Ed India going down the Dictatorship road fast...

[dudalb]

The Washington Post in an editorial today told us Modi is taking India on the raod to a dictartorship.
I love the WAPO, but they do seem to be slow on the intake at times.

 

[Orphia Nay]

Now they're editing schoolbooks to delete the theory of evolution, and mughal rule, amongst other things.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023...ution-outrage-as-india-edits-school-textbooks

 

[The Atheist]

Now they're editing schoolbooks to delete the theory of evolution, and mughal rule, amongst other things.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023...ution-outrage-as-india-edits-school-textbooks

That man needs to watch Planet of the Apes. He's quoting Zaius word for word.

 

[lomiller]

By American political standards..yes.
And yes, every country has different standards. That is not going to change.

A sliding scale like that makes the term "left" useless because it describes completely different views on social and economic policy depending on what part of the scale you use.

It makes far more sense to describe the US as having a center right party and a far right party because neither support the policies traditionally associated with leftists.

 

[Susheel]

A sliding scale like that makes the term "left" useless because it describes completely different views on social and economic policy depending on what part of the scale you use.

It makes far more sense to describe the US as having a center right party and a far right party because neither support the policies traditionally associated with leftists.

Agree...

 

[dudalb]

Two centuries of Indian History to vanish; it is like something out of Orwell's 1984.https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/india-is-trying-to-erase-two-centuries-of-mughal-rule-from-history-school-books/ar-AA1a9geZ

What is scary I get the impression that Modi and his followers would like the Muslims in India to dissapere also.
India is headed for disaster under Modi.

 

[Susheel]

As mentioned before, G N Saibaba and I were at University together. He was a polio survivor who was completely disabled from the waist down. A firebrand activist even then who stood up for the underprivileged students targeted for caste-based harassment by a largely upper caste faculty and calling out the university on their treatment of the under-paid contract workers.
Supreme Court sets aside Bombay High Court order discharging Delhi University ex-professor Saibaba
Of late the chief justice of India has been paying lip service about how it is important for the judiciary to stand against the rising attacks against free speech by the government. However, it seems like there is big chasm between rhetoric and praxis.

 

[Susheel]

In the wake of the overtly Goebelsian tactics adopted by the BJP after the Kashmir Files, the fascist hindutva elements in Bollywood have released the Kerala Story. Kashmir Files was purportedly made to highlight the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits exiled from their homes, but was actually used to generate anti-Muslim hate and create a false narrative that the terror attacks specifically targeted the Kashmiri Pandits and that the Congress Party was responsible for the evacuation of the Kashmiri Pandits from their homes when it was actually done under the auspices of the then Home Minister was a BJP member who had allied with the Janata Dal government.
In continuation, the Hindu fascists have got one of their crony directors to produce Kerala Story a fantastical narrative of an exodus of Muslim girls in Kerala shipped to Afghanistan as ISI brides. The film is being promoted heavily by the RSS and other allies with free tickets and even transport to theatres being provided to the general public. The film itself is a blatant attack on the Muslims and the government of Kerala.
Currently campaigning to retain their stronghold in the South, Karnataka, the BJP campaign has been marked by vicious attacks against the non-BJP governments in neighboring Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and involves incendiary speeches about how the people of Karnataka should be wary of the “antinationalism” of these states creeping into Karnataka. The current Union Home Minister and real power behind Modi and the star campaigner, the temple priest turned Chief Minister of India’s Alabama, Uttar Pradesh, have both been using this rhetoric in their campaign speeches.

 

[The Atheist]

Can I again commend you for your excellent input.

I just wish you didn't have to write it, because I can't see a way forward for India that doesn't involve devolution into oligarchy.

 

[Susheel]

Can I again commend you for your excellent input.

I just wish you didn't have to write it, because I can't see a way forward for India that doesn't involve devolution into oligarchy.

Thanks...it's the least I can do...there are others in my circle doing a great deal more and paying the price for it.

 

[Orphia Nay]

In the wake of the overtly Goebelsian tactics adopted by the BJP after the Kashmir Files, the fascist hindutva elements in Bollywood have released the Kerala Story. Kashmir Files was purportedly made to highlight the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits exiled from their homes, but was actually used to generate anti-Muslim hate and create a false narrative that the terror attacks specifically targeted the Kashmiri Pandits and that the Congress Party was responsible for the evacuation of the Kashmiri Pandits from their homes when it was actually done under the auspices of the then Home Minister was a BJP member who had allied with the Janata Dal government.
In continuation, the Hindu fascists have got one of their crony directors to produce Kerala Story a fantastical narrative of an exodus of Muslim girls in Kerala shipped to Afghanistan as ISI brides. The film is being promoted heavily by the RSS and other allies with free tickets and even transport to theatres being provided to the general public. The film itself is a blatant attack on the Muslims and the government of Kerala.
Currently campaigning to retain their stronghold in the South, Karnataka, the BJP campaign has been marked by vicious attacks against the non-BJP governments in neighboring Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and involves incendiary speeches about how the people of Karnataka should be wary of the “antinationalism” of these states creeping into Karnataka. The current Union Home Minister and real power behind Modi and the star campaigner, the temple priest turned Chief Minister of India’s Alabama, Uttar Pradesh, have both been using this rhetoric in their campaign speeches.

Yes, thanks for this information.

Can you explain a bit more about who the Kashmiri Pandits are?

 

[Susheel]

Yes, thanks for this information.

Can you explain a bit more about who the Kashmiri Pandits are?

Pretty long story...Wiki covers it well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmiri_Pandits
However, the fact is that the Pandits were evacuated after a major terrorist action in the mid 80s that also targeted many Muslims. The Janata Dal government at the centre had formed a coalition with the BJP and the Home Minister was a BJP member. They decided it would be best to evacuate the Pandits out of Kashmir. However, they were then abandoned. It was after Congress regained power that they were provided any relief and rehabiltation.
Then when the BJP rose to become the single largest and most pwerful party in India, they decided to use the Kashmiri Pandit crisis to their own ends. While promising to facilitate their return, the BJP has actually used it as excuse to remove environmental, residential, and ownership restrictions on resources in Kashmir primarily for exploitation by BJP's biggest corporate benefactors. The plight of the pandits is only brought up to trigger an anti-Muslim agenda and is otherwise ignored.

 

[Orphia Nay]

Pretty long story...Wiki covers it well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Kashmir
However, the fact is that the Pandits were evacuated after a major terrorist action that also targeted many Muslims. The Janata Dal government at the centre had formed a coalition with the BJP and the Home Minister was a BJP member. They decided it would be best to evacuate the Pandits out of Kashmir. However, they were then abandoned. It was after Congress regained power that they were provided any relief and rehabiltation.
Then when the BJP rose to become the single largest and most pwerful party in India, they decided to use the Kashmiri Pandit crisis to their own ends. While promising to facilitate their return, the BJP has actually used it as excuse to remove environmental, residential, and ownership restrictions on resources in Kashmir primarily for exploitation by BJP's biggest corporate benefactors. The plight of the pandits is only brought up to trigger an anti-Muslim agenda and is otherwise ignored.

Thanks very much for all that.

Wiki also seems to cover Kerala Story and Kashmir Files well.

 

[grunion]

Kerala has long been the most secular (and leftist) state in India, and the BJP (Modi's party) has been relatively unpopular in the South as a whole. Modi is making a push to flip his fortunes by stirring up anti-Muslim sentiment through "road show" events, during which supporters shower him with flower petals and elevate him to godlike status. Very sad.

 

[Susheel]

Kerala has long been the most secular (and leftist) state in India, and the BJP (Modi's party) has been relatively unpopular in the South as a whole. Modi is making a push to flip his fortunes by stirring up anti-Muslim sentiment through "road show" events, during which supporters shower him with flower petals and elevate him to godlike status. Very sad.

Kerala and Tamil Nadu stands for everything the saffronists hate...higher socio-economic indices than any of the extremist Hindutva dominated cow belt states and a relatively (there still need a lot more to be done) egalitarian social milieu. Both are the results of a history of strong anti-Brahmin social upliftment movements during the post-independence period.

 

[Susheel]

Action against 36 nursing students of PGIMER for not attending programme on PM Modi’s 100th Mann Ki Baat episode

There were also reports of school students fined for not "attending" the broadcast. Meanwhile, the Minister for external affairs had this to say:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/toi-original/one-of-the-most-tech-savvy-politicians-jaishankar-highlights-importance-of-pm-modis-mann-ki-baat/videoshow/100175669.cms?from=mdr

Big Brother anyone?

 

[Susheel]

Results of the elections in Karnataka trickling out earlier today shows Congress leading in a majority of the Legislative Assembly seats. However, if we can learn from History, this means nothing. A Karnataka BJP minister has already announced that the party has a Plan B in case they face an election loss. The Plan B is not anything new...it usually involves the "kidnap," and "safe imprisonment" in one of a number of luxury resorts the BJP has access to, wining, dining, blackmail, threats and bribes to "dissident" legislative members urging them to switch sides. This could happen before the swearing in and if failed will continue over the next two years. In previous years this has been witnessed in both Karnataka and Maharashtra.

 

[The Atheist]

Big Brother anyone?

Jesus, that's by-passing China's totalitarianism and dialing it back to Stalin's USSR.

 

[Susheel]

The Congress party has won with a massive majority in Karnataka so they seem to be safe for the moment. Of course, BJP will continue its efforts to sabotage the government...we just have to wait and see what happens.

 

[Chanakya]

Jesus, that's by-passing China's totalitarianism and dialing it back to Stalin's USSR.

But unlike China, India does have free elections. So that the blame for this state of affairs lies squarely with the people in India. Unlike in China, where the people have no choice --- at least not unless desperate protest/revolt is thought of as choice, and as Tiananmen Square has shown, even that choice is illusory. The monstrosity in India is clearly what the people of India want. They may have been misled and misinformed, sure; but they've flocked in droves to buy it, eagerly.

Very sad, what's happening in India, but no more than what the people there want, and therefore deserve.

All sympathy for the few remaining reasonable people left in that benighted place.

The Congress party has won with a massive majority in Karnataka so they seem to be safe for the moment. Of course, BJP will continue its efforts to sabotage the government...we just have to wait and see what happens.

Not all is lost, then. Not yet.