“Since Prime Minister Modi came to power in 2014, there has been an increasing crackdown on India’s media,” said CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg. “Journalists critical of the government and the BJP party have been jailed, harassed, and surveilled in retaliation for their work. India is the world’s largest democracy, and it needs to live up to that by ensuring a free and independent media–and we expect the United States to make this a core element of discussions.”

On Wednesday, June 14, CPJ convened an online panel, “India’s Press Freedom Crisis,” with opening remarks and moderation by Ginsberg alongside panellists Geeta Seshu, founding editor of the Free Speech Collective watchdog group; Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of the Kashmir Times newspaper; and Shahina K.K., senior editor for Outlook magazine.

The panelists discussed the deterioration of press freedom over the last decade, with Seshu detailing the rise in censorship and “vicious” attacks on the media, while Shahina shared her ongoing battle to fight terrorism charges filed nearly 13 years ago by the Karnataka state government, then led by Modi’s BJP party, in retaliation for her investigative reporting.

Bhasin spoke about the “effective silence” that Kashmiri journalists have dealt with since the Modi government unilaterally revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special autonomy status in 2019, with multiple cases of reporters being detained and interrogated.

CPJ calls on the U.S. government to urge India to act on the following press freedom violations:

• The ongoing detention of six journalists–Aasif Sultan, Gautam Navlakha, Sajad Gul, Fahad Shah, Rupesh Kumar Singh, and Irfan Mehraj–in retaliation for their work. All have been targeted under draconian security laws. Shah faces trial on spurious terrorism charges in relation to a 2011 article published by his online magazine The Kashmir Walla. The other five journalists remain in pre-trial detention.
• The harassment of the domestic and foreign media, including routine raids and retaliatory income tax investigations launched into critical news outlets. In February, income tax authorities raided the BBC’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai after the government censored a critical documentary on Modi by the broadcaster. Foreign correspondents say they have faced increasing visa uncertainties, restricted access to several areas of the country, including Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, and even threats of deportation in retaliation for critical reporting in recent years.
• The media crackdown in Kashmir, including the use of preventative detention, terrorism and criminal cases, travel bans, raids, and summons for questioning in retaliation for journalists’ work. In 2020, the government enacted a stringent media policy outlining powers for authorities to accredit the media, distribute government advertisements, and determine what constitutes “fake news.”
• Ongoing impunity in cases of killed journalists. At least 62 journalists have been killed in India in connection with their work since 1992. India ranked 11th on CPJ’s 2022 impunity index, with unsolved cases of at least 20 journalists killed in retaliation for their work from September 1, 2012, to August 31, 2022.
• Digital media restrictions, including using the IT Rules, 2021, to censor critical journalism, including the BBC documentary on Modi. India led the world in internet shutdowns for the fifth year in 2022, impeding press freedom and the ability of journalists to work freely.

The post Biden administration should press Indian Prime Minister on media freedom during his visit: CPJ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

After the killing of eight people including six Asian-American women in shootings in Atlanta on Tuesday night sent shockwaves across the United States, the Biden-Harris administration is focusing on making the community feel safe and helping them heal from the tragedy.

President Joe Biden announced that American flags at the White House and on other federal buildings will be flown at half-mast as a mark of respect for victims of the shooting. Additionally, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are scheduled to be in Atlanta today. Though their visit was initially supposed to be in connection with the Covid relief programme, it will now be oriented towards meeting families of the victims and members of the Asian American community.

Even though the shooter, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long claimed otherwise, the racist undertones of the attack cannot be ignored. Asian-Americans as well as those hailing from the wider Asia Pacific region including Pacific Islands, have faced tremendous discrimination in wake of the Covid-19 outbreak that was dubbed by the Trump administration as the “China Virus”, thus placing people hailing from a wide variety of Asian backgrounds in the crosshairs of racists and bigots.

This is not very different from when people from north eastern states were targeted across India and blamed for spreading the Coronavirus. The discrimination ranged from being turned away from shops, even while making essential purchases, to street harassment to being spat upon as reported by SabrangIndia.

All this, because they belong to easily identifiable ethnic groups, something that racists and bigots use as justification for their ‘othering’ and discrimination. In the case of the Atlanta shootings, even if the shooter claimed that he was killing the women to eliminate the temptation they posed to him, it is clearly a case of exotification and fetishisation, and therefore inherently racist.

Related:

Atlanta: Six Asian-American women shot in alleged hate crimes 
They zipped past me on a bike yelling “Corona, Corona, Corona”: Naga woman in Mumbai 

The post US flags to fly at half-mast to honour Atlanta shooting victims appeared first on SabrangIndia.

US President Joseph R. Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi resolved to work closely together to win the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, renew their partnership on climate change, rebuild the global economy to benefit both countries and unitedly oppose global terrorism, during a telephonic conversation on February 8, 2021.

Accordingly, the US President also stressed that a “shared commitment to democratic values” is the bedrock for the U.S.-India relationship, in line with his desire to defend democratic institutions and norms around the world.

The US government’s stand on the farmers’ protest is public knowledge following a formal statement by the administration saying it recognises peaceful protests as a hallmark of any thriving democracy. A state department press briefing also said that the US recognises unhindered access to information, including the internet, as a hallmark of a thriving democracy.

The two leaders agreed to continue close cooperation to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific, including support for freedom of navigation, territorial integrity, and a stronger regional architecture through the Quad – the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – an informal strategic forum of four nations, the US, Japan, Australia, and India.

Biden and Modi agreed to stay in close touch on a range of global challenges and look forward to what the United States and India will achieve together for their people and for their nations.

Earlier, Modi had tweeted about the conversation on February 8, night where he said the two leaders were “committed to a rules-based international order.”

President @JoeBiden and I are committed to a rules-based international order. We look forward to consolidating our strategic partnership to further peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. @POTUS

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 8, 2021

Related:

PPCBC condemns arrests of Indian journalists covering farmers’ movement

Super Bowl features 30-second farmers protest advertisement

Allow peaceful protest by farmers: US Congress to India

Rihanna, Greta Thunberg support Indian farmers; MEA cries foul

British Parliament may consider debate on Indian farmers’ protests

The post Biden stresses a desire to defend democratic norms on call with Modi appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In his first week in office, President Biden issued a number of executive orders. One of them directs the Department of Justice not to renew its contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities, essentially returning the Department to its policy at the end of the Obama administration.  

The 46^th President of the United States told the media that this is a first step to stop corporations from profiting off of incarceration. “Section 2.  Contracts with Privately Operated Criminal Detention Facilities. The Attorney General shall not renew Department of Justice contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities, as consistent with applicable law”, read the order.

The Executive Order published by the White House also reads:

“Section 1. Policy. More than two million people are currently incarcerated in the United States, including a disproportionate number of people of colour.  There is broad consensus that our current system of mass incarceration imposes significant costs and hardships on our society and communities and does not make us safer.  To decrease incarceration levels, we must reduce profit-based incentives to incarcerate by phasing out the Federal Government’s reliance on privately operated criminal detention facilities.”

It further says, “Incarcerated individuals should be given a fair chance to fully reintegrate into their communities, including by participating in programming tailored to earning a good living, securing affordable housing, and participating in our democracy as our fellow citizens. However, privately operated criminal detention facilities consistently underperform Federal facilities with respect to correctional services, programs, and resources.”   

As the Executive Order was published on January 26, 2021, civil society groups have been discussing the real impact of it. David Fathi, Director of the National Prison Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has said that this is an “important step”. However, it will not by itself end mass incarceration, but he feels that “it will curb an industry that has a financial interest in perpetuating mass incarceration,” Fathi told NPR’s Audie Cornish.

On the issue of the status of the present private prisons, Fathi clarified that the order is a very important step, but it is only a first step. He observed that the timing of the phase out of private prisons is still unclear. He told NPR, “The order directs the Attorney General not to renew contracts with private prisons. So, if the Justice Department simply lets these contracts expire at the end of their normal term, that’s a process that will be slow and will take a number of years.”

Further, according to him, another important gap is that this order does not apply to immigration detention, where more than 80% of detained immigrants are held in private, for- profit prisons. Extending this order to immigration detention is an obvious next step and an urgent next step that needs to happen. Currently, this order affects only 10% of all prisoners who are held in federal custody.

The Biden-Harris campaign made a number of significant commitments on criminal justice reform, one of which was ending the use of private prisons. They had also promised to improve prison conditions, to eliminate solitary confinement and end federal death penalty.

David Fathi believes that Americans are hopeful and are looking forward to the current administration for significant and lasting reform of the criminal legal system.

The Executive Order may be read here: 

Related:

A prison without bars or walls

Monitoring the condition of Indian prisons

The post Joe Biden orders end of use of private prisons appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Trump and ‘Trumpism’ remind us with compelling force of the demons (Daityas and Danavas) of Hindu mythology. With his scowling looks, haughty demeanour, reckless conduct and ideas, along with passionate acclamation of milling crowds, he looks like the embodiment of some elemental natural force of insensate destructive power. Somewhat like Hitler and Nazis who had been initially dismissed as a bunch of crazy hoods. 

Of course, there are definite social factors that account for such phenomena, with more than 47 percent of American voters, and most of the Republican party forming a phalanx, rallying to his support. And deep-rooted reactionary prejudices, harkening back to the days of the Civil War and the anti-slavery movement that sought to end horrific social and racial oppression by plantation-owners, have continued to rankle among possessive classes for more than a century and half. 

The menace of Ku Klux Klan that has been terrorising black Americans in the deep South for more than a century in semi-secret operations had been products of such stubborn remnants of the past. Then there is the infamous gun lobby that thrives on rising incidence of crime in a country lately leaning towards gross inequality and deprivation of the masses. The right to carry firearms to defend oneself is a crying anachronism. The War Veterans’ association of soldiers who had taken part in America’s imperialist wars in last few decades have been taken over and run by war-mongers in league with American armaments industry and Big Finance. All these are backed by financial power of corporates who equate social regulation of capital with constriction of liberty. And Trump speaks for them and confers on them liberal tax cuts; and supports scattered militant far-right groups when he intones: “Make America great again!” 

Trump has been projected by his backers as a lone fighter against the crooks in the centre of Big Finance Wall Street, figured in the public imagination as a wily, blood-sucking stinking rich and debauched elite battening on earnings of the honest poor. But the very first man he reportedly officially met upon assuming office had been a top-ranking executive of the biggest bank of the world, Goldman Sachs. And he has among his patrons, giant oil corporations like Exxon Mobil that have amassed astronomical wealth and funded immense fake research challenging the reality of climate change. Yet he has the inexplicable support of the once well-off and now struggling American working-class. Part of his appeal is the carefully nurtured image of ‘the outsider’ taking on the crooks of Wall Street.          

An opinion piece in the Indian Express of November 14, by Anush Kapadia has deplored that Democrats have lost the support of their long-standing base, the white working-class. He has pointed out that they had solidly backed Barak Obama in both his terms in office and argued Democrats should not have neglected this traditional social base. The result, it is argued, has been the continuing hold of Republicans in Southern and mid-Western states. Hence, his call for re-orientation of Democratic Party policy towards States.  

It turns out however that for last three decades or so certain states have been persistently marked as ‘red’ meaning Republican and the rest as ‘blue’ or Democrat. American elections have become such an expensive affair that usually victory depends on patronage by wealthy donors from the corporate world. Trump had such patronage and certain liberal rich donors might have contributed also to Biden’s election funds. But it is significant and heartening that common voters supporting Biden raised 700 million dollars among themselves for that fund. A state like Texas that has become prosperous through oil usually elects Republicans funded by Oil. But this time some stubborn red States turned blue.            

But the mystery of massive working-class votes for Republican party remains. Actually, Barak Obama lost working-class support for Democrats when he gifted 700 billion dollars to Wall Street managers to pull through when the 2008 recession set in, destroying millions of jobs and incomes, yet spent little by way of relief to the working-class who were suffering great distress. The story went among them that the President they had elected rewarded the very crooks that had wasted their hard-earned savings and income out of sheer greed. No amount of reasoning would erase that picture. Obama like most American Presidents regard success and survival of corporate business their first priority. Incidentally, his remarks on Indian political leaders are also in the last analysis conditioned by such loyalties. Both, Obama and Biden, have redeeming qualities which came out in Biden’s

calm self-possession in complying with Covid protocols in his campaign undaunted by swarming crowds wildly cheering Trump.          

Biden is by no means bound to continuing Obama’s policies. Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist senator with a huge following has successfully induced him to accept in his primary agenda genuine pro-poor and pro-people policies like universal health-care on public funds, creation of jobs and unemployment insurance as well as free tuition in public schools and colleges. At the same time, he has allayed fears of corporate-backed those Democratic legislators who dreaded drying-up of their election funds from corporates owing to a ‘socialist’ policy make-over.          

Trump has been strenuously trying to deflect attention from such facts by promoting the politics of resentment and revenge. He has dismissed all serious criticism of his dangerous adventurist policies as ‘fake news’ and attributed widespread unemployment as seizure of jobs by hordes of foreign immigrants. He deliberately concealed the fact that Hispanic migrants largely took up the kind of lowly jobs that Americans no longer cared for and Asian migrants mostly acquired highly specialised skilled jobs in IT industries, business finance management and in some cases even science laboratories at generally lower scales of pay than educated Americans would accept. However, there is no question about their high quality. What deprived ‘native’ Americans actually had been a consequence of policy of the backers of Trump. It also appears that American corporate business since the nineties had been skewed heavily towards management skills, to the neglect of technological innovation and expertise, leaving that field open for gifted migrants recruited by management. It was they who began to depend on out-sourcing jobs in a desperate race for cost-cutting and greater profit.          

The working-class has been kept in the dark about such policy trends, and they have since been fed on the potent concoction of the migrant as enemy. Asians are repeatedly threatened with abuse, like “you go back home to your country” or ” Don’t steal our jobs, you do not belong here”. They as well as the Hispanics come under physical assault sometimes. As for Black people aspiring for advancement, they are simply and sharply called to “keep to their place” and of late are increasingly under the shadow of deadly violence. 

All these provide a convenient vent for letting off simmering resentment, frustration and blind vengeful fury among so-called middle-class of white workers and sales agents. It is worthwhile to recall that there is a vibrant current in American society that has met this trend head-on and resolutely been working at several levels to overcome this threat to the American heritage. The Antifa (anti-fascist) groups come out into the streets to stare down fascist far-right groups and in the campuses, there is no lack of liberal opinion to expose the pretensions of Trumpism.          

It should be clear enough that since the dynamics of reactionary movements are baser negative passions and a romanticised utopia of perpetual dominance, their ideological articulation is also irrational and driven by hankering for naked power rather than just rule. The ‘Tea Party’ lobby in the Republican Party is notoriously drunk on adolescent dreams of unbounded ambition and power invoked in Ayn Rand’s massive times. Certain atavistic religious emotions perpetuated through certain strands of American Evangelism are also drawn upon to propel a headlong dive into the abyss of unreason.          

Now one has only to adapt the terms of this discourse and character of its dynamic to Indian context and the resemblance could not be more striking. There is similar virulent propaganda on established as well social media about the ‘enemy within’, the betrayal by a corrupt gang pictured as ‘the Lutyens gang’, and glowing unreal images of past glory traduced by traitors who must pay for their crime with their blood. The Muslims are supposedly the impure migrants who came a thousand years ago as invaders and remained as oppressors and saboteurs. The pure essence of the defiled nation must be redeemed through transformation of institutions, purging of democratic pollutants and re-making of history and culture. And lower castes who are awakening to a sense of feudal bondage and are stirring for freedom are kept in their place by state-supported terror including mass rapes and murder. 

Fortunately, in this mythology of cultural and political re-birth, Indians have on their side a force that has been working underground from 1920s to bring about this resurrection and it has now broken into the surface as a vast and growing disciplined army adept in all kinds of tactics of open and secret warfare and technologically armed to the teeth. The rest of the population is watching the spectacle with a mixture of awe and dread. This army has stolen a march on genuine democratic forces not yet fully aware of the catastrophe and undecided as yet on need for unshakeable unity and clear effective counter-strategy. Besides, they are hag-ridden with divisions and internal squabbles.          

The people who care and might yet care for democracy have plenty of fight in them. Youths in the right frame of mind are not intimidated or won over. What they need is a united leadership with a far-sighted  plan of action.          

Let us revert to the beginning for a moment; certain signature accomplishments of this American president. He had ordered third-degree like detention and interrogation of immigrants, cruel separation of their young children from them for years together, refused to condemn the criminal misdeeds of far-right groups and the outright murders of black youths by racist police on the slightest pretext. With stark facts like two lakh victims of Covid-19 and threat of more staring at his face he had callously denied the calamity and encouraged defiance of Covid protocols.     

And it is this man for whom an enormous and glittering gathering was assembled in Ahmedabad to hail him as a living god with befitting ovation. Before that there had been the extraordinary spectacle of our Prime Minister expressing unconditonal political support for the head of another country before thousands of Indian migrants there. It is a mercy that he has not wasted time in congratulating Biden on his election though Trump has not conceded defeat.    

How can one in his senses fail to see and draw the lessons? The million-dollar question (what an ironically apt phrase!) is if the opposition will do so without dithering more. Bihar also has been a good lesson positive on the whole. 

(End of Part Two)

Part-1 may be read here: Lessons from American Presidential Elections

*The author is a highly respected Assamese intellectual, a literary critic and social-scientist from Assam. Views expressed are the authors own. 

Other pieces by Dr. Hiren Gohain:

Development as Disaster

Reviving the NRC brawl

The post Lessons from the American Presidential Elections appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In yet another body blow to the Modi regime’s image, US Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has called out the Centre’s repression of minority communities in India, especially the treatment of people in Kashmir in wake of the abrogation of Article 370. 

A policy paper titled Joe Biden’s agenda for the Muslim American communities posted on his campaign website read, “In Kashmir, the Indian government should take all necessary steps to restore rights for all the people of Kashmir.  Restrictions on dissent, such as preventing peaceful protests or shutting or slowing down the Internet, weaken democracy.” It added, “These measures are inconsistent with the country’s long tradition of secularism and with sustaining a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy.”

Biden has also expressed disappointment with the regime’s approach to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The police paper states, “Joe Biden has been disappointed by the measures that the government of India has taken with the implementation and aftermath of the National Register of Citizens in Assam and the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act into law. These measures are inconsistent with the country’s long tradition of secularism and with sustaining a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy.” 

The Biden campaign’s entire policy paper may be read here.

After the Central government scrapped Article 370 last year, taking away the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019, the former state was bifurcated into two Union Territories – Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir. The move was sudden and plunged the region into a virtual blackout after communication and internet services were suspended, political leaders, activists and even children were detained, health infrastructure came to a halt, journalists were barred from reporting and all civil liberties were suspended. Till date, 4G internet services which are available for use throughout the country, remain suspended in Kashmir.

In fact, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, who was himself placed in special custody and prevented from communicating with anyone for months after the abrogation of Article 370, tweeted about Biden’s stand. 

Democratic Presidential hopeful @JoeBiden says “In Kashmir India should take all necessary steps to restore the rights of all the people of Kashmir. Restrictions on dissent, such as peaceful protests or shutting or slowing down the internet weakens democracy”. https://t.co/DQEeo3D5dn

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) June 26, 2020

The CAA specifically left out Muslims as it only provided relief to persecuted Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The NRC, a drive to verify citizenship of Indians in Assam and weed out alleged illegal immigrants, effectively left in the lurch the future of over 19 lakh people. The Centre had announced its intention to extend the NRC all over India, but the announcement met with vehement protests, leading the government to backtrack a bit saying they were yet to decide upon a timeframe for the same. 

The protests against the CAA and NRC which started last year, saw the Central government using brutal force on protesters and student activists. Till date, even under the Covid-19 lockdown, the Delhi police have continued to arrest activists and book them under stringent charges which ensure continuous incarceration.

In light of this, Biden has reportedly asked the Central government of India to take necessary steps to restore rights of all Kashmiris, expressing his disappointment over CAA, NRC and NPR. However, PTI reported that a group of Hindu Americans reached out to the Biden campaign expressing their dismay over the language used against India. They also urged the campaign to release a similar policy paper on Hindu Americans. 

Rishi Bhutada, board member of the Hindu American Political Action Committee said that the Biden campaign was missing the much needed context about Pakistan-sponsored cross border terrorism in regards to Kashmir, adding that the CAA was a good-faith effort to remedy the status of approximately 30,000 persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, The Wire reported.

Previous instances of international concerns over religious freedom and dissent in India

The ruling government has of late been receiving scathing criticism for its failure to stick to India’s secular credentials. 

The recently released International Religious Freedom Report for 2019 by the United States Department of State indicted India’s present regime for human rights violations in connection with its people’s right to practice any religion of their choice as laid down in the constitution.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its Annual Report for 2020 painted a bleak picture of how India treated her religious minorities. It had recommended that the US Government not only designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), but also impose targeted sanctions on Indian government agencies.

Maria Arena, Chair of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) too had written to Indian Home Minister Amit Shah raising serious concerns about the manner in which human rights activists, peaceful protesters and sundry dissenters were being thrown behind bars and being silenced using provisions of the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

Under-Secretary-General Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide had also raised several key questions about the growth of hate speech and especially the targeting of the Muslim community in wake of the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the nationwide agitation against it.

The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) and International Christian Concern (ICC) had co-sponsored a virtual Congressional briefing titled “USCIRF Recommendations on India – The Next Steps.” During this briefing, similar concerns had been raised about the plight of religious minorities in India.

Related:

US slams India yet again on subject of religious freedom
Freedom of Religion: Indian Scenario
European Parliament raises concerns about intimidation of activists in India
Continued and systematic vilification of minorities during lockdown: Report
Concerns about targeting of minorities in India raised at US Congressional Briefing
Designate India as ‘Country of Particular Concern’, impose sanctions: USCIRF
UN raises apprehensions over increase in hate speech and discrimination since adoption of CAA

The post Joe Biden bats for restoration of rights in Kashmir appeared first on SabrangIndia.