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<keyword id="19919639" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bangladesh" source="keywords">Bangladesh</keyword> National Hindu Grand Alliance General Secretary, Mrityunjay Kumar Roy on Wednesday, strongly condemned the petition demanding ban on International Society for Krishna Consciousness (<keyword id="20270601" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="ISKCON" source="keywords">ISKCON</keyword>) in Bangladesh and stressed that the Hindu organisation is 'peaceful' in nature and works for the welfare of poor. This comes after a petition was filed by a lawyer demanding a ban on ISKCON in the country, calling it a "radical organisation" engaging in activities designed to provoke <keyword id="23089355" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="communal-unrest" source="keywords">communal unrest</keyword>, as reported by the local media. Speaking to ANI, Mrityunjay Kumar Roy said, "We strongly oppose this statement of those who are saying that Iskcon should be banned. What did Iskcon do? Iskcon is the international consciousness of Sri Krishna...it is a peaceful organisation which talks about Shri Krishna and works for the welfare of the poor." This comes amid the row over the arrest of former priest of ISKCON Bangladesh, <keyword id="24154841" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chinmoy-Krishna-Das-Brahmachari" source="keywords">Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari</keyword>, over sedition charges, which led to protests and unrest in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, Union Minister <keyword id="20027051" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sukanta-Majumdar" source="keywords">Sukanta Majumdar</keyword> also condemned the arrest of priest Chinmoy Krishna Das and the rise in attacks against minorities. Highlighting the recent attacks on Hindu temples and the atrocities faced by Hindus in Bangladesh since the political turnover, Majumdar said, "Chinmoy Prabhu's arrest and the attack on minorities in Bangladesh is concerning. We demand that he be released immediately because he was protesting peacefully. Since the political turnover in Bangladesh, Hindu temples are being destroyed and Hindus are being subjected to atrocities. Raising a voice against this cannot be called sedition." While condemning the detention of ISKCON leader, Union Minister Giriraj Singh also condemned the arrest, and also slammed Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav over their 'silence' on the issue. "People are speaking of going to Sambhal today. But Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav are ignoring Bangladesh where Hindus are being subjected to a lot of violence. I suggest that Hindus should protest against this atrocity in Bangladesh," he said. The petition in Bangladesh has alleged that ISKCON has been promoting religious events with the intent of inciting sectarian violence, imposing its beliefs on traditional Hindu communities, and forcibly recruiting members from lower Hindu castes. It has accused ISKCON of taking over Sanatan temples, evicting members of the Sanatan community, and carrying out communal attacks on mosques. It has also accused ISKCON of "destabilizing" the country and "collaborating with Indian media" to promote communal discord, Dhaka Tribune reported. Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari was presented before a Chittagong court on Tuesday. The court denied his bail plea and sent him to custody. Das has been accused of sedition for allegedly raising a flag on a stand displaying Bangladesh's national flag. The arrest has sparked widespread outrage, with many calling for his immediate release. Notably, ISKCON Bangladesh issued a statement on Tuesday denouncing the arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das and called upon the government authorities to promote peaceful coexistence. ISKCON Bangladesh also issued a list of demands to the government for subsequent violence and attacks against Sanatanis in various regions of Bangladesh. "We express our serious concern and strongly denounce the recent arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das, spokesperson for the "Bangladesh Sammilito SanatJagaran Jot". We also condemn the subsequent violence and attacks against Sanatanis in various regions of Bangladesh. We urge the government authorities, to promote peaceful coexistence for the Sanatani community", the statement said. "As a representative of the "Bangladesh Sammilito Sanatani Jagaran Jot" and a Bangladeshi citizen, Chinmoy Krishna Das has been a vocal advocate for the protection of minority groups in the nation. It is essential to uphold his right to free speech and to support his efforts to encourage others to defend this right. Ensuring justice and fair treatment for him is crucial", the statement added.

"ISKCON a peaceful organisation": Bangladesh Hindu leader slams petition demanding its ban

<ul class="generic-article__summary--ul content--ul"><li class="generic-article__summary--li content--li">The BJP’s Narendra Modi swept to power on a wave of optimism and a catchy slogan.</li><li class="generic-article__summary--li content--li">Five years on, an economic slowdown, agrarian distress and rising intolerance have soured the mood</li></ul> India has been holding its general elections in stages since April 11. The seventh and final phase will take place on Sunday. The primary contest is for the 543 seats in India’s lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha. This is one of the largest democratic exercises in the world, with 900 million voters deciding on a new central government for the 1.3 billion-strong South Asian giant. The results are expected on Thursday. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shows his ink-marked finger after casting his vote. Photo: AFP WHAT IS AT STAKE? Prime Minister <a href="https://www.scmp.com/topics/narendra-modi" class="link-text">Narendra Modi</a> of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is running for a second term.A former chief minister of Gujarat, he came to power in 2014 with the simple but powerful slogan “ache din aayega” (good days will come). This resonated with voters – especially in the impoverished northern regions – who were angry at the previous administration of the Congress party that had been dogged by scandal. <h3 style="margin-bottom: 2.35714rem; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 300; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 1.71429rem; line-height: 2.42857rem; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; display: inherit;"><a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3010707/india-elections-bjp-may-need-allies-narendra-modi-drove-away" class="link-text">BJP may need the allies Modi drove away </a></h3>As a result, Modi swept to power: the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance coalition won 336 of the Lok Sabha’s 543 seats. The BJP itself won 282 seats – the first time since 1989 that one of India’s political parties had won an outright majority. The other main national political party is Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi, grandson of former prime minister Indira Gandhi. This grand old party of India has been progressively weakening across the country and now stands as only one of the many opposition parties, jockeying for power against resurgent regional players. In 2014, Congress did not even win enough seats to be chosen as the official opposition and was almost eclipsed by the AIADMK, a regional party from Tamil Nadu. SO MODI’S A SHOO-IN? Not exactly. Modi’s re-election prospects have arguably been dimmed by the triple threat of an economic slowdown, agrarian distress and concerns about rising intolerance and violence against minorities. His promise in 2014 to create 10 million new jobs a year for India’s burgeoning youth population has not been fulfilled. Moreover, a recent study by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy argued that 11 million jobs were lost last year alone. Indian farmers protest in New Delhi in November – their plight has become a major electoral issue. Photo: AP A leaked government survey allegedly showed the unemployment rate to be higher than at any time in the past 45 years. These economic doldrums have largely been blamed on the new Goods and Services Tax imposed by the government and 2016’s botched demonetisation exercise, which took 86.5 per cent of India’s currency out of circulation. The plight of India’s farmers has also become a major electoral issue. Stagnant grain prices, erratic weather and unresolved systemic problems have led to an alarming number of farmer suicides in a country where more than 50 per cent of the population is employed in agriculture. In 2017, the central government told the Supreme Court that 12,000 farmers had committed suicide every year since 2013. The BJP’s use of Hindu nationalist rhetoric, meanwhile, has always been controversial. Its leaders, like the monk-turned-Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, have been accused of using anti-Muslim rhetoric. BATTLEGROUND STATES The outcome of India’s elections often depends on political calculations and issues at the state level. India’s 29 states are highly diverse, both linguistically and ethnically. Five of these states – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu – each send more than 40 MPs to the Lok Sabha, meaning that winning them is essential for either side. The biggest prize among them is Uttar Pradesh, which is one of India’s largest states and has 80 MPs. In 2014, the BJP was largely able to win nationally because it made huge gains in the massive northern state, taking 71 of the seats that were up for grabs. <h3 style="margin-bottom: 2.35714rem; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 300; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 1.71429rem; line-height: 2.42857rem; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; display: inherit;"><a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3010546/communism-india-dead-or-just-waiting-young-saviours" class="link-text">Communism in India: dead or just waiting for young saviours? </a></h3>This time, however, two major local players – the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) – are challenging the BJP. Both the SP and BSP – which have formed an alliance – are strong with the crucial Yadav and Dalit (formerly known as untouchable) castes in the state. While both the SP and BSP won more than 40 per cent of the popular vote in Uttar Pradesh in the last elections, the SP won only five seats because of India’s first-past-the-post electoral system and its lack of an alliance. This time, some pundits expect the SP-BSP alliance to win at least half of the 80 seats on offer, if not more. The BJP’s prospects are also being put to the test in the country’s economically dynamic south, where powerful regional parties are challenging its grip on power. In the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the regional YSR Congress Party and the Telangana Rashtriya Samithi are expected to sweep the polls. Both have openly said that they prefer a third option for government that does not involve either the BJP or Congress. In India’s southernmost state and its automotive hub, Tamil Nadu, the socialist, Tamil-nationalist Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam seems to be on the cusp of major gains because of anger at both the BJP central government and its local allies, the AIADMK. The BJP is also at risk of shedding seats in the central and western states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where Congress made gains during recent state elections. However, Modi’s party is expected to make nominal gains in eastern India, in states such as Orissa, West Bengal and the seven states that make up the country’s northeast. A major concern in those areas has been allegations of illegal migration from Bangladesh, and the BJP is running a racially charged campaign – playing up local fears of Muslim refugees – to capitalise on this. WHAT WILL ALL THIS MEAN? Assuming the BJP loses ground to regional parties, and the Congress retains its meagre base, India might find itself with a virtually hung parliament. For instance, the BJP and its National Democratic Alliance coalition might be the largest bloc in the Lok Sabha, but still fall short of a majority. <h3 style="margin-bottom: 2.35714rem; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 300; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 1.71429rem; line-height: 2.42857rem; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; display: inherit;"><a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3009682/exploiting-islamophobia-election-winning-tool-india" class="link-text">Exploiting Islamophobia: an election-winning tool in India </a></h3>Regional parties have also been displaying unprecedented acts of solidarity, such as joint rallies featuring all the leaders of large local opposition parties, encouraging the possibility of a non-Congress, non-BJP “third-front” government. So, while the results are far from certain, 2019 might well herald a return to form and the politics India knows best: the proliferation of regional power brokers and complex coalition governments.

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<ul><li>West Bengal sends 42 members to the Lok Sabha. </li><li>The two major political parties playing big roles this elections in the state are the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress (TMC). </li><li>However, the state’s election is also marred by communal politics. </li></ul>The state of West Bengal sends 42 members to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian Parliament, which has 543 seats. The polling has been spread out through all the seven phases of the ongoing election, not because of the states’ strength in the Parliament, but because the state embodies the country’s polarised and vitiated political environment like few others. The two major political parties playing big roles in this election are the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and both have completely different stance in the state. The fallout of the Congress and CPI(M) alliance further led to the BJP and TMC command authoritative positions in the elections. In its election manifesto, the BJP has once again pushed for the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which will move to grant citizenship to immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and to deport undocumented immigrants, even though Muslim immigrants will not be considered for it. The BJP’s <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/elections/lok-sabha/west-bengal/mamata-allying-with-those-who-wish-to-break-country-pm-modi/articleshow/68763916.cms">charge</a> is that the TMC has covertly built a Muslim vote bank for itself by bringing in illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries. The party’s growing <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/politics/bjp-making-inroads-in-bengal-clear-from-crowd-at-modis-kolkata-rally-tmcs-minority-appeasement-policy-a-factor-6384681.html">prominence</a> is a sign that the allegation is being accepted by a part of the state’s hindu population. Meanwhile, the TMC had <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/at-bengal-rally-pm-attacks-mamata-seeks-tmc-support-for-citizenship-bill/story-BOkijM1yoe0xdWBDZAjEvK.html">called</a> the bill “discriminatory” and the state’s muslim minority is backing her despite the annoyance with the government’s performance. A slew of governance issues and <a href="https://theprint.in/theprint-essential/saradha-ponzi-scheme-the-scam-behind-mamatas-dharna-against-cbi/187686/">corruption scandals </a>have marred chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s image. But the minorities back the chief minister, against the BJP, for the fear of vilification if the latter were to gain ground in the state. "Despite having anger against the state government over various issues including several riots that took place in the state, the minorities will vote for TMC in the state to ensure their safety and security," Mohammed Kamruzzaman, General Secretary of All Bengal Minority Youth Federation told PTI in <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/elections/lok-sabha/west-bengal/to-stop-bjp-minorities-likely-to-go-with-tmc-in-bengal/articleshow/68450898.cms">March</a>. Bengal used to be the hotbed for communal violence even before independence but communal violence had nearly disappeared by the turn of the previous century. It is making a comeback now. It is because of the heightened tensions that the BJP had even asked the Election Commission to declare West Bengal as a “super sensitive state”. The EC had then deployed 24 police observers in the state. “In every state, police observers are deployed. According to rough estimates of appointment, a police observer will supervise two constituencies. This is not unique to Bengal. In some places, the number of officers can be lesser, depending on the political situation,” a senior EC official had told <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/elections/lok-sabha/west-bengal/election-commission-appoints-24-observers-to-scan-west-bengal-police-machinery/articleshow/68624047.cms">ET</a>. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/election-2019-bjp-candidate-list-for-west-bengal/articleshow/68811097.cms">Election 2019: BJP Candidate list for West Bengal</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/lok-sabha-election-2019-tmc-candidate-list-for-west-bengal/articleshow/68811351.cms">Lok Sabha Election 2019: TMC Candidate List for West Bengal</a>

Elections 2019: Voting begins in West Bengal amid simmering communal tensions that have polarised the state’s population

The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/JDU-wins-Bihar-Elections-2015/articleshow/49710372.cms">Bihar elections result</a> was a second jolt for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=prime+minister+narendra+modi">Prime Minister Narendra Modi</a> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Bharatiya+Janata+Party">Bharatiya Janata Party</a> (BJP) after the Delhi elections as the grand alliance between <keyword id="6358190" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nitish-Kumar">Nitish Kumar</keyword> and <keyword id="18656" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lalu-Prasad-Yadav">Lalu Prasad Yadav</keyword> won the state elections in Bihar. 
 
The Grand Alliance of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav was ahead in 178 seats in the 243-member state assembly, reducing the BJP to 53 seats. 
 
The results can be prove to be hazardous for the saffron party as it hints that if regional forces unite, they can oust BJP-led alliance, further emboldening the rivals. 
 
Anti-Modi people took to social media and joked about how “cow” could just give milk and not vote as the Modi’s campaign reduced to how cow slaughter was anti-Hindu. 
 
Bihar elections was one of the expensive campaigns of the BJP as the party flew around 80 party honchos to campaign and even Modi himself addressed over 30 rallies. 
 
Ram Madhav, general secretary of BJP, said the Bihar election was a very important battle for the party. 
 
“We will have to analyse each and every aspect of the result. There are lessons to be learned,” he said post results. 
 
Since this was the second most humiliating defeat for the party, does it mean the Modi wave, which took the nation by storm in 2014 general elections and wiped out Congress from Lok Sabha, is collapsing now? 
 
Here are 5 reasons why Modi’s wave did not work for Bihar 
 
1. Campaign strategy: Modi’s BJP campaign in Bihar started on development plank and economic growth. Modi spoke about how he would embolden Bihar and lift every community. But as the days drew closer, BJP started campaigning on caste lines. They banked on the cow slaughter topic, which visibly did not turn into much dividends for the party. Even Modi spoke raked up controversial issues that did not work. 
 
2. Modi underestimated the following of Nitish Kumar. It seems Modi is still revelling in 2014 parliamentary elections and banking on anti-incumbency. But, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar have their own audience. The national agenda does not work everywhere. 
 
3. The Prime Minister, whose job is to govern the nation, addressed over 30 rallies. So many rallies also didn’t work for Modi as voters thought BJP was stretching the rubber band too far and was showing a desperate attempt to win the elections in Bihar, India’s third populous state. 
 
4. The DNA remark of Modi also didn’t go well with the people of Bihar. Nitish Kumar had also launched a campaign against Modi’s DNA remark. Modi had said “There seems to be some problem in his DNA because the DNA of democracy is not like that. In democracy you respect even your political rivals." 
 
5. We are speculating that Shatrughan Sinha might be grinning. BJP sidelined Sinha, who is from Bihar, and other veteran leaders. The contest only seemed a fight between the PM and the CM. 
 
Well, this might have been the worst gift for LK Advani on his birthday on November 08. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

5 ways in which Modi’s charm is visibly fading!

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image">Reuters</div></div>Elections are underway in India and results are due May 16.
Many expect opposition leader Narendra Modi to become India's next prime minister and there's hope he could help revive economic growth in India which has been languishing.
Modi has been credited with driving Gujarat's economic growth since he took the helm as chief minister of the north west Indian state in 2001.
Modinomics: The Gujarat story
In a report published in September last year, Vijay K. Gaba at InvesTrekk wrote that "India is struggling with the limitations of the Nehruvian model of economic development that we have followed since independence." 
He described the current model as one that general calls for a large role of the private sector, but with "active state intervention during extremities of business cycle and argues against higher savings in both private and public sector." Modinomics on the other hand supports a free market with minimal state intervention.
<a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/daa87f88-ae0e-11e3-974d-00144feab7de.html#axzz2yVF5E74I">David Pilling at the Financial Times</a> also recently wrote of Modi's getting-things-done leadership style. "Part of Mr Modi's attraction is that, by sheer force of will, he may be able to override some of the checks and balances of Indian democracy and introduce some of the clear-headedness of growth-driven China," he wrote.
Gujarat's real GDP has climbed 10.3% year-over-year between fiscal year (FY) 2003 and FY12, that's 2.4 percentage points above India's real GDP growth in the same period, Christopher Wood at CLSA pointed out in a note late last year.
Modi's candidacy is "about marketing the impressive track record in Gujarat over a 12-year period of achieving broad-based growth across the agricultural, manufacturing and service sectors since Modi assumed office…" Wood writes. 
"Modi's best chance of winning convincingly is if he can tap, helped by the intelligent use of social media, 'big data' and the like, the pro-growth aspirations of an estimated 149m young voters who will be voting for the first time in next year's general election, representing about 20% of the electorate.
Last year, Goldman Sachs put out a note titled <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-report-angers-indian-government-2013-11">'Modi-fying our view: raise India to Marketweight'</a>. Timothy Moe, author of the note cited six key reasons for this, the top being, ""optimism over political change, led by BJP's prime ministerial candidate Mr. Modi, is dominating economic concerns," sparking outrage in India.
Is it all just hype? 
But some legitimately wonder if Modinomics will work for the rest of India and if Modi has been too generous in slathering on this self-praise.
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/13/modinomics-narendra-modi-india-bjp">The Guardian</a> and <a href="http://qz.com/171409/gujarat-by-the-numbers/">Quartz</a> took a long look at Gujarat's economy in the years before Modi came to power, and found that Gujarat was doing well in the two decades before Modi came to power. And certain indicators like foreign direct investment, show that Gujarat actually lags other states.
There are also those that argue that placing the blame of recent lackluster growth squarely on the shoulders of the central government is too simplistic.
"The belief in certain quarters is that as long as the next government were to go all out at de-bottle-necking projects, sentiment would surge and this would spark an investment revival in the economy," writes Toshi Jain at JPMorgan. But he thinks this is an "overly-simplistic read on the situation" because many stalled projects have more to do with various state governments than the central government. Perhaps then, a Modi government would also hit the same roadblocks.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/Manish Swarup</div></div>Modi can't shake his past 
There is of course one thing that Modi has never been able to dodge, questions surrounding his role in the deadly Gujarat riots of 2002, in which over 1,000 people were killed, women raped, and thousands displaced.
Modi's detractors also point to his ties to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) a Hindu supremacist group.
Nomura's Alastair Newton points out that on a February 23 rally in Assam, Modi called for Hindu migrants from Bangladesh to be assimilated back into India. He also said non-Hindus should be sent back to their home nations. Modi's rhetoric has raised concerns about what this could mean for neighborhood politics. <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/VPNxrUuYeE4eSiC6nIF7NM/The-symbolism-of-Varanasi-in-2014.html"></a>
<a href="http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/VPNxrUuYeE4eSiC6nIF7NM/The-symbolism-of-Varanasi-in-2014.html">Indian publication LiveMint</a> also pointed to Modi's decision to contest the seat in the holy city of Varanasi as a sign that he hasn't abandoned his Hindu supremacist ideology: 
"It is widely expected that Modi's nomination from Varanasi will positively affect the outcome for the BJP in a number of other seats in Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar which are electorally important as together the two states send 120 lawmakers to the Lok Sabha. Further, the choice of Varanasi is also symbolic in nature which indicates that the party may not have completely abandoned the Hindutva ideology."
It's a guessing game 
For now the polls are calling for a BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and NDA (National Democratic Alliance) coalition, winning 230-240 seats and headed by Narendra Modi. But Indian polls have been woefully wrong in the past. 
In 2004, the polls grossly overestimated the seats the incumbent would win and the Sensex crashed 11% the day after, and the rupee lost 3%. In 2009, the polls underestimated the seats the incumbent would win and the following day stocks went on a tear and the rupee surged 4%.
The bottom line however is that whichever party comes to power, they have a long road to reviving economic growth. Morgan Stanley's Ridham Desai thinks the new government needs to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/india-sees-worlds-biggest-election-2014-4">push through five key reforms</a>. Drive wage growth in line with productivity, cut the fiscal deficit, improve the business environment, rethink India's urbanization policy, and address structural rigidities in the energy and mining sectors.
If the rise of what's been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-indian-2014-elections-matter-2013-9">dubbed India's third front</a>, a string of regional parties, does end with a messy coalition, the Indian economy could continue to sputter for another five years.

Everything You Need To Know About 'Modinomics' The New Economic Strategy That Could Be Coming To India

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>"The time that I went into the camp and I looked, I was shocked. Where all my expectations and my happiness all got destroyed, that was the minute that it happened."So testified Sony Sulekha, one of the plaintiffs in the largest human-trafficking case ever brought in America. He and around 500 other Indians had been recruited in 2005 to work in the Signal <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">International</keyword> shipyard in Mississippi. Each had paid at least $10,000 to a local recruiter working for Signal, expecting a well-paid job and help in getting a green card.Instead they laboured in inhumane conditions, lived in a crowded camp under armed guard and were given highly restricted work permits. Last month a jury awarded Mr Sulekha and four others $14m in damages against Signal and its recruiters. Verdicts in other cases are expected soon. Signal says it will appeal.A few days earlier Apple said that if it found that a supplier was using recruiters who charged potential employees fees, it would insist that they were repaid. Workers typically raise the cash by taking on debts that tie them to employers--a modern-day version of the ancient practice of bonded labour.The firm has now made suppliers reimburse around $4m collected in 2014 from some 4,500 workers, and has brought in checks to make the policy stick.Estimates of the number of workers trapped in modern slavery are, inevitably, sketchy.The International Labour Organisation (ILO), an arm of the UN, puts the global total at around 21m, with 5m in the sex trade and 9m having migrated for work, either within their own countries or across borders. Around half are thought to be in India, many working in brick kilns, quarries or the clothing trade.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Bonded labour is also common in parts of China, Pakistan, Russia and Uzbekistan--and rife in Thailand's seafood industry. A recent investigation by Verité, an NGO, found that a quarter of all workers in Malaysia's electronics industry were in forced labour.Until recently campaigners paid most attention to victims who had been trafficked across borders to work in the sex industry. An unlikely alliance of right-wing Christians and left-wing feminists argued that prosecuting sex workers' customers would be the best remedy.But the focus is now widening to the greater number of people in other forms of bonded labour--and the proposed solutions are changing. Campaign groups and light-touch laws, backed up by the occasional high-profile prosecution, aim to shame multinationals into policing their own supply chains.In December Pope Francis and the grand imam of Egypt's al-Azhar mosque, together with several other religious leaders, launched the Global Freedom Network, a coalition that tries to press governments and businesses to take the issue seriously. The ILO has launched a fair-recruitment protocol, intended to cut out agents, which it hopes will be ratified by national governments.A pilot project will soon start in Jordan's clothing industry. Last month the British Retail Consortium, a trade group, published guidelines for supply chains, including recommendations on working conditions.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div> Two new philanthropic funds are also being established.The Global Fund to End Slavery, which is reported to have substantial seed money from Andrew Forrest, an Australian mining magnate, will seek grants from donor governments and part-fund national strategies developed by public-private partnerships in countries in which bonded labour is common. The Freedom Fund, launched in 2013 by Mr Forrest (again), Pierre Omidyar (the founder of eBay) and the Legatum Foundation (the charity of Christopher Chandler, a billionaire from New Zealand), finances research into ways to reduce bonded labour.The Freedom Fund's first schemes include assessments of efforts to free bonded labour in the Thai seafood industry, the clothing industry in southern India and--a harder problem, since the customers are rarely multinationals--in brick kilns in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Arguably, the lack of evidence about what works is the main obstacle to reducing the prevalence of modern slavery.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>America made human trafficking illegal in 2000, after which it started to publish annual assessments of other countries' efforts to tackle it. But it has only slowly turned up the heat on offenders within its borders.Australia and Britain have recently passed light-touch laws along the lines of a law requiring transparency in supply chains that was adopted by California in 2010. This requires manufacturers and retailers that do business in the state and have global revenues of at least $100m to list the efforts they are taking to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking from their supply chains.A firm can comply by simply reporting that it is doing nothing. But it seems few are willing to admit this, lest it upset customers or staff, meaning that the issue is forcing its way on to managers' to-do lists.Ending bonded labour will require economic as well as legal measures, says Beate Andrees of the ILO. Those desperate enough to get into debt for the chance of a job need better options, and long-standing recruitment practices must change.But she also hopes to see some "strategic litigation".Nick Grono of the Freedom Fund thinks one of the multinational construction firms preparing Qatar to host the 2022 football World Cup could be a candidate. There is evidence of "wilful blindness" to the terms on which migrant construction workers are being recruited, he says. A successful prosecution could be salutary.Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-men-cheat-affair-love-sex-psychotherapist-2015-1">Research Reveals Why Men Cheat, And It's Not What You Think</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="9vdnlycjo8Di2vj5XaYNQCb3Cc2NYbee" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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