the senior leaders of the bjp, includin: all? the senior leaders of the bjp, including the _ all?l? the senior leaders of the bjp, including the prime minister- including the prime minister narendra modi and i do not talk much about these incidents, whenever something big happens they talk, particularly in recent days, these incidents have not attracted any attention from the senior leaders of the bjp. it is not only about the christians. the way the hindu right—wing people have started using hate speech that shocked many people. for example, we could go in the conclave of religious leaders, hindu saints and some of the people linked to the governing bjp, they were calling for open violence against muslims. and in fact they gave interviews for television channels afterwards standing by the statement. and this was again quite unprecedented the level of hate speech against religious minorities. that's why many newspapers have been calling on the government, including the prime minister narendra modi, to come out and openly condemn these incidents. 0therwise come out and openly conde

newspaper editorials have urged the leaders of the governing hindu—nationalist bjp party to condemn hateervice's south asia regional editor, anbarasan ethirajan, in delhi, has more. attacks on christmas day, they are unthinkable 20 years ago, but since 2014, after the bjp came to power, the hindu nationalist party, christian organisations say attacks against them have doubled. we have seen prayer halls being attacked, churches that are literally being burned, and also some of the pastors are being attacked by hindu right—wing youths. this is all happening for the past few years and putting this community in fear — they fear that they are being persecuted. christians are a religious minority in india, about 2%, or 30 million people, but they have remained at the sidelines when you compare them with the other biggest religious minority, muslims. they feel the attacks are increasing, but the government denies that there is an orchestrated campaign against the christians, but many people would complain that the police officers are not taking enough action as and when these christian places o

about his jokes. the bjp complained to police about hisjokes.ntly cancelled a string of shows after getting threats from hindu nationalists. how free is in india today? it threats from hindu nationalists. how free is in india today?— free is in india today? if you are a politician. — free is in india today? if you are a politician. it _ free is in india today? if you are a politician, it is _ free is in india today? if you are a politician, it is free, _ free is in india today? if you are a politician, it is free, if _ free is in india today? if you are a politician, it is free, if you - free is in india today? if you are a politician, it is free, if you are - free is in india today? if you are a politician, it is free, if you are a l politician, it is free, if you are a comedian it is not free, it is costly. if half of the people agree with myjoke and half of the people don't agree with myjoke, then it's a democracy, right? don't agree with my 'oke, then it's a democracy, right?— don't agree with my 'oke, then it's a democracy, right? many feel

the far-right bjp, a minister from the bjp caused huge control for immigrants -- and that sounds like the kind of language that we had in rwanda. with the murderers, the genocidal maniacs referred to their opponents as cockroaches. you go back to the nazi period, referring to jews a threats. that is a language that people like marjorie taylor greene are being into politics. it's dehumanizing your opponent and we know where that leads. 21 million americans are open to using force to restore the presidency to donald trump. that is the climate in context in which he's making these wrongs. >> i am glad you said that. i think that the one thing to take away here to david and mona charen and mehdi hasan points here is, as a prime objective, including the electoral act, it is a ridiculous ticking time bomb. it is someone coming to your house and going down to the basement and saying that your boiler is about to explode. that is basically what happened in the last election with the electoral count act. we went down there and it was like, oh no one is looked at this in a few years. this is goi

the bjp is perhaps the richest political party in the world and it controls all of the levers of powerinstitutions penetrated by members of the rss . amy: i want to ask about this pandemic that we are still in around the world. you wrote a piece for the financial times last year called "the pandemic is a portal" that was just quoted everywhere. in it you said, we can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcass of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our database and did ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us, or we can walk through lightly with little luggage, ready to imagine another world and ready to fight for it." so talk about what that journey would look like. and do you think anywhere you are seeing that -- were you able to come push that through this pandemic? what do you want to see at the other end? >> well, no, i wasn't. i have to say i didn't -- i don't see any attempt except obviously by individuals and idealistic people, but other than that, i just see, you know, imaginations that are just weighted down by their own limitations, their inability to think ou

but it was interesting because he was the leader at that time of the bjp, which was the hindu fundamentalisthe manhattan project, who was of german descent, an american scientist who was actually quoting the hindu scripture in condemnation of his own creation. so i thought, "well, what an incredible way to show the hypocrisies of nationality and religion, to show there's 0ppenheimer, who created it, who hated his own creation, the nuclear bomb, then there's this guy — and he condemns it in the name of hinduism." and that encapsulated the essence of what the album was, which was looking at issues of identity where we say that nationality, religion, race and so on are synonymous with who we are, as opposed to thinking about how we create our own identity. well, and identity is a theme that runs throughout your work. so let's bring it up—to—date on the latest album, immigrants — it's very much a reflection of a world in which nationalism in many different countries is on the rise, where there is, it seems, to be a rising fear of immigration, of the other. do you write it with a sense of deep fo

this muslim comedian spent 37 days in jail this year after supporters of the bjp complained to policeats from hindu nationalists. how free is speech in india today? if you are a politician, it's free. if you are a comedian it's not free, it's costly. - if half of the people agree - with myjoke and half of the people don't agree with myjoke, i then it's a democracy, right? many feel that freedom of expression in today's india comes at a price. for those that feel they no longer have a voice, it's far from funny. in the english premier league, five games fell victim to covid restrictions. just one match survived and leeds may have wished it hadn't. they had eight first team players out through injury and suspension — and they lost 4—1. a defensive lapse let in gabriel martinelli for the opener — the midfielder scoring his second in as many games. he added another not long after benefiting from a fine through ball from grant xhaka to double arsenal's lead. arsenal stay fourth. leeds 16th after three straight defeats. for nearly three months now, we have been telling you about the volcani

this muslim comedian spent 37 days in jail this year after supporters of the bjp complained to police getting threats from hindu nationalists. how free is speech in india today? if you are a politician, it is free, if you are a comedian it is not free, it is costly. if half of the people agree with myjoke and half of the people | don't agree with my 'oke, then it's a democracy, right? freedom of expression in today's india comes at a price. for those that feel they no longer have a voice, it is far from funny. going to a uk beach in your swimming costume — in the middle of december — may not fill everyone with excitement — but when it's for a good cause — it all seems worth it as edward sault explains. one, two, three... bananas! baring all, almost all for charity. one, two, three! cheering and applause. the idea came about after christine lost her husband to cancer during lockdown. he was taken to southampton where he would stay for five weeks. we were not allowed to visit him once. they told him that he was going to die and we could not even comfort him. towards the end of roy's lif