Indian NRC/CAB reaction in Bangladesh

[Bilal9]

Delhi riots: Outsiders came in trucks carrying bricks and bags, allege locals
Bhajanpura, Maujpur, Seemapuri residents claim only people from outside could unleash such violence.

Protesters take cover from a burning car during violent clashes between anti and pro CAA demonstrations, at Jaffarabad, near Maujpur, New Delhi.

On Sunday evening, Om Veer, a resident of north-east Delhi’s Bhajanpura was sitting outside his shop on Pushta Road when he saw around 10 trucks being parked on the service lane carrying around 70 men with backpacks. All the men were in the 20 to 30 age-group, and they were all outsiders, Veer said.

Just 20 minutes later, another truck followed, carrying construction debris and pieces of bricks. Though Veer could not draw a connection between the two immediately, he began getting suspicious when he woke up to the news of violent communal clashes and stone-pelting across north-east Delhi the next morning.

“These people were not locals. They did not look like labourers. All were young men. Who knows what they were carrying in their backpacks? It could be stones, it could be weapons,” Veer said.

Even as Uttar Pradesh Police sealed three border roads adjoining north-east Delhi, several residents claim that unruly elements continue to enter areas around Seemapuri, Bhajanpura, Maujpur and Jafrabad using smaller routes. Though three primary entry points -- Laal Bagh, DLF embankment road in Loni, and Tulsi Niketan border in Sahibabad -- are now protected by the police from both sides, there are several internal roads from where cars and two-wheelers can access the Capital.


Some of these roads, especially around Bhajanpura and Maujpur, are also wide enough for medium-sized trucks.

On Wednesday, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, in his address at the Delhi assembly, had also put the blame of the violence on “outsiders”.

“Delhi’s people are peace-loving, everyone wants peace and nobody wants riots. We strive to make a better Delhi for our children. Common people of Delhi are not involved in the riots. People from outside Delhi, political elements, and miscreants are responsible for the rioting,” Kejriwal said.


Even on Friday, residents in Seemapuri claimed that they had seen outsiders being brought into Delhi to insight fresh communal clashes that have already claimed 42 lives.

Mohammad Irfan, a resident of Seemapuri, said that he was guarding his colony gates with his neighbours around 2am on Friday when he saw three vehicles, with Haryana registration numbers, come their way. His colony is less than 2km away from UP’s Shaheed Nagar, and the route is not secured by any security agency.

“We could not see how many people there were in these vehicles, but when the residents surrounded them, they quickly turned their vehicles and went away,” said Irfan.


Thirty two-year-old Neelam Mishra, a resident of Zero Pushta, also bore witness to over a dozen motorcycles zoom through her neighbourhood late Tuesday night. He said that the Hindus and Muslims have lived in this neighbourhood peacefully for generations and any political interference cannot instigate neighbours against each other.

“Do you think children who have grown up together will murder and set each others’ houses on fire? These riots were orchestrated and these people were brought from outside. If these people were local people then someone should recognise them here,” Mishra said.

As these allegations mounted, Delhi traffic police officers said that it is difficult to doubt a heavy vehicle entering the city borders only because it is carrying people, because vehicles carrying labourers from the neighbouring states often go in and out of the city.

“Accusing police just because some vehicles managed to enter the city is wrong. Many trucks enter Delhi from UP, especially from these borders, carrying men who work in factories or taken as labourers by contractors,” a traffic officer from the area said, asking not to be named.

MS Randhawa, Delhi Police spokesperson said that the police was alert and was manning each of the riot-hit areas with a close watch. He said that the borders are tightly protected.

“The situation is getting better but we are looking out for any unruly elements that could disrupt peace,” Randhawa said.

 

[Old School]

This is not a communal riot. This is a government sponsored genocide of Muslims.

 

[Bilal9]

This is not a communal riot. This is a government sponsored genocide of Muslims.

My thoughts exactly - that too with rented RSS thugs from other places. All this while their police stand aside like silent spectators. India is truly a banana republic now. It fits the definition...

 

[Bilal9]

The definition of courage is when fifteen ball-less extremist Hindu idiots beat up on an unarmed person just because he happens to be follower of a different religion, namely Islam.

 

[Old School]

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/bang...-against-indian-premier.655952/#post-12133457

 

[VikingRaider]

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/bang...-against-indian-premier.655952/#post-12133457
View attachment 611621 View attachment 611622 View attachment 611623 View attachment 611624 View attachment 611625

Wow AL is in trouble I think . Because workers party( Marxist and ally of AL but now not part of govt after 30 December 2018 election) who are part of infamous chetona cult ( extreme anti Pakistani cult) also protesting against govt.

 

[Old School]

Wow AL is in trouble I think . Because workers party( Marxist and ally of AL but now not part of govt after 30 December 2018 election) who are part of infamous chetona cult ( extreme anti Pakistani cult) also protesting against govt.

I can confirm you that Workers Party of Bangladesh led by Rashed Khan Menon isn't anti-Pakistan at all. The only anti-Pakistan leftist party is CPB which is traditionally an Indo-Soviet brainchild. CPB serves as the cultural front for Awami League along with their branches like Udichi and Bangladesh Student Union. There is another pro Indian leftist party JSD ( Inu).
Other than these two, Bangladeshi leftists are anti-India to the core.

 

[VikingRaider]

I can confirm you that Workers Party of Bangladesh led by Rashed Khan Menon isn't anti-Pakistan at all. The only anti-Pakistan leftist party is CPB which is traditionally an Indo-Soviet brainchild. CPB serves as the cultural front for Awami League along with their branches like Udichi and Bangladesh Student Union. There is another pro Indian leftist party JSD ( Inu).

Yes I know that CPB and Udichi is the leading chetona clowns, but it's new to me that workers party isn't anti Pakistani. Well if it's the fact then it's really very good news. As if anyone can counter so called chetona cult, then other Marxists are the best bet! Although it's hard to understand and also hard to believe the leftist clowns!

Forget Inu, he is the well known enemy who were part of the martyrdom of Bangabandhu sheikh Mujib. I abhor this bastard Inu who danced on tank after martyrdom of Bangabandhu sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

 

[Old School]

Yes I know that CPB and Udichi is the leading chetona clowns, but it's new to me that workers party isn't anti Pakistani. Well if it's the fact then it's really very good news. As if anyone can counter so called chetona cult, then other Marxists are the best bet! Although it's hard to understand and also hard to believe the leftist clowns!

Forget Inu, he is the known enemy who were part of the martyrdom of Bangabandhu sheikh Mujib. I abhor this bastard Inu.

Not so difficult to understand if you know the history of the leftist parties in Bangladesh. Only JSD and CPB were founded with Indian supervision.

 

[Bilal9]

Listen to this Hindutva nutcase (Subramanian Swamy) on what their Hindu Rashtra plans are. Better yet - formulate a plan to counter these morons now...hard to believe his own daughter ended up marrying a Muslim. Now you do the math...

 

[Bilal9]

Here is a very interesting piece by an influential commentator from Indian news media outlet "The Print" (posted after CAA/NRC passed in Indian Parliament) on why the RSS propaganda dissing Bangladeshis as "seventh worlders desperately wanting to get to India at any cost".

 

[Bilal9]

The following blog piece is by Syed Ali Mujtaba, who is a highly educated academic, a media trainer, visual communicator, journalist and a documentary film maker from the city of Chennai. His religion being Islam, his viewpoint on CAA/NRC in India is different from Sanghi thugs. I find his observations refreshing, focused, incisive and timely. Enjoy...

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Stop India’s Churning Process or it will be a Failing Welfare State
Syed Ali Mujtaba


Cambridge historian Anil Seal in his monumental work, “The Emergence of Indian Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration in the Later Nineteenth Century (1971),” writes, ‘In 1857, India was not one nation, in fact there was no nation, India was a jumble mumble of societies, a graveyard of nationalities and India nationalism was yet to be born. Anil Seal attributes the birth of Indian nationalism to the British rule that incubated Indian nationalism for next hundred years and gave it as a parting gift to every Indian.



There may be some who may disagree with Anil Seal’s thesis but it seems in contemporary India this is a hot currency. The current rulers are reaping rich dividends of this gifted nationalism and peddling it in a new flavor that is ultra-nationalism.

The ultra-nationalism is being preached and practiced at its splendid best during the current regime. Those at the helm of power are projecting ultra-nationalism by bringing Hindu militancy into sanatam dharma. In the quest to glorify Hinduism they are targeting the helpless Muslim minorities, crushing the democratic norms and a doing a host of other things that bemoan India sliding towards a failing welfare state.

This is how India’s churning process is going on. There are two distinctive trends that is vividly being witnessed are the new political and social agenda of the ruling dispensation. The political agenda is the project Hindu Rastra and the social agenda is to purge the Muslims and suppress them to the extent that they convert their faith into Hinduism. The other notable features of the churning up are as follows:


The leaders of ruling party are consciously making noise about the glorious past of the Hindus. They want to regain the glorious past so that the supremacy of Hindus could be reestablished. In this world view Muslims are the biggest villains. Hence they need to be extricated from India. The fallout from the thought process of regaining the glorious past of the Hindus are; CAA, NPR, NCR etc. all anti- Muslim ideas.

Cinematic art is being used to glorify the lost-golden age of Hindus. There is distortion of history in Indian cinema and manufacturing of Hindu glory. Common themes in current Indian movies are hate against Muslim rulers and glorification of Hindu rulers.



This ultra-nationalism is emanating from the ruling party’s head that is Prime Minister Modi. Modi who has now come to symbolize as India is Modi and Modi is India. Any criticism of Modi is considered an attack on the prestige of the nation.

Then the ultra-nationalist is using Islamophobia and bigotry against Muslims as its twin weapon to hold the sanatan dharmist under its umbrella. This recipe is working well in India and demonizing Muslims is the best bet to flag the cause of ultra-nationalism.

Suppression of freedom of expression is another facet of the churning out process currently underway in India. Criticism of the government is taken as an attack on the nation. If anyone dares to criticize the ruling party, he/she is called anti-national. As such the word anti-national has become most fancy in today’s lexicon. Any dissent has to be suppressed as anti-national and its punishment is under the sedition and treason laws.
Most of the news media are directly or indirectly controlled by the ruling party. In India, Media has to glorify the ill-conceived policies of the government or have to face its punitive wrath. The fourth estate is under the tutelage of the government that is holding the largest democracy of the world at its mercy.

In India corporate houses is being protected, as they are the ones who supply money to the political parties and make them come to power. Therefore the political parties have vested interest to protect the corporate houses because they want funds from business houses to run the election. The corporate houses reap rich dividends from political party they back assumes power. Both have mutual interest in protection of each other’s interests.
After Muslims, the labor force is the most suppressed entity in this country. Under the neo-capitalism paradigm, the labor force is seen with disdain. The present is making all attempts to suppress the labor forces and they are rendered completely helpless. The current government does not know the power of organized labor movement that has toppled many such power drunken regimes in the world.



In sum, the executive, the judiciary, the bureaucracy, the police, the army, the media, the education system, some professionals are all part of the churning process that India is facing today. They are not just individuals who responsible for the cancerous growth in India’s body. The imprints of churning up have permeated deep into the entire state apparatus.

Well these are some of the inchoate images that are at work to change the nature and character of India. In this changing India, many Indians are in a state of despair dejection and suffocation. They do not know how to deal with the fascist forces that have taken over the country.



There is wide spread protests seen all over India as the fascist forces are hell bent to change the nature and character of the country. The only ray of hope in such moments of despair is the ordinary people of this land. The common masses have raised a standard of revolt against those who are propagating the fascist ideology to make India a Hindu state.

The common man is undeterred by the state repression and is fighting tooth and nail to protect the fundamental character of India. They are vociferously opposing this fascist regime and have come on the streets in large numbers opposing this repressive government.



As the Hindu India is galloping on the bosom of modern India, the burden of hope rests on the shoulders of the common Indians. They are kindling the hope that hard earned Indian nationalism helped Indian gain freedom from the foreign rule should not be surrendered to few thugs who are using ultra-nationalism to remain in power.
In these moments of introspection, as Indians we first need to recognize these disturbing trends unfolding before us. Then we need to organize to oppose the fascist policies of the current government and stop such ill-conceived churning process. As Indians if we are not going and arrest this slide, India will soon be bracketed as failing welfare state.

 

[Bilal9]

For Bengali Muslim Migrants in Wadala, Discrimination and Hunger Go Hand in Hand
The erratic availability of food has become a regular feature in the lives of around 800-1,000 Muslim labourers from West Bengal.

Around 1000 Bengali speaking Muslim migrant workers are stuck without food in the garment units in Mumbai. Photo: Special arrangement

Sukanya Shantha
14/APR/2020

Mumbai: “It is a horrible thing to be a daily wage labourer in such times, but even worse is to be a Muslim labourer from (West) Bengal,” says 30-year-old Ershad Hossain, a worker at a local garment shop in Wadala’s National Market.

On April 11, Hossain had walked over three kilometres from the National Market to the Sewri Bus depot and waited for nearly four hours in a queue hoping to procure some food for himself and 25 others from Murshidabad stuck with him at a local garment workshop.

The queue was too long and the food too little. After the four-hour-long wait under the scorching sun, Hossain had to return empty-handed. Hossain and his co-workers went without any food that day. The next day, on Sunday, Hossain went with two more of his co-workers and queued up much earlier. They managed to get dal and rice that afternoon. That was their first and the last meal of the day.

This erratic availability of food has become a regular feature in the lives of Hossain and around 800-1,000 more Muslim labourers from West Bengal who have been surviving at the mercy of local NGOs and some good samaritans. This help, Hossain says, has been sparsely available and they have deprived of food on most days to the point of starvation.

Migrant workers in a garment unit in Mumbai. Photo: Special arrangement

These workers, who are all Muslim, belong to different districts in West Bengal. Many migrated to Mumbai over a decade ago and have been working at different garments units for a meagre payment of Rs 350-500 for over 12-14 hours of work. Labourers who spoke to The Wire said since they spoke Bengali and belonged to the Muslim community, they were always looked at with suspicion and had become easy targets of the local political and police ire.


Mosibur Shaikh said that each time the labourers lined up for food, they were told that the food was not for them. “The food is clearly organised for those in need but we are not counted in them. We are driven away after being told that we are “outsiders”. When one of us argued and demanded that food be made available to all, someone in the crowd called us Bangladeshis. We retreated immediately,” said Mosibur and claimed that the police too had been particularly harsh and had caned people who had queued up for food.

Also read: Surat: Migrant Workers Defy Lockdown, Demand Wages and Return to Home State

Abdul Shaikh, a young labourer from Birbhum in West Bengal said that it was not the hunger that had been bothering him as much but the humiliation that he and his co-workers were made to endure. “Hum kamaate the aur hum khaate they, kissi ke saamne haath nahi failaaya kabhi. Lekin aaj who bhi karna padh raha hai (We earned and we ate, we never had to beg before anyone. But today we have to do that too),” Shaikh said.

Since the countrywide lockdown was announced on March 21, the workers here have not been paid. “For a few days, our employers gave us some pocket money and, on some days, arranged for a one-time meal, but that too has stopped. We have absolutely no money left with us,” says Tahir Shaikh.

Sewri and Wadala regions of the city house several small garment units. Each unit employees anywhere between ten to 30 workers, who are involved in the work of segregating, cutting, stitching, and packaging. These are small outlets and the clothes processed here are sold in local markets. Although the employers make a decent profit, the employers have never taken responsibility for their workers’ labour rights.

These workers get daily wages and their payment is dependent on the work they manage on a daily basis. Since there has been no work since the lockdown, the employers say they are not liable to pay them. “They said they can only allow us to live here,” Tahir said. “Baaki tum dekhlo (Rest you manage),” Tahir said, quoting his employer.

Around 1,000 Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant workers are stuck without food in the garment units in Mumbai. Photo: Special arrangement

The plight of migrant workers across the country has been evident as several hundred workers remain stuck in different parts of the state and the nation. While the Maharashtra state government has made shelter homes and food available in some areas, in most areas, NGOs and other self- help groups have stepped up and extended help.

The Public Distribution System hasn’t taken the predicament of migrant workers into account on the grounds that they are not locals. Tahir said he had, along with several other workers, approached the local political leaders and asked that food grains be organised for them. “We aren’t asking for much. Just basic rice and dal to survive this period. But even that hasn’t been made available,” he said.

Also read: Gujarat Police to Probe Allegation That Migrant Workers Were Forced Into Container Trucks


The lockdown has not only impacted workers stuck in the city but also their families back home. Ershad said that his family of six is dependent on the money he sends home every month. “My children are very young and my wife takes care of them alone. I managed to borrow some money and sent it to them last month. They have been living a hand-to-mouth existence,” he said.

The elected representatives of the region have not extended any support to the workers either. Kalidas Kolambkar, the MLA of Wadala constituency and a senior BJP leader said that his resources had been stretched and that he had been finding it difficult to reach out to people in the region. “This region has just too many labourers and daily wage workers. Besides that, there are several other poor families that need our help. We have reached out to nearly 5,000 persons and each day we have been getting more and more demands,” Kolambkar said.

 

[Bilal9]

Amartya Sen on The Wire, the Police and Beyond
India's hard-fought democratic rights are at risk because of striking misuse of political power by the ruling party, writes the Nobel laureate.

File photo of economist Amartya Sen. Photo: PTI

Amartya Sen

13 HOURS AGO

Steps to undermine democracy in India are becoming increasingly common. The police action by the Uttar Pradesh government – ruled by the same political party that runs the Central government – against The Wire and its founding editor, Siddharth Varadarajan, shows how far-reaching the destructive stabs at democracy have become in India.

The Wire’s views on what is happening differ from those of the government, but it is terrible to see, related to that difference, the attempt of the UP police to press the charge of criminality against The Wire, with the possibility of arrest of its editor.

As a proud Indian citizen, I have to hang my head in shame at the gross misbehaviour of our elected leaders – both for their attempt to curb media independence and for their efforts to violate freedom of speech in the country. While recording my condemnation of this particular case – and demanding that the charges of criminality be immediately withdrawn – I cannot but reflect on the general subject of the decline of democratic freedom in my country.

The thoroughly unjust criminal proceedings against Varadarajan and The Wire are terrible developments for India. They are so not just because they bring out – for the whole world to see – how incredibly intolerant the largest democracy in the world has become under its present leadership. India’s fall from democratic norms has been, in recent years, a subject of widespread discussion – and frequent denunciation – in the world, bringing sadness to India’s friends and much joy to its enemies. Serious as this global fall is – from which India’s recovery would take time (after the present political leaders get replaced, as will no doubt happen sooner or later – that is hardly the worst aspect of this terrible police action and of similar acts of authoritarianism in many parts of India. The main loss for India from such striking misuse of political power is surely its far-reaching domestic consequence.

Democracy in India has accomplished many positive results. The persistent occurrence of devastating famines in India, which characterised British India, stopped immediately with the establishment of democratic governance and media freedom. There are many other achievements, for example the major advances by India in intellectual creativity, making use of a combination of democratic tolerance and extensive media freedom. While there are other democratic objectives such as the removal of poverty and of gross inequality which need to be pursued further, they could be achieved with better policies within – and helped by – a democratic political system. Even if China is seen as having done well notwithstanding its restrictions on press freedom, that is a partial story (China also produced the largest famine in history during the Great Leap Forward), and the achievements are thoroughly dependent on the commitment of China’s leadership to schooling and basic healthcare for all, in line with the core political faith of the leadership, which has no parallel in India. To go against media independence in conditions like India’s cannot be an intelligent development policy.


Also Read: RSF Places India on List of Press Freedom’s Worst Digital Predators in 2020

Winning a general election gives the ruling party powers that can be interpreted in different ways, and sometimes more can be read into it than is constitutionally justified. The issue is not so much whether the spectacular outcome in the 2019 general elections was strongly influenced by a war – which tends to favour ruling parties (as the Falklands War turned Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from trailing in the polls in 1982 to a resounding victor in 1983), nor whether it was pivotally influenced by the immensely larger electoral resources that the ruling party had. It concerns, rather, the misinterpretation of the powers that legitimately follow from a victory in a legislative election.

A victory here does not give the rulers the moral – or even legal – authority to identify someone as being “anti-national” merely because he or she is opposed to the government (which is not the nation). Nor does it allow the government to characterise a political disagreement with it as “sedition” (as has been repeatedly done by the Indian government). Nor, in the present case of the UP government’s police action, can any criminality charge be drawn based on a journalist’s different reading of facts from what the government wants people to believe.

Photo: Karnika Kohli/The Wire

I end with two final points. First, no government lasts forever, even though the ruling groups might have the illusion that they would. The terrible departures from acceptable norms that the government may be able to push through right now may not be viewed in quite the same way in the future. Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s famous poem ‘Hum Dekhenge’, written in protest against President Zia ul Haq’s rule, pointed to a time in the future, when today’s deeds would be judged differently. Zia was all-powerful then, but how is he viewed today? And how are the politically invincible authoritarian rulers of Latin America of the past typically seen today? Are powerful rulers in India thoroughly indifferent to judgments that history will make?

Also Read: ‘We Have Witnessed’: A Tribute to ‘Hum Dekhenge’


The second point concerns our national history. India fought for democratic rights for a long time during its struggle for independence – many people gave their lives, and others went through huge hardship, to establish an independent democracy in our country – with a wonderful combination of citizens with many different religions, persuasions and convictions. That struggle was not for the arbitrary governance by an imperious regime that fits the UP police action against media freedom, combined with the attempted arrest of great journalists. We did understand in our colonial past the inferior status of being a citizen of the British Raj. But can we really accept having a similar subjugation in our own democracy?

Amartya Sen is an economist.

 

[Bilal9]

Under Modi, India’s Press Is Not So Free Anymore

By Vindu Goel and Jeffrey Gettleman

Photographs by Saumya Khandelwal

• April 2, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/world/asia/modi-india-press-media.html

NEW DELHI — The Media One anchorman Vinesh Kunhiraman went on air as usual on March 6, ready to tell the station’s five million viewers in India’s Kerala State about the death anniversary of a beloved comedian and the latest news on the coronavirus pandemic.

Just a few minutes into the broadcast, he saw the managing editor rush to the studio floor, gesturing wildly. “I realized something was not right,” Mr. Kunhiraman recalled.

The station’s uplink suddenly went dead. Mr. Kunhiraman’s image dissolved into a blue screen. A bland message told viewers there was no signal. “We regret the inconvenience,” it said.

But this was no technical difficulty. The station had been cut off by an order from India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The government decided to block the channel for 48 hours because it had covered February’s biggest news story — the mob attacks on Muslims in New Delhi that flared into broader unrest — in a way that seemed “critical toward Delhi Police and R.S.S.,” the order said.

India’s free press has played a crucial role in protecting this country’s democracy since its independence from Britain in 1947. But journalists here now feel under attack.

Since Mr. Modi came to power in 2014, they say, his government has tried to control the country’s news media, especially the airwaves, like no other prime minister in decades. Mr. Modi has shrewdly cultivated the media to build a cult of personality that portrays him as the nation’s selfless savior.

At the same time, senior government officials have pressed news outlets — berating editors, cutting off advertising, ordering tax investigations — to ignore the uglier side of his party’s campaign to transform India from a tolerant, religiously diverse country into an assertively Hindu one.

With the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Modi has gotten more blatant in his attempt to control coverage and, as with other difficult stories, some Indian news executives seem willing to go along.

Right before he announced the world’s largest coronavirus lockdown, on 1.3 billion people, Mr. Modi met with top news executives and urged them to publish “inspiring and positive stories” about the government’s efforts. Then, after the lockdown stranded half a million migrant workers, with some dying along the highways, his lawyers persuaded the Supreme Court this week to order all media to “publish the official version” of coronavirus developments, although outlets are still allowed to carry independent reporting.

An association of leading broadcasters was quick to praise the court decision, which many intellectuals said was yet another attack on India’s constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech.

Through an aide, India’s information and broadcasting minister, Prakash Javadekar, initially agreed to discuss the government’s media policies. But in the two weeks since then, Mr. Javadekar has declined to answer any questions, including a written list emailed to him. His aide cited the demands of the coronavirus crisis.

India’s media universe is vast, perhaps the biggest in the world: More than 17,000 newspapers, 100,000 magazines, 178 television news channels and countless websites in dozens of languages. Thousands of Facebook pages call themselves news publishers, and YouTube is filled with local bulletins on everything from real estate trends to police raids.

But Mr. Modi’s ministers have leaned on business leaders to cut off support to independent media, slowly strangling their operations. His government has pressured media owners to fire journalists who have criticized the prime minister and told them to stop running features like hate-crime trackers that have embarrassed Mr. Modi’s party.

Police say Hindu nationalists were behind the 2017 murder of Gauri Lankesh, a female newspaper editor hailed as one of India’s most crusading journalists.

Like other populist leaders, Mr. Modi and his ministers bristle at any public criticism, whether from business executives, foreign leaders, or even schoolchildren.

And for the most part, Indian news outlets have knuckled under, concluding that since much of the public supports the prime minister, they should, too. Even skeptical journalists censor themselves, afraid to be branded anti-national by a government that equates patriotism with support for Mr. Modi.

His government has also imposed the strictest restrictions on foreign journalists in decades, suddenly and without explanation. Visas have been tightened, and foreign journalists have been banned from hotbeds of unrest such as northeast India and Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority area that was stripped of its statehood in August and put under a severe crackdown.

The Indian Express, just decided to cut salaries.

Even as Mr. Modi constantly touts India as the world’s largest democracy, its ranking on the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index is 140 out of 180.

“In the past six years, the Indian media has deteriorated,” said Shakuntala Banaji, a media professor at the London School of Economics. “There is no semblance of truth or responsibility left in the vast majority of media reports.”

the government announced the crackdown in Kashmir, M.K. Anand, the managing director of Times Network, sent his editors a directive.

“We are India’s leading news broadcasters,” he wrote in a WhatsApp message, seen by The New York Times. “It is important that we stay firmly with the national government at this juncture instead of focusing on finding faults.”

The Modi government has been particularly concerned about broadcast media, which reach into every corner of the country. It has approved very few new TV channels, and even Bloomberg, the American media giant, has been unable to get a license, despite investing millions of dollars with its Indian partner.

In this environment, sharp criticism of Mr. Modi can end careers. After a host at the Hindi news channel ABP questioned the results of one of the prime minister’s initiatives to help poor farmers, the satellite transmission of the show was interrupted every time it was broadcast, said several people who worked at the station. The channel’s owners pressured the host, Punya Prasun Bajpai, to resign, and as soon as he left, the transmission interruptions stopped, the former employees said.

And after another ABP anchor, Abhisar Sharma, criticized Mr. Modi on live television about public safety, he was pulled off the air the same day. He, too, said he was pressured to quit.

short video went viral, a state education officer filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Jaiswal, accusing him of conspiracy, false evidence and cheating, a crime that can draw up to seven years in jail.

His source at the school was promptly arrested. Fearing he was next, Mr. Jaiswal fled to New Delhi, where he hid for several weeks.

“Sometimes I felt like committing suicide,’’ he said.

Even though an investigation eventually vindicated his reporting and the police dropped the charges against him, Mr. Jaiswal continues to be stalked by people connected to the school, he said.

He has reason to be afraid. Several Indian journalists have been killed in recent years, from a Kashmiri newspaper editor shot outside his office to a young journalist in Chhattisgarh found tied up in a forest.

the police had done little to stop Hindu mobs as they rampaged against Muslims.

But the broadcast ministry claimed that what these two stations reported “could enhance the communal disharmony across the country.” After many complaints about the shutdown, the broadcasting minister, Mr. Javadekar, reversed the orders the next morning.

“Press freedom is absolutely essential in a democratic setup and that is the commitment of the Modi government,” Mr. Javadekar said at a news conference, implying that the orders had been issued without his consent.

“But let me also say,” he concluded, “that everybody accepts that it has to be a responsible freedom.”

NDTV has laid off hundreds of journalists after what executives say was government pressure on its advertisers.