India: Raids on journalists and activists escalate while those reporting on Manipur and Kashmir are silenced

India’s civic space continues to be rated as ‘repressed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. In recent years, India has witnessed the misuse of the draconian anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other laws to keep activists behind bars and fabricate cases against activists and against journalists for undertaking their work. The authorities have blocked access to foreign funding for NGOs using the restrictive Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) and human rights defenders and journalists in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir continue to be targeted.

In recent months, journalists have been raided and arrests made, including journalists from NewsClick, while in Manipur there has been an Information blockade and efforts to silence and criminalise activists and journalists for their reporting. The crackdown on activists in Indian-administered Kashmir has persisted, while a Kashmiri journalist award was cancelled. A people’s summit was disrupted, indigenous rights activists have been targeted in Odisha and there were coordinated raids on activists in Andhra and Telangana. Protests on Palestine were met with arrests.

Expression

Raid and arrests at Newsclick media portal

On 3rd October 2023, police arrested the editor and an employee of the news portal NewsClick and raided the homes of 46 journalists, staff and contributors seemingly connected to the site, seizing electronic devices, including laptops and cellphones, over allegations of illegal foreign funding, which the outlet has categorically denied. Their office has since been sealed.

The founder and editor of NewsClick Prabir Purkayastha and head of Human Resources Amit Chakravarty were detained under charges of terrorism and criminal conspiracy. Both have had their detention extended.

From 2021, the portal has been targeted with raids, searches and seizures by various agencies of the Government of India, including the Enforcement Directorate, the economic offences wing of the Delhi Police, and the Income Tax Department.

With no evidence of ‘money laundering’, tax evasion or any other form of wrongdoing found in the devices, documents and emails seized, these investigations seemed to have reached a dead end when, in August 2023, the New York Times published an ‘exclusive’ investigative story which claimed to have uncovered “a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda”. The article made references to NewsClick and said that “the authorities in India” had raided it “during a crackdown on the press", accusing it of having ties to the Chinese government but offering no proof. This set the stage for a renewed attack by the authorities against NewsClick, and a fresh round of criminal prosecution on terrorism-related charges.

The arrests and raids at NewsClick, an outlet critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist-led government, are the latest attempts by the authorities to harass and intimidate independent journalists. During the recent raids, authorities also searched the Mumbai home of human rights activist Teesta Setalvad for contributing to the digital news outlet, and even targeted writer Arundhati Roy for speaking out against the raids. The authorities said they would prosecute Roy and a Kashmiri academic for a speech she had made 13 years ago, in 2010. A case has been registered against them under the counterterrorism law, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

Information blockade in Manipur and silencing of activists and journalists

Manipur has been under an information blockade since May 2023 after violence broke out between the Meitei and Kuki communities. The blockade has severely restricted essential journalistic freedoms of media and news professionals, as well as the freedom of expression of all residents of Manipur. Amidst the communication challenges already existing as a result of the blackout and internet shutdown, the Government of Manipur has passed another order that explicitly bars the sharing of videos or images depicting violent incidents in the state.

The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), an organisation which was born out of the #SavetheInternet movement for net neutrality and works to defend online freedom, privacy and innovation in India, has stated that this order infringes fundamental rights and hampers public access to essential information.

On 5th October 2023, FORUM-ASIA reported that the residence of Babloo Loitongbam, a prominent human rights defender and lawyer from Manipur, was attacked by members affiliated with the militant groups Meitei Leepun and Arambai Tenggol. The incident occurred hours after Babloo - alongside former Manipur Police Services officer Thounaojam Brinda - received threats from them. Babloo, who is a Meitei, was accused of defaming the Meitei community. The groups demanded they remain silent and refrain from giving interviews regarding the ongoing inter-communal violence in Manipur that began in May 2023. This violent attack was triggered by Babloo’s statement in an interview in May, where he addressed the escalating violence in Manipur, voiced his apprehensions regarding the involvement of radical organisations, and demanded accountability for their role in the ongoing conflict.

In September 2023, the Manipur police filed an FIR against the fact-finding team from the Editors’ Guild of India (EGI) that had visited Manipur and published a report on media coverage of the ethnic conflict. The police invoked sections of the Indian Penal Code relating to promoting enmity between groups, injuring or defiling a place of worship, uttering words with deliberate intent to hurt religious feelings and statements conducive to public mischief. The FIR names the authors of the report – Seema Guha, Bharat Bhushan and Sanjay Kapoor – and the president of the Editors’ Guild of India, Seema Mustafa.

Previously, in July 2023, the Manipur police charged a group of three human rights defenders with sedition, defamation, waging war against India and other charges for undertaking a fact-finding mission over the Manipur ethnic conflict and with hurting the sentiments of the Meira Paibi Women and defaming the Manipur government.

The fact-finding team comprising of Annie Raja, the General Secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), Nisha Siddhu, the National Secretary of NFIW and Deeksha Dwivedi, an independent advocate from Delhi, investigated the clashes between the Meitei and Kuki groups, visited relief camps and met with District officials to gather information on the situation.

In its conclusion the team stated that the violence was ‘state-sponsored’ and in fact a conflict stoked by the ruling dispensation at the state and the Centre to precipitate a full-blown civil war-like situation to hide its own pro-corporate agenda for land and resources.

The case against the fact-finding team came after three people - a leading academic and two Kuki activists - were summoned by a Manipur Court in cases filed by Meitei activists who claimed that statements made by the trio in interviews with The Wire “inflamed communal passions”.

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and the All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) has condemned the Manipur police action against the fact-finding team members and has asked the state government to “stop criminalising human rights work”. Advocate Deeksha Duivedi filed a plea at the Supreme Court of India and has received protection from arrest in the case.

In a separate development, the commissioner of Manipur’s home department wrote to the director general of police asking for a case to be registered against the Zomi Students’ Federation and Kuki Students Organisation for publishing a booklet called ‘The Inevitable Split: Documents of State-Sponsored Ethnic Cleansing in Manipur, 2023’ on 28th May. In the letter, the commissioner called for charges to be levied against the students and stern action to be taken against them.

On 20th October 2023, the Manipur High Court allowed tribal organisations to appeal against its 27th March order which directed the Manipur government to recommend Scheduled Tribe status for the Meitei community. The order by the High Court led to widespread protests, including the one on 3rd May 2023 in which violence broke out, with over 200 people being killed in the state since the ethnic conflict started and nearly 60,000 people being forced to flee their homes. The tribal organisations have argued that the claim by the state’s dominant community to Scheduled Tribe status does not have merit.

Journalists charged for pointing out books sold for scrap

In August 2023, the Lakhmipur police filed a case against journalist Shishur Shukla based on a complaint by block education officer (BEO) Nagendra Chaudhary that Shukla was circulating videos on social media platforms with intent to tarnish the image of the state government and the education department of Uttar Pradesh. The videos shared with the BEO were of bundles of books meant for free distribution to students of government primary schools, being sold as scrap.

This even as state government-run primary and upper primary school students have been attending classes since April 2023 without their school uniforms and books.

The journalist has categorically stated that he shared the videos with the education officer to ensure that both sides of the story were being reported, and added that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government does not want any negative report to be covered. Shishir Shukla is a journalist with several years of experience working with the Hindi daily Amrit Vichar.

Kashmiri journalist award cancelled

Kashmiri journalist Safina Nabi’s media award by the journalism school run by the Pune-based Maharashtra Institute of Technology-World Peace University (MIT-WPU) was cancelled in October 2023 by the university’s management in the face of right-wing political pressure. The institute’s authorities said that some of Nabi’s “published opinions and views… have the potential to be viewed as contentious and not in alignment with the foreign policy of the Indian Government”, and that awarding her at this time “could give rise to unwelcome controversies”.

Nabi’s report, ‘The half widows of Kashmir’, appearing in Scroll, had been chosen as the winner in the category of ‘journalism that prompted empathy, understanding and inclusivity in society. It highlighted the longstanding plight of the Kashmir women who continue to be denied their property rights decades after the disappearances of their husbands.

On learning about the cancellation of Nabi’s award, the jury members refused to attend the event where they were to participate in a discussion on “media and democracy”. The Network of Women in Media of India, has written to the institute expressing its disappointment over the lack of commitment to press freedom.

Kashmiri journalists are subjected to different level of censorship and also face extreme levels of harassment by security forces, including interrogation, raids, threats, physical assault, restrictions on freedom of movement and prosecutions under counterterror laws for their reporting.

Journalist Mohammed Zubair wins 2023 Freedom of Expression award

Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair won the 2023 Freedom of Expression Award in journalism, which is awarded by the Index of Censorship. The organisation that gave the award to him said that Zubair has faced significant threats after challenging misinformation spread by members of the ruling party in India. Commenting on receiving the award, Zubair said that the award would ‘serve as a flicker of hope’ for his young colleagues.

As previously documented, Mohammed Zubair was arrested after highlighting controversial comments against the Prophet Muhammed by former spokesperson Nupur Sharma with the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party, comments which sparked domestic and international indignation.

As the co-founder of Alt News, a fact-checking website, he has played a key role in debunking claims that spread disinformation about religion, caste and unscientific myths. He has also spoken out against hate speech and divisive propaganda, which especially targets minority communities.

In the past few years, as previously documented, there has been a steady decline in press freedom in India. The latest Press Freedom Index prepared by the Paris-based non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) places India at 150 out of the 180 countries. According to RSF, India is among the five most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. As per the UNESCO observatory, nearly 45 journalists were killed in India between 2010 and 2023.

Association

Ongoing crackdown in Kashmir

As previously documented, Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez has been detained since November 2021 and has been prosecuted on multiple trumped-up charges related to criminal conspiracy and terrorism under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Khurram Parvez is the Programme Coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), the Chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) and FIDH Deputy Secretary-General. In June 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) found his detention to be arbitrary, among other concerns.

In September 2023, The National Investigation Agency (NIA) issued another charge sheet against Khurram Parvez, journalist Irfan Mehraj (associated with JKCCS) and a third person in a case related to a conspiracy allegedly hatched to fund various proscribed Kashmiri terrorist outfits “in a clandestine and circuitous manner through NGOs, Trusts, Societies and welfare organisations”.

The Kashmir Law & Justice Project, Kashmir Scholars Consultative and Action Network, and Project South reported that on 19th August 2023, The Kashmir Walla, an independent media organisation in Indian Administered Kashmir (IAK), found that its website had been blocked in India by the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Its social media accounts were also taken down. While recourse is practically limited, the staff did not receive notice of such actions or an opportunity to defend their rights. On 21st August 2023, the staff was forced to close down their office in Srinagar.

On 1st September 2023, Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, a Kashmiri professor of political science, who was suspended from his job in August for testifying in support of a petition challenging the Indian government’s “abrogation” of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, appeared before an administrative tribunal. Bhat was forced to prove that he had properly obtained a leave of absence in order to testify.

On 18th September 2023, the Cyber Investigation Kashmir unit – a special police unit that surveils social media expression – arbitrarily detained Irfan Malik for Instagram posts and tweets regarding a Indian military police operation in Kokernag, Anantnag, Kashmir on 13th September 2023. Jammu and Kashmir Police alleged that Malik’s posts “posed a severe threat to the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country [India].”

We20: People’s Summit disrupted

As previously documented, even as India was gearing up to the G20 summit in September 2023, the assault on civic freedoms continued. This trend continued during the summit with police disrupting a three-day summit called for by different people’s movements, trade unions, civil society and concerned individuals who came together in New Delhi from 18th to 20th August 2023 in the run-up to the G20 Summit, in solidarity and unity. The delegates and participants asserted that the G20 needs to urgently acknowledge the people’s voices and priorities and respond appropriately by putting people and nature over profits for a just, inclusive, transparent and equitable financial and development system and future.

Activists say that the We20 offered the Modi administration an incredible opportunity to demonstrate to the world that it is serious about building an inclusive India. Instead a massive battalion of Delhi police swept in and cordoned off the area in a military-style operation. Hundreds of participants, including elders and women from the most vulnerable communities who had travelled to Delhi to participate in the summit and ensure their voices were heard were denied entry to the venue.

Indigenous rights activists targeted in Odisha

Ahead of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the Odisha police launched a crackdown on the anti-bauxite resistance movement of tribals in the Indian state of Odisha in the form of disappearances, arbitrary arrests, police raids and the use of unlawful force against protesters. Activists associated with the Niyamgiri Surakhya Samiti (NSS) have been targeted.

On 5th August 2023, two young activists were abducted by the police. The activists, belonging to the Dongria Kondh tribe had gone to the local market to participate in a discussion regarding the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. One of the abducted activists, Bari Sikaka, was released following a Habeas Corpus petition filed by the NSS at the Odisha High Court, while the other activist, Krushna Sikaka, was sent to jail after being falsely implicated in a 2018 rape case.

On 6th August 2023, the NSS organised a protest against the abduction of the activists, when police tried to forcibly arrest another Adivasi activist, Drenju Krushka, but the villagers’ collective prevented the arrest. Police then registered a case under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against nine NSS members, including senior Adivasi rights activists Lada Sikaka, Drenju Krushka and Lingaraj Azad. An unknown number of persons continue to be missing following midnight raids since 13th August 2023.

The Peoples Union for Democratic Rights has called upon the state police and the Odisha government to immediately disclose the names, allegations and present whereabouts of those arrested from Kashipur block between 13th August 2023 to date.

In a separate incident, on 18th August 2023, the National Secretary of the All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (AIKMS), Bhalachandra Shadangi, was illegally detained and then released by the Odisha police after meeting with protesters demanding the immediate withdrawal of the mining lease to the Vedanta and Adani groups in the Sijimali and Kuturmali mountains.

So far, 94 people have been named and booked for attempt to murder. 200 unnamed people have also been charged, with 9 of them booked under UAPA.

Tribal organisations, including Mulniwasi Samajsevak Sangh (MSS), have pushed for the revocation of an amendment to the forest laws, enacted in July 2023, that allow the Government of India to lease forestland to the two companies without seeking consent from the gram sabha — a local governance model to address the grievances of villages impacted by mining. Activists in the area say that the two mining projects would lead to the displacement of 180 villages and over 200,000 tribal people, calling it state-sponsored terror.

The organisation also demanded the withdrawal of the cases against the tribal youths, who have been charged with offences such as attempt to murder and under UAPA.

In another case of targeted violence against the MSS, on 23rd August 2023, Chattisgarh police abducted Abhi Sadapelli and Dasa Kora without arrest procedures. According to the activists, after they were picked up they were taken to a big house where they were chained, kicked and subjected to torture for three days by police officials. They were interrogated in Hindi which the tribal leaders could not understand. They were not given food and were beaten by the police. On 26th August 2023, the activists were released at the border without any charges or legal procedures for arrest or detention.

In September 2023, tribal leaders reached Delhi to register their dissent against the allocation of mining leases in forest lands to private companies. The MSS held a press meeting in Delhi in which they discussed the ongoing movement in Niyamgiri and the police repression in the state.

On 17th October 2023, Odisha’s Rayagada district administration held a public hearing for Vedanta Limited’s proposed Sijimali bauxite mining project, amid protests. More than 150 armed police personnel were present and several people were denied entry to the venue even as the Rayagada district administration claimed that the views of both sides were taken into consideration.

Coordinated raids on activists across 62 locations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

Officials of the National Investigating Agency (NIA) coordinated raids in 62 locations across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on 2nd October 2023 at the homes of human rights activists and researchers.

One such raid was carried out at the house of a senior lawyer and rights activist Durba Suresh Kumar. Suresh is also a member of the Indian Association of People’s Lawyers.

Of the 62 locations raided, 53 are in Andhra Pradesh and nine are in Telangana. Along with the raids on 2nd October, the NIA also arrested one Chandra Narasimhulu, allegedly a state executive committee member of the Pragathiseela Karmika Samakya (PKS), an alleged front organisation of the banned CPI (Maoist). Narasimhulu was arrested from Satya Sai district in Andhra Pradesh. Along with his arrest, the NIA claimed to have found a pistol, 14 rounds of ammunition, and Rs 13 lakhs (USD 15, 616) in a case from another spot in Kadapa district. Maoist literature and pamphlets were also seized, the NIA has claimed.

Most of those raided were unsure if they were being looked at as suspects or witnesses in the case. The house of K. Sudha, a state executive committee member of Human Rights Forum (HRF), was also raided. Sudha, who teaches at a state law university, said the NIA has taken her phone away.

The two other persons whose houses were raided while they were away are HRF’s AP state general secretary Y. Rajesh in Amalapuram and the organisation’s state vice-president K.V. Jagannadha Rao in Srikakulam.

Besides HRF and IAPL, houses of members of the Civil Liberties Committee (CLC), the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) and the Revolutionary Writers’ Association (RWA) were also raided, among others.

Peaceful Assembly

Protest on Palestine met with arrests

On 17th October 2023, at least 60 people, including students, were detained by the Delhi police for organising a pro-Palestine demonstration. The police alleged that the students did not have prior permission for the protest. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly expressed his support for Israel despite India having backed the Palestinian cause historically. Opposition leaders have reiterated their support for Palestinians and passed a resolution recently which called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Similarly, in Mumbai, two members belonging to the Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India (RWIP) were arrested by the Mumbai police for holding a protest in support of Palestine without prior permission, after four persons were pre-emptively detained for seeking permission to hold a protest. The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Maharashtra, released a statement condemning the arrests. In the statement PUCL observed that, “section 332 and 353 of the Indian Penal Code are being rampantly misapplied and misused against civilian protesters, journalists and activists in the course of exercising their fundamental rights and performing their fundamental duties, and also creating hurdles in their legislative work and democratic expression.”