Arundhati Roy has stood out as one of the most high-profile critics of Modi’s government, which has been accused of suppressing free speech. Photograph: TT News Agency/Alamy
Official from ruling BJP party allows action against Booker winner under controversial anti-terrorism law
Indian authorities have granted permission for the prosecution of the Booker prize-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy over comments she made about Kashmir at an event in 2010.
The top official in the Delhi administration, VK Saxena, gave the go-ahead for legal action against Roy, whose novel The God of Small Things won the Booker prize in 1997, under anti-terrorism legislation, alongside a former university professor, Sheikh Showkat Hussain.
The action against Roy and Hussain, a former professor at the Central University of Kashmir, is over allegedly making provocative speeches, the Press Trust of India reports, citing officials from Saxena’s office.
Saxena, who is serving as the lieutenant governor, is a politician from prime minister Narendra Modi’s ruling BJP.
While Roy, 62, is one of India’s most famous living authors, her activism and outspoken criticism of Modi’s government, including over laws targeting minorities, have made her a polarising figure in India.
JEREMY CORBYN will warn against Labour’s plans to “hollow out our NHS by continuing Tory underfunding and privatisation” at an emergency rally today.
The former Labour leader will join healthcare workers and campaigners outside Archway Tube station in his Islington North constituency, warning that “more austerity and privatisation is not the answer” to the NHS crisis.
His intervention comes two days after the launch of the Labour manifesto, which failed to rule out cuts to the health service and dropped the party’s previous promise that the “NHS is not for sale.”
Mr Corbyn is standing as an independent against Labour candidate Praful Nargund after being blocked from representing the party, which has now expelled him.
At the rally, the lifelong socialist is expected to say: “Unlike Labour and the Tories, I do not believe the expansion of the private sector is the answer to the NHS crisis.
“I’m proud to have spent my life campaigning with my community for universal public healthcare. With your support, that is what I’ll continue to do.
“In Islington North, we have a message to anybody looking to promote private healthcare: keep your hands off our NHS.”
'Privatisation of healthcare is very, very important and it’s about what the private sector can do to prove its worth to the public sector' pic.twitter.com/hHtSPxBH7I
Youth Demand protest on Labour’s campaign bus, Wrexham 15 Jun 2024.
Three Youth Demand supporters have disrupted Keir Starmer’s election battle bus. They are demanding a two-way arms embargo on Israel and for the incoming UK government to halt all new oil and gas licences granted since 2021.
At around 9:15am the group climbed onto the battle bus as it was parked up for Labour’s campaign rally in Wrexham. The group stood on the roof of the bus holding Palastinian flags and a banner reading ‘Youth Demand an End to Genocide’. They could be heard chanting “Keir Starmer you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!”.
One of those taking action this morning is Jazz, 22, a support worker from Manchester who said:
“I cannot remain silent whilst our government continues to fuel genocide in Palestine and with the climate crisis. Both the Tories and Labour have shown that they don’t give a shit about those suffering in Palestine and in the global south. Their lack of humanity is disgusting.
By voting Labour you are still voting for a party that refuses to stop buying and selling weapons with Israel. We refuse to inherit a world of suffering, Labour will not get away with their inhumanity. We cannot vote our way out of this – we must act!”
Also taking action is Chester Powell, 23, a student from Leeds, who said:
The Labour Party refuses to call for an end to the buying and selling of arms with Israel, arms that are being used to enact a genocide. We can’t vote our way out of this problem so I’m taking part in civil disobedience to force necessary change.
How can I have a hope for the future when the people in power only seem to be concerned with winning the next election. I can’t have hope that either of the major parties have any interest representing ordinary people over big business. Neither seems to show any empathy for the Palestinians as they are slaughtered in the thousands, so young people like myself must show them what having a spine looks like.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (center) looks toward Pope Francis as he speaks during the G7 Leaders Summit in Fasano, Italy on June 14, 2024. (Photo: Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)
“If these embattled leaders want to leave a lasting legacy, they need to heed the will of voters demanding a safe environment and climate,” one campaigner asserted.
As the Group of Seven summit wrapped up Friday in Italy, climate defenders condemned G7 leaders for their continued failure to take meaningful action to combat the worsening planetary emergency.
Taking aim at what critics called the G7 leaders’ largely empty pledge to undertake “concrete steps to address the triple crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss,” 350.org U.S. campaigns manager Candice Fortin lamented that “yet another meeting ends without real commitments to revert the situation rich countries like the U.S. put us in.”
“As COP29 approaches and the world deals with worsening climate impacts, we can’t afford to waste more time,” Fortin said, referring to the United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled to take place in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan—a major fossil fuel-producing nation—in November. COP29 is set to be chaired by a former oil executive.
“If the U.S. wants to pride itself on being a ‘world leader,’ it needs to show how it will pay its climate debt to climate-vulnerable countries that bear the most significant climate impacts without the necessary funds for adaptation,” Fortin added.
— Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative (@fossiltreaty) June 14, 2024
While G7 governments hailed their recent agreement to phase out existing unabated coal power generation in energy systems during the first half of the 2030s, critics took issue with the policy’s timeline and banks’ continued financing of fossil fuels.
“Our leaders are not leading. In the hottest 12 consecutive months of recorded human history, our leaders are failing us,” argued Bronwen Tucker, Oil Change International’s public finance lead. “G7 countries are adopting an inadequate coal phaseout date and endorsing increased fossil gas production, sending a terrible signal at a time when countries should be focusing on accelerating the phaseout, not delaying it.”
Tucker continued:
G7 leaders can’t say they’re committed to a livable climate while expanding and bankrolling the fossil fuel industry at home and abroad. At the same time, these rich countries should not be congratulating themselves for delivering $100 billion for climate finance two years too late. Trillions are needed to cover climate damages and the G7’s finance was largely provided as loans which only worsens unjust debts.
“The G7 must end the billions of dollars in taxpayer finance still flowing to fossil fuel projects abroad and fund the buildout of affordable renewable energy on fair terms,” Tucker asserted. “If their oil and gas expansion plans are allowed to proceed, it will lock in climate chaos and an unlivable future.”
#G7Italy: COUNTER-DINNER OF THE POOR Yesterday, during the #G7 leaders' dinner, @DebtforClimate set up a "Trojan horse" in Brindisi to call out the colonial policies of the G7, International Monetary Found, and World Bank, demanding them pay their Climate Debt and #CancelTheDebtpic.twitter.com/aqorlJr5vM
— Extinction Rebellion Italia (@XrItaly) June 14, 2024
Greenpeace International climate politics expert Tracy Carty said in a statement that “if these embattled leaders want to leave a lasting legacy, they need to heed the will of voters demanding a safe environment and climate.”
“Taxing the billions of dollars in profits of the fossil fuel industry to fund climate action at home and abroad could be their stake in history and a win for people and planet,” Carty continued. “G7 leaders need to seize the moment ahead of the U.N. climate talks in Baku and show they will lead the transition away from fossil fuels and build trust they will significantly increase climate finance support to developing countries.”
We are in the middle of a general election campaign in UK. Labour Party Deputy Leader Angela Rayner made these remarks in mid February 2022. She made these statements – calling for innocent people to be killed and harassed by police, calling for human rights to be totally disregarded. She was then and continues to be Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. It is totally correct that these remarks are highlighted and discussed now. She is representing the Labour Party in the most senior position except one when making these remarks. Keir Starmer, leader of the UK Labour Party is often referred to as a human rights lawyer. WTF? Do these Fascists really think that they’re fit to govern?
Deputy Labour Party Leader Angela Rayner calls for police to kill and harass innocent people.
I have conducted a great deal of independent research into the London explosions of 7 July 2005 and the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes on 22 July 2005. While not all of it has been published, I am confident that I have an excellent understanding of these issues and what actually happened. I would expect to have a far better understanding that Angela Rayner although Keir Starmer may actually have been involved in the cover-ups.
24 June 2024.
To clarify: I’ve found a Morning Star article from 2022 that indicates that Angela Rayner made these comments in late January 2022. The sequence would therefore be 1. Angela Rayner makes these comments in late January 2022. 2. I post on the issue 15 Feb 2022. 3. Dianne Abbott – then elected as an MP, not technically an MP currently since Parliament is in recess – raises the issue so that the media pays attention.
1/12/24 I’ve realised that the significance of this is that the Labour Party are going out of their way to attack me yet again. [ed: … and while hiding yet again.]
