India, Globally: Ties to Epstein, a Conspiracy Theory and AI Power

The Narendra Modi government frequently posits India as a ‘Vishwaguru’ or world leader. How the world sees India is often lost in this branding exercise.

Outside India, global voices are monitoring and critiquing human rights violations in India and the rise of Hindutva. We present here monthly highlights of what a range of actors – from UN experts and civil society groups to international media and parliamentarians of many countries – are saying about the state of India’s democracy.

Read the monthly round-up for February 1-28, 2026.

International media reports

Drop Site news, US, February 1

Meghnad Bose, Fatima Khan, and Biplob Kumar Das find “previously unreported details about financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s role as a backroom power broker amid the rapid strengthening of India-Israel ties in 2017” in documents released by the US Department of Justice. Indian billionaire Anil Ambani sought Epstein’s help to set up meetings for Narendra Modi before his first trip to Israel in 2017, which in turn “accelerated” relationships between India, Israel and the US. Following the visit, Epstein said in an email that Modi had “danced and sang in Israel for the benefit of the US president,” highlighting how elite networking facilitated by Epstein may have shaped geopolitics. 

New York Times, US, February 6

​​Steven Lee Myers writes about the rekindling of a “conspiracy theory” that promotes that the Taj Mahal has Hindu origins. While the theory has been repeatedly debunked in the past, Myers describes the impact of a Bollywood film, “The Taj Story” in reviving it. He says the film has served to “rehash discredited claims that once were relegated to the fringes of the internet, giving prominence to efforts to inflame sectarian tensions”. 

Al Jazeera, Qatar, February 7

Andrew Fidel Fernando analyses the ways “India now sets the terms of global cricket” through the International Cricket Council (ICC). He finds that the ICC is allowing cricket to “become the medium through which South Asian states exchange geopolitical blows” with India calling the shots. Citing several instances, Fernando notes that the ICC’s commitments are “no longer to neutrality and competitive equilibrium”. He points to India’s “stupendous cricket economy” as the main factor for its overt influence, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India receiving “close to 40% of the ICC’s net earnings”. In the process, “cricket is being eaten alive in this dark intersection between money and politics”. 

Bloomberg, US, February 9

Andy Mukerjee’s analysis of the US-India trade deal finds it to be far from a “respectful accord between two major economies”. In contrast to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam who received “settled agreements”, Mukerjee describes the framework for India as an “interim” pact.  More so, Trump is described as controlling the levers that keep “labor-intensive Indian exports from bleeding out”. Not only does this mean tremendous operational uncertainty for India, it is also “a surrender of energy sovereignty to a single foreign power”.   

Reuters, UK, February 10

Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil comment on the implications of the Indian government’s amendments this month, to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, which includes a change in which social media platforms have to take down unlawful content within three hours of being notified, severely cutting down the earlier 36-hour timeline. Kalra and Vengattil write that this “reinforces India's position as one of the world’s most aggressive regulators of online content”. 

Bloomberg, US, February 19

Catherine Thorbecke underlines that India “can’t spectacle its way into AI power” reflecting on her visit to the 2026 AI Impact Summit, “the first held in the Global South”. Thorbecke points to several factors that need attention if India seeks to become a “serious producer” of AI technology. While billions were pledged for investment to build AI data centers in India, she questions India’s capacity to provide the “land, water and electricity” required “when many cities still struggle to deliver drinkable water and breathable air”. She points to the “social impact” considering India’s underemployment among youth if AI substitutes entry-level work. Thorbecke says it is not spectacle but “research, infrastructure, and trustworthy institutions” that are needed. 

New York Times, US, February 20

Mujib Mashal and Suhasini Raj describe how violence in the city of Sambhal was contained from November 2024 as a signal of the “unstoppable momentum of the Hindu Right as India’s dominant political force”. Last year, Muslim residents feared the destruction of the city’s Shahi Jama Masjid following claims that the mosque was built on a sacred Hindu site. Ensuing clashes led to police firing at Muslim protestors, resulting in injuries and deaths with no police accountability. Muslim residents say “they have been frightened into silence” as the city takes on a “more overt Hindu identity”. Mashal and Raj also write that “setting the tone from the top is Yogi Adityanath”, who has used Sambhal “to further his strongman reputation”. 

CBC, Canada, February 21

Salimah Shivji highlights concerns around the AI Impact Summit’s push to showcase India as the hub for data centre development. Shivji reveals that India’s rapid expansion of AI data centres is intensifying pressure on already scarce domestic water and energy capacity. A researcher who has spoken to affected communities shares their questions of "whose land is being taken, by whom, at what price.” In addition, there is no “national policy framework” to guide this process or require “company transparency over how water- and energy-intensive the centres will be”. 

Middle East Eye, UK, February 23

MEE staff report India has blocked the X account of their journalist Azad Essa under the Information Technology Act 2000, citing a government order. Essa received an email on February 20 informing him of the blocking order “in the interest of transparency”. In a statement, Essa said, “Given that much of my work focuses on India’s ties with Israel, I can only assume that the restriction is based on this work. It is obviously concerning but emblematic of how journalism is being curtailed in India.” He also commented on X being “complicit in restricting journalism”. 

Al Jazeera, US, February 24

Yashraj Sharma examines how Narendra Modi’s administration has increasingly adopted an “Israeli model”, including elements of “Israel’s security and administrative approach to Palestinians”. This has come “at the expense of India’s longstanding support for the Palestinian cause”. India and Israel “see themselves as civilizational projects and Muslims as demographic and security threats,” as argued by Azad Essa, author of Hostile Homelands. On Kashmir particularly, Sharma quotes experts that the “Modi government’s move to kill political dialogue or diplomatic engagement mirror’s Israel’s approach”. Essa observes that “like the occupied West Bank, India maintains Kashmir in a state of almost permanent emergency, where military presence, surveillance, and extraordinary legal powers shape everyday life”. 

Indian diaspora and civil society groups

On February 3, Diaspora in Action for Human Rights and Democracy (DAHRD) launched a campaign to express solidarity with Indian activists and demand accountability through UN mechanisms. The campaign seeks to “condemn the hostile police crackdown on peaceful protests and the systemic repression of the climate justice movement in India”. A solidarity statement in support of student activists arrested in Delhi in protests between November-December 2025 received endorsements from over 10 diaspora human rights organisations and collectives. DAHRD will continue engaging with different UN Special Rapporteurs on the Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment; Climate Change; Toxics and Human Rights; and environmental defenders under the Aarhus Convention, to draw their attention to the worsening air quality in Delhi and to intervene with the Indian government.

International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India) held the eighth session of its webinar series: Deadline or Death Sentence: State Violence and Indigenous (Adivasi) Peoples' Resistance in India, on February 27. Titled “International Frameworks of Accountability”, the session laid out the fundamentals of command/superior responsibility and non-international armed conflict. Understanding these aspects of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) strengthens advocacy and solidarity for holding accountable and prosecuting individuals across chains of command participating in or enabling mass violence and war crimes through both acts of commission and omission. India’s people must be able to call out impunity by state actors and state-sponsored war crimes, and confidently seek justice from the Indian government and state institutions.  

Towards informing the United Nations Expert Mechanism for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ (EMRIP) forthcoming report on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations, International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India, Indian Alliance Paris, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact and International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs gave a joint submission to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2026. It focuses on “developmental violence” against India’s Adivasi communities through militarisation, displacement, and land dispossession, especially in Bastar, Chhattisgarh. It documents repression of youth-led justice-based peacebuilding efforts. EMRIP’s report will be presented to the Human Rights Council in September 2026. 

Experts say

A paper published on February 5 in the journal Science finds that India, China, Brazil, and the United States generate nearly 70% of pesticide toxicity, undermining international biodiversity targets. The findings highlight the need for urgent regulatory reforms and a shift toward safer, sustainable pest management. The researchers called for greater adoption of organic agriculture and a shift to less toxic pesticides to meet global commitments. 

Azad Essa, author and journalist, argues on February 25 that Narendra Modi’s February 2026 visit to Israel blends “symbolism” with hard policies deepening India-Israel defence, technology, and diplomatic ties. Netanyahu calls it a “special relationship,” as India provides “labour, weapons and diplomatic cover”. Modi will not travel to Gaza or the West Bank and there is no indication that Palestine will be discussed.  Essa stresses the visit will reinforce Modi’s policy to “de-hyphenate Israel and Palestine even if it undermines India’s stated commitment to a two-state solution”. 

Two UN Special Rapporteurs in a press release dated February 25 called on the Government of India “to launch urgent independent investigations into alarming allegations of hundreds of extrajudicial killings and torture-related deaths and thousands of injuries by law enforcement officials”. They underlined that “there appears to be a systemic failure of policing to meet basic human right standards” and advocate for police reform based on rights-based policing. 

As part of a series on six “major waterways”, biologist Jeremy Wade released a documentary on the Ganges river, in which he speaks to local experts, including fishermen, and finds serious ecological concerns.  Untreated human waste and industrial pollution cause waterborne diseases and falling fish stocks, particularly native species.  An interviewee says that the government programme to clean the river banks is only “cosmetic” and shows a “lack of political willingness”.  Wade’s own water testing revealed that “the water here is full of human waste”.  He underlines that “the best sign of a river's health is its wildlife, and so far, no part of this river has been fit to fish.”

Read the previous roundup here.

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