Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-05-07 Thursday

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

Headlines for May 07, 2026; Gaza Faces Public Health Collapse Amid Rat Infestation & Disease as Israel Blocks Reconstruction; India’s Modi Gov’t Purged Millions of Voters Before Elections in “Direct Attack” on Democracy; “Gerrymandering Arms Race”: GOP Rushes to Erase Black Representation After SCOTUS Guts Voting Rights

From Austin, Texas and New York, this is Democracy Now. Today we are not talking just only the war, but we are speaking about a systematic transformation of life into maybe something unleavable. Gaza is facing an unfolding environmental and biological apocalypse. That's the warning from a Palestinian NGO. in Gaza. We'll go there for the latest as an Israeli airstrike kills the son of one of Hamas's top negotiators. Then to a political earthquake in India, the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has further consolidated its power after millions of voters were purged from the rolls ahead of regional elections.

machinery, where prime minister and home minister is also involved, directly interference. So how they play the dirty, nasty, and mysterious games. I have never seen this type of election in my life. Then to voting rights under attack at home, Republican lawmakers and southern states are racing to redraw congressional maps after the Supreme Court guts the vote. guts the Voting Rights Act, but civil rights activists are pushing back. Harry Berman, national voting rights correspondent at Mother Jones. All that and more coming up.

Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman today in Austin. Israel's bombed a route for the first time since mid-April when it agreed to a ceasefire with Lebanon. Israeli officials said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally ordered the attacks on Beirut's southern suburbs, which reportedly killed a Hezbollah commander. Meanwhile, Israel continued attacks on southern and eastern Lebanon killing at least 13 people Wednesday. The Lebanese Ministry of Health reports more than 380 people have been killed and nearly 700 injured in Lebanon since Israel agreed on paper to a ceasefire April 16.

The Pentagon says U.S. forces struck an Iranian oil tanker in the Sea of Oman. Wednesday, disabling its rudder after it attempted to breach the U.S. naval blockade of Iran's ports. The attack came, as France's defense ministry, said the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaul, is en route to the Strait of Hormuz in preparation for a possible defensive mission. This comes as President Trump continues to send mixed messages over whether he'll escalate the war in Iran. On Wednesday, Trump threatened on social media to resume bombing Iran, quote, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before, unquote. Hours later, Trump insisted the U.S. had already won the war, saying his administration

had very good talks with Tehran and predicted that it'll all work out very quickly. Despite having a little skirmish in Iran, because we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon and we're beating them badly and they want to settle very badly. It will all work out very quickly. Iran's foreign ministry said it was reviewing a U.S. proposal and would convey a response to Pakistani mediators later today. NBC News reports President Trump abandoned his plan to help ships go through the Strait of Hormuz after Saudi Arabia suspended the U.S. military's ability to use its bases and airspace to carry out the operation. NBC reports Saudi officials were blindsided by what President Trump is calling Project freedom. Drop site news later reported Kuwait also cut off access to its airspace, leaving the U.S. without the defensive umbrella needed to protect ships transiting the strait. Iran hit far more U.S. military targets across the Persian Gulf region than the Trump administration's admitted to, with satellite images showing damage to at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. bases.

That's according to the Washington Post, which reviewed satellite images published by Iranian state-affiliated news media. Meanwhile, a new report by the Center for International Policy estimates the U.S. has spent nearly $72 billion on the Iran war or $1.2 billion per day on average. That's nearly three times the amount of the Pentagon's official estimate. Israel's begun construction of a bypass road that'll connect Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank with Jerusalem. The road is intended for Israelis only. Tens of thousands of Palestinian Jerusalem residents will not be allowed access to it. Israel's transportation minister praised the highway, saying it will bring one million Israelis

to the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warns the spread. of rodents through the majority of Gaza's overcrowded tent camps is leaving the population at much higher risk of disease. Children in particular are prone to rat bites and rodents can spread diseases, including hanta virus, which is often fatal. The United Nations is calling on Israel to immediately and unconditionally release Spanish national Seif Abu Keshik and Brazilian citizen Tiago Avesiq. who were seized at gunpoint from the Global Samud Flotilla last month and continue to be held without charge.

An Israeli court extended their detention until May 10th. On Wednesday, Palestinians rallied in Gaza's city in solidarity with the two detained activists. This is Taysir Mohaisen, a civil society activist in Gaza. These activists came to bypass the stances of their governments in the world and to say that humanity will not be stopped by the political decisions. Humanity is represented in the act of these humans, even if it's just one person. They embarked on their journey to spread this message. We wish them safety from all our hearts, and the Gaza Strip completely values this step.

The U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals has reinstated deportation proceedings, against Mosah Madawi, a graduate student at Columbia University who is detained last April for his outspoken support of Palestinian rights. Mosen is a green card holder who grew up in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. At Columbia, he served as co-president of the Palestinian Student Union and president of the Buddhist Association. In April of 2025, masked and hooded ICE agents detained him. when he appeared for what he believed would be a naturalization interview in Vermont.

He spent two weeks in ICE custody before a federal judge ordered his release. To see our interviews with Mulsin Madawi, visit our website at DemocracyNow.org. In New Jersey, Rutgers University has abruptly withdrawn its invitation to a prominent biotech entrepreneur to speak at its engineering school convocation. Rami Elgandor has been scheduled to deliver a graduation address at Rutgers New Brunswick campus May 15th. But his invitation was canceled over what the university said were complaints about his social media posts on Israel and Palestine. El Ghandor is executive producer of the Oscar-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab about the killing of a Palestinian girl and her family in Gaza, along with paramedics who tried to rescue that. This comes after the University of Michigan has apologized for a professor's commencement address in which he praised student activists who protested Israel's assault on Gaza.

The apology came over these remarks at a graduation ceremony last Saturday by historian Derek Peterson, the outgoing chair of the faculty Senate, who commemorated the university's long history of social activism. Sing for the pro-Palestinian student activists who have over these past two years opened our hearts to the injustice and inhumanity of Israel's war in Gaza. The University of Michigan President Domenico Grasso later called those remarks, quote, hurtful and insensitive to many members of our community, unquote. Peterson said he was mystified by the response. He told CBS News, quote, having an. open heart to other people's suffering is a fundamental human virtue, unquote. A few hundred pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside a New York synagogue Tuesday to demonstrate against an expo called the Great Israel Real Estate event, featuring properties

for sale in Israel, including in the occupied West Bank. The event's website included references to listings in Gush Atsion, a group of settlements in the West Bank located southeast of Jerusalem that are considered illegal under international law. New York City mayors, Zoranamam Dani, condemned the event. When we have a real estate expo that is promoting the sale of land, which includes the sale of land in occupied West Bank in settlements that are a violation of international law, that that is something that I firmly disagree with and that I also believe that many New Yorkers firmly disagree with. because it has been at the heart of an ongoing effort to displace Palestinians from their homes.

Russia fired dozens of drones at Ukraine overnight, disregarding a ceasefire announced by Kiev that took effect at midnight. A Russian drone strike hit a kindergarten in Ukraine's Sumi region, killing at least one person and injuring two others, Ukrainian officials said. Russian strikes also killed six people in Kramatursk and 12 in Zaporica. Russia has threatened a massive missile strike on Kiev if Ukraine takes any action to disrupt its victory day commemorations May 9th. In Tennessee, hundreds of protesters marched to the state capital in Nashville Wednesday as lawmakers unveiled a gerrymandered congressional map that could see Republicans take control of all nine. of Tennessee's U.S. House seats. The General Assembly is expected to vote on the new map as soon as today. This comes after Tennessee lawmakers repeal their state's longstanding ban on mid-decade redistricting, and after the recent Supreme Court ruling, gutting the Voting Rights Act set off a scramble by southern states to gerrymander congressional districts ahead of November's midterm elections.

The FBI searched the Portsmouth, Virginia office of state senator El Louise Lucas, the Democratic president pro tempore of the Virginia Senate on Wednesday. A marijuana dispensary she co-owns located near her office was also rated. Authorities speaking to the Washington Post said the probe involved allegations of bribery related to the cannabis dispensary. Lucas has not been charged and was sent back. home. Lucas cast the raid as political intimidation and linked it to a role leading Virginia's redistricting effort this month. In a statement, she said, quote, what we saw fits a clear pattern

from this administration. When challenged, they try to intimidate and silence the voices who stand up to them, unquote. Meanwhile, the FBI has reportedly launched a criminal leak investigation focusing on Atlantic journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick, who wrote a detailed story last month reporting that FBI director Cash Patel's alleged excessive drinking and erratic behavior had caused deep concern among agency officials. Investigations into leaks typically target government officials suspected of disclosing classified material, not the reporters who receive and publish it. The FBI is denying that it's investigating Sarah Fitzpatrick. This comes as Fitzpatrick's latest piece details how Cash Patel has been

reportedly traveling with a supply of personalized branded bourbon engraved with the words Cash Patel FBI director. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik was grilled by the House Oversight Committee for more than four hours Wednesday in a closed-door hearing about its ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Justice Department email records showed the two were in contact years after Lutnik claimed to have severed ties in 2005. Democrats accused Lutnik of being evasive and changing his story. This is Democratic Congressmember Yasamine Ansari. After what we have seen so far in this transcribed interview,

I feel very comfortable saying that Howard Lutnik is a pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover-up in American history. Separately, a federal judge released a purported suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein on Wednesday, discovered by his former cellmate who said he found it tucked inside a book in their shared cell following Epstein's first unsuccessful suicide attempt in July 2019. He was found dead weeks later. Meanwhile, a guardian investigation revealed that billionaire Leon Black, who faces a civil lawsuit accusing him of raping a teenage girl inside Epstein's New York townhouse in 2002, privately reached out to a federal judge to raise doubts about his accuser's claims. The judge later reversed a $2.5 million

award previously granted to the accuser. In an exclusive statement to the guardian, the accuser, known as Jane Doe, said, justice is not always blind. It is often shaped by power. access and who's able to withstand the process. I'm still here and I'm not done, she said. And in related news, President Trump asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to pause its ruling, rejecting his challenge to E. Jean Carroll's $83 million defamation case against him, clearing the way for Trump to appeal to the Supreme Court. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the war in peace, I'm Amy Goodman in Austin, Texas with Nirmine Sheik in New York.

Hi, Nirmie. Hi, Amy. Israel is continuing daily strikes on Gaza while expanding areas under its control and blocking essential aid from entering the besieged territory. An Israeli air strike on Wednesday killed the son of Khalil Al-Kaya, Hamas's chief negotiator, taking part in indirect talks with Israel. His son, Azam, died from injuries from an air strike in Gaza city. Israel has now killed four of Khalil al-Haya's son since 2018. In a separate attack on Wednesday, Israel killed three Palestinians from the same family. Hamas condemned the violence as a blatant violation of last year's ceasefire agreement.

Since the ceasefire went into effect, Israel has killed at least 837 Palestinians. Last week, an Israeli drone strike killed a nine-year-old boy, Adil al-Najar, who was searching for cardboard to use as fuel for cooking. Relatives of the boy decried the Israeli attack. They were collecting cardboard, collecting cardboard so we could bake. We don't have gas. We collect cardboard to bake. They want to eat. They want to drink. His father is blind.

His father does not come or go. He is completely blind. He cannot see it all. Their father leans on these children. They are the ones who hold him, move him, and bring him. A little child, he did not. damage a tank. He did not make missiles or do anything. He was torn. Isn't it shameful? Isn't it shameful what is happening to us? Isn't it shameful that we bury our children every day right in front of us? Isn't it shameful? I swear to God, our hearts are breaking for these children. This all comes as the Israeli

military seizes more territory in Gaza beyond what was agreed to in the U.S. brokered ceasefire last October. New maps issued by Israel show two-thirds of Gaza is now. effectively under Israeli control. We go now to the Gaza Strip, where we're joined by Ayat Amawi. He's a representative of the Gaza Relief Committee, coordinator for local NGOs, based in Gaza. He recently published a report detailing how Gaza is facing a quote, environmental and biological apocalypse. Aya, thanks so much for joining us. Why don't you describe what you are talking about is happening on the ground in Gaza? firstly thank you so much amy for hosting me again

democracy now you're great work yes we are not speaking only about bombardment something that happened also before when hour also they hit another target in Gaza town we are speaking about systematic transformation of life into something

unleavable what's happening is no longer just bombardment or physical destruction is the collapse of every essential condition required for human survival, water, food, health, dignity, shelter, safety, everything. So when we talk about our new report, our spreading infectious environment and the transformation, everything is to collapse. We depend over our field reports founded that more than 59 percentage of our people suffer from insufficient drinking water.

And more than 55 are uncertain whether the water. by they consume is safe or no. And also nearly 94% of families report food spoilage. Rodent infestation also, Amy, has become widespread inside shelter due to the environmental collapse. So when we talk about the most alarming findings came from a recent field survey, examining the relationship between rodent infestation, water scarcity and displacement, concerns and inside Ghadda.

Scientifically, we are now facing what can be described as a compound environmental epidemic crisis. The survey revealed that the overwhelming majority of displaced families are living with severe rodent infestation inside tents and shelters. Food is also contaminated. Shelter are damaged. Water is stored under unsafe conditions. and rodents have become part of children's daily environment.

There is no longer simply sanitation issue. It's evidence of the collapse of the most basic conditions necessary for human lives. We talk about continuity for destruction of the environment. And also, we and my people seeaged just in the shrink area. The Israeli forces control more than 60 percentage of the groundless strip area. You can imagine what's the meaningful project over the infrastructure remains in the western part of the Gaza. Ayad, could you also talk about the role you point to it repeatedly in the report, the blockade being responsible for many of the horrifying conditions that you describe on the ground in Gaza?

Could you tell us about the nature of this blockade, what kind of aid is getting in, And what kind of material is considered, quote, dual use and is therefore banned from entering Gaza? Yes, it's very important to questions. Living inside our environment, it's continuously reduced disease. It's a generator for disease. So when we talk about fixing infrastructure, we need basic materials that can help us to rebuilding this. So when they both struggled and restrictions over the materials. under the clarification or pretext for Ws,

they still provide us with the infectious disease and environment by this way. So what we are witnessing is the systematic use of deprivation and public health collapse as an instrument of collective pressure over our people here. So when we talk about struggles, yes, the amount of trucks also is reduced. the last April

just they meet 40% of our daily needs for the amount of trucks and also when we talk about the stabilizing situation here just when a cross point is opening Karma Bussalam and when we talk about our needs

after the completely destroyed we need more 600 and more and more in the basic materials like cement and irons and some basic material that help us to resume our partial normal life here in Gaza and fixing the sewage network and water network and fixing infrastructure to prevent this environmental from causing infectious disease here and within the camps civilian. Nehad, what about the issue of medical evacuations, a humanitarian corridor to enable the sickest

people from Gaza, in particular children, from receiving medical help from outside of Gaza. Are there any medical evacuations taking place? Yes, Narmine. When we talk about the illusion I mentioned in my last articles, medical evacuation is still happening just up to 12 percentage of our daily needs. When you talk about 15,800 people, we talk about 15,800 needed to be evacuated from Ghazda to have a medication. If we calculated by a percentage of the daily evacuations, by the

restrictions, we need maybe more than three years, up to five years to evacuate those people. So those people judged to be died before they be having medications. So it's a very horrible situation here. We can not live

in this infectious environment and they see age us. They strict this age. under the security clarifications, nothing tangible happened after the ceasefire agreement assigned here in Gaza. The question of infrastructure in Gaza is concerned. Has any rebuilding started? And just to summarize what the UN has concluded among other organizations, 84% of Gaza's buildings are damaged, 425,000 housing units destroyed or partially damaged and 55 million tons of rubble that's blocking municipal trucks. 92% of residential buildings are damaged completely or partially.

What is being done, first of all, to clear the rubble? And second of all, are there any attempts at rebuilding? Yes. The main questions and the main answer for all of this issue, why the Israel is still preventing the new Palestinian committee to entering Gaza to launch the rebuilding a process and removal grubbles. Until

this moment, nothing happened tangibly here. Just little municipal services reopening some roads and they prevent the municipal engineer from fixing the water drinking water pipelines

especially in the eastern part that is parallel to the yellow line. You can imagine what's the meaning of preventing the municipal services to transfer the tons of waste from the middle of the town to the main space

in the Raff area, in the Raff area that needed our recycling process under the classification they still occupy Raffa. And there is nothing here for the rebuilding process under the restrictions

they impose over all of the gas strip and we need the cranes and bulldozers and most of our municipal machinery is destroyed also. So we have an ability to remove rebels and reopen railroads to facilitate our daily life also. In Gaza City, Palestinians rallied Wednesday in solidarity with the two detained activists arrested aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla after an Israeli court extended their detention to Sunday. and denied their appeal for release. Protesters wave Palestinian flags,

held pictures of the flotella activists, the Brazilian Tiago Avila, and the Spanish national Saif Abu Keshik, who's also Palestinian. This is Palestinian civil society activist, Taysir Mohesan, praising the activists. These activists came to back, pass the stances of their governments in the world

and to say that humanity will not be stopped by the political decisions. Humanity is represented in the act of these humans, even if it's just one person. They embarked on their journey to spread this message. We wish them safety from all our hearts, and the Gaza Strip completely values this step. A. Adamawi, if you can talk about the significance of the solidarity protests,

And also, if you can share a message from Gaza for these two detained activists, Saif and Tiago, Tiago whose mother died in the last two days in Brazil. Yes. Hopefully we said our condolences and our sadness for the loss for our great colleagues. Diego and others who is supporting us. I have a solidarity for a long time. I mentioned them and they talked to them for all of their trips. They try to break the siege they impose over the Gaza Strip.

And the solidarity and the support for the Gaza and Gaza and people and children is very important in this moment. Because we consider after they assigned the cease fire, they've forgotten Gaza. By those great people, we can increase the pressure over all the politicians to stop the firing Gaza. Gaza is still living under the selective firing. So by the Diego and other activists, we have a chance to renew the issue and to increase the pressure and increase the awareness about the catastrophe still ongoing in Gaza. So yes, we send our solidarity with those great people

and we hope they free them and release them. And also our doctors and our prison, Palestinian prisoners from long time. with unknown destination and under the pressure and the psychological pressure also. And Amawi, I want to thank you for being with us, representative of the Gaza Relief Committee, coordinator for local NGOs speaking to us from Gaza. Coming up, a political earthquake in India, the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP, led by the Prime Minister, has further consolidated its power after millions of votes.

voters were purged from the rolls ahead of regional elections. Then we'll look at redistricting and voter disempowerment in the United States. This is Democracy Now back in a minute. This is just another skin simply slips away. Eyes above it, it will shed easily. and all will come out fine I've learned it line by line One desire

Rolls on A head Like a ship in a bottle Held up to the sun Sails ain't going Greatful Performed by Patty Smith in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org.

I'm Amy Goodman in Austin, Texas with Narmine Sheikh in New York. We turn now to India, where recent state-level elections have created a political earthquake, further consolidating the power of the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With the recent victory, 70% of the country now live in BJP-run states. Two major opposition parties to the right-wing BJP lost in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, with the BJP winning the crucial border state of West Bengal for the very first time, defeating one of Modi's most outspoken opponents, Mamtha Banerjee.

Banerjee's term is supposed to end today, but at a press briefing Tuesday, soon after the results were announced, she refused to resign as chief minister of West Bengal, claiming the elections had been rigged by the BJP. If someone takes over by force and expects me to resign, that is not going to happen. Now also I want to say that we have not, we didn't lose the election. It is their forceful active to defeat us. We fought against all machinery, where prime minister and home minister is also involved, directly interference. So how they play the dirty, nasty and mysterious games.

I have never seen this type of election in my life. Mamata Banerjee has accused the Modi government of using the Election Commission of India to defeat her party by deleting nine million names from the polls in what she's called an exercise in mass disenfranchisement. Nearly three million voters in West Bengal, most of the Muslim, were not allowed to cancel. their vote. Meanwhile, hundreds have been arrested and four people killed, including a close aid of the BJP's leader in West Bengal in the wake of clashes between supporters of Banerjee's party and the BJP. For more on the Indian elections and their significance to the future of Indian democracy, we're joined now by two guests. Gilles Vernier is a political scientist focusing on Indian electoral politics and history. He teaches at Science Po in Paris,

and joins us from San Francisco. And joining us from New Delhi, Arfa Khanam Sharani, an award-winning Indian journalist and a senior editor at The Wire, a leading independent digital news website. She hosts a popular news and analysis show on YouTube. Welcome to both of you to Democracy Now. Arfa, if we could begin with you, could you just respond to the election results,

what happened particularly in West Bank? Bengal and the effects of what the Election Commission did prior to the election, what impact that may have had. Thank you very much for having me. First of all, I think in the last 12 years of Narendra Modi's rule and me covering it as a journalist, I feel like these two particular states, Kerala and this Bengal, they stood as perhaps the biggest resistance to Narendra Modi's majoritarian politics, which was intent. tended to divide the Indian public based on their religion.

And Mamta Banerji in particular, like if you ask me the effect and the impact it will have on Indian politics, I would say Mamma Banerjee in particular was single-handedly, was one of the fiercest chief ministers who stood against this divisive agenda of the BJP and its cultural wing, the RSS, starting from demonetization to the Citizenship Amendment Act, which was actually aimed to establish India as a Hindu nation. It was modelled on, you know, the state of Israel, a natural home for Hindus as Israel is for the Jews. Mamta Banerjee came out on the streets, you know, and taking along hundreds and thousands of people with her. So I think BJP now getting hold of this bordering state called West Bengal

is a bad news for everyone who believes in a plural, diverse idea of India And one more thing, I think, and the most important thing, that it's also a blow to, I would say, the federal structure of India, because federalism allows India against this forced uniformity that Mr. Modi's politics and policies try to impose on India. And so with Mamta Banji now not remaining the chief minister of West Bengal, I feel it is one of the biggest billows to the federal structures

and it is going to weaken the opposition. And the saddest part in the last 25 years of me covering India Indian elections, I mean, I have covered at least five, you know, parliamentary elections and dozens of assembly elections. This is for the first time that I am observing on the ground, not just in the studio, that the general public does not think the elections are free and fair in India. The Election Commission of India, instead of being this, you know, an observer and responsible for conducting the largest elections in the world seems to be playing

the role of a party as if it was in alliance with the BJP and the SIR which is the special intensive revision of the voters role this was supposed to be the revision of the role but if you look at the seats and look at the election results

you would actually realize that how precisely this SIR has attacked the voters they have deleted particularly the voters which were more likely to vote for the opposition party. And allow me one more minute. And I'll tell you that the wire has just published a report, you know, by a West Bengal,

by a West Bengal correspondent, Aperna. And this clearly says that in 150 seats, more than half of West Bengal's 294 seats, total deletions were greater than victory margins. And the BJP won 99 seats out of those seats, 150 seats, where the exercise of SIR took place. So the deletion, and in 2021, five years ago, when BGP had lost the elections in West Bengal, it had only managed to win 19 of this.

So this clearly shows that if this was not, even if SIR is not the single biggest or the single reason because of which the BGP has managed to win West Bengal, I would say this is one of the three top reasons why BGP has managed to win. This is a sad day for democracy, for people who believe that not only today, but tomorrow's India should also be democratic. And I think this is one of the biggest belowes to everybody who believes in the idea of a democratic, a constitutional, a secular, a liberal, and equal India for everyone. So, Jil, if we could get you to respond to what Arfa said, in particular about this SIR special intensive revere. vision and what enabled this to effectively disenfranchise three million people in West Bengal in

particular, but also more broadly in the several states, five, I believe, where this was carried out. And what were the criteria that were used to disqualify voters? Good morning. Well, first of all, it's useful to remember that, you know, cleaning or updating the electoral role is an exercise. that usually takes place on a rolling basis, and only very rarely has the election commission engaged into what it calls a special intensive revision. There has been no explanation really why the election commission suddenly decided to do that so close to state elections after having not done it for more than more than 20 years. And so we knew, we've always known

that the electoral rolls in India were far from perfect, but here what is in question is the scale and the disorganization and the apposite way in which it has done, which has led to undue the elections of millions of voters. The point of the SIR is to remove from the list dead voters, voters who have migrated and are present more than once on the rolls. And after this special intensive area revision, more than nine million names were struck. But immediately, 3.4 million people immediately appealed to, you know, explain that, you know, they were unduly removed. And the tragedy is that no safeguard were put in place. The courts ordered an adjudication mechanism which could not be deployed. And at the end of the day, less than 0.05%, less than 2,000

people were actually adjudicated. And among those adjudicated, about 98% were recognized to have been unduly removed. Now, the source of the situation, suspicion raises when we realized that the special revision was done with more zeal in areas which were more dominated by the Trinemul, by Mount Abernergy's party, and that the exercise in itself disfavored specific categories of voters, including Muslims, including urban voters, but including also migrant voters, people who were simply absent, you know, from there, from there, from their homes. And so on the one hand, there is no incontrovertible evidence that the election commission wished to create an electoral advantage for the BJP. At the end of the day, it ended up

creating an electoral advantage that it's undeniable. And in that sense, it has completely vitiated the electoral process. Arfa, last month you traveled to West Bengal to meet people who've been disenfranchised. You wrote on social media, quote, The Election Commission of India has failed the Constitution and the poorest of Bengal. I've covered wars, communal violence, and mass movements. I've never seen anything like this before, you said. Tell us about where you went, who you met, and what you found.

and put it in a global context for people who aren't familiar even with the geography of India, the significance of Bengal and West Bengal. Yeah. Thank you, Amy. I mean, the whole idea, the basic principle of democracy is that the people actually elect their leaders and their government. But I think for the first time, because of this, you know, special revision of the voters' role, we are witnessing that the government or the friends of the government, which is the Election Commission of India, is actually allowing the government to select the people who will be allowed to vote.

So this is a direct attack on the very idea of democracy. And if you would ask me, when I went to, you know, the districts of Murshidabad, which is one of the bordering districts with Bangladesh. So there are three Muslim majority districts, Murshidabad, Maldah, and, you know, Dinajpur. I was fortunate to go to one of these districts. And to my surprise, I was thinking I was going to cover the elections. And I was generally thinking to also ask about SIR. So when I reached this particular village in Murshidabad, you know, it's called Shamsher Gunge.

The majority of the people who were gathered to meet me, you know, as a reporter, was the Muslims. So initially there were like some 50 people. and then there were 100 people and then there were a few hundred people and believe you me then there were a couple of thousand people who wanted me to listen to their stories and Amy as I had said in my

tweet that I have covered communal violence and war but I felt for the first time that my journalism was not enough me as a reporter with one camera person and with one mic we were not enough to cover the scale of the tragedy that was unfolding before my eyes.

And there were hundreds of people who were screaming and shouting and, you know, these helpless people, the poorest of Indians, you know, they came with their families, with their small children. Some people actually brought their elderly parents and grandparents in their laps, you know, carrying them to me, saying that, look at my grandparent. He is an 80-year-old man. And he actually was born before the state of India was born in 1947. So this is the scale of tragedy that there was so many people who wanted to get heard

and they were the victims of not the state police. They were not the victims of, let's say, the state. There were no Hindu-Muslim riots. There was no external force that had invaded, you know, the district. Of all the people, of all, you know, the institutions, it was the Election Commission of India, which refused to listen to these people. and now we have the data, the 98% of the people who, you know,

in some Shedganj area where I had visited, these names were dilated. So 98% of those people who were trying to talk to me so that they could be heard. And, you know, it all unfolded in so many different ways because there were people who were also scared of me. They thought of me, this, you know, this madam, you know, this woman who's come from Delhi,

maybe she is a representative of the election commission. Is she here to arrest? us, will she send us to the detention centers? So what I'm trying to say here is that there was not enough knowledge, not enough information, not enough communication from the election commission, from the state agencies who were able to tell people that they were trying to do this for their betterment. And sadly, now I'm telling you that 98% of those people, their names have been deleted. They have not been allowed to vote. So this is kind of really a great tragedy that unfolded before me and I'm very, in a sense, I would say that elections in India

are no more the same. There are many opposition leaders who are now saying whether it's actually kind of we should be fighting the election commission or the BJP or the state machinery. So it's the whole state machinery versus the opposition in India. Could you comment on that? I mean, the fact that the BJP has won irrespective of the irregularities that have occurred as a result of what the Election Commission did. The election results do tend to point to growing support for the BJP in states, which have traditionally been opposed to this Hindu nationalist ethos. What do you think accounts for the increasing support of the BJP?

And what do you think this means for the future? of subsequent Indian elections? I think it just means that now we have come to a point. Are you asking me? I was actually asking Jil. Jil, if you could go ahead. Okay. Yes, yes.

So, I mean, the BGP is a party that dispose of considerable resources and organizational power to lead a mobilization campaign on a permanent basis. And so if you look at Bengal, for example, they have been on the ground mobilizing alongside, you know, communal lines for the past 10 years. And so it's not entirely surprising that these, you know, efforts would pay off in the long run. The fact also that the traditional

opposition in West Bengal, the Congress, the Communists, have utterly collapsed, created a space where the bid that the BJP could occupy becoming the number two party for more than for 10 years. And so, you know, it's, you know, long-term efforts, you know, sort of pay in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in the long run. But also, and to provide another dimension on the special revision exercise, it had, of course, a direct effect of deleting millions of voters, but it also had an indirect, powerful effect of providing institutional validation of the BJP's claim that most Muslim voters are actually doubtful citizens. They have been. a number of policies implemented, notably in Assam and other parts of the country, that sort of

sought to identify and uproot illegal migrants and creating a confusion between a category of illegal migrant and India's minority. It is easy for the BJP to claim that most Muslims in West Bengal are illegals from Bangladesh. And what is particularly distressing and concerning is to see the Election Commission providing backing to that notion by targeting Muslim voters more than others. In the state of Assam, which the BJP retained, the domination of the BJP is also based on extremely intense communal polarization. There, you did not have a special intensive revision like you had in Bengal, but in 2003 there was a delimitation exercise that, basically concentrated about 34% of the population that is Muslim in less than 20% of the seeds.

And there you saw, again, the election commission leading that exercise when it actually didn't have the mandate to do so. And again, the institution that is supposed to be the impartial arbiter intervenes, interferes in the electoral process, visciates it, and create an electoral advantage by picking Hindu voters against Muslim voters. Gilles Verneux, we want to thank you so much for being with us. Political scientists focusing on Indian electoral politics and history teaches at Cianz Po in Paris speaking to us, though, from San Francisco.

And Arthur Hanum Chavani, award-winning Indian journalist, senior editor at the Wire, leading independent digital news website. Coming up, voting rights under attack here at home, Republican lawmakers in southern states are racing to redreaching. draw congressional maps after the Supreme Court guts the Voting Rights Act back in 20 seconds. There's a man, homeless and hungry. There's a wind. It's hard and biting.

There's a song. You need a sing. There's a fuse. You need a lighting. And it's no secret. The day is coming. And it's a day I hope to see. But if they ask, if they ask you, brother, you didn't hear it from me.

Freedom ring. Tom Morello. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Nermines Sheikh. We end today's show with a look at voting rights right here in the United States. The Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act has led to a scramble by southern states to gerrymandered congressional districts before the November midterms. Last week, Supreme Court ruling makes it harder for minorities to challenge electoral maps as racially discriminatory under the Voting Rights Act. On Monday, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a new gerrymandered congressional district map into law, posting on the social media platform X, quote, signed, sealed and delivered.

And on Wednesday, the Alabama House voted to approve a plan that would change the congressional district map during an active election, even though some votes in the May 19th primary have already been cast. But in states across the south, civil rights activists are also pushing. back in Tennessee, hundreds of protesters marched to the state capital on Nashville Wednesday as lawmakers unveiled a gerrymander congressional map that could see Republicans take control of all nine of Tennessee's U.S. House seats. The General Assembly is expected to vote on the new map as soon as today. For more, we're joined in New York by Ari Berman, National Voting Rights correspondent Mother Jones, his latest book Minority Rule, the right-wing attack on the will of the people, and the fight to resist it.

Can you talk about all of these developments? Start in Nashville where we're just listening to these hundreds of protesters. Good morning, Amy. So in the wake of the Supreme Court's effective destruction of the Voting Rights Act, we are seeing southern states all across the south redraw their voting maps. This could lead to the largest drop in black representation since the Jim Crow era. And it is happening with alarming speed, beginning today in Tennessee, where they are set to pass a 90 map that splits the city of Memphis, which is 63% black,

into three different congressional districts to dilute black voting power. Memphis has had its own congressional district since 1923, and it's now going to be split apart in three different districts. Nashville is going to be split into five different districts, and this is very symbolic. This was the place where Martin Luther King was assassinated. This is where he led the poor people's campaign. And it's indicative of what's happening across the country, which is the ink is barely dry on the destruction of the Voting Rights Act. And all across the south, from Tennessee to Alabama, to Louisiana, to Mississippi, they are drawing districts to specifically eliminate seats where voters of color can elect their candidates of choice. So this is a really far-valon-fire for

American democracy. And Ari, if you could also talk about what's happening specifically in Mississippi, which has the highest black population of any state. Yeah, they're going to hold a special legislative session very soon. That could eliminate the state's lone black member of Congress. That means you could have a state that is 40% black, the largest black population in America, that has no black representative. This is a state that before the Voting Rights Act,

only 6% of black Americans were registered to vote. So the Voting Rights Act transformed Mississippi, just like it transformed, South. This is a place where Medgar Evers was murdered fighting for voting rights, where Goodman Cheney and Schwerner were murdered fighting for voting rights. There is a very long and ugly history of violence, discrimination, and racism in Mississippi and across the South. And the fear is that Jim Crow is now coming back in a different form. We're returning to the days of literacy tests and poll taxes, not through those devices, but through specifically trying to eliminate black

office holders. And southern legislators are very clear they are going to do this. They feel unshackled by the Supreme Court ruling. They are being pressured by President Trump to do it. And they feel like all the guardrails are off right now. And why is it happening, especially in the South? And what impact do you fear this might have on the midterms? It's happening in the South because that's where the largest concentration of majority black districts are. That's where the largest population of black Americans are. And it's also where voting is the most racially polarized, right? That black people in the South tend to vote for Democrats. So if you want to get rid of Democratic districts in the South, you target black voters. And they unfortunately are now

collateral damage in Trump's gerrymandering arms race. What this could mean is that Republicans may be able to pick up four to six extra seats for the midterms just based on targeting these majority black districts in the South. That may not make it impossible for Democrats to take back the South, but it's going to make it more difficult. But I think this goes beyond just the 2026 elections. You're talking about dismantling districts that have existed for decades, that black voters fought so hard to get these districts, to get representation in the first place. That's what the Voting Rights Act was all about, equal citizenship, and just a matter of days, advances of decades are being wiped out. And what about Florida?

Where you have the Florida governor, DeSantis, signing a new gerrymander congressional district map into law, posting on social media, signed, sealed, and delivered in this last minute we have, Ari. And overall, where you see this all headed? Well, Florida passed a map that would give Republicans four new seats. It was very aggressive. DeSantis was basically claiming that he knew what the Supreme Court was going to do. He felt like it gave him a green light.

And this is what's happening. We are in now a perennial gerrymandering arms race that's going to lead to more partisanship, more polarization, less competition, all the things that Americans hate the most about the political process. And it's all being driven by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, which is going to get more and more attention in terms of the need to ultimately reform that court going forward. And the context of the Voting Rights Act finally being gutted? Well, what it means is that the country's most important civil rights law no longer effectively exists, and that's going to have ramifications on American democracy for a very long time.

This was the law that made America a multiracial democracy. If the Voting Rights Act no longer exists, multiracial democracy in America will be under threat forever. Ari Berman, National Voting Rights Correspondent from Mother Jones Magazine, Thanks so much for joining us. I'm in Austin, Texas is Capitol right now. But I'm headed to Minneapolis tonight and Friday morning at the main cinema for screenings about the new documentary about Democracy Now. Steal this story, please. Then in Chicago at the music box theater on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening,

I'll be joined by Democracy Now as Juan Gonzalez and the film's directors, T.L.S. And Carl Deal, then on to Milwaukee at the historic Oriental Theater on Sunday. Sunday back in IFC in New York. I'm Amy Goodman with Nermin Shea.