April 2024 – Page 331 – Safir News Agency

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India and a dying democracy

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In its latest report, the V-Dem research institute based in Gothenburg, Sweden finds India to be in the bottom 40-50% of the 179 countries reviewed, and now situated between Niger (better) and Ivory Coast (worse). It calls out the sharp autocratisation in India from 2013, putting it at one of the top ten autocratisers in recent times, with pulling down democracy at levels as it was in 1975. India also accounts for “about half of the population living in autocratising countries.” It notes that India is no longer termed a democracy, but “dropped down to electoral autocracy in 2018” and remains there at the end of 2023.

The report observes that a “wave of autocratisation is observable globally. Autocratisation is ongoing in “42 countries, home to 2.8 billion people, or 35% of the world’s population. India, with 18% of the world’s population, accounts for about half of the population living in autocratising countries.”

The report indicates that the ruling anti-pluralist, Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with Prime Minister Modi at the helm has for example used laws on sedition, defamation, and counterterrorism to silence critics. The BJP government undermined the constitution’s commitment to secularism by amending the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in 2019.”

V-Dem report terms India as “one of the worst autocratisers lately”, and in the “top ten autocratisers” in the world. It dropped to an ‘electoral autocracy’ in 2018 and has stayed there in 2023, with worse scores.

Along with the V-Dem report, the current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk in his report to the 55th session of the Human Rights Council strongly criticized the human rights situation in India and called the trends in the country concerning. He referred to examples of human rights violations such as increasing the restrictions on civil society, suppressing and targeting independent journalists and human rights advocates, critics of the government and promoting provocative and hateful speeches, discrimination against minorities, especially Muslims, and expressed his concern about the lack of fair and transparent elections in India, ahead of the 2024 India general election scheduled to be held from 19 April 2024 to 1 June 2024.

As criticisms increase about the situation of democracy in India, more than 30 international lawyers have written a petition to the President of India, calling on the Indian President to take a look at the considerations and concerns related to human rights in India, especially the violation of the rights of minorities and ethnic groups living in the country. In the letter, the layers emphasized Muslims and minority ethnic groups living in the southern islands of India have been increasingly discriminated against.

Reacting angrily to the statements of Mr. Turk, the Indian envoy described the raising concerns about his country’s human rights situation as unnecessary and an inverted represnetation of the progress of the world’s largest democracy.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the opposition and secular parties in India have repeatedly criticized the pressure on minorities and perusing hardline Hindutva? policies and have warned against the ruling party’s intention to remove the word secular from the constitution and turn India into a Hindu country. They also have condemned the ruling party’s plan to change Muslim civil laws, demolish mosques and build temples in their place, cancel the autonomous rule of Muslims in Kashmir, ban the activities, or declare illegal the activities of several Islamic organizations in the region, along with weakening key democratic and independent institutions such as the Election Commission.

Moreover, Statista’s Post’s assessment on the World Day Against Cyber Censorship put India in 2023 like the previous year at the top of the list of countries with the most internet outages in the world.

The declining trend of democracy in India comes while the country was considered to be largest democracy in the world, home to people of various religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism, Jainism, Christianity, etc living together a peaceful life. Today, only after a decade has passed since the right-wing BJP party came to power, India, along with the United States and the United Kingdom, have created more than 80% of Islamophobic texts in the world.

It is no surprise that India abstained from voting on the combating Islamophobia resolution at the UN General Assembly on March 15. The 193-member General Assembly adopted the resolution ‘Measures to combat Islamophobia’, introduced by Pakistan with 115 nations voting in favor, none against and 44 abstentions, including India, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Ukraine and the UK.

While BJP has warned against the alleged Hinduphobia in the world, people throughout the world still look up to India because of its great previous figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad.

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Despite its global expansion, India was one of the last major markets where X introduced community notes.

"Even If 1% True, 100% Shameful": High Court Raps Bengal On Sandeshkhali

admin Apr 4, 2024 0

'Even If 1% True, 100% Shameful': High Court Raps Bengal On Sandeshkhali

The women of Sandeshkhali have claimed land grab and sexual assault by Sheikh Shahjahan (File).

Kolkata:

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee‘s government received a stern reprimand from the state’s High Court Thursday as it heard affidavits regarding the violence and allegations of extortion, land grab, and sexual assault that have surfaced from Sandeshkhali ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

A bench led by Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam told Ms Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress – which came under heavy fire after it was seen as shielding Sheikh Shahjahan, a local leader who is the primary accused – it could not shirk accountability in the event the allegations are found to be true.

“Even if one affidavit is correct, it is shameful. Even if one per cent is true it is absolutely shameful. West Bengal says it is safest for women? Even if one affidavit is proven to be right all of this falls,” he said, “Entire district administration and ruling party have 100 per cent moral responsibility”.

The court also ripped into the lawyer representing Sheikh Shahjahan, who was arrested on February 29 after spending nearly two months evading the authorities. The delayed arrest triggered criticism of the Bengal government and prompted the High Court to issue a pointed order to the state.

READ | Arrest Trinamool Strongman Sheikh Shahjahan, Fumes High Court

“(55) days you were on the run… playing hide-and-seek. Then you took an obscure stance. (Just because) you close your eyes the world doesn’t become dark,” the Chief Justice said.

Shahjahan’s lawyer responded: “I was told to be absconding (while) bail plea was pending.”

READ | Sandeshkhali Accused Shahjahan, On The Run For 55 Days, Arrested

In earlier hearings the court held Bengal Police to be “totally biased” and called for a “fair, honest, and complete investigation” into allegations against Sheikh Shahjahan. “There can be no better case than this… which requires to be transferred (and) to be investigated by the CBI,” it observed.

In focus today were petitions seeking intervention in some form or the other – either through a court-appointed commission or via the National Human Rights Commission – to allow the women of Sandeshkhali to make their complaints without fear of repercussion. BJP leader Priyanka Tibrewal, arguing for the petitioners, underlined the difficulty many face in filing those complaints.

“I have gone there… it is burdensome for them to come to Kolkata. I have suggested for a website to make it easier for them,” she said in response to the court saying, “The suggestion is to have a commission where people can approach and voice grievances. Other is for NHRC to intervene.”

“Both commission and website can be done. I went alone… I have seen that the rule of law is broken. (This is) not a political opinion. Land was also grabbed. It was a violation of human rights,” she said.

Ms Tibrewal also said she had received complaints from scores of women, but was refraining from naming them over concerns of reprisal. “There was a lady who went to visit her father… she was taken in daylight and raped by (Sheikh) Shahjahan and other workers,” she claimed.

The case against Sheikh Shahjahan is currently with the Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI.

READ | Setback For Bengal, Probe Against Shahjahan Stays With CBI

In a separate development, the Enforcement Directorate has said it has provisionally attached movable and immovable assets worthRs12.78 crore in connection with the Sheikh Shahjahan case.

The Sandeshkhali issue has become the focal point of attack of the Trinamool. The opposition has accused Ms Banerjee of shielding Sheikh Shahjahan. The Trinamool hit back by pointing to ex-wrestling body chief Brij Bhushan Singh, a sitting BJP MP accused of sexual assault by women wrestlers.

The BJP has also moved to field one of the women who have alleged sexual assault by Shahjahan – Rekha Patra – as a candidate from the Basirhat seat, which includes the island of Sandeshkhali.

READ | “Blessed Us, Like Lord Ram”: Sandeshkhali Candidate Praises PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Ms Patra on the telephone last month and labelled her “Shakti Swaroopa“. “He has blessed us… like Lord Ram, like God…,” she declared to NDTV.

The entire Sandeshkhali case erupted on January 5, after an ED team on its way to conduct a raid was attacked by a mob of the now-suspended Trinamool leader’s supporters. Sheikh Shahjahan went on the run immediately after the attack, which left several probe agency officers injured.

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