Category: Media

The New York Times recently reported that India had purchased the Pegasus software from an Israeli company, NSO, as part of the multi-billion-dollar armaments deal that included sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear. The report also said that the purchase was finalized during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel and cleared by the then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2017.

Once again, the Government officials in India kept their silence on the New York Times story. Earlier, the Supreme Court in India has ordered an independent probe into Pegasus upon a ruling that came after petitions were filed which sought an investigation into allegations of unauthorized surveillance. The Court stated while ordering the inquiry that “the mere invocation of national security by the State does not render the Court a mute spectator.”

The Court also listed several compelling circumstances that were weighed before issuing an order. The right to privacy and freedom of speech are alleged to be impacted, and the entire citizenry is affected by such allegations due to the potential chilling effect. The bench went on to say that the “right to privacy is directly infringed when there is surveillance or spying done on an individual, either by the State or by an external agency” and “if done by the State, the same must be justified on constitutional grounds .” During the hearing, the Centre had filed a brief affidavit “unequivocally” denying the allegations and said the matter involved national security concerns. The Indian Express recently reported that two Cybersecurity experts had told the Supreme Court-appointed committee on the Pegasus issue that there is concrete evidence that the application was used to spy on the petitioners.

The NSO group claims that the product it sells to government clients is intended to collect data from the mobile devices of specific individuals suspected to be involved in serious crime and terror. However, contrary to their assertion, it has been reported that this spyware has been widely misused. In response, a global consortium of more than 80 journalists from 17 media outlets in 10 countries came together under the ‘Pegasus project’ coordinated by Forbidden Stories with the technical support of Amnesty International’s Security Lab. Their findings shed light on the fact that at least 180 journalists across the globe have been selected as targets in countries like India, Mexico, Hungary, Morocco and France, and others. Potential targets also included human rights activists, academics, business people, lawyers, doctors, union leaders, diplomats, politicians, and several heads of state.

In a recent column, Siddharth Varadarajan, of ‘The Wire’ wrote further on his interaction with Ronen  Bergman of the New York Times stating that the Indian leadership showed ‘specific interest’ in and ‘specific emphasis’ on acquiring the controversial spyware. The column went on to say that the forensic tests by Amnesty International’s tech lab revealed the presence of military-grade spyware on the smartphones of several journalists, including two of the publication’s founding editors, investigative journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Sushant Singh and the leading opposition strategist Prashant Kishor. Their numbers were part of a leaked database of probable Pegasus targets, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa, and former CBI director Alok Verma.

What is Pegasus? Pegasus is a spyware that can be covertly installed on mobile phones running most versions of iOS and Android. Pegasus can be installed on the phone through vulnerabilities in common apps such as SMS, WhatsApp, iMessage, or by tricking a target into clicking a malicious link. Once installed, Pegasus can theoretically harvest any data from the device  (SMS, Emails, WhatsApp chats, photos, videos, calendar, or contacts) and transmit it back to the attacker. It could also activate a camera or a microphone, record calls, and scan the GPS data. When iPhone is compromised, it’s done in such a way that allows the attacker to obtain so-called root privileges, or administrative rights, on the device. Pegasus could easily do more than what the device owner can do.

For a long time, Israel has used the sale of sophisticated weapons as part of its broader efforts to win diplomatic successes abroad or at the United Nations. Subsequently to this agreement, India voted in favor of Israel by denying observer status at the UN’s Economic and Social Council to a Palestinian human rights organization. India has maintained a commitment to the Palestinian cause for decades, and its records at the United Nations speak for itself. This sudden about-face by India is viewed as a betrayal of the Palestinian people, and Pegasus may have a lot to do with it. It is not only India that has changed its attitude towards Israel after a Pegasus deal; a few countries, including Mexico and Panama, also appeared to have done the same. After installing Pegasus spyware in Panama City in 2012, Panama’s Government voted to oppose the United Nations decision to upgrade the status of the Palestinian delegation.

The story of Khadija Ismayilova’s story is available in the public domain. In Azerbaijan, an oil-rich nation nestled next to the Caspian Sea, has increasingly stifled free speech and dissent in the last decade. Ismayilova’s investigation into the ruling family had made her a prime target of her own Government. The authorities had thrown the book at her arresting her: surreptitiously filming her during sex, accusing her of driving a colleague to suicide, and eventually charging her with tax fraud and sentencing her to seven years in prison. However, she was released on bail after 18 months and banned from leaving the country for five years. So, in 2021, at the end of the travel ban, when Ismayilova packed away all her belongings boarded a plane to Ankara, Turkey, she may have thought she was leaving all that behind.

Little did she know the most invasive spy was coming with her. For nearly three years, Khadija Ismayilova’s phone was regularly infected with Pegasus. “All night, I have been thinking about what I did with my phone. I feel guilty for the messages I have sent. I feel guilty for the sources who sent me information thinking that some encrypted messaging ways are secure, and they didn’t know my phone was infected,” she told reporters. “My family members are also victimized. The sources are victimized, and private secrets of the people I have been working with are victimized,” she added.

There is little doubt that the use of Pegasus is an assault on the right to privacy everywhere and specifically an attack on the very fabric of Indian democracy. Undoubtedly, the Government is responsible for monitoring people involved in criminal wrongdoings, and there are established procedures involving the judiciary laid out for it. However, targeting opposition leaders, journalists, and regular citizenry for surveilling for their God-given right to express themselves is tantamount to undermining the democracy itself. This Pegasus scandal exposes the mindset of the current leadership, and it does not bode well for the future of India.

George Abraham is a former Chief Technology Officer of the United Nations and the Vice-Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, USA

Facebook in India has been selective in curbing hate speech, misinformation and inflammatory posts, particularly anti-Muslim content, according to leaked documents obtained by The Associated Press, even as the internet giant’s own employees cast doubt over its motivations and interests.

Based on research produced as recently as March of this year to company memos that date back to 2019, internal company documents on India highlight Facebook’s constant struggles in quashing abusive content on its platforms in the world’s biggest democracy and the company’s largest growth market. Communal and religious tensions in India have a history of boiling over on social media and stoking violence.

The files show that Facebook has been aware of the problems for years, raising questions over whether it has done enough to address the issues. Many critics and digital experts say it has failed to do so, especially in cases where members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party are involved. Across the world, Facebook has become increasingly important in politics, and India is no different.

Modi has been credited for leveraging the platform to his party’s advantage during elections, and reporting from The Wall Street Journal last year cast doubt over whether Facebook was selectively enforcing its policies on hate speech to avoid blowback from the BJP. Modi and Facebook chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg have exuded bonhomie, memorialized by a 2015 image of the two hugging at the Facebook headquarters.

The leaked documents include a trove of internal company reports on hate speech and misinformation in India that in some cases appeared to have been intensified by its own “recommended” feature and algorithms. They also include the company staffers’ concerns over the mishandling of these issues and their discontent over the viral “malcontent” on the platform.

According to the documents, Facebook saw India as one of the most “at risk countries” in the world and identified both Hindi and Bengali languages as priorities for “automation on violating hostile speech.” Yet, Facebook didn’t have enough local language moderators or content-flagging in place to stop misinformation that at times led to real-world violence.

In a statement to the AP, Facebook said it has “invested significantly in technology to find hate speech in various languages, including Hindi and Bengali” which “reduced the amount of hate speech that people see by half” in 2021.

“Hate speech against marginalized groups, including Muslims, is on the rise globally. So we are improving enforcement and are committed to updating our policies as hate speech evolves online,” a company spokesperson said.

This AP story, along with others being published, is based on disclosures made to the Securities and Exchange Commission and provided to Congress in redacted form by former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen’s legal counsel. The redacted versions were obtained by a consortium of news organizations, including the AP.

Back in February 2019 and ahead of a general election when concerns of misinformation were running high, a Facebook employee wanted to understand what a new user in India saw on their news feed if all they did was follow pages and groups solely recommended by the platform itself.

The employee created a test user account and kept it live for three weeks, a period during which an extraordinary event shook India — a militant attack in disputed Kashmir had killed over 40 Indian soldiers, bringing the country close to war with rival Pakistan.

In the note, titled “An Indian Test User’s Descent into a Sea of Polarizing, Nationalistic Messages,” the employee whose name is redacted said they were “shocked” by the content flooding the news feed. The person described the content as having “become a near constant barrage of polarizing nationalist content, misinformation, and violence and gore.”

Seemingly benign and innocuous groups recommended by Facebook quickly morphed into something else altogether, where hate speech, unverified rumors and viral content ran rampant.

The recommended groups were inundated with fake news, anti-Pakistan rhetoric and Islamophobic content. Much of the content was extremely graphic.

One included a man holding the bloodied head of another man covered in a Pakistani flag, with an Indian flag partially covering it. Its “Popular Across Facebook” feature showed a slew of unverified content related to the retaliatory Indian strikes into Pakistan after the bombings, including an image of a napalm bomb from a video game clip debunked by one of Facebook’s fact-check partners.

“Following this test user’s News Feed, I’ve seen more images of dead people in the past three weeks than I’ve seen in my entire life total,” the researcher wrote. The report sparked deep concerns over what such divisive content could lead to in the real world, where local news at the time were reporting on Kashmiris being attacked in the fallout.

“Should we as a company have an extra responsibility for preventing integrity harms that result from recommended content?” the researcher asked in their conclusion.

The memo, circulated with other employees, did not answer that question. But it did expose how the platform’s own algorithms or default settings played a part in spurring such malcontent. The employee noted that there were clear “blind spots,” particularly in “local language content.” They said they hoped these findings would start conversations on how to avoid such “integrity harms,” especially for those who “differ significantly” from the typical U.S. user.

Even though the research was conducted during three weeks that weren’t an average representation, they acknowledged that it did show how such “unmoderated” and problematic content “could totally take over” during “a major crisis event.”

The Facebook spokesperson said the test study “inspired deeper, more rigorous analysis” of its recommendation systems and “contributed to product changes to improve them.”

“Separately, our work on curbing hate speech continues and we have further strengthened our hate classifiers, to include four Indian languages,” the spokesperson said.

Ruling that the Indian government does not get a free pass every time the specter of national security is raised, the Supreme Court appointed a committee on October 27, 2021 comprising three technical members and supervised by its retired judge Justice R V Ravendran to conduct a “thorough inquiry” into allegations of use of Pegasus software for unauthorized surveillance.

Justice Ravendran will be assisted in this task by Alok Joshi, former IPS officer (1976 batch) and Sundeep Oberoi, Chairman, Sub Committee in (International Organisation of Standardisation/International Electro-Technical Commission/Joint Technical Committee). The three technical members of the committee are Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Professor (Cyber Security and Digital Forensics) and Dean, National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat; Prabaharan P, Professor (School of Engineering), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, Kerala; and Ashwin Anil Gumaste, Institute Chair Associate Professor (Computer Science and Engineering), Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Maharashtra.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana said the committee will “enquire, investigate and determine:”

• whether the Pegasus suite of spyware was used on phones or other devices of the citizens of India to access stored data, eavesdrop on conversations, intercept information and/or for any other purposes not explicitly stated herein;
• The details of the victims and/or persons affected by such a spyware attack;
• What steps/actions have been taken by the Respondent-Union of India after reports were published in the year 2019 about hacking of WhatsApp accounts of Indian citizens, using the Pegasus suite of spyware;
• Whether any Pegasus suite of spyware was acquired by the Respondent Union of India, or any State Government, or any central or state agency for use against the citizens of India;
• If any governmental agency has used the Pegasus suite of spyware on the citizens of this country, under what law, rule, guideline, protocol or lawful procedure was such deployment made;
• If any domestic entity/person has used the spyware on the citizens of this country, then is such a use authorised;
• Any other matter or aspect which may be connected, ancillary or incidental to the above terms of reference, which the Committee may deem fit and proper to investigate.

The committee has been asked  make recommendations on:

• Regarding enactment or amendment to existing law and procedures surrounding surveillance and for securing improved right to privacy;
• Regarding enhancing and improving the cyber security of the nation and its assets;
• To ensure prevention of invasion of citizens’ right to privacy, otherwise than in accordance with law, by State and/or non ­State entities through such spywares;
• Regarding the establishment of a mechanism for citizens to raise grievances on suspicion of illegal surveillance of their devices;
• Regarding the setting up of a well-equipped independent premier agency to investigate cyber security vulnerabilities, for threat assessment relating to cyberattacks and to investigate instances of cyberattacks in the country;
• Regarding any ad­hoc arrangement that may be made by this Court as an interim measure for the protection of citizen’s rights, pending filling up of lacunae by the Parliament;
• On any other ancillary matter that the Committee may deem fit and proper.

The ruling came on a batch of 12 petitions which sought an independent probe into the allegations which surfaced in the media about the unauthorized surveillance.

The United States and India have agreed to expand their cooperation in fighting cybercrimes, telemarketing fraud and enforcing consumer protection, the US Justice Department said on Thursday.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Arun G. Rao of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch, together with colleagues from the Consumer Protection Branch and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), met this week with Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials in New Delhi to further strengthen law enforcement cooperation.

During the meeting, they discussed means for combating emerging crime trends, including fighting rising telemarketing fraud.

“In their meetings, the parties affirmed their shared commitment to strengthen cooperation in combating crime, specifically with respect to efforts to investigate and prosecute cyber-enabled financial frauds and global telemarketing frauds, including international robocalls and communications,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

They additionally discussed the need for continued cooperation in tackling emerging technology-based crimes through faster information exchange and evidence sharing, with a view to ensure security and protection of citizens of both jurisdictions, the department added.

Addressing a media briefing on the prevailing Covid situation in the country, the director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research, Balram Bhargava, Sept. 16 termed a recent New York Times article on India’s Covid response as “provocative” and “attention-seeking.”

The article published in New York Times had claimed that the “ICMR tailored its findings to fit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s optimistic narrative despite a looming crisis.” Responding to a question, Bhargava said, “This is a provocative and attention-seeking article published at a time when India is doing good and our vaccination drive is also excellent. It is aimed at diverting attention. All the issues raised are dead ones and probably do not merit any attention.”

“We greatly value journalistic and editorial freedom. But at the same time we must also realize that all of us, including the Union government and the state governments, are fully engaged in fighting the pandemic and all our energy and time is devoted to that,” said Union Health Secretary, Rajesh Bhushan.”We cannot afford to get diverted by things that can be addressed at a later date, or which are not a priority from the public health point of view,” Bhushan added. Condemning the article, NITI Aayog member (Health) V.K. Paul said, “We condemn such distorted and out of context reporting. This is not desirable.”

An unknown hacker planted more than 30 documents that investigators deemed incriminating on a laptop belonging to an Indian activist accused of terrorism, a new forensic analysis finds, indicating a more extensive use of malicious software than previously revealed, Niha Masih and Joanna Slater at The Washington Post wrote last week.

The WP says, these findings will heighten concerns about the controversial prosecution of a group of government critics under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Arsenal Consulting, a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm, examined an electronic copy of the laptop at the request of defense lawyers. The Washington Post reviewed a copy of the report.

A previous analysis by Arsenal, which The Washington Post reported in February, found that 10 letters had been deposited on the laptop, including one that discussed an alleged plot to assassinate Modi. The latest report by Arsenal finds that 22 additional documents were also delivered to the computer by the same attacker.

The documents – now totaling 32 – have been cited by law enforcement as evidence against a group of activists accused of working with a banned Maoist militant group that has waged a decades-old insurgency against the Indian state.

Known as the Bhima Koregaon case, the prosecution is considered a bellwether for the rule of law in India. Human rights groups and legal experts view the case as an effort by the government to clamp down on critics.

The space for dissent has diminished in Modi’s India, where journalists, activists and members of nongovernmental organizations have faced arrest and harassment.

The activists accused in the case deny the charges against them. They include a prominent academic, a labor lawyer, a justifyist poet, a Jesuit priest and two singers. All are advocates for the rights of the country’s most disadvantaged communities and vocal opponents of the ruling party. Many of them have been jailed for nearly three years as they await trial.

The two reports by Arsenal focus on a laptop belonging to Rona Wilson, a Delhi-based activist. In February, lawyers for Wilson submitted the first report to a court in Mumbai and urged the judges to dismiss the charges against their client. The court is expected to hold a hearing on the petition.

Jaya Roy, a spokeswoman for the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the anti-terrorism authority overseeing the case against the activists, said an analysis by a government forensic laboratory did not indicate that the laptop had been compromised by malware. She did not provide details on how the laboratory reached that conclusion.

“Our investigation is complete,” Roy said. The NIA cannot revisit “any evidence based on a private lab’s report.” The Washington Post asked three experts on malware and digital forensics in North America to review Arsenal’s initial report, and they found its findings valid. A fourth expert reviewed both reports and said the conclusions were sound.

In its latest report, Arsenal includes data it recovered from the laptop showing the attacker typing commands to deliver documents to a hidden folder. It’s the equivalent of a “videotape of someone committing the crime,” said Mark Spencer, Arsenal’s president.

Arsenal has so far conducted its work on the reports on a pro bono basis, Spencer said. Founded in 2009, Arsenal performs computer forensic analysis for companies, law firms and government agencies, and it has provided expert testimony in cases such as the Boston Marathon bombing.

In the Indian case, an attacker used NetWire, a commercially available form of malware, to compromise Wilson’s laptop for nearly two years starting in 2016, Arsenal said.

The latest report shows that 22 additional documents were placed in a hidden folder on Wilson’s computer. They include details of purported meetings of Maoist militants, alleged correspondence with Maoist leaders and details of funds received by the banned group.

Two other files were stored in a folder on the Windows drive of the laptop. Unlike the other 22 files, Arsenal could not confirm they were delivered specifically by NetWire. But it found no evidence of any legitimate interaction with the documents and called their location in an unrelated application folder “suspicious.”

Arsenal’s “step-by-step” explanation of how the 22 documents were delivered is very clear and experts in the field “would draw all the same conclusions” based on that data, said Kevin Ripa, president of the Grayson Group of Companies and an expert in digital forensics.

The compromising of Wilson’s computer was just one element of a larger malware campaign. The same attacker also targeted his co-defendants, Arsenal said. Eight people seeking to help the activists, too, received emails with malicious links that deployed NetWire, according to a report from Amnesty International.

Several of the same domain names and internet protocol addresses were used to target both the activists and their associates.

Most of the IP addresses are assigned to HostSailor, a web-hosting and virtual private server company whose website indicates it is based in the United Arab Emirates. HostSailor declined to respond to requests for comment on whether it was aware of the reports or had taken any action in response to them.

The case against the activists has its origins in a clash that unfolded on Jan. 1, 2018, in a village known as Bhima Koregaon following a memorial event celebrated by Dalits, who occupy the lowest rung in India’s caste hierarchy. The investigation into the violence, which justify one dead, rapidly expanded into a wider probe of conspiracy against the Indian state.

The authorities alleged that the clash was linked to the Communist Party of India (Maoist), a banned militant group based primarily in the forests of central India. Earlier this month, 22 security personnel were killed in an apparent ambush by militants, the worst such incident in nearly four years.

The most recent activist to be jailed in the Bhima Koregaon case is an 83-year-old Jesuit priest named Stan Swamy. He is the oldest person in India to be arrested on terrorism charges. Swamy suffers from Parkinson’s disease and requires help to bathe and write letters, said Joseph Xavier, a priest and close friend. Swamy has spent more than six months in jail during the coronavirus pandemic.

Rev. Swamy lived in Jharkhand, one of the poorest states in India, where he worked for the rights of Indigenous tribal communities. He has spearheaded campaigns challenging the acquisition of tribal land and the detentions of tribal youths on flimsy or no evidence. In a video recorded before he was arrested, Swamy said he and other activists were being targeted because they had “expressed their dissent or raised questions” about India’s ruling party.

On a recent phone call from jail, Swamy’s chief concern was the well-being of his colleagues and the organization he ran, Xavier said. Even in moments of hardship or pain, Swamy “will not complain,” his friend said. “That is the kind of person he is.”

Nearly a week after the Centre’s notification of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the Editors Guild of India (EGI) has said these regulations will “fundamentally alter” and put “unreasonable restrictions” over digital media and therefore urged the government to take back these rules.

In the name of controlling an “unfettered social media,” the EGI said that the government cannot “overwhelm India’s constitutional safeguards for free media.” The new rules, “fundamentally alter how publishers of news operate over the Internet and have the potential to seriously undermine media freedom in India,” it added.

The guild also expressed concerns over the overwhelming power that the reforms grant the government. “They empower the Union Government to block, delete, or modify published news anywhere in the country without any judicial oversight and mandate all publishers to establish a grievance redressal mechanism,” the EGI statement read.

In creating the new reforms, the EGI said, the government did not consult stakeholders and therefore it must “put the rules in abeyance and conduct meaningful consultation with all stakeholders.” The Centre on February 25 notified new guidelines for intermediaries in “soft touch oversight” rules, saying these were needed to hold social media and other companies accountable for “misuse and abuse”.

The rules called for a three-tier regulation mechanism for OTT platforms like Netflix, YouTube, etc and required them to self-classify their content into five categories based on age suitability. The Centre’s announcement came amid a debate in the country to regulate digital platforms after Amazon Prime’s series “Tandav” stirred a controversy for allegedly insulting Hindu deities.

The historic and globally recognized farmers’ movement, which entered into an electrifying phase with the ‘Delhi Chalo’ Call on 26^th Nov, completes 100 days today. The movement continues to challenge the notorious ‘Three Farm Acts’ that would herald unprecedented levels of corporate control over agriculture, nullifying the mandi system, diminishing the significance of the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) and opening up the possibility of alienation of farmlands to big corporations. Landowning farmers, marginal farmers and agricultural workers, in particular women across all categories, stand to lose by these laws. In addition, this will lead to a general increase of dominance of big corporates such as the Adanis and Ambanis over rural governance and agriculture, enhancing the already existing “Company Raj”.

For more than 7 months, the entire nation witnessed farmers across the country on the streets, raising their voice against these laws that would permanently jeopardize their already precarious situation and also eventually disband the public distribution system (PDS). Diverse sections of civil society and concerned citizens extended support at many places. The farmers and farm workers of Punjab, a state which not only thrives on agriculture but also one that has a long history of farmer unionism have been leading since Day 1.

Under the leadership of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, consisting of over five hundred farmers’ organizations across the country, along with the All India Kisan Sangharsh Co-ordination Committee (AIKSCC), the farmers arrived at the borders of Delhi in late November, with thousands of tractors from Punjab. They staged historic sit-ins at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur throughout the cold winter months. The farmers have also staged roadblocks and rail blockades, peacefully and democratically to communicate their points to the largely unresponsive government and the middle-class power holders in India’s cities.

However, the Govt., continuing its anti-people and authoritarian approach, refused to listen to the farmers who complained that they were never consulted in the process of enactment of these laws, despite being the primary stakeholders. The Govt, its right-wing affiliates and lapdog media houses made multiple attempts to vilify the farmers’ movement, spread fake narratives, clamp down on the protest, inflict injury, undertake arrests etc. The Centre even imposed a de facto economic and transportation blockage of Punjab. However, none of these modes of repression worked in the face of the tremendous resistance of the farming-toiling class.

With their increased participation and leadership, the women farmers and elderly farmers also gave a befitting reply to the disparaging and misogynist comments by that CJI, asking why they were ‘kept’ in the protest. The central role played by women farmers in keeping the movement alive at the borders of Delhi, in the villages of Punjab and elsewhere is awe-inspiring.

Over the months, the movement snowballed across the length and breadth of the country, intensifying the demand for a complete repeal of the three Farm Acts and the Electricity Bill, calling for a legally guaranteed MSP for all crops, for slashing of diesel prices and the implementation of the Swaminathan Committee Report (in particular C2+50). The government’s refusal to accept the farmers’ demands, despite repeated meetings, eventually strengthened the struggle and over the last two months, the movement took wings throughout Western Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Rajasthan. Multiple maha-panchayats and rallies have been convened, in which lakhs of people participated, with the inspiring presence of women in some of them. Today, the protestors have blocked major roads leading to Delhi and resolved to continue their struggle till the demands are met.

As we extend our solidarity, we deeply appreciate the historic achievements of the movement so far. Within Punjab, it has been able to galvanize the non-farming sections and create a region-wide political churning against centralized pro-corporate Hindutva rule. The movement has brought back the “farmer” at the heart of the political discourse, as a category of people pitted against corporate rule. This is an important achievement in times when we stand in real danger of Hindutva-corporate rule being normalized.

Unsurprisingly, and significantly, such a political process has promised to heal the religious polarization in Western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had engineered through communal riots in 2013, from which it had reaped massive electoral benefits. The Govt was also forced to enter into multiple rounds of consultations with the farm unions, although it was never sincere in its commitment to understand and address the core issues. The pressure from the movement made the Govt announce shelving of the Electricity Amendment Bill and the Ordinance to ‘Check Air Quality Deterioration in NCR’, which sought to impose heavy fines on the farmers. Even the Supreme Court had to take cognizance of the protests and stayed away from interfering with the farmers’ right to agitate peacefully.

Recently, the movement has been able to enlist the support of several non-BJP political parties and the central trade unions – by extending solidarity to the latter’s stance against the Labour Codes – and joined the No Vote to BJP Campaign that has been going on in election-bound Bengal. In other words, the farmers’ movement has moved towards building a cross section social movement and weaved alliances with social movements, trade unions and political parties, in order to throw up a potent political opposition to the BJP’s anti-federal, Hindutva/corporate rule.

NAPM salutes all the farmers of the country and in particular those camping at Delhi for 100 days, braving the biting cold and the cold-hearted government.  We respectfully remember each of the 248 farmers whose lives were lost in the past few months, only because of this callous regime. We firmly believe that it is high time the entire nation stood resolutely by the farmers who are fighting a crucial battle for the present and the future generations.

(The above statement was issued by National Alliance of People’s Movements)

Indian politics, as elsewhere, is truly a mixture of positives and negatives. The discussion now is about whether the negatives outweigh the positives in India.

The talk about Indian farmers’ struggle against three contentious agrarian laws has already entered the realm of politics. The fear of being unpopular has forced the government to put checks on social media, provoking debates about tolerance and freedom of expression.

These are not the issues. The real issue is India’s negative international image because of a chaotic, nasty, sectarian turn the country is taking against the backdrop of the continuing farmers’ struggle.

What began a few years back as a cry of religious minorities, including Christians, Muslims and deprived Dalits, is now global anguish, covert and overt, against the suppression of freedom of expression in the world’s largest democracy.

Those who admire India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who does not hide his pro-Hindu preferences, claim that everyone seems to love seeing Modi as a punchbag. He is not only responsible for bringing his party to power but his government is also blamed for setting the Hindu-majority nation on a path of sectarian despotism.

The criticism of the Modi government is now universal. Many progressive and conservative people, from the US government to Barbadian pope star Rihanna Fenty, have taken to social media to criticize the government over the farmers’ struggle, which the government insists is India’s internal matter.

But some of those tweets and remarks came from surprising quarters. They included international celebrities and lawmakers from countries like Canada and the United Kingdom. Even Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg has had her say.

Meena Harris, a niece of US Vice President Kamala Harris, tweeted: “We all should be outraged by India’s internet shutdown and paramilitary violence against farmer protesters.”

India’s Foreign Ministry responded that, before people rush to comment on such matters, “we would urge that the facts be ascertained and a proper understanding of the issues at hand be undertaken.”

It added: “The temptation of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments, especially when resorted to by celebrities and others, is neither accurate nor responsible.”

The government statement also said that “some of these vested interest groups” have also tried to “mobilize international support against India.”

But is it justified to make so much hype about a few tweets? Modi and his supporters are known for turning criticism against their party and government into anti-national activities. The government, often accused of pushing Hindu hegemony, did precisely the same this time too.

Twitter was served with a notice for “unilaterally unblocking” some 100 handles that the federal government wanted to be blocked for spreading violence and hatred in the country.

What does this bring us to? Socialist leader Ram Gopal Yadav says the strong impression is that the government of the day is against dissent.

There are other issues at hand. The attempt to choke dissent also raises questions about the government’s idea of democracy, freedom of expression, justice, development and commitment to work for the Indian poor.

Government spokesman Anurag Srivastava told a virtual media briefing that India and the United States are vibrant democracies with shared values.

He then referred to the vandalism at the Red Fort on Jan. 26, India’s republic day, during a rally of protesting farmers. It evoked “similar sentiments and reactions in India as did the incidents on the Capitol Hill” on Jan. 6. Both countries are addressing the violence according to their laws, he said.

This statement has significance, and the message is simple. If Americans are so touchy over the Capitol Hill misadventure, how could the Western world make such a fuss about India handling the agitation in Delhi with a firm hand?

Protesting farmers say the Jan. 26 violence in Delhi was engendered by Modi’s political party — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — to weaken their struggle.

The farmers are continuing their protest even after the government agreed to suspend the three controversial farm laws for 18 months. But farmers want the government to repeal the laws, saying they are meant to help big corporate houses at the expense of small and medium-level farmers.

The government was nervous, but once violence happened, triggered by whosoever, the government got back its rhythm. The idea is perhaps to impose some gag order on the flow of information.

In the process, the BJP claims a conspiracy that even international celebrities want to corner Modi. But such talk has very few takers.

However, the prime minister’s critics feel India’s image has taken a beating, especially after the government allegedly tried to corner those who often attack the government.

Modi will do well to realize that his ambitions of emerging as a global leader, or at least an Asian leader, will take a beating if he is dubbed as anti-democratic and, worse, someone who wants to gag social media.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.

An elderly Indian Jesuit priest languishing in jail on a treason charge has sought a copy of his laptop hard drive after a US-based digital laboratory reported that a hacker had planted incriminating evidence in the computer of another accused in the same case.

Father Stan Swamy, 84, is among 16 people accused of collaborating with a banned Maoist group to organize violence in the Bhima Koregaon area of Maharashtra after a clash there killed one person and injured several on Jan. 1, 2018.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), a federal anti-terror combat agency, arrested Father Swamy on Oct. 8 and remanded him in custody in a jail in Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra. His bail applications have been repeatedly rejected.

“Father Swamy has sought a cloned copy of his laptop and hard drive, which the NIA should have given him following his arrest, but to no avail,” Father A. Santhanam, who is closely following the case, told UCA News on Feb. 14.

Father Swamy’s counsel presented a detailed argument before the NIA court on Feb. 12 for his demand for a cloned copy of the laptop and hard drive. The court directed the lawyer to approach the NIA office.

The court also heard another bail application of the priest but the NIA, which continues to investigate the case, sought time until Feb. 16 to submit the case diary to help the court decide on bail.

Father Santhanam, a Jesuit lawyer practicing in southern India, regretted that the NIA was obstructing the bail demand of Father Swamy, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease among other age-related health issues.

Before his arrest, Father Swamy had expressed concern that investigators could manipulate his computer, which they confiscated from him, to plant proof of his collaboration with Maoists and other allegations against him.

His fears gained ground as Arsenal Consulting, a Massachusetts-based digital forensic laboratory, said on Feb. 11 that a hacker had planted incriminating evidence in the computer of Rona Wilson, among the accused in the case.

The US firm analyzed an electronic copy of Wilson’s laptop and concluded that an attacker used malware to infiltrate the laptop and plant documents on it.

The attacker created a hidden folder and at least 10 incriminating letters were delivered into it without the knowledge of Wilson, who is also languishing in jail like Father Swamy.

The NIA arrested Wilson and accused him of colluding with Maoist rebels in conspiring to assassinate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, mostly based on the incriminating documents.

The unidentified attacker, the report said, used malware to control and spy on the laptop. Subsequently, Wilson received emails that appeared to be from a fellow activist urging him to click on a link to download an innocuous statement from a civil liberties group. But this link deployed the malicious software that allowed a hacker to access Wilson’s computer.

The report shows how the attacker had retained access to Wilson’s computer for over 22 months, starting June 13, 2016, and used a remote access facility for planting the incriminating letters while conducting the surveillance on his activities without Wilson getting a hint of it.

The forensic lab also found that the malware logged Wilson’s keystrokes, passwords and browsing activity, raising doubts about the credibility of the NIA evidence against those arrested.

Rights groups say all the 16 arrested are rights workers who at some point criticized or opposed policies of the federal government run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).