(Asian Independent)- The International Coalition for Justice in India (ICJI) was formed in August 2021 at the initiative of concerned individuals in the UK, Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. Our concern centred on the diminishing democratic space in India. While this deterioration has existed in India for decades, it has escalated in the past few years since the coming to power of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government under Narendra Modi. Armed with a lethal majority in parliament, this regime imposed a sudden demonetisation in late 2016, which caused untold misery to millions who saw their life’s savings and livelihood disappear before their eyes. In 2020, the regime revoked Articles 370 and 35A of India’s Constitution, stealing from the people of Kashmir their right to self-determination. Prior to this Modi’s governing party, acting to fulfil its long-term objective, rooted in Hindutva, brought into force the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA), which openly discriminates against the Muslim population of India. This law is designed to take away the right to citizenship of all Muslims who have lived in India for generations and of those people from the poorer sections of the population who are unable provide documentary evidence that the land they live on is their ancestral heritage. This government has also continued previous policies of globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation. This regime is greatly expanding the privatisation of nation’s assets, including mines. Coupled with the watering down and violation of environmental laws and historical Adivasi land rights, which is deepening the indiscriminate mining by corporate industrialists with due disregard to the mass displacement of the indigenous peoples. Entire communities and ways of life are being systematically destroyed. Also in 2020, this government brought in new agri-business legislation that are clearly designed to push small and medium farmers (who form the majority of India’s agricultural sector) off their lands and give that to multinational corporations.
All the above anti-people acts of the regime have been met with formidable resistance from the Indian people. Before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw the historic Shaheen Bagh anti-CAA resistance movement in Delhi, that was started by women mostly from marginalised Muslim communities. The unprecedented farmers’ resistance against the farm laws is now over a year old and still going strong. And of course resistance is still on-going in Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland, etc. In addition there is growing anti-caste resistance by Dalits/Bahujans against the increase in caste atrocities as well as injustice in everyday caste discrimination issues, such as the reduction in reservation opportunities. At the same time the Adivasi people of India have been fighting to protect their jal, jangal and jameen (waters, forests and land) in, for instance, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh.
All these resistance movements have resulted in unprecedented phenomenon: the unleashing of large-scale systematic repression via the police, paramilitary and the armed force security agencies (e.g. the planting of Pegasus software in mobile devices of ordinary citizens ranging from politicians to human rights defenders and family members). This repression is supplemented by crowds of Hindutva supporters who freely use violence in various ways: love-jihad (war against inter-religious marriages), gow-raksha (protecting the cow) and ghar-vapsi (“converting back” into the Hindu fold). This includes people who may never have had a connection to Hinduism, such as Adivasis. All forms of protests and expressions of dissent are being stamped out with brute force. Thousands are arbitrarily imprisoned under various draconian laws such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), under which a person can be incarcerated for months to years without trial or bail. Amongst those arrested under this law are the well-known Bhima Koregaon 16. Of these, 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy who had Parkinson’s disease died in custody in July 2021 ,after contracting Covid, in an overcrowded prison that seriously lacks medical facilities.
The ICJI held its third meeting on 15 October 2021. Participating groups and organisations included International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India), India Matters UK (IMUK), Anti-Caste Discrimination Alliance (ACDA), Indian Workers’ Association UK (IWA UK), The Foundation The London Story (FTLS) Amnesty International members the from UK, Germany, Italy and USA and the Amnesty International Germany (IndienKoGruppe). ICJI also includes Scottish Indians for Justice in India, London Mining Network UK and Solifonds, Switzerland. The participants resolved to continue working together to highlight the human rights violations in India, including the situation of Indian political prisoners held in captivity for expressing their beliefs and decent that is their Constitutional right.
