Editorial

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russia's biggest neighbour and the second largest constituent of the erstwhile USSR is a major international crisis. There are reports of growing civilian casualties of Russian bombing and large numbers of Ukrainians fleeing to neighbouring countries for safety. At least one Indian student has also been killed by Russian shelling of Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, even as South Asian and African students trying to board trains, or to cross the border into Poland face racist attacks.

The chilling midnight murder of Anish Khan, former student leader of Kolkata’s Aliyah University and a familiar face of Kolkata’s CAA protests and various solidarity campaigns, by pushing him down from the roof of his own three-storied home at Amta in Howrah district has justifiably triggered massive public anger in West Bengal. According to his father, a gang in police uniform barged into their house around midnight on 18 February and while one of them stopped him at gunpoint, others went up and threw Anish down from the roof.

With Assembly elections underway in Uttar Pradesh and four other states, the BJP is desperately looking for ways to sharpen communal polarisation. We saw a hate assembly in Haridwar, camouflaged as Dharm Sansad, issue open calls for genocide. Similar calls were soon echoed in several other public gatherings. Meanwhile, Karnataka, the Southern laboratory of the Sangh-BJP brigade, has discovered a potent weapon in the hijab worn by many Muslim women.

The PM’s speech in parliament at the end of the Budget session did not respond to criticisms of his government’s performance on all fronts: including unprecedented unemployment and inflation, and a criminally irresponsible Covid response that cost so many lives. Neither did he respond to questions demanding specific commitments instead of the vague budgetary phrases of “Amrit Kal” and the goal of “Bharat@100”. Instead he indulged in his by now predictable strategy of blaming the Opposition for all ills, and serving up outright lies.

January 30 marks the martyrdom day of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Nathuram Godse, who fired the bullets assassinating the unarmed Gandhiji, is India’s first terrorist. Today, we see BJP MP Pragya Thakur and BJP leader Sakshi Maharaj and hate-mongers at so-called “dharm sansads” honour the terrorist Godse. We also see RSS ideologues suggest that it is Nehru not Savarkar and Godse, who are responsible for Gandhi’s assassination.

2022 is the 75th anniversary of India's independence and the 125th anniversary of the birth of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Desperate to appropriate the icons of India's freedom struggle, the Modi government has designated January 23, the birth anniversary of Subhas Chandra Bose as the official beginning of India's Republic Day celebrations and announced the decision to install a giant statue of this iconic freedom fighter at India Gate.

BJP and its leaders can scent defeat in the upcoming Assembly Elections in several states. The impact of the farmers’ movement victory; unprecedentedly severe unemployment and price rise; defection of a key BJP leader in UP to the rival SP: all these are signs that the Modi regime and the BJP are able to read very well.

For Muslim women in India, the new year began with a new edition of stale old Islamophobic abuse by Hindu supremacist forces. An app displayed photographs and names stolen from  social media profiles of Muslim women, offering them up for “auction” online. Many of the Muslim women were journalists and activists. This was a new version of an app that had surfaced last year, also “auctioning” Muslim women online. The apps are named after derogatory and abusive words used by Hindu supremacists for Muslim women: we will not use those words.

In the national capital Delhi, in Haridwar (Uttarakhand), and Raipur (Chhattisgarh), assemblies have been held in which saffron clad leaders gave calls for genocide of Muslims and administered oaths to convert India into a Hindu Rashtra. These assemblies, termed “Dharm Sansads” (Religion Parliaments) are being spearheaded by a dangerous network of violent terrorists. Under the garb of “dharm” (Hindu religion), they are openly giving training in radicalised terrorist ideology as well as weapons to Hindu children.

The passing of the The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 in the Lok Sabha is a dangerous step towards eroding India’s democracy. This proposed amendment seeks to link voting rights with Aadhaar verification. Like so many other anti-people laws, this amendment too was bulldozed through the Lok Sabha by a voice vote, overriding the demand by many Opposition MPs that the Bill be referred to a parliamentary committee that could reflect on its implications and consult experts.