UN experts slam India’s ‘heavy-handed’ crackdown on youth-led protests
Here's the latest protest news from across India:
United Nations’ experts have criticised the Indian police’s “heavy-handed” response to youth-led protests in Delhi and elsewhere over the past three months, urging authorities to protect peaceful agitations and ensure justice for alleged rights violations during these and earlier demonstrations.
Adding to this, Security personnel detain a National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) worker during their protest against the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, demanding his resignation near the NSUI headquarters, in New Delhi. (ANI) “This crackdown reflects a broader, troubling pattern,” the experts shared in a note issued in Geneva on Tuesday. “We have repeatedly alerted the Indian authorities to undue restrictions on peaceful assembly, excessive use of force, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and the targeting of student activists, amongst others.”
Meanwhile, There was no immediate reaction from the Indian government or authorities at the time of filing this report.
Notably, The statement comes as the protests, which began over government decisions on the education system, have widened into a sustained challenge to the Union government. The latest trigger is the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
As per the latest buzz, The experts shared the SIR process affects 130 million people, or 13 crore rupees, a number roughly equal to the population of Mexico. They shared those affected as per reports belong to the Muslim minority, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
In further updates, The unrest over the SIR has gathered pace since late September, after reports that two deputies of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar raised internal concerns about the exercise. The youth-led Cockroach Janta Party and student groups have sought Kumar’s resignation and a halt to the SIR exercise. They have described their latest phase of protests as “Season 2”.
On top of that, However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre and the Election Commission have denied any manipulation of the rolls, and the BJP has defended the revision as a clean-up of voter lists. Opposition parties and several independent analysts have also alleged the Muslims have been disproportionately affected, though researchers note that religion-wise data has not been published, so such estimates rest on name analysis.
India has also pushed back against international criticism. Earlier this month, the Ministry of External Affairs called a UN statement on the protests selective and an “unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of India”.
Source: Hindustan Times