AAP doesn't have a lot of support outside of Delhi and a couple other states, and the same can be said for all other regional parties. None of them can step up to and beat BJP. It's the unfortunate truth.
The police shoot at and kill protestors with no mercy. They will not face any repercussions. A case from just 2018: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoothukudi_massacre
The nation is dying.
https://india.mongabay.com/2020/01/tribal-population-of-jamm...
- Kanhaiya Kumar (cited above), hundreds of students and even 10 year olds have sedition cases against them.
- The competition has been decimated. BJP spends 3X more than all of the other parties combined together in Elections
- Section 144 (prohibiting assembly of 4 or more people) has been arbitrarily applied across India.
- Free press has been demolished and right wing mouthpieces are both propped up and given a free run. False cases against The Hindu, NDTV, Hostile takeover of CNN-IBN etc.. I can cite a dozen more examples
- BJP losing state elections mean noting. Modi's role model is Xi. He wants to be benovalent dictator of life.
- State sponsored violence in India is the norm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq-HQ7boPvE
> The competition has been decimated. BJP spends 3X more than all of the other parties combined together in Elections
How is this an atrocity? This is legitimate right of every party to spend how much ever it gets as donations from the public. The Congress held the ubiquitous position for 60 years. No one questioned political spending then. Why is BJP being questioned for the same now? Just because the public resonate with BJP's National policies and donate to the party? Now will this also be termed as an atrocity? Can't believe the nuts that exist in India.
> Section 144 (prohibiting assembly of 4 or more people) has been arbitrarily applied across India.
Section 144 cannot be arbitrarily applied. Section 144 is imposed by a Magistrate who is an Administrator not an elected official. And a Magistrate will never apply Section 144 arbitrarily without there being a valid cause. And Section 144 is better than riots. Prevention is better than cure. When it comes to choosing between disorder, damage to public property, rioting protestors, communal clashes and Section 144, I would choose Section 144 any day.
Modi is one of those individuals who has been vilified by one community for almost 20 odd years now. It's nothing new. And the amount of media bashing he gets every day even Manmohan Singh did not get the same treatment. No matter how much you lie that there is no freedom to express in India it is infact the exact opposite. Media that is anti-Modi and anti-BJP: NDTV, The Wire, Quint, The Hindu, Indian Express, Newslaundery, ABP News, Aaj Tak, India Today and countless other regional news channels and smaller outlets. The cases filed against some of the media houses are not "false". They are involved in money laundering and are being investigated for the same. No court has said that the cases are "false". This is again malicious propaganda. Show me on case which the Indian Courts have ruled as "fake". Not one.
Sedition cases are slapped against those who have called for break up of the country. It is a case. It is not a conviction. It is a legitimate right of the Government to file cases against those who indulge in Anti-India activities. If Modi was emulating Xi he would have gotten Kanhaiya Kumar killed not have some sedition case slapped on him. Why would he bother taking the legal route if he was a Dictator? Never heard of a Dictator filing legal cases. If this is what you call as "Modi emulating Xi" then I say it is a pathetic attempt at emulating Xi.
Your own arguments fall flat the moment you start dig into the facts instead of becoming emotional!
What is happening in Shaheen Bagh? A protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act that has been going on for more than 40 days where a public road has been blocked. Any other country you would have had riot police beat up the protestors and have them evacuated for causing nuisance to public. We can understand 1 or 2 days of protests but 40 days? This is ridiculous. 40 days of public road being blocked! Which Dictator will allow that? Have some shame.
To prevent riots government needs to produce better policies, so that there would be no need for a riot in the first place. Preventing peaceful assembly is not one of these policies.
No one prevented peaceful assembly. Shaheen Bagh is the best example where protestors have captured a public road illegally for 60+ days and neither the Government nor the Police are doing anything about it. Police and Administration only take action against rioters or those who indulge in vandalism of public property. The Deputy Commissioner of the local district gets first hand information on everything that happens in the district. The DC knows beyond doubt if the gathering is going to be peaceful or violent. We have highest levels of intelligence gathering and that has only increased and strengthened manifold after various terror attacks. Hence why the Supreme Court doesn't take the Centre to task neither does the High Court take the State to task over imposition of Section 144. The judges instead just give a rap on the fingers. That is because the administration has all details about the nature of protests and can provide adequate proof. If you really want to understand all this you should spend sometime with retired IAS officers and if they get to like you will tell you the workings of the system. You can't fool the administration into thinking that you can riot in the guise of "peaceful protests". The administration has various ways of intelligence gathering and knows exactly what the outcome of the gathering would be.
Apart from better policies, they also need enforceable ones, where local law enforcement is empowered to deal and contain where necessary.
That is a lie. The Indian media is not afraid to criticize the BJP.
I'm not Indian but I am from the same subcontinent and have seen a constant stream of Indian news that are very critical of the current BJP government.
Here are some Indian media that constantly criticize the current BJP government:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quint
Do you have examples for us? Okay if it is in Arabic/Hindi/etc. We talk about the potential for damage here (on HN) and so I think it is important to have examples of this happening in the wild.
Is it fake when a pol speaks token sentences to an audience in a language the pol is very limited in?
Is it unfair if a multilingual pol has command of many languages vs one who doesn’t have such command?
What is an even field? Natural ability, happenstance of wealth (opportunity to learn) or happenstance of exposure (and natural learning).
If these exist, I think it is important to show them and track how they are being used. Hopefully it can help us avoid similar pitfalls in the future by learning how they are used.
Ergo, it is fake. Overdubbing a person's voice? Questionable.
Making someone look like they're speaking a language they don't know? That's faking it.
Using AI to help out with your fakery? That's deep down the rabbit hole
Thank you for sharing this information. How were you, in your comment above, able to safely criticise the government while in India?
(If you are not able to disclose how you did, that's understandable to me. We all know about methods like Tor and obfs4 bridges. I run a Tor bridge to help people in China, hopefully. And now thanks to you, I'm thinking of India too.)
This is extremely sad and I am hoping things will correct before everything worsens further.
> Many people are upset, but there's nothing we can do.
I remember people (not to point to anyone in particular but generally) even the educated ones making fun of a new engineer politician on the rise. There was news about slapping the newbie on their roadshows and rallies where this politician was trying to connect personally with the people.
What do you think of that?
For someone like me with an outside-in view I feel that we have a 'karma problem' with the general citizenry of India. Not to come off as a prude American (this is also true now for my own country as well-–Trump nation) but democracy is so much like a mirror––and in the end we all get what we deserve.
Please, also tell us how exactly this is bringing peace to the valley and if banning phones and internet for months has been so effective, then why did 1988-95 see the most unrest? If I remember correctly, mobile phones with EDGE/GPRS were introduced to Kashmir around what year? 2002? 2000 to ~2010 were also some of the most peaceful years in Kashmir in the last 3 decades.
And here's the kicker - everyone thinks the civilisation is anti muslim. The reason I went to Jammu many times is to visit a Hindu temple there. It sits atop a mountain and you have to climb it by foot. Nowadays they have costly helicopter rides to get to the top, but back in the day all you had were either horses (kinda limited) or manual labourers who offered to carry you up / down in palanquins or directly on their backs. Literally all of them have always been muslims.
The temple and its surrounding areas are completely smothered by the army because they know that this is a very holy ground for the Hindus. If there ever were a terrorist attack aimed at it (or even the whiff of it), there will be blind violence on the streets against all muslims and immediate call for war against pakistan. The same army people know most of these muslim labourers and don't give a shit about them.
Does that mean that the army does not at all attack based on religious profiling? No. The army has done very unethical profiling based on religion in the region in the past. My point is if I didn't include this disclaimer, I can also make up stories of any given bent and literally all of my facts would be true.
Plus, OP implied that Kashmir is peaceful now because of people not having internet access. Are you now saying until Pandits return, Kashmir will have no internet access?
- per the media reports that I've seen, no Kashmiri Pandits have dared to return. The only few that are in the valley are the ones who could not migrate, primarily due to economic reasons. Rest have been living as refugees in their own country
- Internet had been used by terrorists and their sympathizors, and that is a fact
Don't include Jammu, Leh and Ladakh into this as they want to be with India in totality. Even the Kashmiris you talk about are incomplete without the 5 lakh Kashmiri Pandits who were forcibly made to leave from the Valley. The popular slogan : Raliv, Galiv, Chaliv (Convert, Die or Leave) and the fact that they wanted the Pandits to "leave their women behind" shows what kind of Religious hysteria was fanned up to dislodge the original inhabitants: Kashmiri Pandits, from their homes. Have some shame. Repent for the sins committed on the Pandits community that gave shelter, only to turn against them in the end. Kashmiri Pandits are living as refugees in their own country. What can be more shameful than that? No matter how much you justify the Kashmiri cause the Genocide and Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits will remain a big blot on Kashmiriyat. You cannot suppress Truth for long.
Interestingly Pakistan demands/consider all of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh to be Pakistani territory. There is maybe a case for the Sunni Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley joining Pakistan but I don't think other parts of J&K will join them.
If your contribution is "people are biased", that's not too helpful.
That's true, the left opposition has become a lame duck because they choose to be dynastic sycophants rather than an actual democracy / meritocracy.
> They've banned VPNs. They'll chuck you in prison if you speak against the government or a politician
Yes, but mostly No. The BJP is more petty than the last congress govt. But, my social media is filled with anti-Modi posts posted by public profiles and not a single one of them has faced any repercussions.
Also VPNs are only banned in Kashmir.
You can criticize something you don't like, without using hyperbole. The hyperbole, when not obvious, only makes your point look weaker.
> We can vote for other parties, but there's no way that they'll ever win
The congress has literally been in power here for 60/70 years of independence. If for a second, they can stop acting like the most incompetent political organization in the world and actually put a half-decent leader in power, then they can mount some proper opposition.
Also, the BJP just lost 4 consecutive state elections and Delhi was lost 60-8. The country is hardly falling in line with Modi. The only problem is the Congress has basically imploded into itself.
> Even the media is afraid to speak out against BJP because if they do then they get attacked by physical and virtual mobs.
Just saying. This has always been true with MSM in most parts of the world. TOI was notorious for falling in line with whoever was in power. Many older news channels acted like Propaganda tools for the Congress too. I am not surprised at all, that they have all moved over to BJP now that the hand that feeds them has changed.
I personally love Shekhar Gupta's work on The Print. He is one of the few journalists disliked by both Congress and BJP, and there is no greater honor in India. I have followed him since his time as Editor in chief of the Indian Express. It was always very high quality, unbiased or the type that declared its bias quite clearly. (like his fondness for Vajpayee)
> It's a shame. So much potential.
Agreed.
None of this involves abolishing countries and governments. If anything, communism involves a far more stronger sense of community, patriotism, and a much more powerful government
Patriotism is love for one’s country. Nationalism is the belief that one’s country (and often ethnic subset) is supreme (and more deserving of prosperity), speaking generally.
Trump’s campaign rhetoric is emblematic of nationalist themes. Anti immigrant. Playing up cultural mythos. Bragging about military capabilities. Blaming foreign nations for most problems. Implying that a return to core values will bring greatness. Lots of fear and anger.
Tends to be very effective for groups of people that used to be powerful but are no longer.
If that's too much recursion, consider the World War I and II (among many others), both being based essentially in nationalism.
By my estimation India is an empire, and nationalism makes no sense in its context. Patriotism maybe, or political loyalty.
Just seems like a weird choice of political propaganda. I do understand there's a strong anti-Muslim attitude in India, which might be what they're calling nationalism. But it doesn't seem right.
The core of Hinduism remains the vedas, gita, the puranas and the upanishads. They lay out a very deep philosophy that theologians much more educated than I am have been investigating for centuries. It is a highly rigid system at its core (contrary to the freewheeling morass image Indians themselves have projected to appear non religious).
This is why India is a nation. From the tip of Jammu till the edge of Kanyakumari, people thought of the vedas as the progenitor scripture of all civilisation. They heard the exact same stories of the Mahabharatha and Ramayana for millennia. The fact that they were free to adapt it and retell or embellish it does not mean they broke away from the system itself or that the system emerged later than the stories did.
nation is defined as:
na•tion n. A relatively large group of people organized under a single, usually independent government; a country. n. The territory occupied by such a group of people.
That is a bad and definitely wrong definition
“Those who raise anti-national slogans should be put behind the bars,” he said. [1] (he = Amit Shah - Union Home Minister and friend of Modi [the PM])
[1] https://www.thestatesman.com/india/those-who-raise-anti-nati...
If you refresh your past memory, kishan kanhaiya raise slogans saying we will break India and he is not in jail.
Every one has right to express their opinion but judicial system will take its course. Govt cannot put people in jail just because someone criticized them. That was the point I am making. I can't make it any clearer than this for you
Actual News ----------- The FIR has been registered while taking cognisance of the social media posts by miscreants by using different VPNs, which are propagating rumours with regard to the current security scenario in the Kashmir valley, secessionist ideology and glorifying terrorists, the police said.
They've banned VPNs. They'll chuck you in prison if you speak against the government or a politician. Then they'll brand you as an "anti-nationalist" and openly say to their supporters that you deserve to be shot.
Facial recognition is now being used to identify protestors. Bots and deepfakes are being used to spread propoganda.
Many people are upset, but there's nothing we can do. We can't speak out without fear of being reprimanded. We can vote for other parties, but there's no way that they'll ever win. The majority of the population has blind faith in BJP. The only demographic that appears to realise the implications well enough is the youth in urban areas - a very insignificant fraction of the nation's population.
Even the media is afraid to speak out against BJP because if they do then they get attacked by physical and virtual mobs.
It's a shame. So much potential.