NEW DELHI – First comes the accusations of foreign infiltration. Police Complaints against protest leaders followed, as well as arrests of demonstrators and journalists. Then the government blocked internet access in places where protesters gathered.
As Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, struggles to quell months of protests against new market-friendly agricultural laws, critics and analysts see a pattern of freedom of speech that they fear will send India on a dangerous path of intolerance.
In its response to other controversial policies – including citizenship laws that have harmed Muslims, combating them over the controversial Kashmir region and the farmers’ protests – the government of Mr. Modi used arrests, suffocating dissenting voices and blocking the internet. Groups following Internet freedom say India is slipping.
Although some of the tactics are not new in the recent history of India, many fear that Mr. Modi will take it to new heights.
Gyan Prakash, a professor of history at Princeton University, said the closest parallel was in the 1970s, during the period called India’s emergency rule. The then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, curtailed civil liberties, imprisoned political opponents and shut down the news media.
“But the BJP onslaught is also very different and even more damaging to the remnants of democracy in India,” he said, referring to Mr. Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party.
He calls what he calls a sneaking dismantling of the pillars of democracy under Mr. Modes, from the coercion and control of the mainstream media to the influence of the courts.
“Critics often call it an ‘unexplained emergency,'” said Prakash, who wrote a book on the emergency rule era. “It is much worse and more damaging in the long run because of the arrests and the refusal. of bail to prisoners is an assault on all that remains of the institutions of the supremacy. ‘
The efforts have led to increasing international condemnation of human rights groups and internet personalities. A tweet from pop star Rihanna in support of the farmers dominated Indian social media on Wednesday, prompting the reaction of pro-Modi entertainers in India in which they demanded unity and that voices of outsiders be divided across the country.
The Foreign Ministry issued a rare statement addressing the tweets without naming anyone specifically.
“We want to emphasize that these demonstrations should be seen in the context of Indian democratic ethos and policies,” the ministry said. “The temptation of sensationalist hashtags and comments on social media, especially not by celebrities and others, is not accurate or responsible.”
As the government and its dedicated supporters become increasingly vigilant, people across the country become more cautious about what they say.
On television channels, critics choose their words carefully to avoid making an offensive statement. A stand-up comedian remains in jail, denied bail, due to a joke the police have not yet proven he made. Journalists and opposition politicians were taken to court because of tweets that the authorities described as “misleading”, or because they were reporting on the government’s version of events.
In Uttarakhand, a state run by the party of Mr. Modi managed, the police chief said his troops would look at social media messages for ‘anti-national’ posts and that passport applications could be denied to anyone who posted such content.
In the state of Bihar, led by an ally of Modi, police said applicants would be barred from doing government work if they were found to have participated “in any legal and order situation, protests,” traffic jams, etc. “
The showdown between the government and the farmers, who have been fighting peacefully on the borders of New Delhi for two months and demanding that the laws be repealed, became chaotic and violent during a tractor march through the city last week. At least one person was killed in what police say was a tractor accident. Hundreds of police officers and farmers were injured.
While the farmers claimed that the violence was part of a conspiracy by the government to derail their movement, officials quickly used it as proof that the protest had to be dismantled. Dozens of police complaints have been lodged against the farm leaders. Some journalists at the scene were arrested, while others were dragged to court on charges of ‘misleading’ tweets because they claimed the protesters had been shot dead by police.
Since then, police have erected barriers and barbed wire and even planted nails in concrete to prevent movements to New Delhi. The government cut off electricity and water to one of the camps at intervals, before all three cut off the internet, restricting journalists’ access to it.
This week, Twitter temporarily suspended dozens of accounts related to the agricultural protest, including the report by The Caravan, a narrative magazine that carefully discussed the protests. A freelance journalist who wrote for The Caravan has also been arrested, the magazine said.
Twitter has confirmed that it has suspended the accounts due to a valid legal request from the Indian government. It reinstated the accounts thereafter, after notifying the government that it considered the content to be acceptable freedom of speech.
“This kind of barrier – this is not the Pakistani border,” said Mahender Singh Dhanger (65), a protesting farmer in the Ghazipur protest zone, referring to the heavily fortified border with India’s nemesis.
Gopal Krishna Agarwal, a BJP spokesperson, said the decision to restrict the internet and set up the barricade was a “police administrative move”. The party said opposition politicians had criticized the power over the soft handling of the chaos during the tractor march.
“It’s been over 70 days,” he said. “If you look at the historical ways in which other countries and the government have handled protests, you will see the clear difference.”
The protesters on January 26 “crossed all borders”, said Mr. Agarwal added, “but the prime minister still said he was ready to talk to the farmers anytime, anywhere.”
Some protesting farmers believe the stronger hand of the government can work against it.
The violence during the tractor march on January 26 raised questions about the future of the protest movement. But the farmers apparently galvanized by the attempts to arrest Rakesh Tikait, a protest leader, who accused the police of being involved in the violence last week.
As security forces surrounded the Ghazipur protest site that evening, Mr. Tikait cried on stage and threatened to hang himself rather than go to jail. His emotional outburst was widely shared on social media and attracted more fans from the towns who started pouring in within hours. The number of protesters has apparently grown despite the internet cuts.
If protests from the past are an indication, those punished by the police could face a long ordeal.
Following protests in Kashmir in 2019, many of the political leaders in the region, who have long supported the Indian state, remained under house arrest for months. Twenty-one protesters and activists who campaigned against the New Delhi citizenship law are still being held a year later under a strict law called the Prevention of Illegal Activities Act. They were repeatedly denied bail, except for a pregnant woman who was granted bail on humanitarian grounds.
Mahavir Narwal, the father of Natasha Narwal, a doctoral student and activist who was arrested last year on charges of rioting, said her trial was repeatedly delayed, and police told the court they were gathering more evidence. He said using the draconian legislation and delaying hearings is a tactic to instill fear in anyone who thinks about it.
“If you are arrested for these charges,” he said. Narwal said of the law on illegal activities, “bail is almost impossible.”
Mujib Mashal reported from New Delhi and Sameer Yasir from Srinagar, Kashmir. Reporting was contributed by Hari Kumar in Ghazipur, India, and Adam Satariano in London.