Srinagar: While deeming India as a ‘Dangerous Place for Minorities’, the South Asia State of Minorities report has noted that Muslim-majority Kashmir—where regressive constitutional changes in August 2019 were accompanied by a communication blackout, mass detentions, and a movement lockdown—demonstrates “how civic space can be sought to be completely erased, within a formal democratic framework”.
It said that civic space in conflict-affected Kashmir has always been restricted. Authorities have relied on extraordinary laws, including the Public Safety Act (PSA) and the UAPA, to detain activists and protesters, imposed Section 144 of CrPC indiscriminately, and frequently resorted to internet shutdowns, recording at least 180 instances of internet blockades since 2012. They have also used ‘less-lethal’ as well as lethal weapons, including pellet guns and live bullets, against protesters including children and also mentioned the impunity enjoyed by forces under Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
It, however, pointed out that attacks on ‘basic freedoms’ since August 5, 2019 were unprecedented. Depriving Kashmir of its nominal autonomy and removing Article 35A, taking away guarantees for the state’s indigenous population have beena long-standing RSS-BJP agenda, for forcible integration of the restive state, over which India has fought several wars and the UN’s role has been invoked.
The report further pointed out, “To give effect to the changes and prevent dissent, the authorities took a slew of measures that effectively erased civic space in the state. The revocation of the constitutional provisions, preceded by the mobilisation of thousands of Indian security forces into the region, was accompanied by suspension of all modes of communication, including landline and mobile phones, a press clampdown, largescale arrests and detentions, and lockdown of all movement. These measures led Freedom House in its 2020 report to rate Kashmir as ‘Not Free’ giving it a score of 28 out of 100 (compared to 49 in 2019 when it was marked ‘partly free’).
It also pointed out that “there seems a concerted campaign by the authorities to prevent publication of any news that might be construed as being in opposition to the official line. Several journalists have been booked over the past months, all under UAPA provisions: for posting ‘incriminating material’, for publishing ‘fake news’, and for ‘glorifying terrorism’.”
Freedom of press has come under serious threat, with the government announcing a ‘media policy’, it pointed out.
The Minorities Report has also stated that abrogation of Article 370 was followed by ‘preventive’ detention of thousands of persons, particularly politicians, community leaders, business associations, civil society members, and the youth. “The idea, it seems, was to remove, at one go, the entire civic leadership of the state, and anyone able to influence public opinion, organise populations, and raise voice,” it noted with grave concern.
It pointed out that the number of detained is close to 8,000, many arrested under PSA including youth and minors.
It added that mass detention has resulted in the near-total suspension of all political activity in Kashmir. A senior politician and former state minister, recently released from preventive detention under the PSA after nine months, claimed he was repeatedly asked to quit political activity in exchange for freedom from detention, it noted and added that the months following the abrogation have also seen a ban on gatherings, both political and religious.
The report also noted that the right to peaceful assembly in Kashmir “has become virtually nonexistent”, where authorities continue to impose regular curfews and lockdowns. “Pellet firing shotguns and other less-lethal and lethal weapons continue to be used with impunity against civilians in Kashmir,” the report added.
“Muslims Kashmir have also come under renewed, state-led attack and a complete erasure of civil and political rights,” the report said. However, the report added, civic space in conflict-affected Kashmir has always been restricted, the “most recent round of attacks on ‘basic freedoms’ were, however, quite unlike anything before in their being all-encompassing and systematic”.
The reports Kashmir’s findings are part of an audit of condition of minorities in South Asia. The plight of Muslim minorities in India including in Kashmir forms a major part of the report.
The Minorities Report noted, “The most alarming recent example of democratic backsliding has been in India, where the rise to power of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after general elections in 2014 has led to the hardening of authoritarian tendencies … in the highly militarised Indian-administered Kashmir, [the] civic space has now been almost completely erased after the revocation of the region’s limited autonomy in August 2019.”
South Asia State of Minorities Report 2020 also stated that India has become a “dangerous and violent space for Muslim minorities” ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government introduced amendments to the Citizenship Act last year, reported Scroll.
The annual report looks at the status of civic space and personal liberties accessible to citizens, especially minorities, living in South Asian countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
It said that while civic space is under threat the world over, India’s case was unique in terms of the “alarming setbacks” that have “taken place at an extraordinary pace, over the span of a few years”.
The report said that the BJP assuming power nationally in 2014 “unveiled a new and now frontal attack on religious minorities and other vulnerable groups. This has had a chilling effect on civic space for Muslims and Muslim-community-based organisations and activists specifically,” it added.
The report stated: “Hate crimes against minorities have seen a spike – taking the form of mob lynching and vigilante violence against Muslims, Christians, and Dalits. BJP also strengthened and expanded a series of discriminatory laws and measures that target religious minorities. These include anti-conversion laws, blamed by human rights groups for empowering Hindutva groups to ‘conduct campaigns of harassment, social exclusion and violence against Christians, Muslims, and other religious minorities across the country’. Laws ostensibly meant for the protection of cows continue to provide institutional backing for similar campaigns against Muslims and Dalits.”
However, the situation has “exacerbated significantly” since BJP returned to power with a “brute majority” in May 2019, the report said. In quick succession, it enacted a slew of measures aimed at signalling to Muslims “particularly its will to brutally subjugate”, it added. As per the report by Scroll, which quoted the report, the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, which regulates foreign donations to entities in India, has been “further weaponised against progressive and minority NGOs”.
Besides, human rights defenders have increasingly come under attack for “protesting discriminatory laws and practices have faced restrictions, violence, criminal defamation, detention and harassment”, the report said. Web Desk
