Asia-Pacific

Concerns raised over credibility of India’s election as polling day approaches

UN High Commissioner Volker Türk says human rights defenders, journalists and perceived critics of government being targeted

Supporters of India's main opposition Congress party in Bengaluru this week. Photograph: Idrees Mohammed/AFP via Getty Images

Rahul Bedi in New Delhi
Fri Apr 5 2024 - 20:00

The credibility of India’s forthcoming parliamentary election has come under international scrutiny, with the UN among those voicing concerns.

Voting, spread over seven phases, begins on April 19th and ends on June 1st. The outcome will be known three days later.

The government, led by prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is seeking re-election for a third consecutive five-year term.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk recently expressed unease over what he termed “increasing restrictions on the civic space” in India.

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Addressing the Human Rights Council in Geneva last month, he said human rights defenders, journalists and perceived critics of the government were being targeted in advance of elections and expressed disquiet over hate speech and discrimination against the country’s minority communities, especially Muslims.

And while conceding that, with an electorate of more than 960 million, the Indian elections would be “unique in scale”, Mr Türk cautioned that it was important to ensure polling takes place in a “free and fair” atmosphere.

Amnesty International has said the BJP’s “crackdown on peaceful dissent and opposition parties” by the “misuse” of federal investigative and financial agencies has reached “crisis point”.

Aakar Patel, chairperson of Amnesty International India, said Indian authorities had repeatedly “exploited” and “weaponised’” financial and terrorism laws to systematically crack down on human rights activists, political opponents, non-profit organisations, journalists, students and academics. In a statement in March, he also criticised the “systematic discrimination” against religious minorities.

The US and Germany have criticised the recent arrest of Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of the opposition Aam Admi Party (AAP) on charges of alleged corruption.

Mr Kejriwal, whose party is a formidable rival to the BJP, has been jailed until April 14th pending his legal appeal for release. Two of his former ministerial colleagues are in prison awaiting trial on corruption charges

US state department spokesman Matthew Miller has said Washington has taken note of claims by India’s main opposition Congress party that its accounts had been frozen by income tax authorities at the government’s behest, posing it a challenge to effectively campaign in the elections.

Tax officials said this week that they would desist from taking “coercive steps” with regard to the Congress party’s funds until after the elections.

India has reacted strongly to all censure over its elections, rejecting it as unwarranted and not reflective of the reality of the world’s largest democracy.

“I don’t need the UN to tell me our elections should be free and fair,” external affairs minister S Jaishankar told reporters in the southern Kerala state on Thursday. “I have the people of India, who will ensure that elections are free and fair,” he added.

Earlier, India’s foreign ministry summoned senior German and US diplomats and berated them for making “completely unacceptable” statements regarding India’s internal affairs with respect to its elections.

“In diplomacy, states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others,” its said in a statement.

In the meantime, a six-member independent panel monitoring the elections has raised a concerns about the election commission, responsible for conducting the polls and ensuring a “level playing field for political parties”.

In its pre-election report the panel claimed that citizen groups across the country were worried that the elections would not be free and fair, and that in specific regions there are concerns over the possible exclusion of vulnerable groups – such as Muslims and low-caste Dalits – from voting.

The panel also expressed concern over the election commission’s “persistent refusal” to address possible flaws in the electronic voting machines and the BJP’s propensity to “monopolise” social media through its vast financial resources and perpetuate religious polarisation for electoral gain.

Rahul Bedi

Rahul Bedi

Rahul Bedi is a contributor to The Irish Times based in New Delhi

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