U.S. State Department’s human rights report on India flags curbs on free speech, civil society
In 2021 human rights reports in India, the US State Department has marked concerns over arbitrary arrests and detention, extra-judicial murders, violence against religious minorities, curbing free expression and media, including the prosecution of journalists who cannot be justified, ” Law is too strict In funding NGOs and civil society organizations, and “government harassment of domestic and international human rights organizations”, and noted that “the lack of accountability for official violations remained at all levels of government, contributing to widespread impunity”. Most of these concerns have been raised in previous reports too.
The state reported human rights, released by the Secretary of the State Antony Blinken on April 12, submitted every year to the US Congress. This is a retrospective and containing state-seed discussions about individual conditions, civil rights, politics and internationally recognized workers, as stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements.
Reports about India observed that Indian law “prohibited arrests and arbitrary detention but both occurred in the year”, with the police using “special security laws to delay reviews of arrests. The report also recorded that” pretrial detention arbitrarily and long , sometimes exceeds the duration of the sentence given to those who are punished “.
Cases of arbitrary detention detailed by the report include that climate activist Disha Ravi in February 2021, Human Rights activist Human Human Markam, and frequent arrests of the house of former Mehboba Mehboba Mehbooba Minister Mehboba Mufti.
Noting that the prevention law of the law (UPA) “allows the court to deny the guarantee in the case of residents who are detained”, the report highlighted the rejection of guarantees to most of the 15 imprisoned activists in connection with the protest Elgar Parishad Bhima Koregaon, and details Cases of Varavara Rao and 81-year-old Jesuit Stan Swamy who died after “Court of National Investigation Agency Nia (National National Investigation] has rejected many bail applications submitted in the medical field”.
Citing media reports about targeted journalists for supervision through Pegasus malware, the report marks privacy violations by government authorities, “including the use of technology to arbitrarily or illegally or disrupt individual privacy”.
While noting that the government generally respects the right to freedom of expression, states that there is also a “instance where the government or actor is considered close to the government which is thought to be suppressed or harassed a critical media outlet on the government, including through online trolling”. This report highlights the Madhya Pradesh police case capturing comedian stand-up Munawar Faruqui to offend for religious sentiments with a joke, he is suspected of planning to do”. It also specifies the government’s commandments 1 February 2021 directing Twitter to block journalist accounts that include protests against three (then revoked) agricultural laws.
Other cases found the mention including the arrest of social activist Erendro Leichombam “to post Facebook who criticized the leader [Bharatiya Janata Bharatiya Janata] who encouraged cow dung and cattle urine as a drug for covid-19”, and the arrest of the Father Tamil Nadu George Ponnaai police officer, A Catholic priest, because of alleged hatred’s speech to the Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs.
In sub-sections about academic freedom and cultural events, the report noted that some Kashmiri academics who wanted to travel internationally to attend the conference were forbidden to leave the country. It also detailed the warning issued by police Madhya Pradesh to Dr. HARIH GOUR UNIVERSITY for a proposed webinar entitled ‘Culture and Linguistics Obstacles in the Achievement of Scientific Temperaments’ Following Complaints by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), who objected to the antinational mentality” of the participants.
