- Thursday, February 27, 2025
A piece in Human Rights Watch (HRW) said “it is deeply concerning that France should celebrate the ideas of liberty and equality with a leader whom many criticize for undermining democracy in India”.
By: Shubham Ghosh
WHILE the Indian and French leaderships were looking forward to prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Paris where he will attend the Bastille Day celebrations as the guest of honour, questions were also being raised by human rights observers about the visit.
A piece in Human Rights Watch (HRW) penned by Philippe Bolopion and published on Tuesday (11) said “it is deeply concerning that France should celebrate the ideas of liberty and equality with a leader whom many criticize for undermining democracy in India”.
While the article conceded that India is an important geopolitical player, it also said that Paris’s own shortcomings in addressing race-based discrimination should not stop president Emmanuel Macron from expressing concerns in public about the Asian nation’s “growing human rights crisis”.
“In May, Hindu ultranationalist groups in India’s northern Uttarakhand state began an intimidation campaign against Muslims, demanding they close their businesses and leave town. These groups, affiliated to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in power at both the state and national levels, posted eviction notices outside Muslim-owned shops. During one of the demonstrations, crowds turned violent and vandalized Muslim shops. At least a dozen Muslim families reportedly fled the town in fear,” the HRW piece said, adding that instead of calming down communal tensions or protecting Muslims from violence, the state’s chief minister from the BJP fuelled conspiracy theories.
The piece said such incidents symbolise “systematic targeting of religious minorities, especially Muslims and Christians”, since Modi first became the prime minister in 2014.
It added that officials of the BJP have frequently issued hate-filled allegations against Muslims, Christians and other communities that are vulnerable, provoking violence by BJP supporters who are allegedly shielded from accountability by the law-keepers.
The Modi government also uses technology to curb rights, the HRW article said. According to it, the government passed a regulation to restrict free speech online more and continues to impose the highest number of internet shutdowns purposefully. Such actions are often taken to prevent anti-government protests or in response to them.
The piece said Macron has not spoken out on India’s human rights situation and cautioned that Paris should not do the same mistakes it did with China in the past when it pursued deeper trade engagement with the Asian nation but sidelined its human rights records.
“This sent the message that France cared little about the Chinese government’s efforts to suppress the rights of its citizens, inside and outside the country,” it said.
“The least Macron could do is to encourage his Indian counterpart to correct course to ensure all Indians are able to live with dignity and without fear, regardless of their caste, ethnicity, religion, gender, or political beliefs. And he should make clear that all Indians should be free to express their views online and beyond. Failing to do so would be an offense to the spirit of the French national holiday, and let down the many Indians who are striving bravely for their human rights,” it added.
