NEW DELHI – First came the accusations of foreign infiltration. Police complaints against protest leaders followed, as well as arrests of protesters and journalists. The government then blocked access to the Internet in the places where the demonstrators were meeting.
As India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi struggles to suppress months of farmers’ protests against the new market-friendly agricultural laws, critics and analysts see a pattern of restriction on freedom of expression that they fear is sending India for a dangerous path of intolerance.
In its response to other controversial policies – including citizenship laws that harm Muslims, its crackdown on the disputed Kashmir region and farmers’ protests – the Modi government has resorted to arrests, stifling dissident voices and blocking the Internet. Groups that monitor Internet freedom say India is shrinking.
While some of the tactics are not new in India’s recent history, many fear Modi is taking them to new heights.
Gyan Prakash, a history professor at Princeton University, said the closest parallel was in the 1970s, a period in India that is called an emergency regime. The prime minister at the time, Indira Gandhi, restricted civil liberties, arrested political opponents and closed the media.
“But the BJP attack is also very different and even more damaging to what remains of democracy in India,” he said, referring to Modi’s ruling party, Bharatiya Janata.
He cited what he called the progressive dismantling of the pillars of democracy under Modi’s government, from the coercion and control of the mainstream media to the influence of the courts.
“Critics often call it an ‘undeclared emergency’,” said Prakash, who wrote a book about the era of the emergency regime. “It is much worse and more damaging in the long run, because arrests and denial of bail to detainees is an assault on what remains of the rule of law institutions.”
The efforts have drawn growing international condemnation, both from human rights groups and Internet personalities. A tweet from pop star Rihanna in support of farmers dominated Indian social media on Wednesday, generating a response from pro-Modi artists in India calling for unity and denouncing outsiders’ voices in an attempt to divide the country.
The Foreign Ministry issued a rare statement that addressed tweets without naming anyone specifically.
“We would like to emphasize that these protests must be seen in the context of India’s politics and democratic spirit,” said the ministry. “The temptation of hashtags and sensational social media comments, especially when appealed to by celebrities and others, is neither accurate nor responsible.”
As the government and its most dedicated supporters become increasingly vigilant, people across the country are becoming more cautious about what they say.
On television channels, critics choose their words carefully to avoid making an offensive statement. A comedian remains in prison, without bail, for a joke the police have yet to prove he made. Opposition journalists and politicians were brought to court because of tweets that the authorities label “misleading” or reports of complaints that challenged the government’s version of the events.
In Uttarakhand, a state governed by Modi’s party, the police chief said his forces would monitor social media posts for “anti-national” posts and that passport applications could be denied to anyone who posted such content.
In the state of Bihar, which is led by a Modi ally, the police said that candidates would be prevented from working in the government if they had participated in “any situation of law and order, protests, traffic jams, etc.”
The confrontation between the government and farmers, who camped peacefully at the New Delhi borders for two months demanding repeal of the laws, became chaotic and violent last week, during a procession of farm tractors to the city. At least one person died in what the police said was a tractor accident. Hundreds of police and farmers were injured.
While the farmers claimed that the violence was part of a government conspiracy to derail their movement, the authorities quickly used it as evidence that the protest needed to be dismantled. Dozens of police complaints have been filed against agricultural leaders. Some journalists present at the scene were arrested, while others were taken to court on charges of “misleading” tweets for reporting protesters’ claims that the man who died was shot by the police.
Since then, the police have erected barricades and barbed wire and even planted stakes in the concrete to prevent movement towards New Delhi. The government intermittently cut off electricity and water in one of the camps, before cutting off the internet in all three, and restricted journalists’ access to them.
This week, Twitter temporarily suspended dozens of accounts related to the farmers’ protest, including the account of The Caravan, a narrative reporting magazine that has covered the demonstrations. A freelance journalist who wrote for The Caravan was also arrested, the magazine said.
Twitter confirmed that it suspended accounts because of a “valid legal request” from the Indian government. He later reinstated the accounts, he said, after informing the government that he considered the content acceptable as freedom of expression.
“This type of barricade – this is not the border with Pakistan,” said Mahender Singh Dhanger, 65, a farmer who was protesting at the protest site in Ghazipur, referring to the heavily fortified border with India’s enemy.
Gopal Krishna Agarwal, a spokesman for the BJP, said the decision to restrict the internet and erect the barricades was a “police administrative measure”. The party said opposition politicians criticized the force for having dealt with chaos during the tractor procession.
“It’s over 70 days,” he said. “If you look at the historical ways in which other countries and governments have dealt with the protests, you will see a marked difference.”
The protesters “crossed all limits” on January 26, added Agarwal, “but the prime minister still said he was ready to speak with farmers anytime, anywhere”.
Some protesting farmers believe the government’s strongest hand can work against it.
The violence during the January 26 tractor march raised questions about the future of the protest movement. But the farmers appeared encouraged by last week’s efforts to arrest Rakesh Tikait, a protest leader the police accused of being involved in the violence.
As security forces surrounded the protest site in Ghazipur that night, Tikait cried on stage and threatened to hang himself instead of going to jail. His emotional outburst was widely shared on social media, attracting more supporters from the villages, who started arriving in a matter of hours. The number of protesters appears to have grown despite cuts on the Internet.
If previous protests are an indication, those punished by the police may face a long trial ahead of them.
After the protests in Kashmir in 2019, many of the region’s political leaders, who had long supported the Indian state, remained under house arrest for months. Twenty-one protesters and activists who campaigned against the citizenship law in New Delhi are still under arrest, a year later, under a strict law called the Law on the Prevention of Illicit Activities. 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 arrested last year on charges of rioting, said his trial has been delayed several times, with police telling the court that he was gathering more evidence. He said the use of Draconian law and postponing trials is a tactic to scare anyone who thinks about protesting.
“If you are arrested on these charges,” said Narwal of the act of illegal activities, “bail is almost impossible.”
Mujib Mashal reported from New Delhi and Sameer Yasir from Srinagar, Kashmir. The report was contributed by Hari Kumar in Ghazipur, India, and Adam Satarian in London.