BRITISH ELECTIONS
A disaster or a success, British people do not know anymore. The British elections took place on Thursday the 12th and ended up looking like a resounding defeat for the Labour party. 54 districts of the 650 that were held by Labour switched side to the Conservative party. Among them, 52 voted “leave” 3 years prior. Needless to say, the Tories hands down won the elections. Another winner in these elections is the SNP (Scottish Nationalist Party) which won 13 seats more since the last elections and now owns 48 of the 49 seats (hence 81%) for Scotland in the Parliament. Even if this historical result means a lot for the Scottish, the Tories definitely won the majority, outweighing any wish for Scotland to remain in the EU.
How is Boris Johnson going to govern after the Tories’ unquestionable victory, giving his party a majority of 24 seats at the House of Commons? On Friday, Prime Minister Johnson announced that he wanted to heal the wounds left by the Brexit, reaching out to the remainers who will have to say goodbye to the EU as there is no more reason for the Brexit to be blocked on January 31st 2020.
GRETA THUNBERG
“The power of the youth” is the title you can read on the cover of Time Magazine this month alongside with a picture of Greta Thunberg, looking at the horizon. Last Wednesday, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has been designated person of the year 2019 by the Magazine. This distinction makes her the youngest person ever to receive the title. At 16 years old, she now is considered as the ambassador of the struggle against climate change across the planet.
Greta admitted being quite surprised about the title and dedicates her prize to all the young activists out there, hoping they will pursue spreading a message of hope. She wishes for her message to the governments to be listen to – that they should double their efforts to fight climate change, to finally reach this common goal.
INDIA
This week, the Indian Parliament passed a legal reform on the nationality status of Indians. This reform aims to modify the secular dimension of the constitution and to contribute to widening the social gap, disregarding the Muslim citizens and the poorer class. The “Rajya Sabha”, the Indian upper house, refused the draft in 2016 and finally approved it this Wednesday as the lower house (the Lok Sabha) did, two days prior.
The text, the “citizenship amendment bill”, amends a 1955 law and regulates the income of Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Buddhists refugees that left either Afghanistan, Pakistan or Bangladesh for “religious matters” before 2014, if their stay in India exceeded 5 years. Only the Muslim residents are being left out of the bill. Consequently, they would have to stay undocumented, without any rights on the Indian territory. The government did not give any precise indication on any future evolution of this status.
The reform follows two objectives: to legalize the Hindu refugees and to exclude the Muslim ones, who both come from the outside to reach India. It is a powerful step for Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi, supporting the Hindu nationalist ideology in power. It follows the ideology of the “Hindutva” that can translate to “a Nation for the Hindus”. In Congress, the old Independentist party, led by the ideas of Gandhi, denounced a law going against “the idea of India”.
