India: Crackdown on Opposition Reaches a Crisis Point Ahead of National Elections March 22, 2024
Introduction:
(Amnesty International) Responding to the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi state Chief Minister and opposition leader from the Aam Aadmi Party, along with freezing of bank accounts of another leading opposition party, Indian National Congress, Aakar Patel, chair of board at Amnesty International India, said:
“The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Indian government’s crackdown on peaceful dissent and opposition has now reached a crisis point. The authorities have repeatedly exploited and weaponized various financial and terrorism laws to systematically crackdown on human rights defenders, activists, critics, non-profit organisations, journalists, students, academics and political opposition. The arrest of Arvind Kejriwal and the freezing of Indian National Congress’ bank accounts a few weeks before India holds its general elections show the authorities’ blatant failure to uphold the country’s international human rights obligations.
“What we are witnessing is a brutal crackdown on human rights including through the misuse of central investigative and financial agencies, attacks on peaceful protests, arbitrary arrests, use and export of invasive spyware for unlawful surveillance, systematic discrimination against religious minorities to feed into their majoritarian Hindutva politics and targeted suspension of opposition leaders from the Parliament who dare to hold the authorities to account.
“The growing crackdown clearly shows the authorities’ blatant disregard for human rights and rule of law. Authorities must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the human rights of everyone in the country including human rights defenders, activists, and opposition candidates before, during and after the general elections which are due to begin in April 2024. Authorities must also ensure access to justice and effective remedies for victims of human rights violations.
“State institutions must be allowed to function independently and effectively. Authorities must stop weaponizing the criminal justice system to intimidate and harass human rights defenders, activists and opposition candidates.”
India is holding a mammoth election with nearly a billion voters
By Geeta Pandey
The general election is the largest democratic exercise ever - almost one in eight people in the world can vote.
On 19 April, Indians will begin choosing a new parliament for the next five years, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a third consecutive term. Opinion polls put his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies ahead. They are up against the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (India), which groups more than two dozen opposition parties including Congress, which was dominant for decades until the BJP took office in 2014.
Scroll down to find out all about the staggering scale of the exercise, the powerful personalities and issues on which the election will be fought.
How to Clean Up New Delhi’s Smoggy Air April 26, 2024
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) An international study led by atmospheric researchers at PSI shows for the first time what portions of particulates in the air over northern India are especially harmful to health.
Nowhere else do people breathe air as dirty as in India. According to the World Health Organisation, as many as 1.3 million deaths per year on the subcontinent can be attributed to polluted air. With its National Clean Air Programme, the Indian government wants to enact countermeasures. To do this, decision-makers need to know what sources the particulates come from, how they are distributed regionally, and how harmful certain compounds are to human health. This important information has now been provided for the first time by a study led by members of the Laboratory for Atmospheric Chemistry at PSI, with partners from India, China, Germany, Denmark, France, Spain, and Switzerland. The researchers have not only determined the amounts and origins of particulates in the air, but also their oxidative potential – an important factor for the harmful effect a chemical compound can have on living cells and thus on health. The study has now been published in the journal Nature Communications.
The focus of the study was on the Indian capital New Delhi, and not for the first time. Of all the cities on earth, it is considered the metropolis with the highest concentration of particulates in the air. Over the past four years, the researchers had already gained groundbreaking insights into the air pollution there. In a study from 2023, they demonstrated for the first time that chemical processes run differently in the skies over New Delhi than in other major cities.
Incomplete combustion is the primary cause
This time the team was interested in the sources of particulate emissions and the pathogenic effect of certain substances. According to the study, incomplete combustion plays an especially big role in polluting the air. Even non-experts recognise this: «If it smokes, the combustion is incomplete,» explains Imad El Haddad. He and André Prévôt from the Laboratory for Atmospheric Chemistry at PSI led the latest study. Most notably, the burning of biomass or waste is a major contributor to the formation of particulates and smog. This includes the burning of cow dung for heating and cooking, which also produces high levels of particulate matter. Added to this is the outdated vehicle fleet, especially the small vehicles called tuktuks, widely used in India, and motor scooters with inefficient two-stroke engines
