May 3, 2021
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party lost big in a state he visited frequently before the recent virus surge forced him off the campaign trail, adding to growing signs of a backlash over his government’s handling of the world’s worst COVID-19 outbreak.
In West Bengal, incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress won more than 70% of the 292 seats up for grabs, while Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party took 76, according to results posted on the Election Commission of India on Monday. Last month, the prime minister predicted his party would win more than 200 seats in the state, which held voting over eight phases starting March 27.
Photo: EPA
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party suffered a setback Sunday when it lost a fiercely contested state poll.
Over the past month India held its biggest democratic exercise in two years, with 175 million people eligible to vote in five regional elections.
But the marathon polls involved huge rallies where many attendees were maskless, and a record-breaking coronavirus spike coincided with the final phases of voting.
Experts blame complacency about the pandemic, as well as religious festivals attended by millions of devotees and political rallies, for the virus crisis.
The most important election was in the eastern state of West Bengal, home to 90 million people.
3 Hefajat leaders remanded over 2013 mayhem, March 26 violence in Dhaka Star Digital Report Star Digital Report
Three Hefajat leaders were placed on remand, on different terms, today in three cases filed with Paltan and Motijheel police stations over the 2013 mayhem and the recent violence in Dhaka.
The leaders are Azizul Haque Islamabadi, organising secretary of Hefajat s now-dissolved committee; Maulana Jubair Ahmed, former vice-president of its Dhaka City unit, and Maulana Jalaluddin Ahmed, former assistant general secretary.
Azizul was placed on a seven-day remand in two cases filed with Paltan Police Station over March 26 violence centring the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while Jubair was placed on a six-day remand in two cases filed with Paltan and Motijheel police stations over the 2013 mayhem and the recent violence in Dhaka.
Australiaâs complacency, not racism, led to India ban
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Scott Morrison is not Donald Trump, but itâs the sort of controversy that Donald Trump would have loved to create. The Australian government not only shut the border to India last week, it also spelled out the warning that even returning Australian citizens could be jailed for five years for trying to get home.
Trump used border closures against minorities to give expression to his racist attitudes against Muslims and Mexicans. He had pretexts of law and order but his political purpose was to excite racists among his support base.
China Mocks India’s Coronavirus Dead on Social Media
3 May 2021
A social media account run by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mocked India’s deadly coronavirus crisis on Saturday with a post deleted after public outrage in both China and India.
The now-deleted post, depicted below, emanated from the CCP’s Commission for Political and Legal Affairs (CPLA) – one of the most powerful organs of the Party, as it oversees the legal system and law enforcement agencies. The commission’s account on Weibo, China’s tightly-controlled version of Twitter, has 15 million followers. The post was shared by numerous other government and law enforcement social media accounts before it was deleted.