Human rights organisations shut down by Modi's increasingly authoritarian government

Human rights organisations shut down by Modi's increasingly authoritarian government

As India, like most of the world, remains preoccupied with the coronavirus pandemic, an even more alarming lockdown is silently taking place as the government cracks down on human rights organisations.

Amnesty International, the world’s leading advocacy organisation on human rights issues, was forced to close its offices in India in September 2020 after what it described as “an incessant witch-hunt”.

It happened quietly, like the imprisonment of so many activists who are still being held in prison without trial, from poet Varavara Rao to Jesuit priest Stan Swamy – both men in their eighties who have spent a lifetime peacefully defending the downtrodden. But it is a sign of how far Modi’s government is prepared to go to repress dissent and extend its authoritarian control.

A senior director of Amnesty told the BBC: “Amnesty International India has been facing an onslaught of attacks, bullying and harassment by the government in a very systematic manner.” Its bank accounts were frozen, and it was forced to suspend its research and campaigning.

Amnesty has only stopped operating in a country once before – in Russia in 2016 for one month. For this to happen in India, with no prospect of reopening in the near future, is shocking.

Questions of Human Rights

Some of the organisation’s recent research has certainly raised questions that the government is reluctant to answer, with allegations of human rights abuse by official police forces during the Delhi riots earlier this year and criticism of the government’s use of arbitrary detention and torture in Kashmir.

The latest amendments to law that regulate foreign grants to Indian non-profits make compliance virtually impossible. Thousands of NGOs are no longer able to receive money from overseas, putting a stop to a wide range of advocacy work. This change in the law enables the authorities to shut down any civil society organisation that speaks out against government policy.

The Way to Authoritarianism?

This is, in essence, simply another step towards authoritarianism, and creates a state in which peaceful dissent is a criminal act. It is in keeping with the trend of silencing journalists and activists, of taking control of the press, and the new law subjecting online news and digital media to state regulation.

The closure of Amnesty International in India is just one more step in the dismantling of civil society and repression of free speech. Our civil liberties are under threat. We need to sit up and take notice.