#narendra modi virtual rally

[gazetteweekly]

Today in Politics: PM Modi's Post-Budget Address, Kejriwal Rally, and Assembly Drama

PM Modi to Address CII Post-Budget Conference

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to speak at the “Journey Towards Viksit Bharat: A Post Union Budget 2024–25 Conference” organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Delhi on Tuesday. The conference will showcase the government’s vision for growth and the role of industry in achieving it. Over 1,000 participants from various sectors, including industry, government, and diplomacy, will attend in person, with many more joining virtually from across the country and abroad.

Opposition Rally for Kejriwal’s Release

Meanwhile, at Jantar Mantar, the opposition-led INDIA bloc is holding a rally organized by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to protest the continued detention of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Despite his declining health, Kejriwal remains incarcerated in the now-defunct liquor policy case. The rally, featuring Congress, SP, RJD, TMC, DMK, CPI, CPI(M-L), NCP (SP), and Shiv Sena (UBT), aims to demonstrate opposition unity. AAP has accused the BJP of attempting to harm Kejriwal, citing medical reports of his deteriorating health.

Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, who is attending the rally, will miss the farewell event for outgoing Governor Banwarilal Purohit. Purohit, who has had a contentious relationship with Mann, will be replaced by Gulab Chand Kataria.

Rajasthan Assembly Turmoil

In BJP-ruled Rajasthan, opposition parties, led by Congress and the Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP), have caused disruptions in the Assembly over allegations of crimes against Dalits. The Assembly faced three adjournments on Monday, with Speaker Vasudev Devnani promising to address these concerns during Zero Hour. Key issues raised included the murder of a Dalit teacher and various alleged atrocities against Dalits.

Jharkhand Assembly Chaos

In Jharkhand, where a JMM-led alliance is in power, the Assembly experienced chaos as BJP MLAs raised concerns over alleged Bangladeshi infiltration and atrocities against tribals. The disruptions led to multiple adjournments, with further confrontations expected as the Assembly reconvenes. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma’s strategy to focus on these issues ahead of upcoming state polls continues to drive the BJP’s stance.

Assam’s Welfare Review

In Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is reviewing the progress of ongoing welfare projects with ministers, senior officials, and district commissioners in Guwahati. Sarma has emphasized the need for DCs to focus on their districts’ strengths and expedite construction of government buildings and development projects. The newly created sub-districts will begin operations on October 2, with foundation stones for their permanent offices to be laid.

Himachal Congress Leadership Changes

In Himachal Pradesh, Congress MP Pratibha Singh is in Delhi to meet with party president Mallikarjun Kharge. Singh, who also serves as the state Congress president, will present a detailed report on recent Lok Sabha and Assembly byelections and discuss potential changes to the party’s state organizational structure.

[newz-archive]

Modi’s Southern Sojourn: A Strategic Push with Artificial Intelligence

In a whirlwind series of visits spanning the past 10 days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has orchestrated an unprecedented outreach to the five southern states of India. From bustling roadshows to solemn inaugurations, Modi’s presence has been felt both physically and virtually, unveiling development projects worth over Rs 6,000 crore. The timing couldn’t be more critical as the BJP and the NDA gear up for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections with ambitious targets in mind.

Over the course of his journey, Modi has crisscrossed Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana multiple times. Each stop strategically chosen, each event meticulously planned. Just recently, he graced Palakkad in Kerala and addressed a rally in Salem, Tamil Nadu. His schedule doesn’t relent, as he moves from public meetings in Telangana to Karnataka, culminating in a stirring roadshow in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

The BJP’s stronghold in the South has historically been confined to Karnataka, but Modi’s relentless efforts signal a shift in dynamics. The party’s aspirations soar high, aiming to secure a substantial foothold in the region. Prakash Javadekar, Kerala in-charge for the BJP, exudes confidence, predicting the party’s emergence as the single largest force in South India.

But Modi’s strategy extends beyond mere physical presence. Leveraging technology like machine learning, the BJP is bridging linguistic gaps by translating the PM’s speeches into local languages. This strategic move ensures that Modi’s message resonates deeply with diverse audiences across the region.

Even before the Model Code of Conduct took effect, Modi was on a spree, virtually inaugurating projects and laying foundations, seamlessly connecting with the South from various corners of India. Whether it’s launching Vande Bharat trains or unveiling highway projects, Modi’s vision for Southern development knows no bounds.

Noteworthy is Modi’s “gifting spree” in February, where he inaugurated a plethora of projects ranging from educational institutions to infrastructure upgrades. The gesture was not just symbolic; it was a testament to the government’s commitment to Southern progress.

Moreover, the announcement of Bharat Ratna for the late M S Swaminathan, a revered agricultural scientist from Tamil Nadu, underscores the government’s recognition of Southern contributions to the nation’s growth.

In Modi’s Southern sojourn, every move is calculated, every step forward meticulously planned. As the landscape of Indian politics undergoes a transformation, Modi’s strategic push backed by artificial intelligence underscores a commitment to inclusivity and progress for all corners of the nation.

[xtruss]

Ravish Kumar, centre, with World’s Most Wanted Criminal Fascist Hindu Extremist Narendra Modi, left, and a BJP rally in Kolkata, right. Photograph: Observer Design

Media: ‘Resistance Is Possible’: Ravish Kumar, The Broadcaster Risking His Life To Tell The Truth About Extremist Hindus’ Fascist India​ (The Largest Hypocrisy of the World) Today​

The eminent journalist’s fearless reporting on India under Narendra Modi cost him his job and freedom. Now broadcasting to millions on YouTube, he is the subject of a new documentary

— BY Tim Adams | Sunday 02 July 2023 | The Guardian USA

Ravish Kumar was born near the same Indian city – Motihari in Bihar – as George Orwell. In his early years as a TV journalist and nightly news anchor, Kumar did not imagine that he would live to be part of a modern-day Nineteen Eighty-Four nightmare. But that changed almost a decade ago with the election of Narendra Modi’s government in India. In the years since then, Kumar has become an increasingly lone voice of truth-telling in an Indian media landscape in thrall to the Hindu nationalist politics of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP). Kumar’s one-man campaign to maintain journalistic integrity, as mainstream news organisations became promoters of politicised fake news, earned him the “Nobel prize of Asia,” the Ramon Magsaysay award, in 2019. It also led to an unending campaign of harassment and death threats from government supporters.

Kumar, the Indian equivalent of, say, Jeremy Paxman in his prime, finally resigned from his post at NDTV in New Delhi last November, after the station was taken over by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, a close friend of Modi. He now lives in virtual hiding with his family and broadcasts through a personal YouTube channel. His story, one of repression in modern India and of the existential crisis in truth-telling worldwide, is the subject of an urgently compelling documentary, While We Watched.

Ravish Kumar in While We Watched. Photograph: Ⓒ Britdoc Films

The director of that documentary, Vinay Shukla, tells me he knew he had to make his film when he turned on to watch Kumar’s news show back in 2018: Kumar interrupted the bulletin to berate his own viewers, telling them they had to start questioning the lies they were being fed, had to stop watching TV and look for information from other more reliable sources. “Most news presenters are always praising their audience, saying: ‘We are here to serve you’ and so on,” Shukla says. “Ravish, on the contrary, was chastising his audience, saying: ‘You’re the problem.’ I could see that here was an unusual protagonist – this huge figure in the [Indian] media – who has begun to wonder if the society for whom he is doing this work even cares for him any more.”

For the next two years, Shukla, who had previously made an award-winning documentary about the creation and struggle of an Indian opposition party, An Insignificant Man, essentially moved in with Kumar, filming him five days a week over that period. The result is an intimate portrait of a man struggling to preserve his conscience and freedom in the face of overwhelming hostility and political and commercial cynicism; a man trying, in Orwell’s terms, at 9pm every night, to tell the nation that two plus two actually equals four.

When I speak to Ravish Kumar himself on a long Zoom call, he describes himself now being “in exile” in his own country. He assumes our call is being monitored by his tormentors; before he joined it, he received the usual anonymous texts saying: “We will see you.” Once he left NDTV in November, he became “persona non grata” in Indian media, he says. He continues to try to get at the truth in the world’s largest democracy, researching and writing “about 8,000 words a day” for his YouTube broadcasts.

I wonder, looking back, when he first felt that things were falling apart? “It was June or July 2014,” he says. “I sensed that a kind of avalanche was coming in Indian media. At that time, many of my colleagues would say: ‘Well, power comes and power goes.’ And: ‘We have enough experience, Ravish, we have seen many leaders.’ But my gut was saying: ‘No, this is not something that has happened before. Something new is coming.’ In a very short span of time, the structures of newsrooms were demolished completely. That was not done step by step. It was done in one go.”

Shukla’s film contrasts Kumar’s meticulous efforts at reporting sectarian violence, or the desperate conditions in rural villages, with the shouty populist news channel Republic, which quickly became the Fox News of Indian media after Modi was elected prime minister. Republic’s excitable presenters are seen to fuel division and mistrust of the Country’s Minority (200 million) Muslim Population, to Routinely Call Political Opponents of the BJP Traitors, to promote Warmongering Against Pakistan and to neglect to report on the complex issues faced by ordinary Indians. In its manufactured culture wars and unhinged sloganeering, it is, you sense, the channel GB News aspires to be.

Now 51, Kumar, a history graduate, had by 2014 been at NDTV for 15 years, having risen from the mail room to become its most trusted and recognisable face. For a long time, the station supported his mission to call out what was happening elsewhere in the media. “NDTV started running a campaign that said: ‘We do not profit from hate,’” he says. “The owners were trying to save their core values. But in that process, everything became very tough. It was very tedious to always defend themselves.” Within the station, Kumar occasionally came under pressure to moderate his tone. “But if I said no to an editor,” he says, “they took it at once that this is my final word.”

The aftermath of sectarian clashes in Delhi in February 2020 between Hindus and Muslims protesting a contentious new citizenship law. Photograph: Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP

Did it come as a shock to him how shallow the ethical foundations of much of the media proved to be? “I wasn’t shocked,” he says, “but I was very pained and deeply hurt that no one stood up to stop this. A lot of [journalists] started making adjustments and those adjustments led them into that room with no windows, only the voice of command, saying: ‘You have to do this.’ And that is what they did.”

The film records something of the inside story of that playbook of fake news that we have all witnessed happening in plain sight: the undermining of properly sourced information across social media, the seeding of conspiracy theories, the targeting of individual journalists and organisations. There were, and remain, pockets of resistance to this pressure, Kumar insists: “But the force of avalanche was such that nobody was untouched in their newsroom, whether he was a senior reporter or whether he was an intern.”

“I’m a very fearful person. I wasn’t ready to handle that mental trauma. It destroyed me.”

Kumar’s eventual resignation is referenced in the recent scathing Index on Censorship report into the escalating repression by Modi’s populist government. “It has the structures of democracy but it has weakened democracy’s functions… it has a media which is eager to demonstrate how nationalistic and patriotic it is in order to curry favour with the ruling party.”

That determination is fuelled in part by fear. Seven journalists are now in prison in India and many more have been subject to targeted harassment; eight journalists at the Wire website were charged with sedition in 2021 for reporting that the family of a protester, killed at an anti-government rally, believed he was shot by police. Other news organisations have been subject to blackouts, while some have been raided by police, including the BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai, which appear to have been singled out after the corporation produced a two-part investigation into Modi’s alleged history in sectarian violence. India – the world’s most populous nation – has been consequently sliding down the UN’s human rights tables; among the top 10 nations that jails writers and journalists, it is the only “Nominally Democratic” one, according to PEN, the international charity that supports freedom of expression.

A threat received by Ravish Kumar, as shown in While We Watched. Photograph: Britdoc Films

Shukla’s film examines the effect that the wider climate had on Kumar’s mental health. “I’m a very fearful person,” he insists, in the face of plenty of evidence to the contrary. “I had this strong feeling that I should not do anything immoral, but I wasn’t ready to handle that mental process. It destroyed me. When they launched [the continuous] attacks on me on social media, I could not handle it. I was very terrified, petrified. NDTV understood I needed security – but I also needed counselling. I stopped sleeping. I was awake all the time assessing the threat to my life and my family.”

In addition to the constant wave of texts and calls from people promising to cut his throat, Kumar was pushed around in the street while working. On one occasion he was chased down the road by men with clubs and iron bars, only just making it to his car. The family – his wife is an academic and they have two teenage daughters – stopped going out together; on the rare occasions they did, he would walk on the other side of the street so they would not all be subjected to any attack.

“If TV news is designed to desensitise you, I wanted to use the same form and sensitise people.” — Vinay Shukla, director

Watching all that again on Shukla’s film, he says, was almost too much for him to bear. “The first time, I had to shut my eyes because I could not see myself again, going through that process. My daughters haven’t watched it yet,” he says, “My wife saw it and she was very saddened too, but she’s a rational person. She said that people who watched the film would be able to see the story of any journalist, not just me.” He smiles a little ruefully. “The other thing I was surprised and amused about,” he says, “was that I finally saw what Vinay had been doing filming me for so many months and years. I used to tell him every day that my life was not exciting: who wants to watch a man get up from the bed and go to work?”

Director Vinay Shukla.

The director trusts that his story has a wider reference than that. “I think of the film,” Shukla says, “as my love letter to journalism, so that people understand, really, the price that proper journalists have to pay to be able to do their job. We are living in a time of disinformation. The dehumanisation of journalists is [part of that].”

Shukla is just about of the generation who came of age with social media. “I used to watch the news,” he says. “But it used to make me anxious all the time.” Much of that anxiety, he suggests, is built-in with the attention deficit structure of television news channels, which jump quickly between crisis and disaster and outrage. He has used the fast-cut techniques for his own film – but in order to dwell thoughtfully on a single life. “There are lots of quick cuts [in While We Watched] but I was hoping to have the opposite impact. If TV news is designed to desensitise you, I wanted to use the same form and sensitise people, to do the complete opposite.”

He sees an increasing desire for that kind of slowness and depth of inquiry among an emerging generation of Indian documentary-makers, who are using the form as a counterpoint to the noisy chatter of the mainstream media; presenting proper complexity as a political act. Kumar recognises that opportunity and is encouraged to be exhibit A in it.

“I hope that whoever watches this film will see that resistance is possible,” he says. In the film, he insists that even if one person witnesses the truth, then the political and sectarian lies cannot prevail. “I have a very deep sense of gratitude to the community of viewers who support me,” he says. “They offered me anything, from a car, to a house, to money, to food. We do not know how many journalists have sacrificed their lives around the world to save this profession. I hope this film brings a ray of hope that it is not easy to kill journalism.”

The film is released in the UK and the US this month. Shukla is working hard to get it shown in India, lobbying cinemas and streaming platforms, referencing the documentary awards it has won at the Toronto international film festival and elsewhere. Still, as Kumar says, the culture of fear is such that: “I can’t imagine that anyone is saying: ‘Bring your film, I will put your big poster for it on the front of my cinema hall.’” Even so, he suggests, he is confident that the film will be seen: “Lots and lots of people have been asking me how they will be able to see this film in India. Everyone should watch this film. Mr Modi should watch this film.”

A video on Kumar’s YouTube channel, which has more than 6m subscribers. Photograph: Ravish Kumar / Youtube

Kumar is not hopeful that fundamental changes in the news media in India – equivalent to the dismantling of the BBC – can be reversed. The vested interests, including at his old channel NDTV, are now too great. The politically favoured billionaires have taken over.

There’s a point in the film where he suggests that “people don’t question what they see on TV”. Given some of the extremes of what they now see, does he imagine that they may start to question that more? “To destroy Indian democracy,” Kumar says, “Indian media destroyed itself first. And it’s now very difficult to change this, even if there is a regime change. The news anchors who are spreading hate lies will not go away overnight. This media will never return for democracy. That’s gone.”

He does believe, however, that politics may find a way to bypass those structures. “The problem with social media,” he says, “is that it is rarely getting first-hand information. In India – and elsewhere – we have seen that social media can run in parallel and [amplify] compromised mainstream media. For this reason, the political opposition in India is going for a lot of mass contact. Rahul Gandhi [the former president of the Indian National Congress party], for example, is constantly on the road. Rallies, meetings, travelling by bus, by car, on foot. I cannot give a deadline that next year’s election, 2024, will mark the sunrise of new democracy. But I can see that the force of those who believe in democracy is multiplying at a fast rate.”

How, I wonder, before he finishes our call, is that colonial son Orwell viewed these days in his home town? “There is a museum to him,” Kumar says. “But most people are not very aware. It’s funny, over the years, I started talking about Nineteen Eighty-Four in my various programmes. Recently, the book has been translated into Hindi, along with Animal Farm. When [Donald] Trump was elected in the United States, I remember that Nineteen Eighty-Four suddenly became a very popular book to read and to buy.”

Perhaps, he suggests, that appetite will also be awakened in India. If so, the film of his life makes the perfect primer.

— “While We Watched” is in UK Cinemas from 14 July

[delhinewsinenglish]

PM Modi sounds poll bugle in Himachal, literally

https://www.dailypioneer.com/2022/top-stories/pm-modi-sounds-poll-bugle-in-himachal--literally.html

The previous governments only laid foundation stones and forgot about the actual projects once the elections were over, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Wednesday as he sounded the poll bugle – literally -- in Himachal Pradesh.

At a rally held here Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur presented the PM with a “Ransingha”, a trumpet-like traditional instrument. Modi played it and later said, “This marks the beginning of each future victory.”

He said the BJP government not only lays the stones but also inaugurates the development projects.

He was addressing the meeting at the Luhnu ground after inaugurating an AIIMS hospital and a hydro engineering college, the foundations stones for which were laid by him in 2017.

The BJP government in Himachal Pradesh hopes to return to power after the assembly polls before this year-end.

Modi headed next to Kullu to witness the Dussehra celebrations there.

The PM was scheduled to visit Mandi in the state on September 24, but couldn't make it to the rally venue due to bad weather. He had then addressed it virtually.

Modi said Bilaspur has got a “double gift” of development with the inauguration of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Hydro Engineering College. “I am fortunate to have been a part of Himachal Pradesh's development journey,” he said.

He said development in the state has been possible because its people voted the BJP to power both at Centre and in the state.

Modi began his speech with the slogan “Jai Mata Naina Deviji”, the temple to which is located in Bilaspur district itself. He also extended Dussehra greetings.

He said Himachal Pradesh plays a crucial role in 'Rashtra Raksha' (national security) and now with the new AIIMS in Bilaspur, it will also play a pivotal role in 'Jeevan Raksha' (saving lives).

Modi said there were only three medical colleges in Himachal Pradesh in 2014. Eight more medical colleges and the AIIMS have been set up in the last eight years, he added.

He said the state can benefit much from medical tourism.

Modi congratulated Himachal for becoming the first state to formulate a drone policy. Drones will be used for transportation of medicines and other goods, he added.

He said his government is ensuring 'Ease of Living' for the poor and the middle class.

Speaking at the same rally, BJP president J P Nadda asked if any Congress prime minister had laid a foundation stone and then inaugurated the same project. Modi had laid the foundation stone for the Bilaspur AIIMS in October 2017 and for the college in April the same year.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said Himachal Pradesh got projects worth Rs 10,000 crore from the PM.

He said after Modi became prime minister the trend of states electing different parties every election has changed. He predicted that Himachal Pradesh will see a similar result next.

The AIIMS in Bilaspur has been built under the Centre's Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana and cost Rs 1, 470 crore.

It is described as a state-of-the-art hospital with 18 specialty and 17 super specialty departments, 18 operation theatres and 750 beds, 64 of them in the ICU.

Spread over 247 acres, the hospital also has a Centre for Digital Health to provide health services in hard to access tribal areas. It will also hold health camps in remote places like Kaza, Saluni, and Keylong.

The hospital will admit 100 students to its MBBS courses and 60 to the nursing courses every year, authorities said.

Nadda inaugurated its outpatient department (OPD) last December, when the remaining facilities were still coming up.

Apart from launching the hospital and the college, Modi laid the foundation stones or inaugurated other development projects at Wednesday's event. Altogether, the projects are worth Rs 3, 650 crore today.

He then travelled to Kullu to see the rath yatra and the grand assembly of the deities, part of the Kullu Dussehra celebrations.

[todaynewsguru]

‘It is the priority of the BJP to encourage the youth,’ Modi addresses youth rally in poll-bound Himachal

‘It is the priority of the BJP to encourage the youth,’ Modi addresses youth rally in poll-bound Himachal

It is the priority of the BJP to encourage the youth, PM Narendra Modi said while addressing a virtual rally in youth rally in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh today. Modi, who couldn’t attend the rally in person due to bad weather said be it sports or art, the enthusiasm and skills of the youth of Himachal Pradesh are benefitting the nation. He also added that he will surely go will meet the people…

[lok-shakti]

UP Chunav: ये कागजी समाजवादी, सिर्फ सपने देखते हैं परिवारवादी...वर्चुअल रैली में अखिलेश पर बरसे PM मोदी

UP Chunav: ये कागजी समाजवादी, सिर्फ सपने देखते हैं परिवारवादी…वर्चुअल रैली में अखिलेश पर बरसे PM मोदी

नोएडा: प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी (PM Narendra Modi) ने शुक्रवार को अपनी दूसरी वर्चुअल चुनावी रैली (Virtual Election Rally) में एक बार फिर समाजवादी पार्टी और अखिलेश यादव को निशाने पर रखा। मेरठ, गाजियाबाद, अलीगढ़, हापुड़ और नोएडा की 23 विधानसभाओं को डिजिटली संबोधित करते हुए पीएम मोदी ने लगातार अपने भाषण में योगी सरकार की तारीफ और पूववर्ती सरकारों पर हमला बोला। पीएम मोदी ने कहा कि यूपी का ये चुनाव इस…

[netionaldastak]

BJP Gearing Up Digitally for UP Polls Amidst Covid Surge

BJP Gearing Up Digitally for UP Polls Amidst Covid Surge

BJP in Uttar Pradesh is planning 3D Studio Mix Technology and audio conferencing to reach maximum people ‘digitally’ amidst anticipation that big physical rallies and road shows may be restricted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in wake of the rising Covid-19 cases . Senior party leaders have discussed the ‘digital strategy’ with the BJP unit in Uttar Pradesh over the last few days,…

[24x7newsbengal]

PM Modi cancels Friday's Bengal visit, to address election rallies virtually

PM Modi cancels Friday’s Bengal visit, to address election rallies virtually

Image Source : PTI Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an election campaign rally for West Bengal state assembly polls at Barasat, in North 24 Parganas. PM Narendra Modi, who cancelled his Friday’s visit to Bengal, will virtually address a poll rally in the state tomorrow at 5 pm. The Prime Minister was scheduled to address four rallies in the poll bound state but had cancelled them as he would…

[newsoreo]

PM Modi Spoke 'Lie' on Chinese Incursion, 'Insulted' Soldiers: Rahul Gandhi at Bihar Virtual Rally

PM Modi Spoke ‘Lie’ on Chinese Incursion, ‘Insulted’ Soldiers: Rahul Gandhi at Bihar Virtual Rally

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File photo of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Gandhi charged the Modi government with destroying all institutions in collusion with the RSS and asserted that the Congress must shoulder the responsibility of uniting the opposition.

PTI

Last Updated: August 6, 2020, 8:31 PM IST

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of telling a…

[newsoutbursts]

Mamata Banerjee rakes up NRC, NPR at martyrs' day rally

Mamata Banerjee rakes up NRC, NPR at martyrs’ day rally

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday raked up the issue of National Register of Citizens ( NRC) and National Population Register ( NPR) at the annual martyrs’ day rally of her party, the Trinamool Congress.

The party could not hold a rally due to the spread of COVID-19 but Ms. Banerjee addressed party supporters from a stage near her residence in Kaliaghat and it was telecast…

[newsaryavart]

LIVE UPDATES: ममता को अमित शाह की चुनौती- राजनीति का मैदान तय कर लो, दो-दो हाथ हो जाए

LIVE UPDATES: ममता को अमित शाह की चुनौती- राजनीति का मैदान तय कर लो, दो-दो हाथ हो जाए

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वर्चुअल रैली करते गृहमंत्री अमित शाह (ANI) Amit Shah Jan Samvad Virtual Rally LIVE UPDATES: >>शाह ने कहा, ‘मैं बंगाल की जनता को ये कहना चाहता हूं कि भले ही भाजपा को 303 सीटें देशभर से मिली हैं, लेकिन मेरे…

[werindialive]

BJP failed the fight but what did the Opposition do; Amit Shah

On Monday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah sad that the government might have made a mistake or fallen short in their way of dealing with Coronavirus outbreak and the migrant worker crisis but the commitment this government had was always clear.

Attending a virtual rally in Odisha, Shah said that the Narendra Modi led government had announced a package of Rs 1, 70,000 crore but what did the opposition do.

“Kuch vakradrishta log hai, jo vipaksh ke log hai… Main unko sawaal poochna chahta hoon… humaari toh kahin chook bhi hui hogi, par humaari nishtha barobar thi. Humsein galti hui hogi, hum kahin kam pad gaye honge, kuch nahin kar paaye honge. Magar aapne kya kiya. Koi Sweden mein baat karta hai, angrezi mein, desh ki corona ke ladai ladne ke liye. Koi America mein baat karta hai. Aapne kya kiya, yeh hisaab toh janta ke desh ko do jara. Main hisaab dene aaya hoon. Narenda Modi sarkar ne, jaise hi corona ki aafat aayi, desh ke 60 crore logon ke liye, Rs 1,70,000 crore ka package, desh ki janta ke liye diya. Aap humein sawaal poochtein hai? Interview ke alaava, Congress party ne kuch nahi kiya,” Shah said.

Shah added that the migrant worker who were headed home during the lockdown indeed did face some extent of hardships. “Even in Odisha, more than 3 lakh people returned. They have certainly faced hardship. I have also seen this. There is sorrow at this. Even our Prime Minister has sorrow… Modiji started Shramik trains on May 1. From all the camps, city buses and interstate buses were made to reach railway stations. State governments took on the expenditure. Railways gave them food and water. Whenever they exited railway stations, state governments took them inside quarantine centres, took them to their villages. Food and lodging was arranged, and they were given Rs 1,000-2,000… The states and the Centre have thought about this problem. And that is the reason 1.25 crore people have reached home safely, with their wives, children and old parents,” he said.

“I believe that every state government in the country has done well. The central government has cooperated with them. Video conferences have been held five times. We have tried to understand what is in everyone’s mind, taken their solutions on board…rising above partisanship, we have fought a joint fight. That is the work the BJP has done,” he said.

Comparing India with the other countries, Shah said that India was always well placed. When big countries got destroyed because of the virus, India stood still and fought a tough battle.

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All States Have Executed Good Work in Battle Towards Coronavirus, Says Dwelling Minister Amit Shah

All States Have Executed Good Work in Battle Towards Coronavirus, Says Dwelling Minister Amit Shah

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File photo of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Shah, speaking at a virtually rally for Odisha, also lauded the Modi government’s track record on national security and recalled the air and surgical strikes inside Pakistan ordered by the prime minister in his first term.

PTI New Delhi

Last Updated: June 8, 2020, 8:04 PM IST

Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday that…

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कोरोना संकट के बीच मोदी सरकार के दूसरे कार्यकाल का एक साल, बीजेपी की वर्चुअल रैली

कोरोना संकट के बीच मोदी सरकार के दूसरे कार्यकाल का एक साल, बीजेपी की वर्चुअल रैली

Image Source : PTI Modi govt 2.0: BJP to hold 1,000 virtual rallies to mark one-year anniversary

नई दिल्ली: मोदी सरकार के दूसरे कार्यकाल के एक साल पूरा होने के मौके पर बीजेपी 1000 वर्चुअल कॉन्फ्रेंस करने वाली है। 30 मई को एक साल पूरा होगा और आज से 30 मई तक पार्टी कई वर्चुअल रैलियां करने वाली है। मतलब बगैर भीड़ जुटाए बीजेपी की कोशिश है कि 10 करोड़…

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Take Saturday’s diplomacy. Zelensky said he opened another day on the diplomatic frontline with a phone call to Emmanuel Macron, followed as the day progressed with calls to the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, the president of Switzerland, Ignazio Cassis, the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev, the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, the Pope, the Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, the Polish prime minister, Andrzej Duda, and finally a virtual nightcap with the British prime minister.

The day before, the number of calls was similar, all focused on requests for arms and tougher sanctions. Quite how Zelenskiy managed to make these calls, rally the home front, direct his army and sleep is hard to fathom. One who has heard him in action says: “He is very direct, very passionate and very practical.” But the calls have produced golden rewards for Zelenskiy and helped turn the tide.

the worst part of war: phone calls

[theculturedmarxist]

In the long list of enemies maintained by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of India (BJP), the Muslims of the northwestern state of Kashmir have always held a special place. The only Muslim-majority state in India, and one guaranteed notional autonomy under Article 370 of the Indian constitution, Kashmir is routinely depicted by the right-wing Hindu BJP as the ungrateful beneficiary of Indian munificence, accepting endless sops while returning the favor with acts of terrorism and support for Pakistan.

The BJP on Monday announced in unilateral fashion that it would dissolve Kashmir’s special status and divide the state into two parts, one of which is to be ruled directly from Delhi. The proclamation was accompanied with a curfew in the state that included the house arrest of prominent Kashmiri leaders, the severing of all internet, cellphone, and landline connections, and the deployment of thousands of additional troops in what is already, with nearly a million soldiers, one of the most militarized regions in the world.

While Kashmiris remain completely disconnected from their family and friends, their civil liberties suspended, supporters of the Hindu right have been quick to signal their delirious joy, sometimes from very far away. “I have woken up in NY to the best news of my life about Kashmir,” blowhard actor (and husband to a BJP politician) Anupam Kher wrote on Twitter, making sure in his tweet to thank God, the Indian government, BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Modi’s sinister consigliere, Home Minister Amit Shah.  

This is not the first time that the Hindu right, led by Modi, has unleashed mass suffering in pursuit of its vision of Hindutva, an India that is largely or even exclusively for the Hindus. In 2002, when Modi was chief minister of the western state of Gujarat, a pogrom against Muslims left nearly a thousand dead and turned many more into refugees. Since Modi’s tenure as prime minister began in 2014, and especially since being handed a second term in resounding fashion earlier this year, such violence has percolated through the entire nation, provoking lynchings, assassinations, rapes, beatings, imprisonments, and constant abuse on airwaves and social media by Modi’s cheerleaders.

The BJP’s hatred of Muslims is an inheritance from its century-old parent organization, the cultish paramilitary Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh; the chief of the RSS in the 1940s, M.S. Golwalkar, argued that Muslims were India’s Jews and that Hindus needed to manifest a “race spirit” similar to that of the Nazis. Now, BJP’s targets have expanded to include not just Muslims, but anybody critical of Modi, the party, and Hindutva.

Such hate works, especially as little else in India does. In 2014, Modi and the BJP were voted into power despite their blood-stained record of pogroms and extrajudicial executions in Gujarat. Devotees of the Hindu right were joined in their support by liberals, both in India and in the West, who balanced Modi’s violent, paranoid, and authoritarian personality against the good governance he would supposedly usher in. But while Modi and the party are enamored of capitalism, they especially like crony capitalism, and have only managed to deepen India’s economic, environmental and social crises.

Against this backdrop of perpetual crisis, Modi has perfected the grand, autocratic gesture. In November 2016, he imperiled a sick economy by unilaterally announcing the cancellation of large-denomination rupee notes. This was allegedly done to curb the flow of untaxed income, a ludicrous claim, given the number of his cronies who sit in London and New York after defaulting on massive loans from government banks. The demonetization led to severe misery for a majority of the Indian population, wage laborers, and small traders who conduct their business largely in cash. It transformed everyday life by fiat, with long lines of desperate people outside banks, an eerie mirroring of voters queuing up outside election booths. But Modi’s gesture seized headlines and provided an intoxicating display of power, with the damage to the economy and misery visited upon the majority failing to dent Modi’s popularity. The BJP’s victory margin in last May’s election was even greater than when the party first took control.

Monday’s decision to dissolve Kashmir’s special status is copied from the same template: done suddenly at great cost to a large section of people, but certain to appeal to the Hindutva fanbase. The Hindu right has for decades stoked resentment about Article 370 and its special treatment of Kashmiri Muslims. (At a BJP rally in Kolkata many years ago, I heard a speaker tell the crowd that Kashmiris received subsidized mutton for a special price so low that it would not even buy dog meat in Kolkata.) Targeting Kashmir’s special status is also seen as a blow against the liberal elites who preceded the BJP in governance, and who supposedly lacked Modi’s requisite toughness in dealing with Kashmiri Muslims.

All of this is, of course, fake news. Kashmir, like other border territories absorbed uneasily into the Indian republic, has for decades been treated as a colony by liberal as well as right-wing Indian governments. It is disputed territory, and the special status promised in Article 370 only tells one side of the story. Another side is told by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, a piece of colonial-era legislation, still in effect in Kashmir, that offers virtual immunity to security forces for all acts of violence. India’s military occupation of Kashmir has unfolded apace under this law, spurring massacres, disappearances, torture, rape, and the deliberate blinding of protesters with pump-action shotguns firing cartridges packed with hundreds of tiny “nonlethal” lead pellets.

As with Modi’s demonetization drive, the apparent suddenness of the decision to remove Article 370 and carve Kashmir up into two administrative units is contrived. The declaration was preceded by the announcement of two fall summits in Kashmir for prospective outside investors. What such investment in Kashmir will look like is easy to guess from a cursory glance at the rest of India: more trash, more cars, more pollution, more concrete, more aggressive Hindu rock music, and ever more ugly assertions of the race spirit that Golwalkar wanted Hindus to learn from Nazis. The BJP wants to allow its Hindu majoritarian supporters to expand into Kashmir. If it looks like settler colonialism, that’s because it is.

Elsewhere in India, in the northeastern state of Assam, Modi’s party has created a different kind of misery with a similar aim, by raising the specter of a Muslim migrant influx from neighboring Bangladesh. A nightmarish system of tribunals, detention centers, and updates to India’s “national register of citizens” has sparked what might be the largest disenfranchisement project in the world, as Bengali speakers—largely Muslim and mostly poor—suddenly find themselves registered as foreigners or “doubtful” citizens, with many thrown into prison because they cannot prove their Indianness. The pattern of governance is clear.

The problems India faces are so severe that any political party would be hard-pressed to address them. There is rising inequality, poverty among hundreds of millions, and little hope for job growth. Parched by drought and disoriented by shifting monsoons, the mainland of India is sometimes burning and sometimes flooded. Capitalism has hollowed India out, and climate change is beginning to reveal its devastating face with scant regard for colonial and postcolonial borders. In response, Modi and his party are now attempting to engineer a Hindutva version of lebensraum in Kashmir. Indians, as much as Kashmiris, should hope that he fails.