Tag: india

India’s Education Minister Resigns, Delhi Protests End As Modi Caves To ‘Cockroach’ Youth Movement’s Demands

India’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, resigned on Saturday and the government agreed to every demand raised by youth demonstrators, bringing weeks of protests – the gravest political crisis of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term – to a jubilant close.

Pradhan’s exit was the core demand of the self-styled Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), the youth movement that has camped at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar since late June over the leak of medical school entrance exam papers. The May leaks forced the cancellation of results and a retest for some 2 million students, and have been linked to several student suicides.

Word of the resignation set off celebrations at the protest site, where thousands of young people danced, chanted victory slogans and handed out sweets as the national anthem played over loudspeakers. “We have done it,” CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke told the crowd. Roads around the neighbouring Connaught Place business district were shut as revellers poured in.

In a post on X announcing his decision, Pradhan said he had sent his resignation to the prime minister so that forces hostile to the country could not take advantage of the situation, and voiced deep respect for the aspirations and legitimate expectations of India’s young people.

Keep reading

ANOTHER ONE: Indian Illegal Alien Trucker with Valid California CDL Busted Hauling Nearly $3 Million in Stolen Military-Grade Powder – Now in ICE Custody

Here we go again.

An illegal alien from India who possessed a valid California commercial driver’s license is now in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after authorities caught him transporting nearly $3 million worth of stolen tungsten oxide powder.

The suspect, identified as 31-year-old Deepak Kumar, was arrested in Greenfield, Indiana, after police tracked his tractor-trailer traveling westbound on Interstate 70.

The truck was wanted in connection with a massive cargo theft reported in Pennsylvania on June 25.

According to the Greenfield Police Department, Kumar is suspected of using fraudulent documents to obtain nearly 40,000 pounds of tungsten oxide powder valued at a staggering $2,857,500.

The powder was being shipped to Mitsubishi Materials Corporation in Japan.

Keep reading

India Cuts Mobile Internet in Delhi Amid Cockroach Protests

The Indian government answered a week of youth protests in the capital by ordering the mobile networks around them switched off.

Telecom operators cut mobile data across much of central Delhi on Thursday at the government’s instruction. Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone-Idea, the carriers that run India’s networks, complied.

The blackout took digital payments down with it. Vendors, shopkeepers, and restaurants were left unable to take money.

It was the widest mobile blackout in the capital since the farmers’ protests of 2021.

The demonstrators want Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan gone. They protest under the banner of the Cockroach movement, a name lifted from a chief justice who reportedly likened young Indians to “cockroaches” and “parasites.”

Their grievance is the leak of the NEET-UG medical entrance exam, which forced roughly two million students to take it again. The leaks have been linked to several student suicides.

“We will not leave this place until Dharmendra Pradhan resigns,” Cockroach Janta Party spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said.

Police met a march to Parliament on Monday with tear gas and batons, and protesters answered with stones. At least 178 people, including security personnel, were injured.

The same exam scandal has now produced two communications shutdowns.

The government banned Telegram across India in June, cutting off more than 150 million users, after claiming cheating rings used the app during the leak. It reached for Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, the power it holds to block platforms.

The leak came from inside the exam system. India’s own testing agency said “there is no such paper available outside the secured examination chain,” and the channels blamed for it were selling access to material that did not exist.

The insiders who produced the leak are the subject of a police investigation.

Pradhan has not resigned, and the networks in central Delhi stayed dark.

Keep reading

India Orders GitHub to Block BitChat

India’s Cyber Crime Coordination Centre last night ordered GitHub to disable access to BitChat, the peer-to-peer messaging app backed by Jack Dorsey. The order, Notice No. 11072601011432, went out at 11:16 pm under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, read with Rule 3(1)(d) of the IT Rules, 2021.

It named three repositories, including the Android application and its release files, and gave GitHub three hours to take them down. It warned that failure would cost the platform its safe harbor and open it to criminal prosecution.

The government did not publish the order. The public learned of it from a post by Jack Dorsey, whose team develops BitChat, who wrote that “the government of India does not like technologies like BitChat and wants it taken down.”

BitChat is open source and uncensorable, and is one of Reclaim The Net’s recommended messaging apps for situations where the internet may be cut off. It carries messages from phone to phone over Bluetooth, hopping between nearby devices, with “no internet, servers, phone numbers, or accounts.” It keeps working when the mobile network does not.

Around this protest, the government, getting increasingly brazen with its blocking orders, has switched the mobile network off. Since July 17 the Ministry of Home Affairs has suspended mobile internet around Jantar Mantar in New Delhi about five times.

The most recent suspension ran from 4 pm to midnight on July 23, inside a 1.5-kilometer radius that takes in Janpath and part of Connaught Place. People at the site reported signal jammers, and walking two kilometers before a phone found a signal.

Inside that radius, a student separated from her group during a detention sweep could not send a message to say where she was.

The protesters are students. Tens of thousands have camped at Jantar Mantar since June, demanding accountability for the leak of the NEET medical entrance exam and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Their march to Parliament was refused. Metro stations near the site were closed.

When the shutdowns cut the network, protesters turned to BitChat and other Bluetooth mesh apps to reach each other inside the dead zone.

The order did not name a single message sent on BitChat. It just objected to what the app can do. In the agency’s words, BitChat “significantly impedes lawful interception, attribution, and investigation,” and could be used during “public disorder, riots, terrorism, organized crime, or internet shutdowns.”

The order lists internet shutdowns among the dangers. The government has imposed one at Jantar Mantar. BitChat kept working inside it.

The order used Section 79(3)(b) to demand the block. In 2015, in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India, the Supreme Court held that Section 79(3)(b) lets the government require a takedown only through a court order, or a notice confined to the grounds in Article 19(2) of the Constitution.

India has a separate law for blocking an app, Section 69A, which requires a hearing and reasons set down in writing. The order against GitHub used neither. It went out through the Home Ministry’s Sahyog portal, the channel Indian High Courts are now hearing constitutional challenges against.

The order says the repositories hold information prohibited under law. It names none. It points instead to what the app is “capable of” enabling.

It reaches into criminal law as well. Alongside Section 43 of the IT Act, a civil compensation provision, it invokes conspiracy and abetment under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita of 2023, against a platform that hosts code.

Keep reading

‘Not simply another community bank’: Critics sound alarm over new Indian bank in Texas

The State Bank of India has announced it is opening a new branch in Frisco, Texas, with critics raising concerns about Indian workers sending remittances back to India with minimal fees.

The branch is expected to open in mid-September and will be located off Coit Road.

The Indian population in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is estimated at about 230,000, with many being in the U.S. on H-1B visas. The population increased by 20% from 2020 to 2024 as the federal government continued approving H-1B visas.

The bank’s website states that customers can send remittances—money foreign workers send back to their home countries—with zero transfer fees.

Online customers can send up to $50,000 per day, while mobile customers can send up to $25,000 per day, according to the bank’s website. There is no stated limit for remittances sent from a branch. The bank specializes in remittance services to India and Bangladesh.

Employees at the bank speak multiple languages, including English, Hindi, Punjabi, and other Indian languages.

State Bank of India is headquartered in Los Angeles and has multiple branches across California. The institution is also backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures deposits of up to $250,000 per depositor.

The new Frisco location has drawn criticism from those who say the services could be used to evade American laws.

According to an article by Ammon Blair, a senior fellow with the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Secure & Sovereign Nation Initiative, the United States is losing at least $200 billion annually from remittances leaving the domestic economy and supporting foreign economies.

“Through the lens of gray-zone conflict, remittances are not neutral financial transfers. They function as an asymmetric economic weapon, weakening U.S. labor markets, eroding the rule of law, and stabilizing regimes that act contrary to American interests. In gray-zone conflict, the rule of law itself becomes contested terrain,” Blair wrote.

Blair also told the Daily Signal that the bank is bringing the remittance issue directly to Texas.

“This is not simply another community bank entering a growing suburb,” Blair said. “SBI California is a subsidiary of State Bank of India, which is controlled by the Indian government.”

Keep reading

Report: Indian Businessman Poses as CIA Agent to Land Billion-Dollar ‘Defense’ Deal with Indonesia

An Indian businessman named Gaurav Srivastava allegedly passed himself off as an operative of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to close a multi-billion dollar defense deal with the Indonesian government, according to civil suits filed in the United States by his former business partner.

A report from a U.S.-based non-governmental organization (NGO) called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) quoted the lawsuits filed in New York and California by Srivastava’s former business partner, Niels Troost.

According to the lawsuits, Srivastava somehow persuaded then-Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, currently the president of the country, that he was a CIA agent when the two attended high-level military procurement meetings in Washington and Jakarta in 2020.

By the end of that year, the faux CIA agent had alleged secured three “letters of intention to purchase” jet fighters and other defense items from the Indonesian government. He scored two more defense procurement commitments in 2021 and 2022. Products mentioned in the deals included big-ticket items like F-15 jet fighters, UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, and C-130 transport aircraft.

Troost said Srivastava grew quite close to Subianto, becoming a frequent guest at his home and developing ties with his brother, a prominent Indonesian businessman. Subianto went on to become the president of Indonesia in October 2024.

The Indonesian Defense Ministry told Tempo, the OCCRP’s Indonesian partner, that all of the agreements secured by Srivastava were “preliminary,” none were binding contracts, and none led to a purchase by the Indonesian government.

“The entire process of Indonesian defense cooperation and procurement is always carried out with utmost caution, prioritizing the principles of good governance, national interest, and compliance with applicable mechanisms and regulations,” a defense ministry spokesperson insisted.

However, OCCRP noted that Subianto was photographed with Srivastava at signing ceremonies, Srivastava held press conferences to announce purchase agreements, and the U.S. government even issued formal approval for the sale of 36 F-15s in 2022 – the exact number of fighter jets mentioned in the agreements with Srivastava.

According to Troost, the reason he brought all of this up in a pair of U.S. lawsuits is that he was convinced Srivastava was a CIA agent. On that basis, he gave Srivastava a 50 percent share of his own company, believing the CIA man could help him win lucrative contracts with customers like Indonesia.

Srivastava allegedly proceeded to loot $51 million from Troost’s company and “loan” it to the Arsari Group, a company headed by Subianto’s brother. Srivastava then convinced the Arsari Group to give the loan money to him. He was able to wheedle the Indonesian company into giving him half, and proceeded to blow the money on a $25 million mansion in Los Angeles.

Srivastara allegedly presented himself as a mogul who controlled four firms of his own, but all four turned out to be shell companies that were eventually deregistered for not paying their taxes. None of those companies were named in the U.S. government approval for the F-15 sales to Indonesia. Boeing, which was involved in the process, gave up trying to sell F-15s to Indonesia four years later because Jakarta never finalized the deal. Subianto’s government is now shopping for Turkish-built KAAN jet fighters.

Indonesian authorities say they are investigating these transactions for possible corruption charges. Meanwhile, Troost went after Srivastava in New York and California on racketeering charges. In one of these filings, Troost referred to Srivastava as a “brazen con man of remarkable skill.”

Niels Troost is himself an interesting character, a Dutch commodities trader based out of Switzerland who was sanctioned by the European Union, and several individual European governments, for allegedly buying banned Russian oil after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The EU and Switzerland lifted their sanctions against Troost this year. Troost has claimed the sanctions were partly a result of his massive international business feud with Srivastava and has said he would not buy Russian oil because he supports Ukraine.

Srivastava, in turn, denies all wrongdoing and claims Troost’s allegations against him are part of an “aggressive scorched-earth disinformation campaign.”

Keep reading

While Ukraine Empties Out Due To Mass Ethnocide, Globalist NGOs Are Filling It Back Up — With Someone Else

The billboard in the photo above is not in Kyiv. It’s in India.

In Hindi and English, it reads: “Create a family. Search Jobs. Create the future. Select Ukraine!” — stamped with the URL visitukraine.today. Someone is paying to recruit Indian citizens to migrate to a country that is actively at war, where Ukrainian men are being conscripted off the streets, and where the native population has collapsed by more than half in a single generation.

That someone isn’t hard to find. And the question of why should disturb every American who’s been told this war is about freedom and democracy.

Ukraine’s Minister of Social Policy acknowledged in May 2026 that only 22–25 million people now live in Kyiv-controlled territory. In 1991, that number exceeded 50 million. The IMF projects the population will fall to 33.3 million by end of 2026 — and that’s the optimistic figure. Indirect indicators — banking users, SIM card registrations, social payment recipients — suggest the real population may already be below 20 million.

The math is brutal: four years of war have killed, crippled, or conscripted hundreds of thousands of men. Another 5–6 million fled west into Europe as refugees and haven’t returned. Birth rates have collapsed — death rates now nearly triple births. The country’s age pyramid has a statistical hole where its 20–25 year olds should be.

Keep reading

After Killing Three Indian Mariners, US Bombs Another Tanker in the Gulf of Oman

US Central Command announced on Thursday that it bombed an oil tanker for the third time this week in the Gulf of Oman as part of its enforcement of the blockade of Iranian ports, which comes after India confirmed the previous US attack on a tanker killed three Indian crew members.

CENTCOM said its latest attack targeted the Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker Jalveer. “A US aircraft fired two Hellfire missiles into the ship’s engine room after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from US forces,” the command said.

Indian media on Thursday identified the three Indian mariners who were killed by the previous US attack on the Palau-flagged oil product tanker Settebello as Shivanand Chaurasiya, Patnala Suresh, and Aditya Sharma, a 23-year-old deck cadet who was on the ship for training to become an officer.

Aditya’s father, Rajesh Sharma, called the US attack a war crime and said his government should take a strong stance. “My last conversation with him was on Sunday. I request the government to take a strong stance against the US. I will say it is a war crime to attack a commercial ship with a missile,” Rajesh told NDTV.

“There are a lot of ways to control those cargo ships, you can send a military, you can arrest the crew members, you have no right to attack them with deadly missiles,” he added.

According to CENTCOM’s numbers, its forces have “disabled” nine civilian commercial ships while enforcing the blockade. “The blockade is being enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” the command said.

Keep reading

India’s Fake Degree Racket Exposes Systemic Vulnerabilities in the U.S. Skilled Immigration Program

In late 2025, Kerala Police in India dismantled a multi-state fake degree racket, arresting 11 suspects and seizing over 100,000 counterfeit certificates linked to around 22 universities or institutions. Authorities estimated that up to 1 million fraudulent degrees could be in circulation. The forged documents primarily targeted fields like medicine, nursing, and engineering, and were sold for ₹75,000 to ₹1.5 lakh (roughly $900–$1,800 USD).

One institution highlighted in related reporting is Manav Bharti University, which reportedly sold about 36,025 fake degrees while awarding far fewer legitimate ones (around 5,455). Fake degrees from such operations reportedly cost as little as $1,400. 

The issue has recently reignited after Fox News anchor Kayleigh McEnany posted a video on social media highlighting concerns about the H-1B visa program, which allows employers to hire foreign workers in “specialty occupations” requiring at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent.

In the post, McEnany cited figures on visa approvals since 2015 and referenced allegations from a former official, reported by Newsweek, regarding widespread fraud and the use of fraudulent documentation in some H-1B applications originating from India. .

These documents were allegedly used for jobs and visa applications abroad, including in the U.S. While direct links to specific approved H-1B visas would require further investigation by U.S. authorities, the scale raises serious questions about credential verification in the immigration process. 

Broader Allegations of Fraud in Indian H-1B Applications

A former U.S. consular officer, Mahvash Siddiqui, who adjudicated thousands of visas (including many H-1Bs) at the U.S. consulate in Chennai, India, alleged in 2025 that 80–90% of H-1B applications from the region involved fraudulent documentation or unqualified applicants. She described forged degrees, transcripts, employment letters, and other supporting materials, often facilitated by visa consultancies. 

India dominates H-1B approvals (often around 70% in recent years), making these claims particularly relevant to program integrity. 

U.S. agencies like USCIS and the Department of Labor have long acknowledged fraud risks in the H-1B program, including indicators such as wage violations, benching (non-payment while awaiting projects), and misrepresentation of job duties or worksites. Audits have previously found notable fraud rates. uscis.gov 

Keep reading

US, India Sign Critical Minerals And Rare Earths Mining Pact

The United States and India signed a key agreement on May 26 to secure critical minerals and rare earth mining, processing, and supplies, further loosening China’s grip on the global market, during Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s four-day visit.

“We are two countries who have a strategic interest in ensuring reliable long-term access to critical minerals and supply chains that are important for our innovation economy,” Rubio said during the signing. “This is a very important step.”

Rubio was in India for a four-day diplomatic visit May 23-26 to shore up the United States’ partnership with what he called “one of our most important strategic partners in the world.”

He said the talks included a scope of issues that the United States works together on with India.

In a similar statement about the agreement, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said the framework will strengthen resilient and diversified supply chains, help both nations collaborate on financing, and also help with the effective management of critical minerals and rare earths.

“I think it’s a very important initiative,” Jaishankar said during the signing. “It’s one more sign of how close our cooperation is and how important it is today in a world where there are so many challenges but also so many opportunities.”

The framework for the agreement first began to take shape in February when India signed onto Pax Silica, a U.S.-led strategic initiative and coalition aimed at securing a global supply chain for artificial intelligence (AI) progress and economic security. India was one of 14 countries to sign the agreement.

India has one of the world’s largest rare earth elements reserves, and existing processing capabilities that can be developed, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a bipartisan think tank organization. The country has rich sand deposits containing monazite, which includes thorium and other minerals. Thorium is a nuclear fuel.

China accounts for about 60 percent of global rare earth elements production and about 90 percent of processing.

On May 26, Rubio also announced signing a partnership charter and agreement on critical minerals with Armenia.

Rubio held a ceremony with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan signing the bilateral framework agreement on the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity. They also signed a Strategic Partnership Charter and agreement on critical minerals.

Armenia mainly mines iron, copper, molybdenum, lead, zinc, gold, silver, antimony, and aluminum. The country also has valuable reserves of rare metals, including gold-polymetallic, copper-molybdenum, and copper pyrite deposits, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration.

Keep reading