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Category: Context

Will anti-Naxal drive pave way for mining giants?

Will anti-Naxal drive pave way for mining giants?

The New Indian Express / by Gurbir Singh

Is the government campaign aimed at ‘finishing off’ the extremists, or are the larger goals to open up central India’s mineral and natural resources for exploitation? Or both?
… Over the years, Maoists, NGOs and even priests like Stan Swamy have mobilized these tribal communities to resist corporate expansion. The state forces, on the other hand, have intervened to crush the protests.
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Also read:
▪ Three years after Stan Swamy’s death in custody, activists recall his contributions to Adivasi cause (Scroll.in / Jul 2024)
▪ Jharkhand police to probe into Maoist links with Stan Swamy’s ‘Bagaicha’, 63 other frontal organisations (The New Indian Express / Sep 2023)
▪ Statement against the drone bomb attacks in Chhattisgarh, India (India Matters / April 2023)
▪ DISINHERITING ADIVASIS – THE GADCHIROLI GAME PLAN (KAFILA / June 2018)
▪ The legal face of corporate land grab in Chhattisgarh (India Environmental Portal | by Sudha Bharadwaj | Feb 2018)
▪ Mining In Gadchiroli – Building A Castle Of Injustices (Countercurrents | by Neema Pathak Broome and Mahesh Raut | June 2017)

Today, Emergency Rules! / Police torture, ill-treatment make India ‘high risk’: Report

Today, Emergency Rules! / Police torture, ill-treatment make India ‘high risk’: Report

Fifty Years Later… Today, Emergency Rules!

27/06/2025

Countercurrents / by Frederic Prakash

It was fifty years ago! The nation will and should never forget that dark, infamous night of 25/26 June 1975, when, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a state of emergency all over the country, citing internal and external disturbances! That terrible chapter of the country’s history lasted for a full twenty-one-month period till 21 March 1977. … Ironically and tragically, fifty years later…today, emergency still rules!
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India’s Social Regression Under Modi’s Eleven Years May Not Be Mendable

26/06/2025

The Wire / by Anand Teltumbde

While much has been written about the Modi regime’s economic failures and diplomatic missteps, the most insidious damage lies elsewhere – in the corrosion of India’s socio-cultural fabric.
… This damage is evident in the erosion of the country’s pluralistic ethos and the hardening of its deepest societal fault lines. A comparative glance at key social indicators from the pre-2014 era to the present reveals a sharp regression into communal majoritarianism, anti-intellectualism and institutionalised discrimination.
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Police torture, ill-treatment make India ‘high risk’: Report

25/06/2025

Newslaundry / by NL Team

India was among the 26 countries assessed by the World Organization.
India has been ranked a “high-risk” country for torture and ill-treatment in the World Organization Against Torture’s first Global Torture Index 2025 that was released on Wednesday.
… Prominent cases include the Bhima Koregaon trial and the continued incarceration of Kashmiri activist Khurram Parvez. The report also raises concern over reprisals against activists monitoring public protests, from anti-Sterlite demonstrators to farmers’ agitations.
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Read India report: INDIA – COUNTRY FACTSHEET 2025 (World Organization Against Torture / Jun 2025)

India among the eight worst countries in the world for torture

26/06/2025

Asia News / by Nirmala Carvalho

The report was presented in Geneva by the World Organisation Against Torture. There were 2,739 deaths in prison in 2024, an increase on the previous year.
… The report also highlights the persecution of human rights defenders as a major concern in India. ‘Torture is used as a weapon to silence them,’ Tiphagne said. He cited the case of Khurram Parvez, who has been in prison for over four years, and the defendants in the Bhima Koregaon case, who are still being held without trial.
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Democracy in Retreat: The Real Legacy of Modi’s Rule

Democracy in Retreat: The Real Legacy of Modi’s Rule

Daily Pioneer / by Pawan Khera

Eleven years after Narendra Modi’s rise in 2014, with promises of “Achhe Din” and a transformed India, the nation stands at a crossroads. Expectations of a global powerhouse and inclusive democracy have been replaced by broken promises, manipulated data, and a Government obsessed with optics over outcomes.
…
Civil liberties have declined since 2014. Freedom House rated India “Partly Free,” and V-Dem calls it an “electoral autocracy.” The 2025 World Press Freedom Index ranks India 151st of 180, citing journalist harassment. The ED registered 193 cases against political leaders from 2015 to 2025, with 95 per cent of CBI probes targeting opposition figures. The NIA’s questionable evidence in Bhima Koregaon, coupled with low UAPA (3 per cent) and PMLA (0.4 per cent) conviction rates, shows detention over justice. 
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Also read:
▪ Will anti-Naxal drive pave way for mining giants? (The Indian Express / Jun 2025)
▪ Congress has a UAPAwakening: Law parent cries ‘dangerous misuse’ (The Telegraph / Jun 2025)
▪ India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space (CIVICUS / Jul 2024)
▪ India’s Hindu Nationalist Project Relies on Brutal Repression (Jacobinmag / April 2021)

Congress has a UAPAwakening: Law parent cries ‘dangerous misuse’ / The Opposition’s Silence

Congress has a UAPAwakening: Law parent cries ‘dangerous misuse’ / The Opposition’s Silence

Congress has a UAPAwakening: Law parent cries ‘dangerous misuse’

12/06/2025

The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent

Khera mentioned the Bhima Koregaon case, the Delhi riots conspiracy, and the action on web portal NewsClick and other instances of journalists and activists facing arrest under the UAPA
The Congress on Wednesday skewered the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, alleging that the Narendra Modi government had weaponised it to stifle dissent and deny justice, but in the process starkly bared the irony that the party had itself passed the law and inserted the provisions that it now finds “draconian” and vulnerable to “dangerous misuse”.
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Modi govt using laws like UAPA to stifle dissent: Congress

11/06/2025

Deccan Herald / by PTI

Anand Teltumbde, Nodeep Kaur, and Mahesh Raut were arrested under UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon case
The Congress on Wednesday accused the Modi government of stifling dissent and said the “dangerous misuse” of laws like the UAPA to threaten free expression is part of the BJP’s broader attack on the Constitution.
“Under the Modi government, law has increasingly been used to stifle dissent and delay justice. Between 2014 and 2022, 8,719 UAPA cases yielded only a 2.55% conviction rate, exposing its misuse to target critics, students, journalists, and activists,” Congress’ media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said in a post on X.
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The Opposition’s Silence Has Let the BJP Diminish India’s Political Discourse

06/06/2025

The Wire / by Sarayu Pani

Today, the opposition faces a choice – they can either continue to allow the boundaries of political engagement in the country to be decided by the ruling party or they can ground their opposition in democratic principles.
… A vast majority of these instances have not been rhetorically resisted by the political opposition to the BJP. In 2019, for example, the Congress voted in favour of amendments that dangerously broadened the scope of the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in the Rajya Sabha.  Few opposition political parties have stood in clear solidarity with the detainees of either the Bhima Koregaon case or the Delhi riots conspiracy case.
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Also read:
▪ Maharashtra’s redrafted Public Security Bill narrows scope — but concerns about suppression of dissent persist (CJP / June 2025)
▪ India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space (CIVICUS / Jul 2024)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report
▪ India’s Hindu Nationalist Project Relies on Brutal Repression (Jacobinmag / April 2021)
▪ A Dalit trade union activist and her fight for equal rights: A profile of Nodeep Kaur (The Polis Project / March 2021)

Why Bela Trivedi retired from Supreme Court as a deeply unpopular judge

Why Bela Trivedi retired from Supreme Court as a deeply unpopular judge

Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project

Scroll.in / by Vineet Bhalla

Over her four-year tenure in the court, Trivedi developed a reputation for rarely granting bail, locking horns with lawyers, and favouring the BJP.
Trivedi was elevated to the Supreme Court from the Gujarat High Court in August 2021. According to a study by the Supreme Court Observer, till October 2024, almost 40% of the judgements authored by her as a Supreme Court judge were in criminal law matters – an unusually large number.
Her track record in many of these showed that she went against the oft-repeated adage by the Supreme Court that “bail is the rule, jail is the exception”.
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Also read:
▪ Ex-DU prof Hany Babu withdraws bail plea in Supreme Court (Hindustan Times / May 2024)
▪ Contrary To SC’s Rules Of Assignment, At Least 8 Politically Sensitive Cases Moved To One Judge In 4 Months (article 14 / Dec 2023)
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ When Push Comes to Shove: Tracking Judicial Recusals and Transfers (The Wire / Apr 2023)
▪ Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)
▪ Ten recusals in Bhima Koregaon raises the question: Should judges disclose reasons for withdrawal? (Scroll.in / May 2022)

What NHRC’s Downgrade Means For Indian Masses?

What NHRC’s Downgrade Means For Indian Masses?

Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project

Newsclick / by Edgar Kaiser

The downgrading of NHRC captured perfectly the many qualms civil society has had with how the institution has been run for several years.
… A reflection on this sad status reminds us of NHRC’s screeching silence on the death of Fr. Stan Swamy and Prof. G.N. Saibaba, on the fate of hundreds of political prisoners incarcerated following the CAA protests and the Kashmir unrest and on the Manipur riots. 
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Also read:
▪ India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space (CIVICUS /Jul 2024)
Read/download full submission
▪ Why the NHRC is failing in the mother of democracy (National Herald / May 2024)
▪ Medical Negligence: NHRC Seeks Action Taken Report from Taloja Jail on Stan Swamy (The Wire / Jul 2021)
▪ Joint Letter to the NHRC of India: Request to raise serious concerns over the crackdown on human rights defenders in India (World Organisation Against Torture / Nov 2020)
▪ NHRC Asks Maharashtra Govt To Give Best Possible Treatment To Varavara Rao In A Reputed Private Super Speciality Hospital (Live Law / Jul 2020)
▪ NHRC issues notices to chief secretary, police chief of Maharashtra for arrest of activists (Scroll.in / Aug 2018)

WhatsApp wins Rs 1,400 crore as US Jury finds NSO Group liable for Pegasus spyware attacks

WhatsApp wins Rs 1,400 crore as US Jury finds NSO Group liable for Pegasus spyware attacks

Illustration credits: The Wire

India TV News / by Om Gupta

In 2019, WhatsApp informed more than 1,400 individuals across 20 countries after it discovered that these users were targeted by Pegasus spyware attacks. The list also included many victims in India.
… in 2019, WhatsApp alerted several individuals in India about possible monitoring of their devices. Among those notified were human rights activist Bela Bhatia and lawyer Nihal Singh Rathod, who is connected to the Bhima Koregaon case. Both confirmed that they received warnings from WhatsApp, indicating that their phones had been under surveillance with advanced technology for two weeks leading up to May 2019.
Read more

Also read:
▪ US jury orders makers of Pegasus spyware to pay WhatsApp $168 million in damages (Scroll.in / May 2025)
▪ On Pegasus, SC Says ‘Nothing Wrong’ With Country Possessing Spyware, Question is Against Whom it is Used (The Wire / Apr 2025)
▪ Pegasus spyware targeted 100 WhatsApp users in India, second-highest globally (The Wire / Apr 2025)
▪ India: Damning new forensic investigation reveals repeated use of Pegasus spyware to target high-profile journalists (Amnesty.org / Dec 2023)
▪ Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / July 2021)

SC Says ‘Nothing Wrong’ With Country Possessing Spyware, Question is Against Whom it is Used

SC Says ‘Nothing Wrong’ With Country Possessing Spyware, Question is Against Whom it is Used

Poster by #bakeryprasad

On Pegasus, SC Says ‘Nothing Wrong’ With Country Possessing Spyware, Question is Against Whom it is Used

29/04/2025

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

Justice Kant said that the report of the Committee is lying sealed and even he has not seen its contents.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (April 29) made the oral observation that there is nothing inherently wrong with a country possessing spyware for security purposes; the real concern lies in against whom it is used.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh made the observations while hearing a batch of writ petitions that were filed in 2021 seeking an independent probe into allegations of targeted surveillance of journalists, activists and politicians by using the Israeli spyware Pegasus.
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SC says use of spyware not illegal, but expresses concern over alleged misuse of Pegasus

29/04/2025

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that ‘terrorists cannot claim privacy rights’.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said there was nothing wrong with India possessing spyware for national security purposes, but expressed concern about its alleged misuse against private individuals, reported Bar and Bench.
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Also read:
▪ Pegasus spyware targeted 100 WhatsApp users in India, second-highest globally (The Wire / Apr 2025)
▪ India: Damning new forensic investigation reveals repeated use of Pegasus spyware to target high-profile journalists (Amnesty.org / Dec 2023)
▪ Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists (Wired.com / June 2022)
▪ Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / July 2021)

Pegasus spyware targeted 100 WhatsApp users in India, second-highest globally

Pegasus spyware targeted 100 WhatsApp users in India, second-highest globally

Poster by #bakeryprasad

India Has Second Highest Number of WhatsApp Victims Targeted With Pegasus: US Court Documents

11/04/2025

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

The country with the most WhatsApp hacking victims is Mexico, which has 456 such people. India is second, with 100. In 2019, reports had said that WhatsApp had informed the Indian government that 121 Indian users were targeted by Pegasus.
Six years after WhatsApp told the Indian government that 121 Indian users were targeted by the Israeli spyware Pegasus, new documents exhibited in its lawsuit against malware makers NSO Group say that 100 Indians were impacted.
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Pegasus spyware targeted 100 WhatsApp users in India, second-highest globally

11/04/2025

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

WhatsApp users in 51 countries were targeted during a hacking campaign in 2019, a United States court document showed.
At least 100 of the 1,223 persons targeted using Israeli spyware Pegasus in a 2019 WhatsApp hacking campaign were located in India, Medianama reported on Thursday, citing a new legal filing in a United States court.
Read more

Also read:
▪ US Court Finds NSO Liable For Hacking Of WhatsApp Using Pegasus Malware (Live Law / Dec 2024)
▪ India: Damning new forensic investigation reveals repeated use of Pegasus spyware to target high-profile journalists (Amnesty.org / Dec 2023)
▪ Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists (Wired.com / June 2022)
▪ Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / July 2021)

Ambedkar said a Hindu Raj would be the biggest calamity to India: Anand Teltumbde

Ambedkar said a Hindu Raj would be the biggest calamity to India: Anand Teltumbde

Poster by #bakeryprasad

Frontline / by Amey Tirodkar

The leading scholar of the Dalit movement, explains how Hindutva parties use Babasaheb for political gains.
One of India’s leading public intellectuals and an authority on the Dalit movement, Anand Teltumbde, has been in the news across the country for his book on Ambedkar, Iconoclast: A Reflective Biography of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. The book offers a deep analysis of not just Ambedkar’s philosophy, but also the man he was— complex, visionary and tenacious. In this interview with Frontline, Teltumbde, brings to life Babasaheb, an icon who is now worryingly “worshipped” by several political parties and ordinary people. 
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Also read:
▪ NIA opposes Anand Teltumbde’s plea to travel abroad, cites risk of absconding (The Hindu / April 2025)
▪ Has India Ever Been a Democracy? (The Wire | Anand Teltumbde | March 2025)
▪ In Maharashtra, Fadnavis’s Foray to Capture Bhima-Koregaon (The Wire | Anand Teltumbde | Jan 2025)
▪ Bhima Koregaon Case: A glaring example of Hindutva lies (Siasat.com / Jun 2020)

▪ Iconoclast. A Reflective Biography of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar
by Anand Teltumbde


Publisher: ‎Penguin Viking
Language: ‎English
Hardcover: 700 pages
Read more/order