Since the nationalists came to power in 2014, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms are no longer guaranteed in India.
By Sophie Landrin: While in New Delhi on September 10 to celebrate the reception of the first Rafale sold to India, Florence Parly, the Minister of Defense, did not fail to salute "the largest democracy in the world". It is a ritual on the part of members of the French government. The expression is horribly overused, but, above all, it denies the political reality of the subcontinent. India is certainly the second most populous country in the world - 1.3 billion inhabitants - elections are free, but the pillars of democracy are collapsing, respect for human rights and freedoms fundamentals are no longer guaranteed.
Many signals since the nationalists came to power in 2014 could have convinced French officials that India is not, and is no longer, the greatest democracy in the world. It is at best an illiberal democracy - evidenced by the coup in Kashmir, where torture is a documented practice, the sidelining of Muslims, the rise of Hindu fanaticism, the takeover of universities, hunting. to intellectuals, the extreme concentration of power. It has not happened.
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Three days after the departure of Ms. Parly, extremely serious events suggest that India has sank this time "into the dark night of tyranny", as a brilliant Indian political scientist wrote in his latest column in the Indian Express. , Pratap Bhanu Mehta. What happened ? After six months of investigations, the Delhi police, tasked with investigating the February intercommunal violence, which had bloodied the northeastern neighborhoods of the capital, killing 53, injuring hundreds, thousands of homes and The burnt shops, mainly on the Muslim side, concluded in a conspiracy intended to destabilize the government of Narendra Modi, when he received Donald Trump.
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For the police, those responsible for these three days of terror, the most violent since the partition of the country in 1947, are not, as one might think, Hindu fanatics, but the participants in the demonstrations against the Citizenship Act, the law on citizenship. This reform, adopted in December 2019, grants naturalization to immigrants from neighboring countries, with the exception of Muslims. A text that breaks with the principles of equality and secularism enshrined in the Indian Constitution.
Criminalization of demonstrations
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