The Political Fix: Why did Narendra Modi meet Kashmiri leaders after jailing them for months?
A newsletter on Indian politics and policy from Scroll.in. 8 hours ago
Welcome to The Political Fix by Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, a newsletter on Indian politics and policy. To get it in your inbox every week, sign up here.
The Big Story: Guess who’s back
Through much of 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government claimed the actions it took in the aftermath of its controversially, legally questionable effort to strip Jammu and Kashmir of autonomy were motivated by security concerns.
Yet anyone observing could tell that the suspension of civil liberties and jailing of mainstream political leaders – including the former chief minister who had been in an alliance with Modi’s own Bharatiya Janata Party just months before – was part of a political project. The Indian government did not want to permit the Kashmiri public to express opinions about the reading down of Ar
The Political Fix: Will pressure from the Supreme Court and states prompt a Modi U-turn on vaccines?
The Political Fix: Will pressure from the Supreme Court and states prompt a Modi U-turn on vaccines?
The Centre is itself trying to blame the policy on the states, saying it knew all along that it was a bad idea. 2 hours ago
Welcome to The Political Fix by Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, a newsletter on Indian politics and policy. To get it in your inbox every week, sign up here.
The Big Story: Round about
A month and a half ago, India’s Union Government introduced sudden changes to its vaccination policy that it said would liberalise and accelerate India’s campaign to inoculate all adults. At the time we called some of the moves baffling and talked about how they seemed like a panicked reaction to an unforeseen second wave.
The Big Story: Bengal vendetta
There is near-consensus amongst political analysts that the current Bharatiya Janata Party has a hunger for winning political power that is rarely matched by other parties. Unfortunately, this hunger has, in the past few years, often led to a troubling undermining of democratic norms.
A glimpse of this was seen in West Bengal over the past week as the Union government’s Central Bureau of Investigation suddenly arrested two senior ministers, one MLA and one politician – all from the Trinamool Congress – on May 17.
Bitter campaign
The arrest was the latest incident in months of bitter political conflict between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress as West Bengal went to the polls. The campaign itself raised troubling questions about India’s democracy, with the Election Commission facing serious allegations that it was bending inordinately to the BJP’s demands. For example, the body refused demands to shorten the election or
The Political Fix: Modi failed the biggest test of his tenure. Will a Supreme Court panel now help?
A newsletter on politics and policy from Scroll.in May 10, 2021 · 09:36 am
Welcome to The Political Fix by Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, a newsletter on Indian politics and policy. To get it in your inbox every week, sign up here.
The Big Story: Phone-a-friend
The first time Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed to take public notice of the dramatic oxygen shortage affecting cities like Delhi that had been hit hard by the Covid-19 second wave was on April 16, when he held a “comprehensive review” of supply and logistics.