Thank you so much.
We are seeing really worrying trends in India. It's the world's largest democracy, but there's a really dramatic backslide in human rights. We've documented—with the BJP-led government, with support by Hindu nationalists—attacks against religious minorities and attacks against farm workers. Last year, Prime Minister Modi called peaceful protesters “parasites”. This is the type of language we would see in very repressive states. We wouldn't really assume that would happen in a country that claims to be a democracy.
There's been a real escalation in the human rights crisis in India. We're seeing really worrying trends in terms of stifling of media, targeting of journalists and using legislation around foreign funding of NGOs to close civil society organizations. There's been a real shrinking of the democratic space in India. There's been a shrinking of the civil society space. It's incredibly worrying. I think it really requires governments to take action to condemn this and condemn even small steps.
I think what happens oftentimes is that when allies deteriorate at this rate in terms of their human rights, it's usually because a number of small steps that have been taken in a negative direction are ignored. When states turn a blind eye again and again to small elements of oppression, you see a very worrying trend in which a government like the Modi government feels as though they can take action with absolute impunity against minorities, against religious minorities and against civil society in India. At some point, it becomes quite difficult to turn the ship back around.