https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67570007
More details on American law enforcement stopping an assassination plot to take out a pro-Sikh state separatist.
DW got an interview with Indian analyst Manoj Joshi. He does say that there's going to be some tension with India and the US due to the arrest of an Indian national for attempting to do wetworks. But he also says that there's hypocrisy with the US, considering that they did the same thing.
Three Sri Lankans who joined the Ukrainian military got killed fighting Russian troops.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/10/india-the-disinfo-lab-discredit-critics/
WP has an article on disinformation being used by Indian intelligence to discredit Modi's critics. Some of the disinfo include using Soros as a punching bag.
Trudeau said that a tone shift was reported from New Delhi after the US reported the arrest of an Indian for trying to arrange for the assassination of a pro-Khalistan person living in the country (US).
https://www.thebureau.news/p/exclusive-public-safety-canada-briefed
Sam Cooper (investigative journalist in Canada) has a Substack webpage on Nijjar's death and supposed reports that someone trying to spy on the Sikh community was arrested.
Canada calls India out, India says "get lost."
The US calls India out, India is gonna be a lot more conciliatory.
🍊orange fursona🧡
India knows well they can't piss off the US.
ᜇᜎᜈ᜔ᜇᜈ᜔|I DO COMMISSIONS|ᜇᜎᜈ᜔ᜇᜈ᜔
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-67879258
Indian Supreme Court said that they won't judge the case after Nikhil Gupta's arrested. The petition came from an anonymous relative of his. They call on the Indian government to take action.
According to the petition, it said that he "was arrested by "self-claimed" US federal agents and has not yet been given a fair trial. It also alleged that he was lodged in solitary confinement and was forced to eat beef and pork, which went against his religious beliefs."
DW has a vid about the upcoming elections in Bangladesh. There's boycotts on it since the Awami League will do what it can to win.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Does boycotting elections achieve anything? It is just making it easy for the party you are protesting against to win, isnt it?
In a democracy working as intended, that would be the case. However, if the results are going to be fixed, then participating in the sham only adds to the legitimacy of the "elected" government.
Wouldn't it be more damaging to a ruling party's image if the voters were the ones to boycott and not vote then, instead of the parties. A low turnout is a bigger indicator in the lack of faith, the people have in a nation's democratic system.
A procrastination in of itself
I think it’s easier to demonstrate a lack of votes total than it is to demonstrate a lack of votes for a specific party.
So a ruling party might be going to announce that they ‘received’ 80% of the vote whatever happens, if they do that on a measurable 30% turnout it looks worse than if they do it on a measurable 70% turnout.
I’m not sure if such parties don’t fabricate turnout numbers or if it’s just harder for them to pull off.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
I didn’t find the video especially clear on the reasons for the boycott, so here’s another article.
Bangladesh votes on Sunday in an election guaranteed to give prime minister sheikh Hasina her fifth term in office, after a boycott by opposition parties whose ranks have been decimated by mass arrests.
Hasina has presided over exceptional economic growth in a country once beset by grinding poverty, but her government has been accused of rampant human rights abuses and a ruthless opposition crackdown.
Some voters said they had been threatened with the confiscation of government benefit cards needed to access welfare payments if they refused to cast ballots for the ruling Awami League.
“They said they would seize it from me if I don’t vote,” Lal Mia, 64, told the AFP news agency in the central district of Faridpur.
“They said since the government feeds us, we have to vote for them.”
I mean, it's not impossible to lie about turnout. But ultimately, a significant electoral boycott sends a message to the country and the world that the voters do not consider the current system legitimate, which puts pressure on the regime. Most dictators need a degree of "will of the people", or at least popular apathy, to hold power.
Hasina won a fifth term in office in Bangladesh.
But questions are being raised on whether there's an official turnout of 40 percent (of the voters).
The United States and Britain aren't recognizing the elections as having been free or fair.
Wonder how this'll impact Japanese Official Security Assistance (OSA) plans.
Neil O’Brien, the MP for Harborough, wrote a few weeks ago to the Home Secretary to express his concerns regarding the death of Avtar Singh Khanda, which happened before Nijjar got killed.
Sky UK reports that some MPs want to meet with Tom Tugendhat over concerns they've been told of threats towards Sikhs.
Tugendhat's the Minister of State for Security and he's an ex-British Army who retired as a Lt. Col. and was in the Intelligence Corp.
Pakistan MOFA made an annoucement that Indian agents are supposedly being killing in Pakistani-held areas of Kashmir.
Be mindful that India and Pakistan hate each other guts', but it comes after Nijjar was killed and the US made arrests.
Read up a while ago that Khan's locked up for leaking state secrets.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/10/asia/nepal-fighters-russia-ukraine-families-intl-cmd/index.html
Around 15K Nepalese are recruited so far to fight under Russian military command in Ukraine. They are protests in Kathmandu against this in front of the Russian Embassy.
Guardian mentions the Indian/Nepalese who were being "recruited" to fight in the Russian army. Basically had no idea.
Normally that's true.
The thing is that Pakistan and India hate each other's guts since the end of WWII.