India on Wednesday dipped into a quiver of phrases like “misleading”, “unacceptable” and “unwarranted” to denounce the statement of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that Teesta Setalvad and two others arrested along with her were being persecuted for their activism.
The auto-generated-like response was not surprising. What was surprising was the thinness of the Narendra Modi government’s skin, considering the immunity it enjoys overseas.
Given that the West is trying to shore up support for the US-led strategy against Russia in its conflict with Ukraine, India does not foresee too much trouble from the western world over these arrests.
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power eight years ago, such comments have been made regularly by human rights and media watchdogs. Also, India has fallen in world rankings on democracy.
But in the transactional world of diplomacy, these have been no more than minor embarrassments for the Modi government as the West is eager to have India in its corner in the bid to contain China and Russia.
The OHCHR had on Tuesday tweeted: “#India: We are very concerned by the arrest and detention of #WHRD @TeestaSetalvad and two ex police officers and call for their immediate release. They must not be persecuted for their activism and solidarity with the victims of the 2002 #GujaratRiots.” WHRD stands for “women’s human rights defender”.
Responding to media queries on this tweet, external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Wednesday: “The remarks by OHCHR are completely unwarranted and constitute an interference in India’s independent judicial system. Authorities in India act against violations of law strictly in accordance with established judicial processes. Labelling such legal actions as persecution for activism is misleading and unacceptable.”
On Wednesday, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the United Nations secretary-general – when asked for a response about the arrest of Mohammad Zubair, the co-founder of fact-checking website AltNews – said: “Journalists should not be jailed for what they write, what they tweet and what they say.”
Earlier, to a related question on the arrest, Dujarric had said: “In any place around the world, it is very important that people be allowed to express themselves freely, journalists be allowed to express themselves freely and without the threat of any harassment.”
