Global rights group warns of worsening democratic freedoms in India

NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — India has been added to an international watchlist of countries experiencing a rapid decline in civic freedoms, with global rights monitor CIVICUS warning that the government has intensified its crackdown on activists, journalists and civil society organizations during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term.

The latest CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist cites what it describes as an accelerating erosion of the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association.

The global watchdog said India now joins Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Ecuador and Georgia as countries where civic space is deteriorating significantly.

CIVICUS currently classifies India as “Repressed,” the second-lowest rating on its five-tier scale, indicating severe restrictions on fundamental civil liberties.

The organization said authorities have increasingly relied on India’s anti-terror law and other legal measures to prosecute critics, while expanding pressure on independent media outlets and nongovernmental organizations.

According to the report, authorities have intensified action against activists and rights defenders in recent months.

It cited the detention of 11 activists — including students, labor rights advocates and anti-displacement campaigners — in March, alleging they were taken into custody by plainclothes police officers without arrest warrants or notification to their families.

Some detainees were allegedly subjected to torture or other forms of ill-treatment while in custody.

The watchdog also highlighted the continued use of India’s anti-terror law against activists, pointing to renewed investigations in the long-running Bhima Koregaon case and the continued imprisonment of activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, who have remained behind bars since 2020 after repeatedly being denied bail.

CIVICUS further expressed concern over what it described as increasing restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly.

It cited allegations of excessive police force during factory workers’ protests in Noida in April, where hundreds of demonstrators were detained, as well as the July 20 crackdown on youth-led protests demanding reforms to India’s education and employment systems.

“The Indian government has systematically expanded its use of draconian anti-terror laws to silence dissent,” CIVICUS Asia-Pacific researcher Josef Benedict said in a statement.

“When human rights defenders can spend years entangled in legal proceedings for their activism and exercising their fundamental freedoms, the process itself becomes a form of punishment.”

The organization also warned that independent journalism is facing mounting pressure. It cited the imprisonment of investigative journalist Ravi Nair in a criminal defamation case, an anti-terror investigation targeting the digital news outlet TeluguScribe, and an attack on the offices of Assamese newspaper Asomiya Pratidin following its criticism of the Assam state government.

Beyond legal action against journalists, CIVICUS said the government is pursuing regulatory changes that could significantly expand its ability to censor independent media.

It also pointed to the recent ban on the film Satluj, based on the life of slain human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, less than two days after its release.

The report further criticized amendments to India’s law regulating foreign funding for nongovernmental organizations, saying the changes expand government control over organizations whose foreign funding licenses have been revoked while imposing additional operational restrictions that could further limit the work of independent civil society groups.

CIVICUS said restrictions remain particularly severe in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, where authorities continue to prosecute human rights defenders and journalists under India’s anti-terror law while restricting internet access and targeting online platforms that document alleged rights violations.