Demonstrations and strikes have shaken India over the last few weeks as people from all walks of life protest the Citizenship Amendment Act that discriminates against Muslims, serves as a major step towards institutionalizing their second class status in a predominantly Hindu country, and opens them up to systematic persecution as well as random violence.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, extra-judicial executions of suspected drug users continue, with the toll now said to come to over 20,000 deaths, the third biggest number of victims of state-sponsored killing in Southeast Asia in the post-World War II era, after the mass murders perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in 1975-78 and the Indonesia military in 1965-66.
Yet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte hold an unparalleled sway over their electorates, much to the consternation and puzzlement of partisans of democracy, human rights activists, and political analysts.
