Congressional Research Service Report on India Outlines Collapse of Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression
- It notes that the scope and scale of these mistreatments have increased under Prime Minister Modi’s BJP, “particularly since their convincing national reelection in 2019.”
The Congressional Research Service (CSR), a public policy research institute of the U.S. Congress, has released a Human Rights Assessments report on India outlining the collapse of religious freedom and freedom of expression. It also highlights major undertakings to dismantle freedom of the press and civil society. CSR notes that “the scope and scale of such abuses reportedly has increased under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, particularly since their convincing national reelection in 2019.”
The CSR cited a few analyses which warn of democratic backsliding in India. It referenced the Sweden-based Varieties of Democracies project, which, since 2019, has classified India as “an electoral autocracy.” Similarly, it mentioned the U.S.-based nonprofit Freedom House, which, in 2021, re-designated India as “Partly Free,” contending that “Modi and his party are tragically driving India itself toward authoritarianism,” with negative implications for global democratic trends. “The New Delhi government issued a rebuttal of the Freedom House conclusions, calling them misleading, incorrect, and misplaced,” the report said.
Noting that “about 80 percent of Indians are Hindu and roughly 14 percent are Muslim, CSR cited the State Department’s 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom (IRF), which asserts that “attacks on members of religious minority communities, including killings, assaults, intimidation, and cow vigilantism, occurred throughout the year” in India.
“U.S.-based tech platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp face escalating pressure from the Indian government over the companies’ reluctance to comply with data and takedown requests.”
Since 2020, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended that the Secretary of State designate India as a Country of Particular of Concern (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act “due to the Indian government’s promotion of Hindu nationalism, and engagement and facilitation of systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”
In March 2022, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR) expressed concern about “recent statements and actions expressing hatred and violence against religious minority communities” in India, in particular two incidents in late 2021, when Hindu nationalist leaders “called for the murder of Muslims, in a context purporting to make India a Hindu nation.” She also decried “problematic” religious conversion bans that “may foster hatred or even violence.”
In its overview on freedom of the press in India, the CSR mentioned the State Department’s 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices which states that “while the Indian government generally respected press freedom in 2021, there were instances in which the government or actors considered close to the government allegedly pressured or harassed media outlets critical of the government, including through online trolling.” The CSR noted “restrictions on free expression and media, including violence, threats of violence, or unjustified arrests or prosecutions against
journalists.”
According to Freedom House, “attacks on press freedom have escalated dramatically under the Modi government,” with Indian authorities using various laws “to quiet critical voices in the media,” the CSR said. It also noted that “academic freedom has significantly weakened in recent years, as intimidation of professors, students, and institutions over political and religious issues has increased.” It also noted how “U.S.-based tech platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp face escalating pressure from the Indian government over the companies’ reluctance to comply with data and takedown requests.” Similarly, “video streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon have come under scrutiny for content deemed controversial by Hindu nationalists and their allies in the Indian government,” SCR added.
The report also highlights increased extrajudicial killings by the government or its agents, lack of investigation of and accountability for gender-based violence, overly restrictive laws on the organization, funding, or operations of nongovernmental [NGOs] and civil society organizations in India, as well as government harassment of domestic and international human rights organizations, as well as human trafficking and bonded labor.
(Top photo, courtesy dw.com)