Jobless engineers, MBAs: The hidden army of Indian election ‘consultants’ | India Election 2024

“How many tennis balls can fit in a passenger plane?” Neeraj, a young economics graduate from the premier Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), was given 15 minutes to solve this question during his interview rounds at Nation With Namo (NwN), one of the in-house political consultancies of India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He got … Read more

Modi wants to turn the election into a Hindu-Muslim war | India Election 2024

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have decided that they will contest this seven-phase national election as champions of Hindu interests. They have also made it clear that protecting Hindu interests means protecting them from Muslims. According to them, the Hindu majority face danger as the opposition Congress party is … Read more

‘Children of the Ganges’ – The mallah community of India’s Varanasi | Workers’ Rights

Varanasi, India – “Hum paani ke jeev hain. We are creatures of water,” says 29-year-old Vishwakarma Sahni. Sahni belongs to Varanasi’s community of approximately 8,000 mallah, the boatmen whose lives are deeply intertwined with the Ganges – a river considered sacred in India and which they hold in profound reverence. To them, the Ganges is … Read more

Manipur’s BJP CM inflamed conflict: Assam Rifles report on India violence | India Election 2024

Kangpokpi/Imphal, India – On Christmas Eve, it was eerily calm inside a makeshift bunker with piles of gunny bags and a tin roof. Hunkered inside and clutching their single-barrelled rifles, 19-year-old Chonminlal Kipgen and 26-year-old Paolal Kipgen from the predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo community looked out and scoured the hills of Kangpokpi district for armed fighters … Read more

Why is India’s Citizenship Amendment Act so controversial? | India Election 2024 News

The Indian government on Monday announced the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a law that was passed by parliament in 2019 but was not enforced until now. This decision on the CAA – whose passage in parliament had set off protests across the country five years ago over allegations of an anti-Muslim bias … Read more