BJP’s race to a supermajority – Southasia Weekly #118

This week, two journalists from the digital news outlet Adhadhu received prison sentences for defying a gag order handed down from the Maldives’s Criminal Court. This is just the latest incident of repression after the passage of media regulations that allow a government-controlled commission to order for the removal of content or the stripping away of media licenses. In Myanmar too, the junta has been cancelling publishing licenses even as it proclaims that the country has transitioned to civilian rule. All this just weeks after World Press Freedom Day.

Himal has long tracked media censorship and repression across Southasia, and we have aimed to be a platform for stories that often can’t be told in national and mainstream media. That’s why we wanted to spotlight the detentions in Maldives, a story that deserves a wider audience. To support this newsletter, and our broader work on media freedom, please consider signing up to our Patrons programme to support our work.

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This week in Himal

Shweta Desai writes about the BJP’s race to a parliamentary supermajority in order to open the door to drastic constitutional change, despite the defeat of three government bills on women’s representation, delimitation and increasing the size of the Lok Sabha. 

If you've been enjoying our recent stories on Bollywood and Hindu nationalism, make sure to check out our latest edition of Footnotes, where associate editor Nayantara Narayanan sits down with film critic Anna M M Vetticad and journalist Raza Rumi. 

Arun Shourie’s services to the Hindu Right and Modi’s India

The most influential Indian journalist of his era, Arun Shourie traded repute as a leftist dissident to shape the intellectual scaffolding of the Hindu Right – and took much of the country’s elite with him

Himal SouthasianMihir Dalal

Himal Interviews: Rahul Bhatia on Aadhaar, the RSS and India’s democratic unravelling

A conversation with the award-winning writer and journalist on the surprising origins of Aadhaar, the afterlives of the 2020 Delhi violence, and the people still resisting India’s majoritarian turn

Himal SouthasianShwetha Srikanthan

This week in Southasia

Maldives detains two journalists under gag order

On 12 May, two journalists from the digital news outlet Adhadhu  were detained under a Criminal Court gag order after the release of a documentary that accused the President of the Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu, of sexual misconduct involving a former aide working at the President’s Office. Mohamed Shazan and Leevan Ali Naseer were sentenced to 15 and 10 days in prison respectively, Shazan for asking the president a question during a press conference, and Naseer for reporting on the gag order. The proceedings were held behind closed doors, and the three-judge panel only allowed both journalists a two-hour window to appoint legal counsel. Since the imposition of the gag order, the Maldives’s Election Commission has fined the opposition People’s National Front for protests at which the underlying allegations were referred to, and TV channel Channel 13 was asked by the country’s Media and Broadcasting Commission to halt its live coverage of opposition gatherings. 

The detentions mark the first time journalists have received prison sentences since the adoption of the Maldives’s 2008 constitution. It also comes after the passage of the Maldives Media and Broadcasting bill setting up a government-controlled commission with sweeping powers to fine, suspend and shutter news outlets in September 2025. In January, the commission ordered the removal of a cartoon that was critical of Muizzu published in Adhadhu, highlighting the backsliding of press freedom in the Maldives. This week, Myanmar’s Information Ministry revoked the publishing licenses of three local media outlets, bringing the total number of banned media outlets to six since elections, revealing that despite the junta’s claims of a transition to ‘civilian’ rule, the clampdown on independent media in the country continues. 

Elsewhere in Southasia:

• Pakistan allowed Iran to park military aircraft on its airfields despite acting as mediator between Iran and US, US officials say, question Pakistan’s impartiality; Pakistan says Iranian aircraft arrived during ceasefire, bear no linkage to military 
• India hosts BRICS foreign ministers meeting ahead of main summit in September, war in West Asia and fuel crisis on the agenda as US President Donald Trump visits Beijing for first time since 2017
• Sri Lankan chief prelate Pallegama Hemarathana arrested for child sex abuse in high-profile case involving senior Buddhist monk in country, parent of survivor also detained
• Nine die, 30 injured in market explosion in northwestern Pakistan, days after car bomb leaves at least 21 police officers dead in nearby town
• Prime Minister Modi calls on citizens to take austerity measures, limit foreign travel and conserve fuel due to surge in global energy prices amidst war in West Asia, drawing criticism from political opposition
• Three Kuki church leaders killed, four injured in suspected attack by militants as ethnic violence continues in Manipur, India
• Indian Navy Chief meets with Myanmar military commander-in-chief Ye Win Oo about border and maritime security, lead UN peacekeeping training with Myanmar servicemen delegation 
• Pakistan’s interior minister and Bangladesh state minister for foreign affairs meet to discuss bilateral trade, women entrepreneurship and cultural development, sign agreement to tackle cross-border narcotics trafficking in signal of growing ties between countries
• Twelve including five soldiers lose their lives amidst clashes between Baloch Liberation Army and Pakistani army in southwestern province
• Former International Society for Krishna Consciousness leader Krishna Das Brahmachari denied bail, court cites ongoing murder case of legal advocate in 2024 at a time of heightened tensions between India and Bangladesh 
• Adani Group CEO Gautam Adani and nephew Sagar agree to pay USD 18 million total to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission accusations of bribery, fraud involving solar energy contracts

Revisit the below archival stories from Himal adding more context to this week’s news updates from the Maldives, Pakistan and Bangladesh

Ahmed Naish on Maldives’s controversial new media law

The journalist discusses how the government has pushed through a law with vague and broad language that can allow the persecution of critical media outlets

Himal SouthasianNayantara Narayanan

In Balochistan, Pakistan again tries to find a military solution to a political problem

Not learning from the past, Islamabad is unleashing a new military operation against Baloch insurgency and Islamist extremism, continuing a vicious cycle of violence instead of addressing Baloch grievances through constitutional means

Himal SouthasianSalman Rafi Sheikh

India’s warped narrative of an “anti-Hindu” Bangladesh imperils its own future standing

India risks permanent damage to its relationship with Bangladesh with a narrative of uncontrolled communal violence after Sheikh Hasina’s fall, ignoring Hasina’s weaponisation of the Hindu minority and how post-revolution violence has been driven more by political reasons

Himal SouthasianZia Hassan

Snap Southasia

Where in Southasia is this image from? Click on your guess below (and check in next week to see if you guessed right!)

Odisha, India

Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka