facing its worst crisis
since Indira Gandhi’s
time, said Valay Singhrai
on DailyO.in. Ever since
Narendra Modi of the
Hindu nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) was elected PM in
2014, his government
and the party’s thugs
have done their best to
“choke off” opposition
voices. When writers
protested against anti-
Muslim violence by
Hindu nationalists, they
were condemned as
“anti-national” and told
to “go to Pakistan”. NGOs such as Greenpeace
that question government policies have been
harassed. Now, liberal students are in the firing
line. On 12 February, police entered Delhi’s
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India’s most
radically left-wing educational establishment, and
arrested the student union leader, Kanhaiya Kumar,
on charges of sedition – just for having spoken at a
meeting where Kashmiri activists shouted antigovernment
slogans. Then, at his court hearings,
students were assaulted by BJP supporters and
right-wing lawyers shouting “Glory to Mother
India”, as the police stood by. Home minister
Rajnath Singh seemed unconcerned, stating that
anyone shout ing “anti-India” slogans would “not
be tolerated or spared”.
I would have thought that ministers had more
important things to do than muzzling left-wing
students, said Alok Rai in The Indian Express. It
would be funny if “it
were not ominous”.
Under Modi, a
combination of street
violence by rightwing
Hindu groups,
draconian laws – such
as the colonial-era
charge of sedition –
and a “compliant”
police force is being
deployed in order
to silence all dissent.
What an “angry,
insecure nation” India
has become, said Anand
Soondas in The Times
of India. The BJP wants
to turn India into a
theocratic Hindu rashtra (nation). But the country
is far too diverse for that to ever succeed.
Unrest is flaring on campuses, said DNAIndia.com.
There have been massive protests at JNU, in
Kolkata and in Chennai. There were riots in
Hyderabad, when a Dalit (“untouchable”)
student hanged himself after allegedly being
hounded out of the university by nationalists last
month. The clampdown on student dissent is
a transparent attempt to shift attention away
from government failures, said Shivam Vij in
Deutsche Welle. Hopes that an economic
resurgence would follow Modi’s election have
fallen flat, and his unwillingness to reach out to
the opposition Congress party means essential
reforms are being blocked by the upper house.
Far from the “good days” he promised during
his election campaign, Modi has only brought
“bad days”.
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