Is the timidity of India’s main opposition Congress helping embattled Modi?
The grand old party shows a vacillating leadership and seems unable to capitalise on right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party’s failures in government. BABA UMAR 25 APR 2019 NEW DELHI –– In 2014, a populist wave by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by its star campaigner Narendra Modi, drowned India’s Congress party, reducing it to a meek […]
Boycott and curbs subdue India’s election in disputed Kashmir
At least 86 percent of eligible voters in the Kashmir valley abstained from voting, although in the southern Jammu belt, where Muslims and a sizeable Hindu population doesn’t shy away from casting votes, a 70 percent turnout was recorded. BABA UMAR 22 APR 2019 India-administered Kashmir –– As the morning sun shone over Ganderbal’s mustard fields and […]
Modi is favourite, but secularism is dear to Indian students
BABA UMAR 17 APR 2019 TRT World spoke with students from two influential universities in New Delhi, asking them about their electoral choices and to rate the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. Simran, 23 Student, Delhi University “I think the [BJP] government has been great. Though some parts of it like the economic aspect has […]
Will this regional alliance in India halt Modi’s march to Delhi?
PM Narendra Modi’s BJP secured a landslide victory in 2014, bagging more than 70 of 80 seats from the country’s largest state. But BJP’s momentum in this election is being kept in check, likely leading to a tight race. BABA UMAR 15 APR 2019 LUCKNOW, India – As the April heat soars to 40C in Lucknow, political […]
Marginalised Indian Muslims rally around ‘secular’ parties
Battered by decades of communal violence and now the rise of right-wing Hindu supremacy, the 2019 general election offers some hope to India’s largest religious minority BABA UMAR 12 APR 2019 UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA –– When Mohammad Saleem went to cast his vote in Thursday’s general election, the idea was to bring in New Delhi a federal […]
In pictures: Voting kicks off as India’s Modi seeks re-election
With a population nearly Brazil’s size, northern Uttar Pradesh sends 80 of the 543 lawmakers to the country’s parliament, the highest among all other states, making it a game-changer turf. UTTAR PRADESH, India — A three-party alliance of regional parties threatens the momentum of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by strongman Narendra Modi in […]
I want to give India a new prime minister – Akhilesh Yadav
The former chief minister of the country’s most populous Uttar Pradesh state tells TRT World that the ruling BJP ‘has created a wall of hatred,’ which like-minded alliances must demolish. BABA UMAR 23 APR 2019 LUCKNOW, India –– Akhilesh Yadav, 45, is seen as a game-changer politician in the ongoing election. A former chief minister of northern […]
A tête-à-tête with one of India’s top politicians Akhilesh Yadav
Without vultures, fate of Indian Parsi ‘sky burials’ uncertain
Solar panels replace extinct scavengers while decomposing corpses continue to be heaped at India’s ‘Tower of Silence’. Baba Umar 7 Apr 2015 Mumbai, India – It is a thorny issue that beleaguers this fast diminishing community daily – how to preserve a 3,000-year-old ritual of giving “sky burials” to the Parsi dead amid a nearly extinct […]
Why do Kashmiris oppose a Bavarian concert?
Some in this restive region view the event as a propaganda tool for India to whitewash alleged abuses. Baba Umar 7 Sept 2013 A Bavarian State Orchestra concert in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir has met with strong opposition ever since it was announced a month ago. The news of the concert was greeted by a […]