This paper traces the sharp decline of press freedom in India under the Modi government (2014–2025), situating it within a broader democratic backslide marked by surveillance, censorship, impunity, and institutional capture. Drawing on global indices such as RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, CPJ’s Impunity Index, and the Atlas of Impunity, it highlights how violence against journalists, draconian laws like the UAPA, ownership consolidation, internet shutdowns, and defamation SLAPPs have reshaped India’s media landscape. Through emblematic cases—from the murders of Gauri Lankesh and Shujaat Bukhari to the arrests of Aasif Sultan, Fahad Shah, and Prabir Purkayastha, as well as the harassment of comedians like Munawar Faruqui—the study shows how dissent is criminalized. The paper also examines digital censorship, such as the blocking of BBC’s Modi documentary, Poonam Agarwal’s YouTube ban, and Ajit Anjum’s harassment, alongside the NewsClick raids and Elon Musk’s lawsuit against India’s censorship regime. It argues that the erosion of press freedom mirrors larger systemic crises of impunity, corporate-state nexus, and authoritarian populism, threatening not only media independence but India’s democratic ethos itself.
Shut Down Arms Factories to Stop Wars: Dismantling the Global War Profiteering Machine
The global arms industry—worth nearly $95 billion annually—is both a driver of human suffering and a silent engine of ecological collapse. Wars claim over 2,000 lives daily, displace millions, and shatter societies, while leaving behind poisoned aquifers, fragmented habitats, and toxic soils contaminated by unexploded ordnance and chemical residues. Arms manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and RTX thrive on this devastation, rewarded by soaring stock prices whenever conflict erupts, while shadowy brokers such as Viktor Bout and Aboubakar Hima profit from prolonging wars that ravage both communities and ecosystems. India exemplifies this global dilemma, channeling vast sums into defense while underfunding water, health, education, and environmental resilience. The campaign “Shut Down Arms Factories to Stop Wars” demands dismantling this war economy by halting weapons production, regulating brokers with ecological due diligence, mandating transparency of emissions and toxic legacies, and reallocating resources toward human well-being and planetary stewardship. Peace cannot be defined as the mere absence of war—it must mean fertile soils, clean water, healthy bodies, and thriving ecosystems within Earth’s limits. Yet even the green transition carries risks: critical mineral extraction for renewables, if pursued without justice, threatens to replicate the violence and exploitation of fossil fuel regimes. A just future requires confronting militarism, curbing extractivism, and investing in life over destruction. Only by linking disarmament with ecological restoration can humanity secure genuine peace within planetary boundaries.
Paramavaiṣṇava The Capitalist (A Play)
Paramavaiṣṇava The Capitalist is a neon-charged, satirical spectacle blending Bollywood masala, Bharatanatyam, and Afrobeat to expose corporate hypocrisy and political cronyism in India. Inspired by critiques of corporate malfeasance, it follows Atheist (AT), a Gully Boy-style skeptic, and Vaiṣṇava Bard, a melodramatic poet, confronting Paramavaiṣṇava, a smug oligarch masking scams like the ₹45,000 crore CHFL heist with Gauḍiya Vaiṣṇava piety and show-off Gandhian rhetoric, abetted by Saffron Supremo’s “Gandhigiri Murdabad” political regime, accused of electoral chori (fraud), and Judge SLAPPavati’s SLAPP suits. Set frequently in a cyberpunk courtroom and surreal Mumbai street, it features Gandhi and Tagore’s spectral critiques, a Chorus of Ghosts with inflatable Gītās, and props like rubber ducks and selfie-stick bazookas. Through frenetic dance, biting rap, and a Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro-inspired hanging gesture finale, it indicts corporatized hypocrisy, electoral bonds, ecological ruin, and judicial complicity, urging audiences to reclaim dharma from corporate and saffron hegemony.
When Institutions Dodge Responsibility, Who Answers to the DHFL Victims?
On 30th July 2025, OBMA submitted a detailed appeal to India’s top regulatory and judicial authorities, calling for institutional accountability, independent inquiry, and restitution for thousands of DHFL depositors whose savings were wiped out. Despite detailed evidence of auditing failures, flawed credit ratings, and regulatory lapses, SEBI’s response was allegedly a bureaucratic deflection, refusing responsibility. To highlight this stark contrast, we designed a poster juxtaposing the plea for justice with SEBI’s mechanical reply, exposing systemic evasions and the erosion of public trust. Download, share, and spread this poster—because when regulators dodge responsibility, ordinary citizens pay the price.
We Love You SRK, But You Must Answer for DHFL!
This statement calls on Shah Rukh Khan to take accountability for endorsing DHFL between 2015 and 2018, a period when lakhs of small depositors were persuaded to trust the company before its collapse in 2019, which wiped out over thousands of crores of rupees. Citing the Consumer Protection Act, it argues that Khan failed in his duty as a celebrity endorser to exercise due diligence, and demands a public apology, disgorgement of his endorsement fees, penalties under law, and a temporary ban on financial product endorsements. Drawing on his iconic film roles, the appeal frames accountability not as hostility but as an act of love and justice, urging Khan to stand with victims as the true hero he portrays on screen. It ends with a call for public action—signatures, solidarity, and collective pressure for justice.
DHFL Scam: Who Audited and Rated Our Trust?
Between 2010 and 2019, DHFL projected itself as a secure, AAA-rated housing finance company, yet it concealed one of India’s largest financial frauds involving shell companies, fictitious loans, and alleged political collusion with the BJP. Despite glaring irregularities, auditors and credit rating agencies continued to endorse its credibility, betraying the trust of lakhs of ordinary small depositors. The collapse left vulnerable groups—senior citizens, widows, pensioners, and salaried professionals—with devastating losses, while the resolution process (reportedly) disproportionately benefitted one chosen corporate acquirer. This appeal demands disciplinary action against negligent auditors and rating agencies, restitution for depositors, transparency in insolvency proceedings, and systemic reforms to restore accountability in financial governance.
Resist Fear, Defend Freedom: Stop SLAPPs, Stop Surveillance
This video exposes how India’s democracy is under siege through SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), draconian laws like UAPA, and unchecked digital surveillance. From the DHFL scam victims fighting corporate–state collusion, to students, journalists, and whistleblowers imprisoned or silenced, the message is clear: truth-telling has been criminalized. Drawing from Tagore’s vision of a fearless India, the video demands strong anti-SLAPP protections, accountability in surveillance, and safeguards for free speech — reminding us that defending dissent is defending the Constitution itself.
DHFL Scam and the Death of Public Trust: Time for a Truth and Accountability Commission!
This appeal calls for the creation of a Judicial Truth and Accountability Commission to investigate the Supreme Court’s April 1, 2025 verdict on the DHFL insolvency case, which allegedly legitimised a flawed resolution plan favouring corporate interests while wiping out the life savings of lakhs of small investors, including widows, senior citizens, and the differently abled. Citing alleged collusion between regulators, the RBI-appointed CoC, and corporate actors, as well as parallels with electoral manipulation, it frames the case as part of a broader pattern of financial authoritarianism under the NDA regime (2014–ongoing). The Commission is envisioned to audit judicial reasoning, regulatory conduct, and the IBC process, outlaw SLAPP suits, and ensure systemic reforms so that courts and institutions uphold constitutional accountability over corporate power.
Landmark Victory in the DHFL Chronicle: A New Ray of Hope for the Victims
On 31 July 2025, the Chandigarh State Consumer Commission delivered a landmark ruling in the DHFL scam, holding Catalyst Trusteeship, CARE Ratings, and Brickwork Ratings liable for negligence and ordering them to compensate an investor—marking the first time market gatekeepers, not just the defaulter, were held accountable. This breakthrough offers all DHFL victims a second path to justice beyond the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, empowering them to pursue trustees, rating agencies, and other enablers. Once in a Blue Moon Academia (OBMA) has long called for such accountability, urging victims to unite, gather evidence, sign petitions, and build a sustained public movement to turn this precedent into systemic change.
Justice Beyond Courts: DHFL Scam and the Call to Organize
On India’s Political Independence Day, we discuss the strength of social movements and why DHFL scam victims need more than courtrooms to win justice. Learn how to educate, agitate, and organize for real change—and why united action is the only way to hold the “powerful” accountable. 📢 Sign and share the petitions: PETITION 1– SIGN HERE: https://chng.it/rndVPmFY8z’ PETITION 2– SIGN HERE: https://chng.it/dSwwM2pYNT PETITION 3– SIGN HERE: https://chng.it/DCxVVJz8bW PETITION 4– SIGN HERE: https://chng.it/9RwFbKMMFp 🌐 Read more on Once in a Blue Moon Academia (OBMA): https://onceinabluemoon2021.in/
Once in a Blue Moon Academia 