India: repression after Operation Sindoor and Modi’s ‘new normal’

A shaky peace has held between India and Pakistan after they traded blows in a brief war last month. While the bombs have fallen silent for now, Indian Prime Minister Modi is exploiting the opportunity to target dissenters for harassment, arrest and (in the case of Maoist fighters in Chhattisgarh) extra-judicial murder, all under the cover of postwar patriotism.

The latest border conflict was triggered by a terrorist attack on Pahalgam in Indian-occupied Kashmir on 22 April, which might in turn have been a response to a train hijacking in Balochistan in March. India and Pakistan respectively blamed the other’s proxies for perpetrating these attacks, which left dozens dead on both sides. On 7 May, India launched a series of ‘retaliatory’ missile strikes on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The two nuclear-equipped powers appeared to be on the cusp of a full-blown war over the disputed territory, their fourth since Partition. The war hawks in Modi’s cabinet and in the Hindutva press were salivating at the prospect of (in their words) “doing to Pakistan what Israel has done to Gaza.” BJP and RSS thugs were also whipped up into a frenzy, with the Association for Protection of Civil Rights recording 184 hate crimes against Muslims across Indian territory after 22 April.

Hindutva fantasies of a final reckoning with Pakistan were met with disappointment on 10 May, when US President Donald Trump proudly declared that a ceasefire had been hastily agreed. Two days later, Modi gave a press conference where he stated that hostilities had only been “paused”. Operation Sindoor was not over, he said, but was becoming “India’s policy against terrorism. [It] has carved out a new benchmark in our fight against terrorism and has set up a new parameter and new normal.”

The meaning of this ‘new normal’ became apparent in the following days. The state immediately requested the blocking of 8,000 accounts from the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), including that of BBC Urdu. This was followed by a wave of repression against anyone voicing opposition to the war, Modi’s government, or India’s policy towards Kashmir.

The new ‘Sedition Law’

Modi is no stranger to using the strong arm of state repression to silence his opponents. According to a study by the independent Indian news outlet Article 14 (named for the article of the Indian constitution which supposedly protects freedom of speech), there has been a 28 percent rise in sedition cases in the past decade. These have mostly been filed against opposition politicians, journalists, academics and students.

Modi is no stranger to using the strong arm of state repression to silence his opponents / Image: kremlin.ru, Wikimedia Commons

For instance, 10 sedition cases have been brought against senior staff of the investigative news magazine Caravan. The publication’s Twitter account was also temporarily suspended following a legal notice from the government; one of its freelance reporters was arrested at a protest in 2021 for ‘obstruction’; and in 2020, four of its full-time reporters were attacked after reporting on communal riots following the rape and murder of a teenager in Delhi. Executive Editor Vinod Jose commented to the BBC: “We live in polarised times where critics of the government are branded as anti-nationals.” This has become a well-worn tactic.

Until recently, India’s sedition law was the same one laid down in the 1860 Penal Code under the British Raj, and deployed against Indians struggling for the country’s Independence. Modi extensively wielded this colonial weapon against the mass struggles of recent years, including the militant farmers’ movement in 2020-21; and protests against his anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019.

India’s old sedition law was suspended by the Supreme Court pending ‘re-examination’ in 2022. The new penal code, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), was introduced in 2023, with Section 152 replacing the old sedition law. While it might no longer use the word ‘sedition’, it gives the state arguably an even more draconian tool for quashing dissent.

In addition to criminalising any act “exciting secession, armed rebellion, and subversive activities”, it also targets any acts “encouraging feelings of separatism or endangering the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India” (our emphasis). This reads like something out of Orwell’s 1984, condemning ‘thought crimes’ against India’s national unity. The term of punishment under Section 152 has also been increased from three to seven years.

Modi’s war on influencers and lecturers

Modi wasted no time in putting this new law into wide effect after the terrorist attack on Pahalgam, especially targeting social media posts deemed to harm “the nation’s unity”.

For instance, on 23 April, Lucknow police reportedly registered a case against folk singer Neha Singh Rathore, after she posted on X (correctly) that Modi would seek to benefit politically from the terror attack in the upcoming Bihar state elections.

Modi wasted no time in putting this new law into wide effect after the terrorist attack on Pahalgam / Image: Press Information Bureau, Wikimedia Commons

The following day, Lucknow University Professor Dr Madri Kakoti (known on social media as ‘Ms Medusa’) was booked over a satirical video in which she criticised the security failures that led to the Pahgalam attack. She had also made a series of posts condemning atrocities committed against Kashmiris in the aftermath, allegedly using the term “saffron terrorists”. This was identified as ‘religious discrimination’ in the case against her!

Modi has been relying on ‘patriotic’ citizens, whipped up into a fervour by the war drums, to assist in informing on dissenters. Kakoti’s posts provoked campus protests by members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Hindu nationalist terror organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The student reactionaries submitted a memorandum to the Vice-Chancellor, calling Kakoti’s comments “anti-national” and demanding her dismissal. She is currently out on bail and faces the threat of disciplinary action from her university.

After Operation Sindoor, such cases continued to pile up. Ali Khan Mahmudabad, an academic teaching Political Science at Haryana-based Ashoka University, was arrested on 18 May. The case concerned a Facebook post in which he remarked on a press briefing by two female army officers (one Hindu and one Muslim), where they discussed the India-Pakistan war.

Mahmudabad’s post noted the mismatch between the “optics” of unity and the reality on the ground, in which the BJP regime was using a war to whip up divisive communalist poison. His post was reported by the Commission for Women in Haryana (whose chairperson Renu Bhatia is a long-time BJP member) as sexist and an "attempt to vilify national military actions".

Days later, organisers of a commemorative event for actor and Dalit-rights activist Vira Sathidar (who passed from COVID-19 in 2021) were also arrested under Section 152. The complainant argued that a reading of a piece by radical Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz constituted a direct threat to the government! The line they cited in the arrest (takht hilaane ki zaroorat hai, ‘a need to shake the throne’) was actually a misquote.

Then on 31 May, Instagram influencer Sharmishta Panoli was arrested in Gurugram for a post in which she criticised famous Bollywood actors for remaining silent over Operation Sindoor, despite deleting the video and issuing an apology, following a backlash.

Zero tolerance for ‘insults’

Outside of Section 152, Modi has been finding other excuses to silence and punish critics.

On 19 May, Indian-origin British Professor at London’s University of Westminster, Nitasha Kaul, claimed her Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status had been cancelled. She shared a communique from the Indian government alleging that “through your numerous inimical writings, speeches and journalistic activities at various international forums and on social media platforms, you regularly target India and its institutions on the matters of India’s sovereignty.”

This was clearly in retaliation to Kaul serving as a key witness before the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, where she testified about human rights violations in Indian-occupied Kashmir after its self-governing status was revoked in 2019.

Then on 2 June, Chhattisgarh Police arrested Arun Tiwari, a member of the Legislative Assembly from the Durg region, under Sections 296 (criminalising ‘obscene acts’) and 352 (against ‘intentional insults’), concerning remarks about Modi’s estranged wife Jashodaben in a post about Operation Sindoor.

Prior to that, Congress politician Brijmohan Singh was arrested under sections 296 and 353 (against ‘public mischief’) for posting “abusive comments” about Modi on social media. It seems the ‘strongman’ Modi has rather thin skin!

Maoists murdered

But the bloodiest evidence of Modi’s post-Sindoor policy came on 21 May, with a series of lightning raids against Naxalite fighters of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) in Chhattisgarh. Government forces slaughtered 27 rebels, including the party’s general secretary N. Kesava Rao (alongside a number of civilians) in so-called Operation Kagar (‘Zero’).

A further 54 rebels have allegedly been arrested and 84 have surrendered in Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Maharashtra. Modi boasted of the operation’s success on social media, declaring that he was "proud of our forces for this remarkable success" and vowing that “there will be no Maoists in India by 2026.”

But, before this, in April, the Naxalites (named for the small town of Naxalbari where their rebellion began in the 1960s) were already making overtures towards ending hostilities. Modi mobilised 40,000 troops in Chhattisgarh last year with a pledge to “wipe out” the rebels in the mineral-rich region, where the local indigenous Adivasis have endured decades of conflict and repression, and are often caught in the crossfire.

The new crackdown by security forces had already killed 287 rebels last year, and in the face of an increasingly hopeless situation, calls for a ceasefire were mounting. In April, the leadership of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) said “in the interests of the people, our party is always ready for peace talks.”

The party was broken, bloodied, on its knees and likely seeking a peaceful surrender. Modi responded by having them mercilessly gunned down by the dozen. All of this will be to the delight of the big mining conglomerates, which are itching to get their hands on the region’s rich resources. But Modi also hopes it will bolster his ‘invincible strongman’ image.

Modi exposes Indian ‘democracy’

It is with this objective in mind that we should understand Modi’s new assaults against freedom of speech. The Prime Minister is arguably in his weakest position since his election in 2014. He was denied a majority at the last national elections; was embarrassed by the calamitous security breach in Pahalgam; and now faces pressure from hardliners in his cabinet who felt he ended hostilities with Pakistan prematurely. He wasn’t even able to announce his own government’s ceasefire deal, as Donald Trump stole his thunder (and reminded him of his place).

The Prime Minister is arguably in his weakest position since his election in 2014 / Image: Press Information Bureau, Wikimedia Commons

A volcano of class anger is boiling just under the surface of Indian politics. Despite constant noise in the international bourgeois press about India’s economic growth, which is looked upon enviously by the many capitalist governments on the brink of recession, the fact is that this wealth is wrung out of the blood and sweat of India’s working class.

India’s per-capita productivity is among the lowest on earth. According to some estimates, up to 90 percent of India’s workforce is employed in the informal economy (accounting for half of GDP), toiling without legal protections, benefits or regular hours. While a handful of billionaires like Adani and Ambani count their fortunes, the daily reality for the majority of Indians is a nightmare of super-exploitation and precarity.

Modi’s crackdown on dissent is a sign of weakness, not strength. He is desperate to reverse his fortunes in the important state elections in Bihar later this year, and is combining intensified repression with intensified chauvinism to this end.

He has been assisted by the shameful behaviour of the so-called leaders of the working class. The Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) both lined up behind the regime in the name of ‘national unity’ following Operation Sindoor. Ironically, one of the excuses for this was the need to defend India’s ‘democracy’, after which Modi proceeded to make a mockery of the elementary democratic right to freedom of speech!

The trade union leaders also called off a national general strike in May, similarly with the excuse of preserving ‘national unity’. This at a time when Modi had just dragged the entire Indian subcontinent towards the brink of nuclear oblivion! The bureaucrats sued for a class truce at precisely the moment when militant struggle was most called for.

It should be abundantly apparent that the much-vaunted state and constitution of the Indian Union have never guaranteed ‘democracy’. They are instruments in the hands of the ruling class to enforce their will. Modi’s BJP regime merely exposes this reality more crudely than previous administrations.

It is an historic tragedy that the Indian working class is cursed with such hapless leadership at a moment where the conditions for revolutionary struggle are so ripe. A genuine communist party with the ear of the working class would call for a unified struggle by workers, peasants and youth to stand up in defence of democratic rights, and organise for the defeat of Modi’s rotten regime in its condition of weakness.

This, in turn, would lay the basis for the expropriation of India’s immense productive forces, to be developed in line with the needs of the people, rather than the multinationals and billionaire gangsters whose interests are embodied by the BJP and Congress alike. Such a party cannot be willed into existence, it must be actively built. We invite all class fighters in India to join us!