https://www.scmp.com/rss/500456/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Since the Indian National Congress’ drubbing at last month’s election and the loss of his seat in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi has been adamant that he will quit as president of the party, his family’s political vehicle since the country’s independence. But the Congress Working Committee – the party’s executive committee, appointed by the party president – has unanimously rejected his offer to step down. Important political allies and even influential actor Rajinikanth have joined the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3013252/rahul-gandhis-great-sulk-where-now-indias-congress-party?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3013252/rahul-gandhis-great-sulk-where-now-indias-congress-party?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Jun 2019 11:52:55 +0000 After the Indian National Congress unseated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in three state government polls last year, hopes were high the opposition party would secure the impossible in this year’s general election – making Narendra Modi a one-term prime minister. The India Today magazine in December even named the party’s 48-year-old leader, Rahul Gandhi, its Newsmaker of the Year, a seeming turnaround from the 2014 election when Congress had its worst-ever showing and Modi, a Hindu... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3011756/indian-election-results-what-next-rahul-gandhi-and-congress?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3011756/indian-election-results-what-next-rahul-gandhi-and-congress?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 May 2019 14:40:32 +0000 India’s ruling coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday looked set to win an even bigger majority in parliament than the massive mandate it got five years ago, exit polls showed after the election ended on Sunday. An exit poll from India Today Axis on Sunday showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP-led National Democratic Alliance was projected to win between 339 and 365 seats in the 545-member lower house of parliament, with the opposition alliance led by the Indian National... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3011014/india-election-narendra-modis-bjp-coalition-looks-set-retain?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3011014/india-election-narendra-modis-bjp-coalition-looks-set-retain?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 May 2019 13:30:11 +0000 Restaurateur Monica Liu, 66, is an ethnic Chinese but has lived in the Indian city of Kolkata all her life. She and her family are among the estimated 6,000 Indian citizens of Chinese origin living in the country – with about 5,000 of them living in Kolkata, many with Hakka heritage. They are mostly descendants of those who fled to India in the middle of the 19th century to escape turmoil caused by the clash between British forces and Qing dynasty troops known as the Opium Wars and the bloody... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3010800/india-election-how-will-chinese-community-factor-play-out?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3010800/india-election-how-will-chinese-community-factor-play-out?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 May 2019 01:00:09 +0000 At an election rally last Thursday Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of nepotism. Just 8km away, at her own event, Banerjee retorted that Modi had no right to talk about family given his estrangement from his wife, who for years he refused to acknowledge. The escalating war of words is part of efforts to wrest control of crucial West Bengal – the state with the third most seats in the Indian parliament’s lower house. But amid the frenzy of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3010546/communism-india-dead-or-just-waiting-young-saviours?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3010546/communism-india-dead-or-just-waiting-young-saviours?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 May 2019 12:49:32 +0000 A violent strain of Islam born from radicals exploiting a central tenet of the religion, known as tawhid, has come under the spotlight as Sri Lankan police continue to investigate the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday bombings on churches and hotels. About 100 people have been arrested since last month’s attacks, which have been blamed on two groups – the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) and the Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim (JMI). Both have been outlawed by authorities. Not much was known about the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3010472/truth-about-tawhid-how-violent-strain-islam-linked-sri-lanka?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3010472/truth-about-tawhid-how-violent-strain-islam-linked-sri-lanka?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 May 2019 06:58:45 +0000 Beijing’s decision to accept the international blacklisting of a Pakistan-based terrorist after a decade of opposition has given Sino-Indian ties a boost, according to observers. Masood Azhar, founder of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant group that claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Kashmir on February 14 which killed 40 Indian soldiers, was added to the United Nations Security Council’s Islamic State and al-Qaeda sanctions blacklist on Wednesday. He will now be subject to a... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3008641/pakistan-based-terrorists-un-blacklisting-offers-hope-india?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3008641/pakistan-based-terrorists-un-blacklisting-offers-hope-india?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 May 2019 03:00:09 +0000 Critics of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government, led by incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have often said it is unfavourable to India’s roughly 190 million Muslims. A widely-cited study, which surveyed some 10,000 people across 19 of India’s 29 states, seemed to confirm this. “A clear reflection of the absence of the practice of inclusiveness is seen in the response of the religious minorities,” said the report by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS).... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3008017/they-do-not-want-delhi-interfere-why-punjab-will-be-outlier?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3008017/they-do-not-want-delhi-interfere-why-punjab-will-be-outlier?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Apr 2019 11:22:10 +0000 Amethi, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is a Congress party stronghold. In almost every election since the constituency was formed in 1967, it has sent a member of Congress to the country’s parliament. Since 2004, over three successive elections, that member has been Rahul Gandhi – the party’s current leader and incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s main electoral opponent. But this year, in addition to Amethi, Gandhi is running in Wayanad – a demographically diverse... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3007180/india-elections-why-rahul-gandhi-looking-south-support?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3007180/india-elections-why-rahul-gandhi-looking-south-support?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Apr 2019 10:11:41 +0000 India’s mammoth elections reached the country’s southernmost parliamentary constituency on Thursday, where an unlikely factor could prove decisive – the country’s battle with China for maritime trade supremacy. Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu state is the proposed site of a new US$4.8 billion international container transshipment port being promised by the area’s current elected representative Pon Radhakrishnan, the outgoing junior minister of shipping who is seeking re-election under the banner of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3006890/whats-china-got-do-elections-indias-southernmost-state?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3006890/whats-china-got-do-elections-indias-southernmost-state?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Apr 2019 08:00:34 +0000 Indian courts and political parties are calling for Chinese company ByteDance’s most popular mobile app, TikTok, to be banned. On Tuesday, The Economic Times newspaper reported that India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had asked Google and Apple to pull video social media platform TikTok from its mobile application stores. The South China Morning Post was unable to independently verify the report. The news follows an order of the Madras High Court, located in the southern... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3006458/indian-politicians-call-china-made-app-tiktok-be-banned-amid?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3006458/indian-politicians-call-china-made-app-tiktok-be-banned-amid?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Apr 2019 13:49:33 +0000 When it comes to India’s elections, few states are as important as Uttar Pradesh, where voting for this year’s national polls began on Thursday. Nine of the country’s 14 prime ministers have been elected from among its constituencies, and it is often seen as a bellwether for the political mood of the nation. In 2014, current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a quarter of its 282 seats in this most populous of states, helping it to an absolute majority in the Lok... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3005978/india-elections-importance-being-uttar-pradesh?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3005978/india-elections-importance-being-uttar-pradesh?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Apr 2019 02:00:08 +0000 A politician was killed and another arrested as violence marred the first day of voting in India’s mammoth general election on Thursday. As voters across 91 constituencies lined up to give their verdict on whether the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should return for a second five-year stint in power, a bomb near a polling booth and hundreds of complaints about malfunctioning electronic voting machines further sullied proceedings. More than 140... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3005785/india-election-death-bomb-and-voting-machine-malfunctions-mar?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3005785/india-election-death-bomb-and-voting-machine-malfunctions-mar?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Apr 2019 14:25:41 +0000 The world’s largest democracy has begun its seven-phase general election, with voters across 20 states and union territories turning out on Thursday to choose representatives in India’s lower house of parliament. Over 39 days, about 900 million eligible voters – including 81 million first-time voters – will decide whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remains in power. The Indian National Congress is the main opposition but has been weakened after... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3005631/india-election-state-parties-eye-seats-new-parliament-mega?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3005631/india-election-state-parties-eye-seats-new-parliament-mega?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Apr 2019 01:30:09 +0000 LESS THAN A month before the election in the world’s largest democracy begins on April 11, China’s Global Times newspaper ran an acerbic opinion piece headlined “Modi Playing China Card to Win Election”. Academic Jabin T Jacob was not amused. On the contrary, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stayed studiously circumspect on China, he said. And there had been barely any election spotlight on the neighbour which India views as a strategic rival, said the associate professor of International... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3004922/india-election-modi-and-gandhi-ignore-chinese-dragon-room?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3004922/india-election-modi-and-gandhi-ignore-chinese-dragon-room?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Apr 2019 02:30:12 +0000 It was supposed to be the day the Indian opposition seized the election narrative; instead, it felt like a demonstration in how to lose it. When the Indian National Congress party president Rahul Gandhi announced the flagship policy he hopes will win the approval of an electorate nearly a billion-strong, he was determined not to go off topic. Indeed, he had made this clear to multiple reporters gathered at his March 25 press conference: he would be talking about the minimum income guarantee... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3004912/indian-election-cow-vigilantes-gst-job-losses-voters-should-have?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3004912/indian-election-cow-vigilantes-gst-job-losses-voters-should-have?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Apr 2019 00:45:10 +0000