As Modi Pushes Hindu Agenda, a Secular India Fights Back

Mr. Modi has tried to play down the diversity of the crowds, describing the protesters last Sunday as disgruntled Muslims and saying that they could be “identified by their clothes.” But the anger over the law is widespread, with Indians of various political stripes, creeds and backgrounds worried that one religion could become dominant.
It has galvanized university students, mirroring a pushback against conservative forces around the world. It has drawn in activists, intellectuals and professionals, continuing a long tradition of protests in India.

….The New York Times, December 20, 2019

India Is Betraying Its Founding Fathers
Modi’s new citizenship act challenges secularism by injecting religion into national policy. As nationwide protests mount, has the prime minister gone too far?

….Foreign Policy , December 17,2019

Has Narendra Modi Finally Gone Too Far?
The street protests now sweeping India appear to be validating one of the oldest and most trusted maxims of politics: sooner or later, authoritarians will go too far. The authoritarian in this case is Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister. Since his reëlection victory, last May, Modi has mounted an aggressive campaign targeting the country’s Muslim minority, which numbers two hundred million.

….The New Yorker, December 16, 2019

Narendra Modi cannot wish 200 million Muslims away
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to soon demand that Indians prove they are Indians as part of his planned National Register of Citizens.
The register is the latest example of the hatred felt for Muslims in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.  It has been implemented in Assam state but a new Citizenship Amendment Act which allows illegal immigrants to obtain Indian citizenship, but excludes Muslims, ignited fears it will be extended nationally.  The act passed last week and has sparked nation-wide protests.  Last month Modi's home minister, Amit Shah, told Parliament the register would be extended to the whole country.

…….The Sydney Morning Herald, December 19, 2019

Indian students join fierce protests against ‘anti-Muslim’ citizenship law

Intense protests against a divisive Indian citizenship law that excludes Muslims have spread to university campuses across the country, fuelled by a brutal police crackdown on a demonstration in Delhi at the weekend.
Police entered the Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI) campus in the capital on Sunday and detained more than 100 students, beating activists in the street and firing teargas. JMI was shut on Monday, as were nearby schools and offices, after barricades and buses were set alight during the protest.

…..The Guardian, December 16, 2019

India is abandoning its founding principles
For 70 years, India has struggled to remain a secular state. In spite of its people being overwhelmingly Hindu, it chose not to distinguish between its citizens — or putative citizens — on the basis of their religion. That principle was what its founding fathers fought for, and what for decades led it to proudly distinguish itself from Pakistan, born at the same time as India but explicitly as a homeland for Muslims.

As with U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Muslim ban,” this law’s inability to hide its true intent is almost comic. Migrants fleeing religious persecution in the Muslim-majority countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are to be granted citizenship — but not those fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka or Myanmar. It is the latter, of course, where there’s a genuine humanitarian crisis — but the Rohingya are Muslim, so by the BJP’s logic they cannot and do not deserve a place in the Hindu homeland of India.

…The Japan Times, December 17, 2019

India Under Modi is becoming a Brutal Authoritarian State

Modi’s Hindutva populism, backed by naked threats against India’s Muslim minority and the suppression of dissent, is crashing India’s economy and its democracy. Using all its tools of propaganda and tactics of intimidation, Narendra modi government is broadcasting the message that all is well in India. It isn’t. The trutht is that India, as a nation, is going through a great turmoil-economically, politically and socially. As the author and activist Arundhati Roy puts it, “an illness is upon us.”

…..HAARETZ, December 24, 2019