The Modi government is notorious for its use of manipulated and trumped-up charges against political opponents. But with the approach of the 2024 election, it has become even more brazen in using all means at its disposal to attack its bourgeois rivals, suppress social opposition, and stoke communal reaction.
The announcement is a sign of the depth of opposition among Indian workers to Israel’s massacring of tens of thousands of defenceless Palestinians with US-supplied weapons and Washington’s full-throated political support.
The crackdown has involved tens of thousands of police and para-militaries, the erection of huge multi-layered blockades at state borders, and drone-delivered tear-gas strikes.
Monday’s inauguration spectacle is far more than just a celebration of religious mumbo-jumbo and communal reaction. It glorifies an historic crime in pursuit of realizing the fascistic project of transforming India into a Hindu rashtra or state.