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New York Times Editorial Slams Modi Government's JNU Crackdown

New York Times Editorial Slams Modi Government's JNU Crackdown
Joe Athialy/Flickr

They say the world is watching us. A New York Times editorial today proves just that. And well, the impression isn't quite nice.

In a stinging editorial, The New York Times has blamed the Modi government for cracking down on JNU students and stifling freedom of expression in India.

The “authoritarian drift” of the Modi government has come under sharp criticism by the newspaper which squarely blamed it for “the lynch mob mentality” witnessed in New Delhi in recent days.

An opinion piece on Kanhaiya Kumar, the JNU student who was arrested on charges of sedition, says that this "confrontation raises serious concerns about Mr. Modi’s governance and may further stall any progress in Parliament on economic reforms."

The newspaper carried a separate article on the events in Delhi after the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar, JNU student leader, on charges of sedition and said that the message was clear–violence in the name of ultra nationalism is acceptable.

"Responsibility for this lynch-mob mentality lies squarely with Mr. Modi’s government," it notes.

Not just the Prime Minister, NYT also takes a dig at his government and other ministers.

Quoting Home Minister Rajnath Singh--“If anyone raises anti-India slogans and tries to raise question on the nation’s unity and integrity, they will not be spared,”-- the editorial said that "Mr. Singh apparently does not realize that, in a democracy, voicing dissent is a vital right, not a crime."

In the concluding sentence, NYT asks the Indian Prime Minister to rein in his ministers or risk sabotaging India's economic progress.

"Mr. Modi must rein in his ministers and his party, and defuse the current crisis, or risk sabotaging both economic progress and India’s democracy," it notes.

Meanwhile, France’s leading daily Le Monde’ said in an editorial that “the horizon of Indian democracy has been oddly clouded” since the coming to power of Modi.

“The arrest of a student of JNU and a former professor in Delhi, accused of ‘sedition’, is the latest illustration of the authoritarian drift of a Hindu nationalist government...,” said the piece.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.