Yashraj Sharma

Fam­i­lies, trade and life in this pock­et of north­east In­dia knew no na­tion­al bor­ders. Un­til now.

From PM Modi’s BJP to the op­po­si­tion Tri­namool Con­gress, par­ties gained from do­na­tions that ac­tivists say were du­bi­ous.

Ar­rest of top op­po­si­tion leader ahead of elec­tion sparks new ac­cu­sa­tions against PM Modi of try­ing to crush democ­ra­cy.

As all ma­jor par­ties de­ploy AI-based ma­nip­u­la­tion in cam­paigns, the In­di­an gov­ern­ment is threat­en­ing to crack down.

Protests break out in parts of the coun­try. Po­lice pres­ence beefed up. Crit­ics of the law call its tim­ing cyn­i­cal.

Ahead of na­tion­al elec­tions, a new re­port tracks how hate speech events map ge­o­graph­i­cal­ly across In­dia.

As In­dia pre­pares for the world’s largest elec­tions, par­ties are turn­ing to AI for nov­el – and dan­ger­ous – strate­gies.

While trans­paren­cy ad­vo­cates and op­po­si­tion lead­ers say ban is a big win for democ­ra­cy, Modi’s BJP re­mains con­fi­dent.

Crit­ics see a pat­tern in the ar­rests and raids — from aca­d­e­mics to ac­tivists to op­po­si­tion lead­ers.

As devo­tees stream in, res­i­dents say small town in one of In­dia’s poor­est states lacks in­fra­struc­ture to host mil­lions.