'Anti-India' social media posts could cost your passport, says Uttarakhand police chief
Police forces in the Indian states of Uttarakhand and Bihar have warned citizens that criticising the government on social media or participating in protests could disqualify them from government jobs, bank loans and even obtaining passports.
The Uttarakhand police chief, Ashok Kumar, announced at a conference last week that the force would scrutinise social media for "anti-national" posts and that people found to be "habitually" posting such content could be refused applications for passports or arms licences. His warning came a day after a similar announcement by SK Singhal, the top police official in Bihar, who said people who joined protests could be blocked from various services including government jobs, grants and contracts.
Critics say the moves are an attempt by India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to stamp out dissent and are the latest example of how freedom of speech and the democratic right to protest have been whittled away under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Uttarakhand is ruled by the BJP, while Bihar is ruled by a coalition of the BJP and the Janata Dal (United) or JUD.
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The moves come amid rising anger at Modi's heavy handed response to protests by farmers, thousands of whom have been staging a sit-in along Delhi's borders to demand the government repeal new laws that will deregulate crop pricing and, farmers believe, leave them too vulnerable to competition from large corporations and market forces.
Modi's government has responded by arresting protesters and journalists, alleging foreign meddling and blocking internet access in areas where demonstrators gathered.
Political analyst Arati Jerath warned democracy itself was in peril, saying India had not seen such a crackdown since Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in 1975, jailing her opponents and muzzling the media.
"The government is feeling besieged and challenged by street protests on various issues like the 2019 citizenship law that discriminated against Muslims in 2019 and now the farmer protests," she said, referring to the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act that fast-tracked refugee status for only non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"[The BJP] has resorted to a sledgehammer approach to stifle uncomfortable voices," she said.
Critics say the BJP has adopted an aggressive "us and them" mindset in which all dissenters are tagged as enemies; party figures have dubbed outspoken academics as "seditionists", Muslims against the citizenship law as "jihadis", and farmers - most of whom are Sikh - as "religious separatists".
Several journalists were accused of sedition last week for their coverage of the farmers' protest.
One of them, Rajdeep Sardesai, was apparently targeted because he had reported on live television, incorrectly, that a police bullet had killed a farmer on January 26 when a splinter group of protesters broke away from the main rally and entered Delhi.
Sardesai later withdrew the claim after the police denied shooting anyone, but has been charged with "spreading misinformation".
A colleague of Hartosh Singh Bal, political editor of Caravan magazine, was also charged with sedition. Writing in The Guardian, Bal wrote: "If honest reporting from the ground can be treated as 'sedition' then there may soon be little serious journalism left in India."
Opposition politicians have taken to taunting Modi, claiming that the farmer protests - the first significant challenge to his authority since he came to power in 2014 - have left him in the grip of "paranoia".
Both BJP ministers and Modi himself have claimed international conspiracies are aimed at tarnishing the government's image. Modi's latest reference to such a "conspiracy" came during a speech in Assam and appeared to be a response to tweets from pop star Rihanna and environmentalist Greta Thunberg in support of the farmers.
Security forces have barricaded the farmers into the three sites they occupy on the border with the Indian capital.
Row upon row of cement walls, rods, spikes, barriers, and barbed ware are keeping them out of New Delhi.
"I don't think we have this level of fortification even on our borders with Pakistan and China. Why does he treat us like the enemy instead of talking to us? My nephew is a soldier defending the country's borders yet I am not allowed to enter my own capital?" said Satwant Singh Grewal, a farmer at the Singhu site.
Indian farmers at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, in India. Photo: AFP
Critics trace the BJP's heavy handed tactics back to its suppression of the demonstrations against the citizenship law in 2019. In an unprecedented move, Yogi Adityanath, the BJP chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, imposed massive fines on Muslim men who allegedly vandalised public and police property during the demonstrations. Those unable to pay the fine had their property confiscated. This, said Adityanath, was his "revenge".
Some 300 to 400 Muslim men, mostly poor, are now fighting these cases in the courts. At the time, critics had attacked the fines and confiscations as a form of intimidation to warn Indians against street protests.
Jerath warned the government that its heavy handedness was only making matters worse.
"The government [thinks it] must stoop to conquer or else its authority will weaken," said Jerath, adding that the "consequences for the country's unity and stability are worrying".
Jerath pointed out that activism continued. "Look at the farmers braving police heavy handedness," Jerath said.
"The sledgehammer approach isn't working."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2021. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
