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 fortnightly 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 this fortnightly roundup for March 16-31, 2024.
International media reports
Al Jazeera, Doha
An Al Jazeera Listening Post reel by Tariq Nafi, on March 16, describes India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) messaging through Bollywood films “having brought broadcast journalism to heel”. At least ten films recently released, or slated for release during the election season, are “built explicitly” around the BJP’s “key policies and talking points” to leave “no media stone unturned”.
CBC/Radio-Canada, Canada
In a March 18 video report, Salimah Shivji explains a surge in “hate rallies” in Maharashtra, sharing activists’ views that Maharashtra is becoming “India’s new communal tinderbox”. Rallies “promoting Hindutva” often “veer into inflammatory hate speech” against Muslims, setting off communal violence. “An average of nearly two hate rallies” take place daily mostly in BJP-ruled states.
Al Jazeera, Doha
Anisha Dutta reported on March 21 that the Observer Research Foundation, a Delhi-based think tank, has been enlisted by the BJP government to develop a “homegrown democracy ratings index”. This will align with “New Delhi’s narrative” to counter “Western-based rankings”. Global indices have consistently downgraded India on democratic indicators in the last few years (see here and here).
Bloomberg, Asia Edition
With India’s income inequality among the highest in the world, on March 26, Andy Mukherjee reiterated research findings that “Modi’s reign” has generated a “Billionaire Raj”. The “super-rich” have doubled their incomes. 58% of all known political funding to the BJP comes from the rich. “The downgrading of the world’s largest democracy couldn’t have been possible without the billionaires.”
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News, Australia
ABC reported on March 27 that YouTube has blocked access in India to two videos on the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, following orders from India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The article reminds readers that earlier in March, the Indian government had YouTube block access to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Fifth Estate programme on the killing.
Channel News Asia, Singapore
Channel News Asia (CNA), a Singapore-based news network, released their documentary, Fact vs Fiction-India’s disinformation war, about the spread of misinformation in India on March 30. It reveals that false information is being produced to influence millions, with the BJP’s IT cell in a leading role. Fact-checking is hardly possible at this scale. This impacts voting, health, and polarization of communities, often by triggering physical violence. A global survey conducted in 2023 showed that misinformation and disinformation are the top threats in India, outranking infectious disease, illicit economic activity, and inequality. An interviewee describes the misinformation spread on social media as a “drip by drip poison” in the brain. It also covers several interventions which seek to counter the spread of misinformation in India.
Parliamentarian advocates
Member of the European Parliament, Bert-Jan Ruissen, sent a written question to the Parliament’s European External Action Service (EEAS) on March 21 on critical issues regarding the ongoing violence in Manipur. These include whether the EEAS has urged India to permit independent investigations into the violence and whether it will publicly call for measures to end the violence.
Experts say
In a news release on March 17, Human Rights Watch called out the Modi government for “revoking visa privileges to overseas critics of Indian origin”. Elaine Pearson, Asia director, said “Indian government reprisals against members of the diaspora who criticise the BJP’s abusive and discriminatory policies show the authorities’ growing hostility to criticism and dialogue.”
The World Inequality Lab, a global research centre, released a working paper on March 19, with detailed findings on economic inequality in India. Since 2014 the rise in inequality in terms of wealth concentration has meant that by 2022-23, India’s “top 1% income and wealth shares are at their highest historical levels”. The paper notes a recent “decline” in the quality of economic data in India.
The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a body of the United States Congress, conducted a hearing on human rights in India on March 21. Experts, including the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, testified on human rights defenders and religious minorities in India and urged Members of Congress to address religious freedom issues through both diplomatic and public channels.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a statement on March 25, raising an “alarm” about the Indian government’s moves to begin implementing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). “No one should be denied citizenship based on religion or belief”. The statement recalls student activists still in jail for “peacefully protesting” against the CAA and urged their release.
London School of Economics launched Alpa Shah’s new book, The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the Search for Democracy in India. At the event, held on March 26, the speakers Alpa Shah, Christophe Jaffrelot, Tarun Khaitan and Priyanka Kotamraju identified the ways in which the BK-16 case illustrated larger factors underlying the demise of Indian democracy. They also reflected on the role of vigilantes who have “penetrated society” as part of the “deeper State”; the ritualistic nature of elections, including the upcoming one which is already not “free and fair” as well as the international legitimacy provided by forums like the G20. Christophe Jaffrelot spoke for the panel when he said “We speak for those who cannot speak anymore and we will continue…”
In a statement on March 27, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international non-profit organisation for freedom of information and Guernica 37 Chambers, a group of international criminal and human rights lawyers, said that they have requested the European Union for sanctions against four senior officers of Delhi Police’s Special Cell for arbitrary and punitive actions against journalists associated with NewsClick, which they described as being part of “one of the most blatant attacks on press freedom in India”.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, responding to a question at the Office’s daily press briefing on March 28 about the arrest of the Delhi Chief Minister and the freezing of the Congress party’s bank accounts, said “What we very much hope that in India, as in any country that is having elections, that everyone’s rights are protected, including political and civil rights, and everyone is able to vote in an atmosphere that is free and fair.” The UN response follows comments by the US and Germany which have been criticized by the Indian government.
The International Labour Organisation, along with India’s Institute for Human Development, released the India Employment Report 2024, on March 26. Based on data from 2000-2022, the report examines the serious challenges of youth employment. In 2022, young people made up 83% of India’s total unemployed; women accounted for 95% of youth “not in education, employment or training”. Many highly-educated young people would rather remain without work than take on the low-paying jobs that are available. The report shows a rise in contractualisation and informalisation of the workforce, as well as a reverse movement to agriculture in recent years. In all cases the situation was much worse for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories, especially women.
The latest Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme released earlier this month ranks India at 134 on the global Human Development Index (HDI). India has moved up in rank compared to 2021, but still falls far behind Sri Lanka ranked 78, China ranked 75, Bhutan at 125, and Bangladesh in the 129th position.
Experts from Europe, Bangladesh and India have come together to form an Independent Panel for Monitoring Indian Elections. In its first “pre-election” baseline report of March 2024, IPMIE recalls the exclusion of millions of Muslim, Dalit and Christian voters from electoral rolls in 2019; the BJP’s targeting of Opposition parties; religious polarisation as an electoral tactic; the lack of review of concerns regarding electronic voting machines; the mainstream media’s open affinity with the BJP; and an ineffective Election Commission.
Diaspora groups
Indian American Muslim Council executive director Rasheed Ahmed wrote in an op-ed on March 20 that the US Congress should vote to oppose the proposed $4 billion drone sale to India and demand accountability for human rights abuses from the Modi government.
Hindus for Human Rights executive director Sunita Vishwanath profiled Hindu leaders in India resisting Hindutva in a piece published on March 21. She begins by writing that she “mourns for the democracy of my homeland that once was” and that India “is inching closer to becoming a Hindu supremacist state as Muslims are getting more excluded by the day”.
Fossil Free Science Museum, a coalition of environmental and social justice groups, including South Asia Solidarity, InSAF India, India Labour Solidarity, Fossil Free London and others protested on March 23 at London’s Science Museum, opposing the opening of a new gallery focused on climate change sponsored by Adani, the world’s biggest coal producer. The speakers included activists from India, Sri Lanka and Australia who highlighted fraud, corruption, displacement of indigenous peoples and the dangers of large-scale extractivist projects in their countries. Protestors also condemned Adani’s involvement in the manufacture of drones used in the genocide in Gaza. (see also here and here ).
Over a hundred organisations, including the Movement For Black Lives, Jewish Voice for Peace, Grassroots Asians Rising, among others, signed onto a declaration issued by Savera on March 24 expressing their “acute concern about the alarming rise of Hindu supremacy in the United States”. The declaration says “Hindu supremacy poses a growing threat to our core values of democracy, pluralism and justice, both in India and here in the United States”. Among other pledges to resist hate and Islamophobia, they pledged to advocate with the US government to “centre human rights and democracy” in its relationship with the Indian government.
Read the previous roundup here.
