Tracking rising religious hatred in India, from half a world away By Pranshu Verma January 16, 2023 https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/01/16/hindu-hate-crimes-raqib-hameed-naik/ Raqib Hameed Naik, a Kashmiri Muslim journalist hiding in America, is ready to bring his data project out of the shadows  -- Naik, 29, is the founder of HindutvaWatch.org, one of the most robust real-time data sets of human rights abuses in the world’s largest democracy. Using video and picture evidence submitted by a network of Indian activists, along with news aggregation, the site tracks hate crimes by Hindus against Muslims, Christians and members of the lower-ranked castes. Since its founding in April 2021, it has catalogued more than 1,000 instances of violent attacks and rhetoric. 

“गुजरात दंगों में मोदी सीधे ज़िम्मेदार”BBC की इस फ़िल्म को भारत में ‘देखना मना है’ |Modi Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9GXCk-sj_k Jan 19, 2023
A BBC documentary, ‘India: The Modi Question,’ looks at “the tensions between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the country’s Muslim minority”, as well as “investigating claims” concerning his role in the large-scale communal violence that erupted in Gujarat in the months of February and March, in 2002 that left “over a thousand dead.”

In the first part of a new series aired in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on Tuesday evening, a UK government report, earlier marked as “restricted”, that has never been published or revealed so far, has been shown in detail. The documentary has a series of images of the text of the report, and in one statement, the inquiry report says that “Narendra Modi is directly responsible”. It refers to the chain of events as a “systematic campaign of violence” which has “all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing.”

गोधरा के 20 साल: दीवारें लगाकर बाँट दिये गये हिंदू-मुसलमान | Gujarat Election 2022 | Arfa Khanum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXiVviB3q_4&list=PLzia1qLN9v2AHSiNcnbKDpcn3L17RuAIb&index=14&t=0s

The Wire Meets Victims Of 2002 Riots, 'Wounds Of Riots Still Fresh' | Gujarat Election | Arfa Khanum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkG1HAJvsfw&list=PLzia1qLN9v2AHSiNcnbKDpcn3L17RuAIb&index=5&t=0s

Complaint Issues Against BBC Documentary On Gujarat Riots Targeting PM Modi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTQnSf8CvAc Jan 20, 2023 Advocate Vineet Jindal  20 Jan, 2023 argues that the documentary has the effect of dividing the country..

Another popular myth that exists in the population discourse is that the Muslims bear way too many children than Hindus and thus impede national development. However, the data suggests that the fertility rate among Muslims have gone down faster (from 4.4 in 1992-93 to 2.3 during 2019, a 2.1 point decrease) than Hindus (from 3.3 in 1992-93 to 1.94 during 2019, a 1.36 point decline) in the last two decades. Further, fertility rates of Hindus in many states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkahand is higher than Muslims in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu, suggesting that fertility rates are a regional phenomena than a religious one, linked to various socio-economic developmental factors of the region in which people live.

https://thewire.in/society/the-mythical-population-problem-and-the-actual-worries 

The rhetoric of population explosion, population bomb or population emergency mobilises a disproportionate response from the state apparatuses and has been on a rise since Assam Population Bill, 2021 and draft UP Population Bill, 2021 brought two-child policies into popular discourse once again. A number of BJP-ruled states since are discussing bringing in a population control law, despite India reaching fertility rate of 2.0 nationally.

This discourse also puts the blame on people for reproducing too much and taking away from the resources of the country, as if people reproduce in a vacuum. This individualisation of blame for the problem overlooks structural problems and policy failures that has led to lower female participation in workforce, education levels and political representation, lack of access to sufficient and diverse contraceptive methods and an overall inequitable developmental process, all of which influences fertility levels of population. It must be kept in mind that resources of the country are not a static entity entirely, and it increases as demographic dividend is reaped.

by Sushant Kumar

21/01/2023

The move comes on the heels of the ministry discontinuing the Maulana Azad National Fellowship.

https://thewire.in/government/padho-pardesh-scheme-discontinued 

Students belonging to minority communities can no longer avail of interest subsidies on education loans to study abroad. The Ministry of Minority Affairs (MOMA) has discontinued the Padho Pardesh scheme which enables this, reported The Hindu BusinessLine.

Last month, the Indian Banks’ Association notified banks about the discontinuation of the scheme from 2022-23. However, no reason has been specified for the change, as per the news report.

Under the Padho Pardesh Interest Subsidy Scheme, students who belong to minority communities – including Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis – and want to pursue higher studies such as a master’s degree, MPhil and PhD abroad, are eligible to obtain interest subsidies on their entire loan amounts for a specified time period (course period, plus one year or six months after getting job, whichever is earlier).

16/01/2023

Anti-Conversion Laws: The trope of forced religious conversions  https://sabrangindia.in/article/anti-conversion-laws-trope-forced-religious-conversions Tanya Arora 20 Dec 2022  Even with central “anti-conversion law”, figures show up the claim for “forced religious conversions” for what it is, an exaggeration

It is an established principled of just and fair jurisprudence that once any law is passed, that contains anti-constitutional and oppressive provisions, selective policing, state surveillance, harassment or interference in issues of personal liberty, privacy and autonomy, follow. These take a collective form when the very intent of such laws is not community neutral but majoritarian.

Modi Government is One of the Most Appalling in the World—Bharat Ratna & Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen https://youtu.be/hOhLhaTrSxo?t=110 Jan 14, 2023

In one of the harshest possible criticisms of the Narendra Modi government, the well-known Nobel Laureate upon whom the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government conferred the Bharat Ratna in 1999, Amartya Sen, has said: “the Modi government is one of the most appalling in the world”. Prof. Sen explained that he has come to this view because “it treats its own people in such a nasty way”. He added: “the Indian government’s record has been really rather terrible”. At another point in the interview he said the Modi government’s treatment of muslims and the fact that it has no muslim MP in either house of parliament is “unacceptably barbaric”.

मोदी सरकार पर चुनाव आयोग ने चलाया डंडा, Election Commission against bringing parity | PM Modi DESH NEETI Jan 12, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJqD-DbpVEs 

SONG : HILLE LE JHAKJOR DUNIYA at WALK OF HOPE 2015 -16  https://youtu.be/RHCiocHGHvY?t=120 - Manav Ekta Mission Aug 11, 2016

MUSIC OF HOPE, a music concert by the INDIAN OCEAN BAND which took place on the 27th of February 2016, to promote the Walk of Hope - A padayatra led by Sri M from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, which commenced in Jan 2015 and concluded in April 2016, with the purpose of promoting oneness, peace and harmony amongst the people of India

 Walk of Hope: Step by step, humanity brings people together March 19, 2016 https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/sri-m-walk-of-hope-step-by-step-humanity-brings-people-together/ Sri M’s Walk of Hope began in Kanyakumari on January 12, 2015, the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, and will conclude in Srinagar in May, reaching out to 10 million people en route. 

Sri M's 'Walk of Hope' from Kanyakumari to Kashmir reaches Delhi https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/sri-ms-walk-of-hope-from-kanyakumari-to-kashmir-reaches-delhi/articleshow/51147205.cms 

spreading the message of interfaith harmony, sustainable living, community health, equality, women’s empowerment and education. After having walked more than 5,600 km and having traversed six states, since setting out from India’s southernmost point on January 12, 2015, the walkers have reached Delhi.

https://walkofhope.in/

Indian Big Business  https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/family-business/  Jairus Banaji The evolution of India’s corporate sector from 2000 to 2020 

“crony capitalism” had to be grasped in a deeper sense to reflect not the odd favors bestowed on this or that industrialist by the government of the day, but the system that cemented the ties between state and capital.

“At the Modi-Obama reception at Rashtrapati Bhawan [on Sunday 25, 2015], about two dozen industrialists had been invited and were seen standing in a queue to greet the US president. About six to eight of those present collectively owe close to Rs. 3.5 lakh crore1 to banks, mostly public sector undertaking (PSU) banks. The banking industry in India has about Rs.5 lakh crore 2 as total capital and nearly 70 percent of it is exposed to just a half a dozen industrial houses. Technically, if these business houses were to go bust, 70 percent of India’s banking capital will get wiped out. In short, they are too big to fail.