NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government are wielding increasingly heavy-handed tactics to quash opponents and critics of his ruling Hindu nationalist party ahead of national elections starting this week.
Ten years in power, and as it looks to secure power for another five, the Modi government is reversing India's decades-long commitment to multi-party democracy and secularism.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has accused many officials of its main rival, the Congress Party, of corruption, but few have been convicted. Dozens of politicians from other opposition parties are under investigation or in prison. And just last month, the Modi government froze the Congress party's bank accounts due to non-payment of taxes.
Modi's administration has said the country's investigative agencies are independent and democratic institutions are strong, pointing to high voter turnout in recent elections that gave Modi's party a clear mandate.
But civil liberties are under attack. Peaceful protests were suppressed by force. Our once free and diverse press is under threat. Violence against Muslim minorities is on the rise. And the country's judiciary is increasingly collaborating with the executive branch.
To better understand how Modi is reshaping India and what is at stake in the elections, which begin Friday and run through June 1, The Associated Press spoke to lawyers, journalists and opposition politicians.
Here is their story:
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Mihir Desai has been fighting for civil liberties and human rights for India's most marginalized communities, including the poor and Muslims, for nearly 40 years.
The 65-year-old lawyer from India's financial capital Mumbai is currently representing 12 political activists, journalists and lawyers jailed in 2018 on charges of plotting to overthrow the Modi government in one of India's most high-profile cases. government. He says these accusations are baseless and just one of the government's all-too-frequent and bold efforts to silence its critics.
One of the defendants in the case, a Jesuit priest and longtime civil rights activist, has died at age 84 after about nine months in custody. Other defendants remain in prison, charged under anti-terrorism laws that rarely result in convictions.
“The first authorities came up with the theory that there was a plan to kill Modi. “Now they are being accused of being terrorist sympathizers.”
Desai believes the point of it all is to send a message to would-be critics.
According to a digital forensics expert at Arsenal Consulting in the US, the Indian government hacked into the computers of some of the accused and planted files that were later used as evidence against them.
For Desai, this is evidence that the Modi government has “weaponized” the country's once independent investigative agencies.
He sees threats to Indian democracy all around him. Last year, the government removed the chief justice, one of three people who appoint the commissioners who oversee elections. Modi and the Leader of Opposition in the Congress are the others. Now one of Modi's cabinet ministers will vote, giving the ruling party a 2-1 majority.
“It signals the end of free and fair elections,” Desai said.
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Waheed-Ur-Rehman Para, 35, has long been considered an ally of the Indian government's interests in Kashmir. He worked with young people in the Muslim-majority semi-autonomous region, preaching to them about the benefits of embracing India and its democratic institutions compared to seeking independence or merger with Pakistan.
But since 2018, Farah has been suspected by the Modi government of alleged links to anti-India separatists. Since then he has been imprisoned twice. In 2019, he was jailed on charges that he and other political opponents could foment unrest. And in 2020, he denied charges that he supported armed groups.
The accusation stunned Farah, whose People's Democratic Party once ruled Kashmir in alliance with Modi's party.
But he believes the motive is clear. “I was arrested to force my support of the government’s 2019 decision,” he said, referring to the crackdown on insurgents in Kashmir after the region’s semi-autonomous status was eliminated.
The Modi administration argues that the move is necessary to fully integrate the disputed region with India and promote economic development there.
Farah has been in prison for nearly two years since his arrest in 2020, often placed in solitary confinement and subjected to “abusive interrogation,” according to a UN expert.
“My crime is that I wanted the unity of Kashmir and not through the barrel of a gun,” said Farah, who is seeking to represent Kashmir’s main city in the upcoming elections.
Farah sees his plight in the larger context of the Modi government's efforts to silence perceived opponents, especially those with ties to Muslims, who make up 14% of India's population.
“It is a huge ethical problem that the largest democracy in the world cannot assimilate or provide dignity to a minority of its citizens,” he said.
The campaign to transform once-secular India into a Hindu republic may help Modi win elections in the short term, but it stands to lose something much bigger, Farah said.
“This puts the whole idea of diversity in this country at risk,” he said.
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In October 2020, independent journalist Sidhique Kappan was arrested while trying to report on the government crackdown in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, ruled by Modi's party.
For days, authorities have been struggling to contain protests and protests over the horrific rape incident. Those accused of the crime were four upper-caste Hindu men, while the victims belonged to the Dalit community, the lowest rung of India's caste hierarchy.
Muslim Kappan, 44, was detained and jailed before arriving at the crime scene on suspicion of attempting to incite violence. After spending two years in prison, his case reached India's highest court in 2022. He was quickly granted bail, but the case against him is ongoing.
Kappan's case is not unique and highlights how India is becoming increasingly unsafe for journalists, he said. Strong pressure from the state has led many Indian media organizations to become more compliant and supportive of government policies.
“Those who attempted independence were brutally attacked by the government,” he said.
For example, foreign journalists are prohibited from reporting from Kashmir. India's northeastern state of Manipur has also been embroiled in ethnic violence for nearly a year.
Television news increasingly features stations promoting the government's Hindu nationalist agenda, including a new citizenship law that excludes Muslim immigrants. Independent TV stations were temporarily shut down, and newspapers publishing articles critical of Modi's agenda quickly found themselves losing all government advertising, a vital source of revenue.
Last year, the BBC's India arm was raided for tax irregularities just days after airing a documentary critical of Modi.
The advocacy group Reporters Without Borders ranked India 161st on its list of countries with free press around the world.
Kappan said he has been barely able to report news since his arrest. The trial kept him busy, requiring him to travel to court hundreds of miles away every other week. He found it difficult to support his wife and three children because of the time and money required for the trial, Kappan said.
“It’s affecting their education and their mental health,” he said.