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Hundreds of thousands protest against far right in Germany

Among the participants at the talks was Martin Sellner, a leader of Austria’s Identitarian Movement, which claims there is a plot by non-white migrants to replace Europe’s “native” white population…reports Asian Lite News

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across towns and cities in Germany to protest against the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

On Sunday, rallies against the AfD were held in Berlin, Munich and Cologne, as well as in more traditional AfD voting strongholds in eastern Germany such as Leipzig and Dresden.

While national polls show AfD in second place behind the main centre-right opposition bloc and ahead of the parties in the government, demonstrations against the far-right party gained momentum after a January 10 report from investigative news website Corrective revealed that migration policies including mass deportations of people of foreign origin were discussed at a meeting of German right-wing hardliners in Potsdam.

Among the participants at the talks was Martin Sellner, a leader of Austria’s Identitarian Movement, which claims there is a plot by non-white migrants to replace Europe’s “native” white population.

The AfD has denied the reported migration plans are party policy.

On Sunday, demonstrators outside the German parliament in Berlin carried signs that said “no place for Nazis” and “Nazis out”.

In Munich, protest organisers said 200,000 people attended, adding that they were forced to end the demonstration early due to overcrowding. Katrin Delrieux, 53, told the AFP news agency in Munich that she hoped the protests against the far right would “make a lot of people rethink” their positions.

“Some might not be sure whether they will vote for the AfD or not, but after this protest, they simply cannot,” she said. In Frankfurt, protester Steffi Kirschenmann told the news agency Reuters that the rallies are “a signal to the world that we won’t let this happen without commenting on it”.

Meanwhile in Dresden, the capital of the eastern region of Saxony, where the far-right party is leading in the polls, authorities had to alter the course of a protest march. The procession was lengthened to make space for an “enormous number of participants”, police in Dresden said on the social media platform X.

Business leaders have also voiced their concerns, with Siemens Energy supervisory board chairman Joe Kaeser telling Reuters the reports revealed by Correctiv trigger “bitter memories”.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has also come out in support of the rallies across Germany and views them as a sign of strength against right-wing activism.

In a video message on Sunday, Steinmeier said: “You are standing up against misanthropy and right-wing extremism; these people encourage us all.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who joined a demonstration last weekend, highlighted that any plan to expel immigrants or citizens alike amounted to “an attack against our democracy, and in turn, on all of us”.

He urged “all to take a stand – for cohesion, for tolerance, for our democratic Germany”.

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Protest Outside White House Challenges Pak Actions in Baloch

When asked about their expectations from the upcoming general elections in Pakistan, he said that there is no hope for elections as there have never been free and fair elections…reports Asian Lite News

Members of the Balochistan diaspora have been staging protests outside the White House against Pakistan and the enforced disappearances of Baloch people

One of the protestors, Waheed Baloch, a former speaker of the Balochistan Assembly, highlighted that they are holding these protests against the atrocities committed in Balochistan over the last 75 years.

“We’re protesting against the atrocities that have been done to Balochistan by Pakistan for the last 75 years. We’re protesting here in support of those Baloch families that were abducted and missing. For the last 75 years, Pakistan has forcefully occupied Balochistan,” he said.

When asked about their expectations from the upcoming general elections in Pakistan, he said that there is no hope for elections as there have never been free and fair elections.

“There has never been a free and fair election in Pakistan, and there is no hope…for Balochistan, they just reelect their nominees… It is unconstitutional and undemocratic,” he added.

Moreover, in response to Pakistan’s accusation that Balochis are sponsored by the Indian government, he dismissed the claim, stating that Pakistan have lied in the past and are lying again.

“They (Pakistan) just say that Balochis are sponsored by the government of India but they never have produced any evidence…it is rubbish. They lied before, and they are lying again. If India had been supporting Balochistan, Balochistan would not have been this weak. These are just distracted tactics…,” he added.

Sufi Laghari, a Sindhi foundation member, said that one of the biggest failures of Pakistan is that they always blame India.

“One of the biggest failure of Pakistan is that they always blame India…thousands of people in Balochistan have disappeared; do you think it is sponsored by India? These are useless weapons they’re using. These are just blames, games and fake theories…that’s why we are here in this difficult weather; we came here, and our families and children are here…This is going to be the end of the story for Pakistan and we are going to get the freedom soon,” he added.

Sammi Baloch, a young Baloch protestor who was also present at the protest outside the White House, said that whatever happened to the Baloch people is atrocious and a violation of human rights violations.

“I am here because the Baloch genocide is happening and it has been happening since partition… We are here because many Baloch people have been murdered and they have been genocided and kidnapped by the Pakistani army and the military today we are here to stand with them and their families because what happened to them is atrocious and is human rights violation,” she said. (ANI)

ALSO READ-Pak SC Seeks Guarantee Against Illegal Arrests of Baloch Protesters

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Protesters mass outside Netanyahu’s house as anger grows

As the initial shock has faded, public anger has grown, with many families of the hostages held in Gaza bitterly critical of the government response and calling for their relatives to be brought home…reports Asian Lite News

Police held back protesters outside the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, amid widespread anger at the failures that led to last month’s deadly attack by Hamas gunmen on communities around the Gaza Strip.

Waving blue and white Israeli flags and chanting “Jail now!”, a crowd in the hundreds pushed through police barriers around Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem.

The protest, which coincided with a poll showing more than three quarters of Israelis believe Netanyahu should resign, underlined the growing public fury at their political and security leaders.

Netanyahu has so far not accepted personal responsibility for the failures that allowed the surprise assault which saw hundreds of Hamas gunmen storm into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,400 people and taking at least 240 hostage.

As the initial shock has faded, public anger has grown, with many families of the hostages held in Gaza bitterly critical of the government response and calling for their relatives to be brought home.

In Tel Aviv, thousands demonstrated, waving flags and holding photographs of some of the captives in Gaza and posters with slogans like “Release the hostages now at all costs” while crowds chanted, “bring them home now”.

Ofri Bibas-Levy, whose brother, along with his four-year-old son Ariel and 10-month-old son Kfir were taken hostage by Hamas, told Reuters that she came to show support for her family.

“We don’t know where they are, we don’t know what condition they are kept in. I don’t know if Kfir is getting food, I don’t know if Ariel is getting enough food. He is a very small baby,” said Bibas-Levy.

Since the attack, Israel has launched an intense air and ground offensive in Gaza, killing more than 9,000 people, health authorities in the Hamas-run area say, and reducing large areas of the enclave to rubble.

Even before the war, Netanyahu had been a divisive figure, fighting corruption charges, which he denies, and pushing through a plan to curb the powers of the judiciary that brought hundreds of thousands to the streets to protest.

On Saturday, a poll for Israel’s Channel 13 Television found 76% of Israelis thought Netanyahu, now serving a record sixth term as prime minister, should resign and 64% saying the country should hold an election immediately after the war.

When asked who is most at fault for the attack, 44% of Israelis blamed Netanyahu, while 33% blamed the military chief of staff and senior IDF officials and 5% blamed the Defense Minister, according to the poll.

ALSO READ-UAE, Indian Leaders Call For Urgent Peace Efforts in Gaza

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Unrest in France

President Emmanuel Macron to postpone state visit to Germany as rioters clash with police over deadly police shooting of a teen…reports Asian Lite News

Young rioters clashed with police and looted stores overnight Friday in a fourth night of unrest in France triggered by the deadly police shooting of a teen, leading President Emmanuel Macron to postpone a state visit to Germany as he comes under pressure to confront the crisis.

While the situation appeared to be somewhat calmer compared to previous nights, turmoil gripped several cities across the country.

Firefighters in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, where the shooting occurred Tuesday, extinguished the blazes set by protesters that left scorched remains of cars strewn across the streets. In the neighbouring suburb Colombes, protesters overturned garbage bins and used them for makeshift barricades.

Looters during the evening broke into a gun shop and made off with weapons, and a man was later arrested with a hunting rifle, police said, and in the southern Mediterranean port city of Marseille, officers arrested nearly 90 people as groups of protesters lit cars on fire and broke store windows to take what was inside.

Buildings and businesses were also vandalised in the eastern city of Lyon, where a third of the roughly 30 arrests made were for theft, police said. Authorities reported fires in the streets after an unauthorised protest drew more than 1,000 people earlier in the evening.

On Saturday morning, the Interior Ministry confirmed that that 1,311 arrests were made overnight.

The fatal shooting of the 17-year-old, who has only been identified by his first name, Nahel, was captured on video, stirring up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing projects and disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Despite repeated government appeals for calm and stiffer policing, Friday saw brazen daylight violence, too. An Apple store was looted in the eastern city of Strasbourg, where police fired tear gas, and the windows of a fast-food outlet were smashed in a Paris-area shopping mall, where officers repelled people trying to break into a shuttered store, authorities said.

Violence was also erupting in some of France’s territories overseas.

Some 150 police officers were deployed Friday night on the small Indian Ocean island of Reunion, authorities said, after protesters set garbage bins ablaze, threw projectiles at police and damaged cars and buildings. In French Guiana, a 54-year-old was killed by a stray bullet Thursday night when rioters fired at police in the capital, Cayenne, authorities said.

In the face of the escalating crisis that hundreds of arrests and massive police deployments have failed to quell, Macron held off on declaring a state of emergency. This option was used in similar circumstances in 2005.

Instead, his government ratcheted up its law enforcement response. Already massively beefed-up police forces were boosted by another 5,000 officers for Friday night, increasing the number to 45,000 overall, the interior minister said.

Some were called back from vacation. The interior minister, Gérla Darmanin, said police made 917 arrests on Thursday alone and noted their young age – 17 on average. He said more than 300 police officers and firefighters have been injured.

It was unclear how many protesters have been injured in the clashes.

Interior Minister Darmanin on Friday ordered a nationwide nighttime shutdown of all public buses and trams, which have been among rioters’ targets. He also said he warned social networks not to allow themselves to be used as channels for calls to violence.

“They were very cooperative,” Darmanin said, adding that French authorities were providing the platforms with information in hopes of cooperation in identifying people inciting violence. We will pursue every person who uses these social networks to commit violent acts,” he said.

Macron, too, zeroed in on social media platforms that have relayed dramatic images of vandalism and cars and buildings being torched, saying they were playing a “considerable role” in the violence. Singling out Snapchat and TikTok, he said they were being used to organise unrest and served as conduits for copycat violence.

Macron said his government would work with technology companies to establish procedures for “the removal of the most sensitive content,” adding that he expected “a spirit of responsibility” from them.

Snapchat spokesperson Rachel Racusen said the company has increased its moderation since Tuesday to detect and act on content related to the rioting.

The violence comes just over a year before Paris and other French cities are due to host 10,500 Olympians and millions of visitors for the summer Olympic Games. Organisers said they are closely monitoring the situation as preparations for the Olympics continue.

The police officer accused of killing Nahel was handed a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide, which means investigating magistrates strongly suspect wrongdoing but need to investigate more before sending a case to trial. Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache said his initial investigation led him to conclude that the officer’s use of his weapon wasn’t legally justified.

Prache said officers tried to pull Nahel over because he looked so young and was driving a Mercedes with Polish license plates in a bus lane. He allegedly ran a red light to avoid being stopped and then got stuck in traffic.

The officer said he feared he and his colleague or someone else could be hit by the car as Nahel attempted to flee, according to the prosecutor.

Nahel’s mother, identified as Mounia M, told France 5 television that she was angry at the officer but not at the police in general. “He saw a little Arab-looking kid, he wanted to take his life,” she said, adding that justice should be “very firm”.

“A police officer cannot take his gun and fire at our children, take our children’s lives,” she said.

ALSO READ-Violent protests spread across France over police shooting 

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Violent protests spread across France over police shooting 

Six people were taken in for questioning after participating in a protest banned by authorities in Lille, the regional authority said…reports Asian Lite News

More than 400 people have been arrested in France amid violent protests that continued across the country over the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old driver by the police at a traffic stop, authorities said on Friday.

At least 421 people were arrested in the protests from Thursday night into Friday morning, CNN quoted Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin as saying to the local BFMTV.

More than half of those arrests took place in the Paris region, in the departments of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne, BFMTV reported, citing Paris police.

The protests continued for a third consecutive day on Thursday prompting the country’s elite police force, the RAID, to be deployed in the cities of Bordeaux, Lyon, Roubaix, Marseille and Lille, to help contain the violence, reports CNN.

In Nanterre, a suburb in Paris where Nahel M was shot at point-blank range by a police officer on Tuesday as he refused a traffic stop and drove away, clashed flared up between protesters and police on Thursday.

Amid burning debris, “vengeance pour Nael” (revenge for Nahel) appeared to be spray painted on a wall in Nanterre, according to footage from the suburb.

A bank was also set on fire in the suburb and15 people have been taken in for questioning by police after a march held in memory of the teenager turned violent.

Meanwhile in Marseille, protesters threw fireworks at police officers, CNN quoted BFMTV as saying in a report.

Footage from the northern city of Lille showed fires burning on streets and running riot police officers.

Six people were taken in for questioning after participating in a protest banned by authorities in Lille, the regional authority said.

Buses and tramways in Lille shut down after 8 p.m. on Thursday night, while several Parisian suburbs have imposed curfews.

Bus and tram services were also suspended in the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, from Thursday night

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry said it planned on deploying 40,000 police officers across the country, including 5,000 in Paris.

When the unrest first erupted on Tuesday night, 40 cars were burned and 24 police officers injured, French authorities claimed.

The police officer who shot the teenager has been put under formal investigation for voluntary homicide and placed in preliminary detention, BFMTV reported on Thursday.

Nahel is the second person this year in France to have been killed in a police shooting during a traffic stop.

Last year, a record 13 people died in this way.

ALSO READ-150 protesters arrested after riots in France

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YOU FAILED ME! Victims join women’s rights group to protest police failures in UK

Another victim, Sunita Goswami, described how she had been thrown out of her marital home – which she shared with her husband and two children…reports Asian Lite News

Members of the Indian Ladies in UK (ILUK), one of the largest Indian migrant women’s groups in the UK, gathered outside the headquarters of Britain’s biggest police force to protest the repeated police failures in protecting vulnerable migrant women.

The protestors made impassioned pleas for police forces across the country to improve awareness of the unique circumstances faced by migrant women.  They also implored those in positions of authority and power to address the serious lack of understanding in how to handle cases of the physical, emotional and psychological violence endured by these individuals.

These victims’ circumstances present unique challenges – they are in an entirely alien environment; they lack a support network; their visa status means that they are often unable to access public services; language and cultural barriers mean that, quite often, reporting abuse is as terrifying as experiencing it; above all, a lack of understanding of the law and their legal rights hampers their ability to obtain help and support.

Among those participating in the demonstration was ‘Pallavi’ (name changed to protect victim’s anonymity), a young woman originally from Indore in Madhya Pradesh who moved to the UK in 2017 after marrying a British citizen.  Soon after she began suffering abuse at the hands of her husband, the only person that she knew and relied on in the UK.  After months of mental, emotional and physical abuse she was locked out of her marital home with no family, no support.  She was left homeless and without any possessions.  When she reached out to the police for help – at the very least to retrieve her personal belongings – they refused even to register a complaint.

Pallavi became emotional at the demonstration, repeatedly telling the officers there: “You failed me!  When I was out on the streets alone, abandoned by my husband and with no support, you failed me!  When I was being threatened repeatedly by my husband’s family, you didn’t even register a complaint.  You failed me!”

Another victim, Sunita Goswami, described how she had been thrown out of her marital home – which she shared with her husband and two children.  She was falsely accused of being “mentally ill”, a favourite refrain of the perpetrators, and sent to a mental asylum, only to be released within hours after doctors found nothing mentally wrong with her.

When she reached out to police, they once again failed to register a complaint and refused to help in any way.

This inability to provide assistance has led to organizations like ILUK having to take matters into their own hands.  ILUK founder Poonam Joshi, who led the demonstration, said: “The worst part of my work is having to help women whose lives have been destroyed by the men they have entrusted their lives, only for them to be repeatedly let down by a policing and justice system that treats them like second class citizens.  The times where I have had to call police officers and remind them of the rights that women have or to coerce police forces to offer help are countless.  Also, we have been forced to take the law into our own hands because the situation has become so desperate and it is US having a word of warning with husbands to let them know about the protections and rights of women.  

 “Tens of thousands of women have been put at risk because of the widespread failure of police forces across the country to tackle domestic violence.  These failures are doubly damaging to first generation migrants because they not only have to contend with the trauma of abuse but then have to deal with a system that lacks understanding of the support that they require and urgently need.

“Often the default position is to take the abuser’s word at face value because these particular victims are unable to articulate what they are going through and are unable, unwilling or too fearful to demand their rights – either because they just aren’t aware or through cultural factors.  We need a dramatic change in police attitudes, empathy and education of officers who deal with these victims.”

Another supporter, Bhavini Patel, articulated the unique burden carried by these victims.  “Police don’t realize the emotional labour that we carry as migrant women.  Communities don’t realize the extra burden of being migrants in a foreign land, to be able to contend all those challenges while also dealing with abuse.  These women are extraordinary and while they have the support of their sisters, the justice system needs to do far more and far better to help them.  It’s just not good enough at the moment”.

Joining members of ILUK at the demonstration – many of whom left work early to participate in solidarity with victims – were representatives of Sikh Women’s Aid, another community organization that helps victims of domestic abuse victims across the West Midlands.

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Streets and fields seethe with protest in France

For French President Emmanuel Macron, the look of determination on their young faces only heralds deepening crisis…reports Asian Lite News

A big day has come for French high school student Elisa Fares. At age 17, she is taking part in her first protest.

In a country that taught the world about people power with its revolution of 1789 — and a country again seething with anger against its leaders — graduating from bystander to demonstrator is a generations-old rite of passage. Fares looks both excited and nervous as she prepares to march down Paris streets where people for centuries have similarly defied authority and declared: “Non!”

Two friends, neither older than 18 but already protest veterans whose parents took them to demonstrations when they were little, are showing Fares the ropes. They’ve readied eyedrops and gas masks in case police fire tear gas — as they have done repeatedly in recent weeks.

“The French are known for fighting and we’ll fight,” says one of the friends, Coline Marionneau, also 17. “My mother goes to a lot of demonstrations … She says if you have things to say, you should protest.”

For French President Emmanuel Macron, the look of determination on their young faces only heralds deepening crisis. His government has ignited a firestorm of anger with unpopular pension reforms that he railroaded through parliament and which, most notably, push the legal retirement age from 62 to 64.

Furious not just with the prospect of working for longer but also with the way Macron imposed it, his opponents have switched to full-on disobedience mode. They’re regularly striking and demonstrating and threatening to make his second and final term as president even more difficult than his first. It, too, was rocked by months of protests — often violent — by so-called yellow vest campaigners against social injustice.

Fares, the first-time protester, said her mother had been against her taking to the streets but has now given her blessing.

“She said that if I wanted to fight, she wouldn’t stop me,” the teen says.

Critics accuse Macron of effectively ruling by decree, likening him to France’s kings of old. Their reign finished badly: In the French Revolution, King Louis XVI ended up on the guillotine. There’s no danger of that happening to Macron. But hobbled in parliament and contested on the streets piled high with reeking garbage uncollected by striking workers, he’s being given a tough lesson, again, about French people power. Freshly scrawled slogans in Paris reference 1789.

So drastically has Macron lost the initiative that he was forced to indefinitely postpone a planned state visit this week by King Charles III. Germany, not France, will now get the honor of being the first overseas ally to host Charles as monarch.

The France leg of Charles’ tour would have coincided with a new round of strikes and demonstrations planned for Tuesday that are again likely to mobilize many hundreds of thousands of protesters. Macron said the royal visit likely would have become their target, which risked creating a “detestable situation.” Encouraged by that victory, the protest movement is plowing on and picking up new recruits, including some so young that it will be many decades before they’ll be directly impacted by the pushed-back retirement age. Their involvement is a worrisome development for Macron, because it

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Fresh protest outside Indian High Commission in UK

The British High Commissioner Alex Ellis condemned the “disgraceful acts” outside the Indian High Commission, calling it totally unacceptable…reports Asian Lite News

Suspected pro-Khalistan supporters on Wednesday held a fresh demonstration outside the Indian High Commission in the UK. However, unlike the earlier demonstration during which the Tricolour was taken down and an attempt made to raise the Khalistan flag, the protest this time was confined behind police barricades.

The barricades were ‘put up’ following protests by the Indian diaspora against the vandalism of the UK consulate by suspected extremist and separatist elements. Since the weekend, several uniformed officers had been patrolling the area in Aldwych and Metropolitan Police vans were stationed at India Place.

Earlier on Wednesday, barricades from outside British High Commission in New Delhi were removed.

The seniormost UK diplomat in New Delhi was summoned on Sunday night after the Indian High Commission was vandalised, the Ministry of External Affairs said in an official release earlier.

An explanation was demanded for the complete absence of British security that allowed suspected pro-Khalistan elements to enter the High Commission premises. The diplomat was reminded in this regard of the basic obligations of the UK Government under the Vienna Convention.

“India finds unacceptable the indifference of the UK Government to the security of Indian diplomatic premises and personnel in the UK,” the MEA release said.

The British High Commissioner Alex Ellis condemned the “disgraceful acts” outside the Indian High Commission, calling it totally unacceptable.

“I condemn the disgraceful acts today against the people and premises of the High Commission of India – totally unacceptable,” British High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis tweeted earlier.

The desecration of the national flag last Sunday led to an unprecedented outpouring of support from the diverse Indian community settled in Britain. (ANI)

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Indian diaspora plans London protest over BBC documentary

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) in Indore

The diaspora is agitated as the documentary comes on the heels of weeks of violence in Leicester, the tenth largest city in the UK, a report by Rahul Kumar

The BBC documentary on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised a storm among the diaspora. Feeling insulted by the documentary, the Indian diaspora in the UK is holding a protest against the British broadcaster on Sunday afternoon, January 29.

The British Broadcasting Corporation’s documentary, “India: The Modi Question” has raised a storm not just in India but also among the diaspora. Part one of the documentary, which has already been aired on January 17 puts the blame of the Gujarat riots on Modi, who was the state Chief Minister when the riots took place in 2002. Part two will be aired today-January 24.

Looking at the sensitive nature of the documentary, the Indian government has banned it from being shown in the country. It has also been taken off Youtube for its divisive content and for fear of creating hatred between communities over incidents that took place two decades back. Indian courts have already given their verdicts and sentenced people of both communities for the violence.

Riots broke out in Gujarat after a Muslim mob set fire to a coach of the Sabarmati Express at the Godhara station. Fifty-nine Hindus, including women and children were burnt alive in what is known as the Godhara train burning case.

India Narrative spoke with Indians in the UK about their protest and their grievances against the BBC.

London-based consultant, Adit Kothari, who has been active in the diaspora movement says, the British Indian diaspora is enraged, agitated & frustrated with the BBC’s deliberate attempts to run covert and sometimes overt malicious Anti-India and Anti Hindu agendas. While with the protest, we may see no change within the BBC to organisationally address our concerns� but we have to demonstrate our displeasure at the BBCs attitude.

The diaspora is agitated as the documentary comes on the heels of weeks of anti-Hindu violence in Leicester the tenth largest city in the UK. The communal violence, which took the British society and the local police by surprise, was directed at Hindu symbols and homes by the local Muslim youth. Weeks of attacks on Leicester’s Hindus led to many families moving out of the city due to threats and fear.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with his United Kingdom counterpart Rishi Sunak on the first day of the 17th G20 Summit, in Bali on Tuesday. (ANI Photo)

The Leicester violence against the Hindus was fanned by fake social media posts by Muslims. The misinformation on social media targeted Hindus and instigated Muslim youth to attack Hindus. Many of these fake posts were published by the British mainstream media like The Guardian and the BBC without verifying, leading to independent investigations into the Leicester violence which highlighted the spread of fake news against the local Hindu community.

British Hindus feel that the BBC documentary will create a similar situation in which the Hindus can again be targeted because of biased coverage.

Kothari says: It is important to raise awareness not only within the British Hindu and the Indian diaspora but also among other communities in Britain so that they get aware of this nefarious (anti-Hindu) agenda. Giving an example, the Indian activist says that the BBC has once called Holi a filthy festival and Jai Shree Ram a provocative slogan which has hurt our sentiments.

The activist says that the protest against the BBC is to raise awareness about the BBC failures regarding its journalistic standards and the royal charter-which aims to provide impartial, high quality and distinctive journalism, to its viewers.

The BBC documentary has evoked a strong reaction across Indian society.

Lord Rami Ranger, well known British MP in the House of Lords wrote a letter of condemnation to Tim Davie, BBC Director General, saying, among other things, that the timing of the BBC documentary is sinister considering that India and the UK are working for a free trade agreement, India has assumed the presidency of G20 and the UK has an Indian-origin prime minister.

In his letter, Lord Ranger says: The producer has shown a lack of vision, common sense and judgment by producing such an insensitive one-sided documentary.

In India too, dozens of bureaucrats, retired officers and judges have written an open letter dubbing the BBC documentary as delusions of British Imperial resurrection.

Many other individuals have launched petitions on the website change.org asking for an independent investigation into the BBC’s actions. Many smell a conspiracy as the diverse nation of nearly 1.4 billion people goes to elections in 2024, saying that the BBC is trying to queer the pitch against Modi.

A petition against the BBC has also been raised in the British parliament, seeking investigation into the anti-Hindu propaganda and hatred attacks on Hindu community

This will be the UK diaspora’s second protest against the BBC is barely three months. The earlier one was related to the BBC’s Hinduphobic” coverage of the Leicester violence.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

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Protesters seek Xi’s resignation

Covid protests widen in China with calls for Xi Jinping to step down

State censors appeared to have scrubbed Chinese social media of any news about the rallies, with the search terms “Liangma River”, “Urumqi Road”…reports Asian Lite News

China’s censors were working Monday to extinguish signs of rare, social media-driven protests that flared across major cities over the weekend calling for political freedoms and an end to Covid lockdowns.

Sunday saw people take to the streets in several major cities across China to call for an end to lockdowns and greater political freedoms, in a wave of nationwide protests not seen since pro-democracy rallies in 1989 were crushed.

A deadly fire last week in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang region, has become a catalyst for public anger, with many blaming Covid lockdowns for hampering rescue efforts.

But they have also featured prominent calls for greater political freedoms — with some even demanding the resignation of China’s President Xi Jinping, recently re-appointed to an unprecedented third term as the country’s leader.

Large crowds gathered Sunday in the capital Beijing and Shanghai, where police clashed with protesters as they tried to stop groups from converging at Wulumuqi street, named after the Mandarin for Urumqi.

Crowds that had gathered overnight — some of whom chanted “Xi Jinping, step down! CCP, step down!” — were dispersed by Sunday morning.

But in the afternoon, hundreds rallied in the same area with blank sheets of paper and flowers to hold what appeared to be a silent protest, an eyewitness said.

In the capital, at least 400 people gathered on the banks of a river for several hours, with some shouting: “We are all Xinjiang people! Go Chinese people!”

Reporters at the scene described the crowd singing the national anthem and listening to speeches, while on the other side of the canal bank, a line of police cars waited.

State censors appeared to have scrubbed Chinese social media of any news about the rallies, with the search terms “Liangma River”, “Urumqi Road” — sites of protests in Beijing and Shanghai — scrubbed of any references to the rallies on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.

Videos including those showing university students singing in protest and rallies in other cities had also vanished from WeChat, replaced by notices saying the content was reported for “non-compliant or sensitive content.”

The Weibo search for the hashtag #A4 — a reference to the blank pieces of paper held up at rallies in a symbolic protest against censorship — also appeared to have been manipulated, showing only a handful of posts from the past day.

Boiling point

China’s strict control of information and continued travel curbs tied to the zero-Covid policy make verifying numbers of protestors across the vast country challenging.

But such widespread rallies are exceptionally rare, with authorities harshly clamping down on any and all opposition to the central government.

Protests also occurred on Sunday in Wuhan, the central city where Covid-19 first emerged, while there were reports of demonstrations in Guangzhou, Chengdu and Hong Kong.

Spreading through social media, they have been fuelled by frustration at the central government’s zero-Covid policy, which sees authorities impose snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and mass testing campaigns over just a handful of cases.

State-run newspaper the People’s Daily published a commentary Monday morning warning against “paralysis” and “battle-weariness” in the fight against Covid — but stopped far short of calling for an end to hardline policy.

“People have now reached a boiling point because there has been no clear direction to path to end the zero-Covid policy,” Alfred Wu Muluan, a Chinese politics expert at the National University of Singapore, said.

“The party has underestimated the people’s anger.”

Investors were spooked by the weekend protests, with Asian stocks opening sharply lower on Monday morning.

China reported 40,052 domestic Covid-19 cases Monday, a record high but tiny compared to caseloads in the West at the height of the pandemic.

Clashes in Shanghai

Hundreds of demonstrators and police have clashed in Shanghai as protests over Chinas stringent Covid restrictions continued for a third day and spread to several cities, in the biggest test for President Xi Jinping since he secured a historic third term in power.

The wave of civil disobedience is unprecedented in mainland China in the past decade, as frustration mounts over Xi’s signature zero-Covid policy nearly three years into the pandemic, the Guardian reported.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xah0QVmk30I

Protests triggered by a deadly apartment fire in the far west of the country last week took place on Sunday in cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Wuhan and Guangzhou.

On Monday, China reported a new daily record of new Covid-19 infections, with 40,347 cases.

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