Uttar Pradesh chief Yogi Adityanath is a radical Hindu cleric who could one day lead the world’s second-most populous country with an iron fist.
Apart from Uttar Pradesh, the BJP also retained control of Uttarakhand and looked set to form governments in Goa and Manipur, while the Aam Aadmi Party scored a landslide win in Punjab.
Polls kick off in northern Uttar Pradesh which has a larger population than Brazil and in national elections sends more lawmakers to parliament than any other state.
Even opposition parties don’t challenge the plight and lack of representation of Muslims in India’s climate of religious intolerance and violence.
The results of the regional elections could either reinforce the BJP’s grip on power or give the fragmented opposition a much-needed boost.
Hospitals are still overwhelmed by coronavirus patients and crematoriums have run out of space. The images of cadavers floating in the River Ganga haunt the entire nation.
India's new citizenship law and its plan to conduct nationality tests sparked popular fury across the country, which the far-right BJP government is trying to muzzle with brute force.
Demonstrations continue against controversial law seen anti-Muslim even as leader of volatile northern state and hardline Hindu monk, Yogi Adityanath, defends mass arrests, sealing of properties, and heavy fines, to quell protests.
Government of northern Uttar Pradesh state sent 230 notices to people, mostly minority Muslims, also demanding heavy fines over damage to public property during protests over a controversial citizenship law.
The othering of Kashmiris in mainstream discourse is vital to suppressing their self-determination.
The rising wave of Hindu nationalism and Islamophobia in India threatens to sweep up Muslim-majority Kashmir in its wake
Critics accuse the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of attempting to silence media through violence and coercion, while the recent arrests of three journalists for "defaming" a monk-turned-chief minister triggered public outrage.
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