There is a mixed bag in governance in India these days. On one hand, Muslims are demonized, Christians’ charity and philanthropic works are linked to the forced conversion debate and quite often sedition laws or the controversial Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) are used to silence dissent.
Then there is the latent anguish of the middle class and poor. There is also an agrarian crisis. In any other political set-up, opposition parties could have gone in for the kill and cornered India’s ruling dispensation under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But often the misguided moves by opposition parties like “creating pandemonium” in parliament come to the rescue of Modi’s publicity wing. The goalposts are changed and the battle which should have been to expose fault lines in the new farm bills goes into another realm.
Steered by an ostensibly decisive and determined Prime Minister, the Indian government is in serious confabulation with the Chinese leadership these days. But there could be a brief lesson for Modi’s leadership to learn from the Chinese context. The reasons could be multiple but how long can Modi brave through the situation with the argument that the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy cannot be solely blamed for all the ills and limitations?
“It is appalling that human rights defenders are locked up in overcrowded prisons and continuously denied bail despite calls by the UN to decongest prisons and release political prisoners during the pandemic,” says Josef Benedict, CIVICUS Asia-Pacific civic space researcher.
As many as 332 people were reportedly arrested under the sedition law between 2016 and 2018, though the conviction rates were very poor. Mob lynchings were carried out between 2014 and 2019 in various parts of India and in many instances it has been suggested that there is now perhaps a type of institutionalization of the communal venom.

Several Catholic groups in India have expressed relief after the Vatican removed its controversial envoy from the country.
Pope Francis on August 29 suddenly transferred Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro, apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal, to Brazil amid accusations of inaction against allegedly corrupt bishops.
“I saw the nuncio’s transfer as a small moral victory, not something to gloat about, but more a sense of relief,” chhotebhai, coordinator of the Indian Catholic Forum and former president of the All India Catholic Union, the largest lay association in the country, told NCR.
Chhotebhai says he had taken up with the nuncio issues such as the controversy around then-Bishop Gallela Prasad of Cuddapah, in the southern Indian State of Andhra Pradesh. Prasad faced a criminal complaint for allegedly misappropriating diocesan funds to lead a luxurious life with his alleged wife and son.
Another request to the nuncio was to act against Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, who has been accused of raping a nun multiple times.
However, the Vatican later removed Prasad from his post, and accepted Mulakkal’s request for temporary resignation to face the court case. The apostolic nunciature in New Delhi did not respond to request for comment for this story, or on the accusations made against Diquattro during his tenure in India. The Holy See press office also did not respond to a request for comment. Vikram K. Antony, a Catholic politician in Bengaluru, says he had written to the nuncio about the arrest of a few priests in the murder of a seminary rector. “There was no action or inquiry into our complaints,” he told NCR.
Another person happy with the nuncio’s transfer is Kochurani Abraham, a feminist theologian who accompanies the rape survivor nun and her supporters.
Sr Anupama Kelama-ngalathuveli, the spokes-person for the survivor and her supporters, corrobora-ted Abraham’s narration of the developments. She, however, declined to talk further as the trial in the case began on August 13.
Saldanha, who has headed women’s offices under bishops’ conferences in Asia and India, dismisses Diquattro’s tenure in India as insignificant.
John Dayal, current spokesperson of the All India Catholic Union, says people complained against Diquattro because of their ignorance about a nuncio’s role.
A nuncio, according to Dayal, is “not a monitor, or a policeman and magistrate, to admonish, administer instant justice or mete out punishment.” Every bishop, he explains, is sovereign in his diocese and answerable only to the Pope.

Since there are no data on the deaths of migrant workers from COVID-19, the question of compensation “does not arise,” India’s Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Santosh Gangwar, told parliament. This has sparked harsh reactions by opposition parties and civil society groups.
Against this backdrop, internal migrants are the group that suffered the most. The labour minister admitted that more than 10 million migrants have returned to their places of origin.

Jesuit Father Erik Breye, a seminary professor, retreat preacher and a confessor and counsellor for seminarians and nuns, died of cardiac arrest on September 18 in Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand State in eastern India. He was 79. Father Raymond Kerketta, socius (secretary) to the Ranchi Jesuit province, noted in a condolence message that Father Breye was a member of the Society of Jesus for 61 years and a priest for 48 years.

Father Paul Achandy, the former prior general of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, has taken over as the new Chancellor of Christ University in Bengaluru. Father Achandy, on assuming office on September 21, addressed the faculty and students of the university. The university has more than 18,000 students and more than 800 faculty members.

Even after scoring a century, retired Jesuit Bishop Linus Nirmal Gomes retains his great enthusiasm, profound faith in God and love for people. He marked his 100th birthday on Sept. 7 and became the most senior bishop in India. He celebrated the milestone with fellow confreres in the Jesuit community at St Xavier’s College in Kolkata, his retirement home since 2014.

A Catholic nun, who has promoted “Clean India Campaign” in Manipur, was among 42 people who on Sept. 24 were awarded by President Ram Nath Kovind.
The president conferred the National Services Scheme Awards for the year 2018-2019 on Sister William Parmar and others through virtual mode from the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Federal Minister for Youth Affairs Kiren Reiju attended the ceremony from New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan.
The awards were given in three different categories like University and Plus Two, NSS units and their program officers and NSS volunteers.
Sister Parmar, a member of the Carmelite Sisters of Charity, or Vedruna Sisters, was given the prestigious awards in recognition of her exemplary and commendable social service, says a youth ministry press release.
President Kovind congratu-lated the winners and expressed his happiness to honor service-minded people. “Sevice is very much part of our value sys-tem,” he asserted.
Sister Parmar is the pro-gram officer of the NSS unit 1 of Don Bosco College Maram in the Senapati district of Manipur, a northeastern Indian State. She was selected for the award under Program Officer/NSS Unit Category.
The 39-year-old nun cu-rrently serves as assistant pro-fessor at the Salesian college with additional responsibility as NSS program officer.