India

By Zoya Mateen Published 1 day ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Police in the Indian capital, Delhi, have made three new arrests in connection with the killing of singer Sidhu Moose Wala. The Punjabi rapper, who is credited with popularising rap in rural areas, was shot dead on 29 May when his car was ambushed by unidentified gunmen. His death sparked deep anger and outrage as fans from across the world mourned the loss of the eclectic pop star. On Sunday, police seemed to have made a breakthrough in the case, when they arrested two men suspected of being the "two main shooters" and another suspect from the western state of Gujarat. At a press conference on Monday, HS Dhaliwal, commissioner of Delhi police's special cell investigating the killing, alleged that the three men had carried out multiple recces before killing Moose Wala - the rapper was hit by 24 … [Read more...] about Sidhu Moose Wala: What we know about India rapper’s murder

By Rajini Vaidyanathan and Dilnawaz Pasha Published 5 days ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing A video showing Indian police beating a group of Muslims in custody has been viewed by millions after it was shared by an elected member of the ruling BJP party who praised their brutal actions as a "gift" to the men. No action has been taken against the officers involved. The families of those who were attacked say their loved ones are innocent and should be freed. "This is my brother, they are beating him a lot, he's screaming so much." Zeba breaks down in tears, hands shaking, as she holds her mobile phone to watch a harrowing video of her younger sibling Saif. "I can't even look at this, he's being hit so badly," she says, as she's comforted by relatives at her home in the north Indian city of Saharanpur. The distressing footage shows two Indian policemen … [Read more...] about Nupur Sharma protests: The police brutality video that shocked India

By Geeta Pandey Published 2 days ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Bulldozers, invented 100 years ago, have been used across the world to build homes, offices, roads and other infrastructures. But in recent years, many say, they have become a weapon in the hands of India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to destroy homes and livelihoods of the minority Muslim community. And nowhere are these excavators more visible than in the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh state. Their latest outing was last Sunday when authorities in the city of Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad) tore down the home of political activist Javed Mohammad, alleging that it had been illegally built - a claim his family denied . Critics said the real reason behind the demolition had nothing to do with the alleged illegality of the building and that he was being punished … [Read more...] about How bulldozers became a vehicle of injustice in India

Soutik Biswas Published 8 June Share close Share page Copy link About sharing In April 2020 allegations about a Muslim congregation sparking a cluster of Covid-19 cases in India quickly took an Islamophobic turn. Thousands of preachers from home and abroad had attended the gathering in Delhi by the Tablighi Jamaat , a near-100 year-old Islamic missionary movement. Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government called it a "super-spreader event". Islamophobic memes and hashtags blaming the group for spreading the virus trended on social media, and news networks broadcast incendiary headlines such as "Save the country from Corona jihad". India charged nearly a thousand people who attended the congregation for flouting lockdown protocols. (Eight months later, courts had acquitted the last of the detained preachers, saying they had been "maliciously … [Read more...] about Nupur Sharma: How Islamophobia is hurting India’s foreign policy

Published 10 October 2016 Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Last week, Indian police said they had arrested a pigeon carrying an abusive note from Pakistan. Indian author Shovon Chowdhury explains the bizarre turn of events - from a satirist's point of view. I blame my mobile service provider for the pigeons. They haven't been providing much service. In our house in Delhi, we can only make calls if we stick the phone out of a particular bedroom window, and hold it just so. We're not the only ones. On Sunday mornings, it's quite common to see many of our neighbours out in the street trying to make phone calls. It's quite sweet. We nod and smile at each other. In a world that is becoming increasingly inhuman, we are being brought closer. This helps to explain why some patriotic Pakistanis attached a message for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a pigeon, and sent it across … [Read more...] about Viewpoint: How India deals with the scourge of ‘terrorist pigeons’

By Geeta Pandey Published 6 hours ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing When Ranjani Sharma told her husband that she was considering sterilisation, he initially tried to dissuade her. "He said it may impact your health adversely," the 27-year-old mother-of-three told me on the phone from her home on the outskirts of the northern Indian city of Lucknow. But, Ms Sharma said she was fed up. The couple had decided they didn't want any more children and had been using condoms to avoid pregnancy. But it was not a "foolproof method" and when she conceived - twice - she took over-the-counter abortion pills. "I had heavy bleeding, my head would spin, I had blackouts and I was listless and tired all the time. So I told him that sterilisation would be better than taking these blighted pills," she said. The couple considered whether it was her husband who should instead get … [Read more...] about NFHS-5: Why birth control remains a woman’s burden in India

By Zoya Mateen Published 3 days ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Politics in India has once again moved from legislative assemblies to luxurious hotels. The latest spectacle is playing out in India's richest state, Maharashtra. Around 40 lawmakers - led by influential minister Eknath Shinde - are holed up in an upmarket hotel thousands of miles away from home in Guwahati city in the north-eastern state of Assam. India's democratic process allows any party that can prove it has a majority - over the halfway mark in legislatures - to form a government. So when electoral margins are low, governments - especially coalitions - run the risk of having the rug pulled from under their feet by rival parties and sometimes by their own disgruntled lawmakers. This can lead to what is described as "resort politics" - where a political party rounds up lawmakers and takes them to a … [Read more...] about Maharashtra: What is India’s ‘luxury resort politics’?

Published 4 days ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing India's richest state, Maharashtra, is witnessing high political drama that has put the fate of its government in jeopardy. Around 35 lawmakers - led by an influential state minister, Eknath Shinde - are holed up in a hotel in Guwahati city in the north-eastern state of Assam, thousands of kilometres away from Maharashtra. They belong to the Shiv Sena party, which is currently governing Maharashtra as part of a coalition with the Congress party and the regional Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Mr Shinde - who has been part of the Shiv Sena for decades - claims that he is acting in the interests of his party. But his rebellion has brought the state's government to the brink of collapse. On Wednesday night, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray - who also heads the Shiv Sena - left his official residence after delivering an … [Read more...] about Maharashtra: The political crisis brewing in India’s richest state

Soutik Biswas Published 14 November 2019 Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Politics makes for strange bedfellows. And India's untidy electoral politics sometimes throws up unusual, unintended consequences. Consider the recent elections in Maharashtra, the country's richest state. Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP emerged as the single largest party, winning 105 of the 288 seats in the state assembly. Its long-time ally and ideological bedfellow, Shiva Sena, got 56 seats. The two parties have been allies for nearly three decades, and a coalition government looked like a foregone conclusion. The two main opposition parties - the regional Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with 55 seats and the enfeebled Congress which only won 44 seats - lagged way behind. But the Sena, the junior partner, had other ideas. It demanded it should share the chief minister's position … [Read more...] about Maharashtra: The unravelling of India’s BJP and Shiv Sena alliance

By Nikhil Inamdar Published 1 February Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has ramped up spending on infrastructure, and extended credit guarantees to small businesses as Asia's third-largest economy struggles to pull off an equitable post-Covid recovery. The announcements were part of the annual budget Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented in parliament on Tuesday - it came amid low demand, job losses, high inflation and a wave of Omicron cases. The government has come under criticism for not doing enough to address the problem of a "two-speed recovery" - high growth concentrated at the top of the pyramid and elevated levels of stress in the country's vast informal economy. Ms Sitharaman's response appears to be a mammoth spending plan while marginally trimming the country's steep fiscal deficit, the gap between how much … [Read more...] about India budget: Is it enough to revive the Covid-hit economy?