Jamia Students Fight for Their Right to Protest – 2 Articles
Students in one of India’s leading minority institutions fight for free speech. The administration has responded with heavy police deployment and invoking the law to curb demonstrations.
Govt’s ‘Block’ on Vikatan Website Affronts Critical Journalism
Earlier this month, Tamil website ‘Vikatan’ published a cartoon of Prime Minister Modi. The government’s blocking of the website without supplying any reasoning is another blow to press freedom in the country.
Culture | Dictatorship | Fascism | India | Online Blog
How a Modi-Era Ecosystem of Official & Unofficial Censorship Is Transforming India’s Film Industries
A right-wing, pro-government, Islamophobic wave has swept India’s films, especially from Bollywood, after 2014. Although the Tamil and Malayalam film industries, in addition to independent and documentary filmmakers, are pushing back against the trend, self-censorship and extra-judicial pressure to conform to unwritten restrictions is now routine across India.
Dictatorship | Fascism | India | Online Blog
One Nation, One Voice: Dissent, Diversity and Other Enemies in Modi’s India
As the BJP’s obsession with conformity gathers pace, it is challenged by India’s defiant nature and lived heterogeneity.
Parliament, CAG, EC: More Pillars Crumble as Modi Tightens Hold; Are We Headed for an Open Autocracy?
The parliament’s fall as an institution of functioning democracy was accompanied by axe on the Election Commission and CAG. Also: The INDIA alliance parties need to recognize the magnitude of the historical moment they are navigating. Unity is, therefore, an existential imperative. Are they aware of this reality?
The New Telecom Bill: Government Moving to Control Internet – 4 Articles
‘Telecommunications Bill Lays the Ground for Totalitarian Control of the Internet’; ‘With Cleverly Drafted Telecom Bill, Government Tightens Grip on Digital India’; ‘Three New Laws Give the Govt Extraordinary Powers Over Journalism, Entertainment and Internet’; and ‘Telecommunications Bill, 2023: Of the State, By the State, and For the State’.
Dictatorship | Fascism | India | Online Blog
BBC Raid, Article 370, Election Commission, Governors: Justice Nariman Tears into Modi Govt
Delivering the Smt Bansari Sheth Endowment Lecture, the judge noted that four “most disturbing” things have happened in the country this year itself. He also was severely critical of the Supreme Court’s recent judgement on the Centre’s J&K decision.
Autocrats Have Learnt to Push Their Agenda While Retaining Paraphernalia of Democracy
Tarunabh Khaitan, a professor of Public Law, says that India’s democracy is in peril, and that the Union government under Narendra Modi is “killing the constitution with a thousand cuts”.
After 26/11 Mumbai Attacks, India Has Weaponised Economic Transactions for Mass Surveillance
The tragedy in India is that an external threat to security has seen the state weaponise all forms of governance systems against its own citizens.
Fascistic Hostility to Evidence – 2 Articles
India has a robust and admired statistical system. But the government is suppressing data to suit its narrative. It is perilous not to know the reality of the governed.