India, Jan. 18 -- Shaheen Bagh won't persuade government to climb down. PM is not for bending.

You have to be a complete knave or a fool to believe that the anti-CAA sit-ins at public thoroughfares in the national capital and elsewhere are completely voluntary. Even if over 90% of those keeping vigil at Shaheen Bagh are Muslim, and have all along hated Narendra Modi with a passion anyway, the role of money cannot be minimised. Despite the usual anti-Modi TV channels and the secularist print media embracing the protests as their own, it would be hard to believe that without generous cash hand-outs the hard-pressed housewives would have the time, energy and even motivation to brave the cold Delhi weather to perform the tamasha day after we...