Addressing the council on March 4, Monday, Türk spoke about the need to foster an open and inclusive environment, especially as the nation gets ready for the upcoming general elections. He also began by acknowledging India’s history of secularism and democratic ethos, and further expressed his concerns over the growing limitations imposed on civic space. He highlighted that fact that India has over 960 million voters present, it would be an event of huge magnitude. He also highlighted the growing concerns over anti-Muslim and anti-minority hate speech in India, “With an electorate of 960 million people, the coming election will be unique in scale. I appreciate the country’s secular and democratic traditions and its great diversity. I am, however, concerned by increasing restrictions on the civic space – with human rights defenders, journalists and perceived critics targeted, as well as by hate speech and discrimination against minorities, especially Muslims.”
He further continued, speaking on the recent Supreme Court ruling on electoral bonds wherein the electoral bonds were declared as unconstitutional, “It is particularly important in a pre-electoral context to ensure an open space that respects the meaningful participation of everyone. I welcome the Supreme Court’s decision last month on campaign finance schemes, upholding the right to information and transparency.”
The Indian government has in turn called the concerns raised over India’s electoral process are “unwarranted.” In response, while addressing the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ambassador Arindam Bagchi said “We thank the High Commissioner for his global update. We have noted his comments about our forthcoming general elections. However, his concerns in this regard are unwarranted and do not reflect the reality of the largest democracy in the world. We have no doubt that as in numerous occasions in the past, the Indian people will freely exercise their vote to choose a government that they believe can best give voice and flight to their aspirations.”
The latter response by the Indian government is being hailed in several sections of the Indian media as a strong and bold response by the government.
On February 8, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that the BJP led Indian government is deploying the use of ‘abusive’ foreign funding laws in the country and making unfounded financial investigations, and using various tactics to conduct unjustified targeting of civil society organisations. In the statement the HRW argues that there has been an arbitrary application of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) against non-profit entities which is ‘politically motivated’. The statement argues that such instances and abuse of laws can undermine India’s democracy.
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