a general election.

The law, known as the citizenship amendment act (CAA), was one of the most controversial pieces of legislation proposed by the Modi government after it explicitly made religion the basis on which people could become Indian citizens.

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Narendra Modi visits Kashmir for first time since state’s autonomy stripped

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Thousands of police mobilised for Srinagar rally seen as Modi’s campaign event for elections

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has made his first visit to Kashmir since the government revoked the region’s autonomy in 2019, claiming the state was finally “breathing freely” despite allegations of systematic repression.

Thousands of police and paramilitary officers were mobilised before Modi’s first rally there for more than five years, held in the state’s largest city, Srinagar.

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UK negotiators fly to India in last-ditch effort to seal free-trade deal

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Exclusive: Team will try to resolve goods and services issues amid fears Delhi is holding out for a Labour government

British negotiators have flown to India in a last-ditch attempt to clinch a trade deal amid concerns that Narendra Modi’s administration intends to hold out for a Labour government.

A team of negotiators led by a senior civil servant flew out on Monday with a mandate to resolve the goods and services chapters, which are among the thorniest outstanding issues in the talks.

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Indian train drivers in crash that killed 14 were watching cricket, minister says

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Collision in Andhra Pradesh state in October took place as India played England during one-day World Cup

The drivers of a train that missed a signal and ploughed into another train, killing 14 people, were distracted because they were watching cricket on a phone, India’s railways minister has said.

The fatal collision in Andhra Pradesh state in October took place as hosts India played England during the one-day World Cup.

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Politicians from 12 countries unite to press for arms ban on Israel

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Letter aims to bring public anger over 30,000 deaths of Palestinians in Gaza into heart of parliaments

More than 200 MPs from 12 countries have committed themselves to trying to persuade their governments to impose a ban on arms sales to Israel, arguing they will not be complicit in “Israel’s grave violation of international law” in its assault on Gaza.

The letter, organised by Progressive International, a network of socialist MPs and activists focused on international justice, is seen as the best practical measure possible to bring public anger over the 30,000 deaths of Palestinians in Gaza into the heart of parliaments, where calls for an immediate unconditional ceasefire have so far fallen on deaf ears or been rejected by national governments.

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Tata confirms Somerset will be home to £4bn battery factory

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Indian conglomerate says gigafactory in Bridgwater will bring about 4,000 jobs to region

The Indian conglomerate Tata has confirmed Bridgwater in Somerset as the site of its new £4bn battery factory, which will bring about 4,000 jobs to the region.

Tata’s battery business, Agratas, said it had bought land at the Gravity Smart campus off the M5, just outside the town.

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‘Why are you asleep?’ Rahul Gandhi pleads with India’s low castes to vote out Modi

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On his 4,000-mile march across the country, congressman tells voters to wake up to the vast gulf between them and the rich

His voice hoarse from all the speeches he had made during his 4,000-mile march across the breadth of India, Rahul Gandhi urged people at a rally in Uttar Pradesh state to think hard.

Specifically, to think hard about caste. “Are there any of you Dalits or other low castes in the judiciary?” the leading face of India’s opposition Congress party, asked the crowd. “Are any of you in the media? Do any of you own even one of India’s 200 top companies? Of the civil servant class which rules this country, are any of you among them?

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India confronts Google over Gemini AI tool’s ‘fascist Modi’ responses

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Junior minister accuses tech firm of violating country’s IT laws with ‘downright malicious’ answers

A response from Google’s AI platform suggesting that some experts believe the policies of the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, polices to be “fascist” has provoked a confrontation between the company and the government.

The journalist Arnab Ray last week put the question as to whether Modi was a fascist to Google’s generative AI platform, Gemini. He received the answer that Modi was “accused of implementing policies some experts have characterized as fascist”.

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