Hamas releases video of two Israeli captives held in Gaza
The two men, identified as Keith Siegel and Omri Miran, send love to their families and ask to be released in the video. Hamas’s military wing has published a video of two Israeli captives held in Gaza, showing footage of them calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to make a deal to secure their release. The video released on Saturday is similarly filmed to previous captive videos made public by the group, which Israel has condemned as “psychological terrorism”. The two men, identified as Keith Siegel, 64, and Omri Miran, 47, speak individually in front of an empty background. They send their love to their families and ask to be released. Miran was taken captive from his home in the community of Nahal Oz in front of his wife and two young daughters during the October 7 Hamas attack. “I have been here in Hamas captivity for 202 days. The situation here is unpleasant, difficult and there are many bombs,” Miran is heard saying in the footage, indicating it was taken earlier this week. “It’s time to reach a deal that will get us out of here safe and healthy … Keep protesting, so that there will be a deal now.” Saturday’s video comes as Hamas says it is studying Israel’s latest counterproposal for a Gaza ceasefire after reports that mediator Egypt had sent a delegation to Israel to jump-start stalled negotiations. The video was published during the Passover holiday, when Jews traditionally celebrate the biblical story of gaining freedom from slavery in Egypt. At one point, Siegel breaks down crying as he recounts celebrating the holiday with his family last year and expresses hope that they will be reunited. “We are in danger here, there are bombs, it is stressful and scary,” he said, burying his face in his arms as he cried. “I want to tell my family that I love you very much. It’s important to me that you know that I am fine.” The latest video comes just three days after Hamas released another video showing captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin alive. About 250 Israelis and foreigners were taken captive during the Hamas assault, which killed 1,139 people, according to Israeli tallies. In response, Israel launched an assault on Gaza, pledging to destroy Hamas and bring the captives home. The war has so far killed at least 34,388 Palestinians. The Israeli military has said 129 of the captives are still being held in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 people who died in captivity. Reporting from Tel Aviv, Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith said the families and friends of the captives were relieved to see evidence that they were alive. “They’ve said ‘time is running out. We need our Prime Minister [Benjamin Natanyahu] to accept any deal fast’,” he said. Smith was speaking from a protest against Netanyahu. “These protests are calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Netanyahu. They’re calling for an end to the war and they’re calling for the release of hostages,” he said. “Many of the protesters here are saying Netanyahu is deliberately prolonging this war in Gaza because it saves him from the ultimate reckoning of the ballot box.” Adblock test (Why?)
Iraq criminalises same-sex relationships with maximum 15 years in prison
The law is backed mainly by Shia Muslim parties who form the largest coalition in Iraq’s parliament. Iraq’s parliament has passed a law criminalising same-sex relationships with a maximum 15-year prison sentence, in a move it said aimed to uphold religious values, but was condemned by rights advocates as the latest attack on the LGBTQ community in Iraq. The law adopted on Saturday aims to “protect Iraqi society from moral depravity and the calls for homosexuality that have overtaken the world,” according to a copy of the law seen by the Reuters news agency. It was backed mainly by conservative Shia Muslim parties who form the largest coalition in Iraq’s parliament. The Law on Combating Prostitution and Homosexuality bans same-sex relations with at least 10 years and a maximum of 15 years in prison, and mandates at least seven years in prison for anybody who promotes homosexuality or prostitution. The amended law makes “biological sex change based on personal desire and inclination” a crime and punishes transgender people and doctors who perform gender-affirming surgery with up to three years in prison. The bill had initially included the death penalty for same-sex acts but was amended before being passed after strong opposition from the United States and European nations. ‘A serious blow to human rights’ Until Saturday, Iraq did not explicitly criminalise gay sex, though loosely defined morality clauses in its penal code had been used to target LGBTQ people, and members of the community have also been killed by armed groups and individuals. “The Iraqi parliament’s passage of the anti-LGBT law rubber-stamps Iraq’s appalling record of rights violations against LGBTQ people and is a serious blow to fundamental human rights,” Rasha Younes, deputy director of the LGBTQ rights programme at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters. “Iraq has effectively codified in law the discrimination and violence members of the LGBTI community have been subjected to with absolute impunity for years,” the AFP news agency quoted Amnesty International’s Iraq Researcher Razaw Salihy as saying. “The amendments concerning LGBTI rights are a violation of fundamental human rights and put at risk Iraqis whose lives are already hounded daily,” Salihy added. Lawmaker Raed al-Maliki, who advanced the amendments, told AFP that the law “serves as a preventive measure to protect society from such acts”. Major Iraqi parties have in the past year stepped up criticism of LGBTQ rights, with rainbow flags frequently being burned in protests by both governing and opposition conservative Shia Muslim factions last year. More than 60 countries criminalise gay sex, while same-sex sexual acts are legal in more than 130 countries, according to Our World in Data. Adblock test (Why?)
Has South Africa’s ANC failed to live up to its promises?
South Africa is commemorating the 30th anniversary of its first democratic election. South Africa is marking Freedom Day – the historic day that changed the course of the country. Hopes were high in 1994, as years of segregation and white-minority rule came to an end, and millions of Black South Africans cast their vote for the first time. But 30 years on, many say there’s little to celebrate. Hope has been replaced by disappointment and scepticism. The African National Congress, which has been in power since the end of apartheid, is accused of not keeping its promises. It has been embroiled in corruption scandals. Unemployment is at an all-time high, crime is widespread and race-based inequality is still a problem. This year’s anniversary comes a month ahead of general elections – which could see the governing party lose its majority for the first time. So, has the ANC failed to live up to its promises? Presenter: Neave Barker Guests: Melanie Verwoerd – Political analyst William Gumede – Founder of Democracy Works Foundation Zackie Achmat – Activist and independent candidate for South Africa’s parliament Adblock test (Why?)
Ramaphosa hails ANC record as South Africa marks 30 years of democracy
President Cyril Ramaphosa has hailed South Africa’s achievements under his party’s leadership as the country celebrated 30 years of democracy since the end of apartheid. April 27 is the day “when we cast off our shackles. Freedom’s bells rang across our great country,” Ramaphosa, 71, said on Saturday, reminding South Africans about the first democratic election in 1994 that ended white-minority rule. “South Africa’s democracy is young. What we’ve achieved in these short 30 years is something of which all of us should be proud. This is an infinitely better place than it was 30 years ago,” he said in a speech marking “Freedom Day” at the Union Buildings, the seat of government, in Pretoria. South African President Cyril Ramphosa delivers a speech as he attends Freedom Day celebrations in Pretoria, South Africa [Themba Hadebe/AP] The first inclusive election saw the previously banned African National Congress (ANC) party win overwhelmingly and made its leader, Nelson Mandela, the country’s first Black president, four years after being released from prison. With the ANC winning a landslide victory, a new constitution was drawn up, and it became South Africa’s highest law, guaranteeing equality for everyone, regardless of race, religion, or sexuality. The ANC has been in government since 1994 and is still recognised for its role in freeing South Africans, but for some, it is no longer celebrated in the same way as poverty and economic inequality remain rife. ANC struggling in the polls Ramaphosa used the occasion to list improvements shepherded by the ANC, which is struggling in the polls due on May 29 and risks losing its outright parliamentary majority for the first time. “We have pursued land reform, distributing millions of hectares of land to those who had been forcibly dispossessed,” he said. “We have built houses, clinics, hospitals, roads and constructed bridges, dams, and many other facilities. We have brought electricity, water and sanitation to millions of South African homes.” Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from the capital Pretoria, said that while there is freedom of speech, many South Africans will say there is no economic freedom. “The country has a 32 percent unemployment rate. The World Bank describes this society as the most unequal on earth,” Hull said. “Corruption is rife. Infrastructure is in a dire state, and in an election due just next month, polls predict that for the first time, the ANC could fall beneath 50 percent of the vote. That, if it happens, would in itself be a pretty significant milestone in this country.” People listen to South African President Cyril President, right, through a screen, during Freedom Day celebrations in Pretoria, South Africa [Themba Hadebe/AP] An Ipsos poll released on Friday showed support for the governing party, which won more than 57 percent of the vote at the last national elections in 2019, has fallen to just more than 40 percent. Were it to win less than 50 percent, the ANC would be forced to find coalition partners to remain in power. The party’s image has been badly hurt by accusations of graft and its inability to effectively tackle poverty, crime, inequality, and unemployment, which remain staggeringly high. The governing party is being largely blamed for the lack of progress in improving the lives of so many South Africans. Thandeka Mvakali, 28, from the Alexandra Township in Johannesburg, said life is no different from the time of her parents during apartheid. “It’s almost the same. You can see, we are living in a one bedroom, maybe we are 10 inside the house, for my family, we are 10 and then maybe two is employed, like my mother [and] my brother,” Mvakali told Al Jazeera. “All of us we are not employed, we did go to school but there’s no job in South Africa.” Mvakali added that she will vote for the first time in the May 29 elections because she is “hoping” her vote will count this time. Ramaphosa acknowledged the problems, but denounced critics as people who wilfully “shut their eyes”. “We have made much progress and we are determined to do much more,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)
From LA to NY, pro-Palestine college campus protests grow strong in US
Students at US universities protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza have pledged to continue occupying school grounds despite growing efforts by university leaders and police to clear the demonstrations. As the protests that began at Columbia University in New York spread outside the United States, demonstrators nationwide are demanding that schools slash financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling Israel’s nearly seven-month war on Gaza that has killed at least 34,388 people and 77,437 others. Decisions to call in law enforcement to remove protesters have led to hundreds of arrests in various universities. They have also prompted faculty members at California, Georgia and Texas universities to initiate or pass largely symbolic votes of no confidence in their leadership. But the tensions pile pressure on school officials, who are already scrambling to resolve the protests with graduation ceremonies set for next month. Adblock test (Why?)
Pro-Palestine student protests spread in second week of demonstrations
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations continue in universities across the United States, as they also spread to schools in Europe and Australia. In the second week of protests calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, thousands of students are calling on dozens of universities to divest from Israel. Some universities have been forced to cancel their graduation ceremonies, while others have seen entire buildings occupied by protesting students. One of the latest to join the movement is The City University of New York (CUNY), where hundreds of students have set up an encampment on campus with banners with slogans like “No More Investment in Apartheid”. Gabby Aossey, a student organiser at the CUNY protest told Al Jazeera the mobilisation of young pro-Palestinian people in the US is “beautiful to see”. “Young people are really starting to show up and demand that schools are held accountable for their relationship with the Israeli colonisation,” Aossey said. Across the US, university leaders have tried, and largely failed, to quell the demonstrations. The police have intervened violently, with videos emerging from different states showing hundreds of students – and even faculty members – being forcefully arrested. Early on Saturday, police in riot gear cleared an encampment on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston. Several dozen students shouted and booed at them from a distance, but the scene was otherwise not confrontational. The school said in a statement that the demonstration, which began two days ago, had become “infiltrated by professional organisers” with no affiliation to the school and protesters had used anti-Semitic slurs. “We cannot tolerate this kind of hate on our campus,” the statement posted on the social media platform X said. At Columbia University, where more than 100 pro-Palestinian activists were arrested by armed police officers on campus about a week ago, university leaders said in a statement on Friday that if the university calls the New York Police Department again, it would “further inflame what is happening on campus”. Some university leaders and state officials have strongly condemned the protests, calling them “anti-Semitic”. Demonstrators reject the accusation, with many Jewish activists and some Orthodox Jews joining the ranks. “As a child of Holocaust survivors, it disturbs me to my core to see my own people perpetrating something that we’ve been through,” Jewish antiwar protester Sam Koprak told Al Jazeera at a campus gathering. ‘End complicity with genocide’ The protests, which have sprouted all around the globe in the near seven-month period since the start of the war on Gaza, continue to spread this week outside the US as well. In Berlin, activists set up a camp in front of parliament to demand the German government stop exporting arms to Israel. At the renowned Sciences Po university in the French capital Paris, protesters on Friday blockaded a central campus building, forcing classes to be held online. The latest pro-Palestine rally in Sweden on Saturday saw people marching in the streets to chants of “Free Palestine” and “Boycott Israel”. Hundreds gathered on Saturday afternoon in central London in solidarity with Palestinians, with a smaller group organising a pro-Israel event. “People are gathering here on Parliament Square just outside the houses of parliament for the latest in a series of very major protests in the heart of London,” said Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from London. Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, an organiser of the march, said he expected hundreds of thousands to attend from across the United Kingdom. “Once again, we are delivering a double message. One is to the Palestinian people, a message of solidarity. We see you, we hear you, we stand with you,” he said. The second message, Jamal said, is addressed to the British political establishment “to end their complicity with Israel’s genocide against Palestinian people”. Jamal dismissed critics saying that protests have been anti-Semitic. “This tactic of conflating anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the State of Israel is a very familiar one, and is used globally by Israel to silence those who are advocating for Palestinian rights,” he said. Meanwhile, Rina Shah, a Washington-based political strategist and former senior congressional aide, said protests in US universities are a display of democracy in action, a welcome sight in an election year marked by concerns of voter apathy chiefly due to Israel’s war on Gaza. “So when I see a movement like this of students taking peaceful, non-violent action and expressing their concern about the US government backing of Israel, of where our tax money is going, I think that’s extremely healthy,” she told Al Jazeera. “These students are out there concerned about America’s role in backing [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu. On the one hand, we are supplying weapons and funds to do what he wants to do in Gaza, while on the other we are sending humanitarian aid to Gaza. This is the hypocrisy these students are concerned about.” Adblock test (Why?)
Key takeaways from fourth day of testimony in Trump’s hush money trial
The fourth day of testimony in former United States President Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial has concluded, with former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker facing several hours of cross-examination by Trump’s legal team. Pecker answered more questions on Friday about what he has testified was a “catch-and-kill” scheme to suppress damaging information about Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 US presidential elections. The former president has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents in connection to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican candidate, is accused of mislabelling reimbursements made to his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence over an alleged affair. Trump has denied that affair took place. But prosecutors have said the ex-president’s alleged misdeeds were part of a larger criminal scheme to influence the 2016 vote, which Trump won over Hillary Clinton. Friday’s hearing began with Trump lawyer Emil Bove continuing to cross-examine Pecker, one of the prosecution’s star witnesses. Two other witnesses also took the stand. Here are six takeaways from the day in court. Pecker grilled on editorial process, 2015 meeting Bove, Trump’s lawyer, on Friday asked the former National Enquirer publisher about a 2015 meeting, which he had previously testified about. Pecker had earlier said there was a discussion in that meeting about running articles about Bill and Hillary Clinton and Trump’s opponents in the Republican presidential primary. Pecker said the moves were good for the tabloid’s business. He added that the Enquirer ran negative stories about the Clintons before it began coordinating with the Trump campaign because those stories performed well. Bove also sought to show that much of the Enquirer’s negative coverage of Trump’s political opponents – which prosecutors had suggested was evidence of them being in cahoots – merely summarised news stories by other outlets. Pecker said recycling information from other outlets was cost-efficient and made business sense. Later, Bove also said the National Enquirer’s parent company – not Trump or Cohen, his then-lawyer – paid a former Trump Tower doorman $30,000 in 2015 for the rights to an unsubstantiated claim that Trump had fathered a child with an employee. Pecker testified earlier that the Enquirer thought the tale would make for a huge tabloid story if it were accurate, but eventually concluded the story was “1,000% untrue” and never ran it. Trump and the woman involved both have denied the allegations. Bove asked whether he would run the story if it were true. Pecker replied: “Yes.” Term ‘catch-and-kill’ not used in 2015 meeting Pecker also previously testified that he hatched a plan with Trump and Cohen in August 2015 for the National Enquirer to help Trump’s presidential campaign. But, under questioning by Trump’s lawyer on Friday, Pecker acknowledged there was no mention at that meeting of the term “catch-and-kill”, which describes the practice of tabloids purchasing the rights to story so they never see the light of day. Nor was there discussion at the meeting of any “financial dimension”, such as the National Enquirer paying people on Trump’s behalf for the rights to their stories, Pecker said. Karen McDougal deal The defence’s questioning then turned to a deal between the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc, and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Bove sought to get at what both McDougal’s and the Enquirer’s objectives really were in making a $150,000 agreement in 2016. The deal gave American Media – where Pecker was CEO from 1999 to 2020 – exclusive rights to McDougal’s account of any relationship with “any then-married man”, a clause Pecker has testified was specifically about Trump. She claims they had an affair in 2006 and 2007; Trump denies it. The contract also called for McDougal to pose for magazine covers and to produce, with a ghostwriter’s help, columns and other content on fitness and aging for various American Media titles. Earlier this week, Pecker testified that the provision for content was essentially for a pact that was really about keeping McDougal’s story from becoming public and potentially influencing Trump’s chances at the presidency. But on Friday, the ex-publisher said that McDougal was looking to restart her career and that American Media had pitched itself in a video conference as a venue able to help her. The company indeed ended up running more than 65 stories in her name, he said. When American Media signed its agreement with her, “You believed it had a legitimate business purpose, correct?”, Bove asked Pecker. “I did,” the former publisher said. Rhona Graff, who started working for Trump in 1987 and left the Trump Organization in April 2021, was the next witness to testify after Pecker. She has been described as Trump’s gatekeeper and right hand. Graff testified on Friday that she once saw Daniels at Trump Tower before he ran for president. She said she heard Trump say he was interested in casting her on The Apprentice, the reality TV show he hosted. Graff also said contact information for Daniels and McDougal was maintained in the Trump Organization’s Outlook computer system. “I never had the same day twice. It was a very stimulating, exciting, fascinating place to be,” she said of her 34 years working for the Trump Organization. Graff also described Trump as a “fair” and “respectful” boss. Trial hears from third witness Gary Farro, who works at Flagstar Bank as a private client adviser and was previously at First Republic Bank, which was used by Cohen, was the trial’s third witness. Farro testified on Friday that Cohen had several personal accounts at First Republic when Farro took over the client relationship in 2015. He also detailed the banking arrangement he had with Cohen, according to US media reports of his testimony. “I was told that I was selected because of my knowledge and because of my ability to handle individuals that may be a little challenging,” Farro said. “Frankly, I didn’t find him that difficult,” he added. Trump exits Trump Tower to attend
Generation gap: What student protests say about US politics, Israel support
Washington, DC – A Gaza-focused campus protest movement in the United States has highlighted a generational divide on Israel, experts say, with young people’s willingness to challenge politicians and college administrators on display nationwide. The opinion gap – with younger Americans generally more supportive of Palestinians than the generations that came before them – poses a risk to 81-year-old Democratic President Joe Biden’s re-election chances, they argue. It could also threaten the bipartisan backing that Israel enjoys in Washington. “We’re already seeing evidence of a generation divide on Israel, and that is going to be a long-term issue for the Democratic Party,” said Omar Wasow, assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. “These protests accelerate that generation gap,” Wasow told Al Jazeera. Students at Columbia University in New York set up a Palestine solidarity encampment last week, and they have since faced arrests and other disciplinary measures after the college administration called on police to clear the protest. Yet, despite the crackdown, similar encampments have sprung up across the US, as well as in other countries. Footage of students, professors and journalists being violently detained by officers on various campuses spurred outrage but has done little to slow the momentum of the protests, which have continued to spread. ‘Inflection moment’ The students are largely demanding that their universities disclose their investments and withdraw any funds from weapons manufacturers and firms involved with the Israeli military. Politicians from both major US parties, as well as the White House and pro-Israel groups, have accused the students of fuelling anti-Semitism – allegations that protesters vehemently deny. Eman Abdelhadi, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, said younger people are growing increasingly frustrated with the status quo on domestic and foreign policy issues. “I think there’s a real disaffection with the older generation, but more importantly with the system that they’re running,” said Abdelhadi. She added that the protests mark an “inflexion moment” in US public opinion more broadly. “In American history in general, usually the big shifts in public opinion have either coincided with or been triggered by large student movements,” Abdelhadi told Al Jazeera. She said campus activism can be the basis of political change. “There’s a sort of sense that this is the future.” People demonstrate at a protest near an encampment in support of Palestinians in Gaza at George Washington University in Washington, DC, April 26 [Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters] Biden’s woes For years, public opinion polls in the US suggest that younger people are more likely to be sympathetic towards Palestinians and critical of Israel. But Americans overall have grown more critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, including in the ongoing war on Gaza. Multiple polls suggest that a majority of US respondents back a permanent ceasefire in the besieged Palestinian enclave, where Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians since the conflict broke out on October 7. But Biden has maintained staunch support for Israel, the US’s top Middle East ally, amid the war. The 81-year-old president’s stance could be politically costly, as Biden faces a tough re-election bid in a November election that is expected to pit him against his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump. Polls suggest that Biden will need to appeal to his Democratic Party base, which is not as united in support of Israel as the Republican Party. Angus Johnston, a historian of US student activism, explained that the generational divide on Israel is especially pronounced among Democrats. “On a national level, we have seen this for a while as a disconnect between the values of young voters and most Democratic politicians,” Johnston told Al Jazeera. “And what we’re seeing now is a similar disconnect between young people on campus and many of the administrators who run these campuses, along with alumni and donors.” Abdelhadi, the sociologist, added that the heavy-handed law enforcement approach to the Gaza solidarity protests has undercut Democrats’s argument that electing Biden would protect the nation from Trump, whom they accuse of authoritarianism. “The reality is the Democrats have been telling us that young people need to save democracy and that people of colour need to save democracy and that any quibbles with this current administration need to be put aside in order to save democracy,” she told Al Jazeera. “But where’s the democracy when you have state troopers beating up students and faculty for protesting, and the White House saying nothing about that?” Wasow also said the protests and crackdown against them could add to the apathy towards Biden. “The Democrats can’t really afford to give people more reasons to vote against Biden, and this actually becomes one.” Policy change The student protesters are not getting involved in US partisan politics, however. They instead have stressed that their demands aim to help protect the human rights of Palestinians. So can the demonstrations help bring about changes to US policy and achieve their divestment demands? Johnston, the historian, said it is unlikely that US colleges will divest from large firms and the defence industry in the short term, but the call for transparency in their investments is reasonable. He added that long-term change is possible, but it will not come overnight. “We have seen over and over again that student organising does change policy, not always quickly, and not always in the ways that the students would have hoped,” Johnston said. “But we do see that when student organising rises to a certain level of intensity, it can have a significant effect.” For example, he said college activism against apartheid in South Africa began in the 1950s and grew over the years. “I think that there is no question that the anti-apartheid campus organising of the 1980s was a significant piece of what shifted American popular opinion and political opinion on the South African regime,” he said. Wasow, who studied the 1960s civil rights protests, also said demonstrations could shift public opinion, help grow political coalitions around a cause, and build civic capacity to advance an issue. “If
Jobless engineers, MBAs: The hidden army of Indian election ‘consultants’
“How many tennis balls can fit in a passenger plane?” Neeraj, a young economics graduate from the premier Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), was given 15 minutes to solve this question during his interview rounds at Nation With Namo (NwN), one of the in-house political consultancies of India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He got the calculation right and joined a small team of graduates from India’s top universities who were dispatched to the eastern state of Tripura to conduct surveys, collect and analyse voter data for elections that were due in February last year. Their job was to identify who was not voting for the BJP, separate them into demographic cohorts – age, gender, caste, tribe, religion – find a common concern, issue or fear and strategise how to exploit that in the BJP’s favour. And they were to do all this while staying under the radar. “All of us who go through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) are good at solving problems,” said Neeraj, who asked for his name to be changed as he is not authorised to speak to the media. Admission to most of India’s top government-funded engineering, law and management colleges is through all-India exams. Millions of students take these exams, including the JEE for admission to 23 IITs, but only 2-3 percent make it to the premier institutes. Neeraj is one of few who made it, and is now in the league of hundreds of graduates from India’s top engineering and business schools who have in recent years joined political campaigns, usually for short stints while they wait for lucrative corporate job offers. An engineering degree from an IIT, whose alumni include Google CEO Sundar Pichai and former Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal, or an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, the alma mater of PepsiCo’s ex-CEO Indra Nooyi, are markers of excellence and used to be a guarantee of a good job. But that promise has been rescinded with campus recruitment drying up over the past few years and layoffs, especially at tech firms, surging. The ability of these graduates – readily available – to manage and analyse enormous amounts of voter data makes them a valuable resource for political consultancies. The latter’s market size, estimated to be about $300m, is set to grow with individual candidates and national and regional parties looking for their expertise. To attract graduates from these premier institutes, most political consultancies offer fellowships, and though the jobs are contractual and short-term, usually from three months to three years, they pay well, come with perks and the promise that their work will “shape the future”. “There’s also the attraction of being close to power centres in some way,” said Ankit Lal, a computer engineer who runs a political consultancy firm, Politique Advisors, in Delhi. In the small state of Tripura, where the BJP was seeking re-election, voter data culled and analysed by Neeraj and others in the NwN team showed that the party was in a comfortable position in the north. But in Amarpur constituency, home to a few tribal areas including Chabimura, voters were leaning towards other parties. From Tripura’s capital Agartala, the long, winding route to Chabimura – first by road and then by motor boat on the Gomati River — passes through moss-covered hills with 16th-century sculptures, legends about pythons guarding treasures in caves, and years of poverty and neglect. For centuries, members of the Jamatia tribe, who speak Kokborok, a Tibetian-Burmese language, have lived in this remote, rain-fed area known as the “Amazon of Tripura”. In Chabimura, Neeraj’s field survey found a cohort and a solution. There were a few dominant Jamatia families, and impressing them, he figured, would have a trickle-down effect on tribal voters in the area. “They are quite poor and all they wanted were boundary walls around their houses,” Neeraj said. Two to three days after he made a recommendation to the BJP’s state leadership, four-foot high mud boundary walls were constructed with great urgency about 80 houses belonging to members of the Jamatia tribe. For added incentive, pairs of male-female goats were herded inside these boundary walls, which also became a canvas for party propaganda. Portraits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the state’s chief minister and the local candidate were painted on them. BJP’s Tripura spokesperson did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment. The BJP, which had been in power in the state for five years, could have had these walls constructed at any time. But in a country where 800 million people survive on free or subsidised food grains, a pair of goats and a boundary wall are life-changing favours that earn gratitude and votes. “In politics, vote is the only currency. Everyone has just one vote across the country. How each person spends that vote, all our effort goes into that,” another IITan, who has also worked for NwN, told Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity. Bribing voters is a crime and a poll violation that can lead to a prison sentence and the election being nullified. But with the party hiring a vendor for the construction and not being directly involved, there’s deniability and proving the charge remains a matter of investigation. The BJP candidate won the Amarpur seat, beating his nearest rival from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) by a narrow margin. In India, polling officials carry electronic voting machines escorted by security personnel on a tractor [File: Anupam Nath/AP] Months before India began the gargantuan, 44-day exercise of conducting national general elections from April 19, armies of tech-savvy IITians, MBAs, lawyers and researchers have been busy collating, studying and analysing voter data to decide on campaign strategy, issues to highlight, where to deliver gifts and polarising speeches while pushing a glut of fake news on social media and WhatsApp aiming to convince voters for their clients. These backroom boys of Indian democracy, who have no skin in the game apart from the pay package and the thrill of a win,
Ecuador spat: Trotsky to the shah, Mexico’s long history as home to exiles
With rifles, riot shields and helmets, the Ecuadorian police scaled the white concrete gate, burst through the embassy doors and arrested Jorge Glas, a former vice president accused of corruption. The April 5 raid on Mexico’s embassy in Quito sparked a diplomatic firestorm. Experts warned the police raid was a clear violation of international laws protecting embassies. But in the lead-up to the raid, Mexico tried to invoke another safeguard enshrined in international law: the right to asylum. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known by the initials AMLO, had announced on the same day that Glas would be granted political asylum in his country after more than three months of sheltering in its embassy. But Glas was hardly the first politician Lopez Obrador had offered asylum to. In fact, experts say Mexico has a long and cherished history of granting asylum to figures fleeing persecution – from communist leaders to embattled presidents. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has offered asylum to several embattled leftist leaders [Marco Ugarte/AP Photo] Why did Lopez Obrador offer Glas asylum? Throughout his tenure as Mexico’s president, Lopez Obrador has championed that tradition, offering asylum to fellow left-leaning politicians who face prosecution or turmoil at home. In most cases, he portrays them as victims of political persecution and Mexico as a safe haven. Experts and historians say Lopez Obrador uses asylum as a tool to express affinity for politicians who share a similar worldview – and to bolster his credentials as a standard-bearer for Latin America’s political left. “Lopez Obrador has a very simple framework for understanding the political divide in Latin America with conservatives on one side and then those who are closer to what he sees as the historical mission of his government on the other,” Pablo Piccato, a professor of Mexican history at Columbia University in New York, tells Al Jazeera. “He sees things in this way with the conservative forces of reaction against the progressive forces of the people.” What is political asylum anyway? Political asylum, however, is a very specific legal category. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, lays out a right “to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”. Political views are one of only a handful of protected categories under international asylum law alongside race, religion, nationality and membership in a specific social group. Applicants for asylum must make the case that their involvement in one of those categories has put them at risk of persecution or some other human rights violation – and that there is no protection to be had in their home country. Former Vice President Jorge Glas of Ecuador sought refuge in Mexico’s embassy in Quito [File: Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo] Who else has Lopez Obrador offered asylum to? Glas is only the latest high-profile asylum case that Lopez Obrador has waded into. For instance, in 2019, Lopez Obrador extended asylum to former Bolivian President Evo Morales after he was removed from office by right-wing forces. Many characterised Morales’s exit from office as a coup, and Morales himself said his life was at risk. The Mexican leader also rallied behind former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo after he was impeached and arrested in December 2022. In the face of a third impeachment attempt against his presidency, Castillo appeared on TV and announced he would dissolve Congress. The move was widely denounced as illegal, and as Castillo tried to flee, he was detained on charges of rebellion. Lopez Obrador, however, repeatedly tried to offer the jailed Castillo and his family political asylum, spurring tensions with Peru’s current government. How have other leaders reacted? The Mexican president’s use of asylum as a political tool has irked conservative leaders across Latin America, including his Ecuadorian counterpart, Daniel Noboa. In Glas’s case, tensions between Ecuador and Mexico had been simmering for months. Glas had been holed up in the Mexican embassy since December after receiving two lengthy prison sentences for his participation in a bribery scandal. Noboa, a right-leaning politician, had embraced a law and order image amid an increase in violent crime at home. He insisted that he would not permit “any criminal to stay free” – not even Glas. As Mexico announced political asylum for Glas, police started to surround the embassy. Noboa has since insisted that his government did nothing wrong and he was simply exercising Ecuador’s sovereignty. He has also disputed whether Glas was eligible for political asylum under international law. Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa, centre, has denied wrongdoing in the embassy raid [Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo] What is Mexico’s history with asylum? Mexico’s reputation as a place of refuge for those fleeing political persecution stretches back decades, well beyond the current spat with Ecuador. It has even become a point of pride in the history of the country’s foreign policy: Those seeking shelter in Mexico have often come out of the Western Hemisphere’s revolutionary or leftist traditions. Jose Marti, the foremost figure in Cuba’s struggle for independence, spent several years in Mexico in the 1870s after being expelled from Cuba, then under Spanish rule. The exiled Indian revolutionary Manabendra Nath Roy fled to Mexico to evade authorities in the United States after being arrested for his anti-colonial activities in India, where he helped found the Communist Party. He would go on to play a role in the founding of Mexico’s own Communist Party in 1917. During the 1930s, leftist President Lazaro Cardenas offered asylum to Leon Trotsky, a central figure in the Russian Revolution who later fled threats under the government of Joseph Stalin. He was eventually assassinated in Mexico City in 1940. Cardenas also opened Mexico’s doors to people fleeing the Spanish Civil War. Mexico was one of the only countries at the time to send assistance to Spain’s democratically elected and left-leaning Republican government, which was locked in battle against the forces of the far-right General Francisco Franco. That put Mexico at odds with fascist leaders like Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany,