The Wire Talks

“The Election Commission Is The Key Player In This Election"

Crucial elections will take place in West Bengal in two phases on April 23 and 29. Mamata Bannerjee’s Trinamool Congress has to fight anti-incumbency, because it has been in power since 2011, and the main challenger the Bharatiya Janata Party sees its best opportunity to win the state. This time, the Special Intensive Revision ordered by the Election Commission has also complicated matters since over 90 lakh voters have been struck off the rolls and between 30 and 34 lakh have appealed their removal. The Trinamool Congress and other opposition parties have said that the Election Commission is playing a partisan role and helping the BJP. “The Election commission is the key player in this election. It is election commission that has issued an ultimatum to the Trinamool Congress. It is the election commission that is taking the administration in their control,” said Snigdhendu Bhattacharya. In this election, it looks like Gyanesh Kumar has emerged as the face that wants the change to happen in Bengal. So that means Trinamool Congress, which is the main party in West Bengal and the other smaller opposition parties are fighting not the BJP so much as Gyanesh Kumar,” he said, in a podcast discussion with Sidharth Bhatia.

The Amount Of Censorship Of Online Content Has Expanded Exponentially

The recent proposed amendments to IT rules inviting public comments has been explained by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as just procedural but this is not the case. Activists say that if passed, the new rules will further tighten censorship of online content. Rules were already there and takedown orders were being issued in large numbers, but now it will further expand to censor not just publications but also comments by citizens, said Nikhil Pahwa, founder and editor of Medianama and also activist on tech policy. Of the many changes proposed, “There is an expansion of the powers of the ministry, that it can issue advisories and circulars and all sorts of notifications, and those are basically going to be binding obligations on online platforms,” Pahwa said in a podcast discussion with Sidharth Bhatia.

Indian Americans Are Very Afraid in a Way That, They Haven’t Been Probably Since the Post 9-11 Era

With the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) picking up immigrants especially brown looking people, and even deporting them, a climate of fear has built up among the Indian community, says Sravya Tadepalli. “Indians are the third most undocumented community in America,” says Tadepalli, deputy executive director of Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR). “Among Indians there is a perception that we are all here legally, as tech workers, doctors, but many Indians are not in a position of privilege,” she says in a podcast conversation with Sidharth Bhatia. Many organisations are working on educating Indians of their rights vis a vis ICE, she says. HfHR runs a Know Your Rights programme. “We’ve operated at Hindu mandir’s in New York City, coordinating with 10 of them and distributed Know Your Rights cards, conducted training.”

A Political Element Cannot be Ruled Out in the Lack of Bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam | Sarim Naved

Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam have been in prison for the last five years. Their bail has been denied repeatedly. Last week their five colleagues, also arrested in the Delhi riot case of 2020, were granted bail. Why haven’t they?   Lawyer Sarim Naved, who fights both civil and criminal cases, analyses this in a podcast discussion with Sidharth Bhatia. While bail not jail is a general principle, “the courts have a lot of discretion in this matter”, he said. But he says, “the way the current government behaves, yes, a political element cannot be ruled out.”   Also, he says, times change and “our understanding of civil liberty shifts from time to time.” He points to cases from the 1990s when “somebody said Khalistan Zindabad and the Supreme Court said this does not amount to terrorism.”   But, he says that the cases of Khalid and Imam cannot be discussed by themselves without considering the larger systemic issues of police investigations and the judiciary. “Even in UAPA, there are people who are waiting for a longer period for their trials to start.”

There is a Sense of Complacency Among Indian Americans That We Are Doing Quite Well | Salil Tripathi

The strong statements by President Trump against India are echoed by the growing anti-Indian sentiment in parts of the country. No longer are Indians viewed as the model minority — well educated, successful, tax-paying members of the US. Instead, they are rousing the anger of local communities. Some of the traits which are not very well liked, says journalist and author Salil Tripathi who lives in the US, “such as noisy celebrations, weddings, and you know, you take over the entire street and then after the after the wedding is over, you have a lot of garbage on the street or something like that. All of those things are attracting unwanted and untoward attention.” He says the soft power of India is very much visible—Ravi Shankar was popular and now Yoga is, but such things are “a little more in your face.”