London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2025

Outrage over raids on Indian human rights activist’s premises

Outrage over raids on Indian human rights activist’s premises

A raid by investigative agencies on the offices and home of a prominent human rights activist critical of the government has sparked outrage in India.

Raids were carried out the Enforcement Directorate that fights financial crime at multiple locations in the capital earlier this week connected to retired bureaucrat and activist Harsh Mander, an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mander’s home, his office in the Centre for Equity Studies and ‘Umeed’, a children’s home that his organisation runs were searched. The raid came only hours after Mander and his wife left for Germany for a fellowship at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin.

Mander who has been critical of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had also been a part of the protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act which critics say discriminates against Muslims - a charge the government rejects. He had carried out food distribution drives during the stringent Covid lockdown last year.

Raids for speaking out


“A pattern emerging over the last seven years shows that only a section of citizens is being acted against by the state. They belong to the Opposition, the minority community, activists, dissenters and the likes,” said senior advocate Dushyant Dave.


“These innocent citizens have spent long periods in prison, have suffered mentally, socially, economically and their dignities have been taken away.”

Many have called the raids an intimidation tactic to curb dissenting voices.

“One day after the International Day of Democracy, Modi continues with its FDI obsession—Fear, Deception, Intimidation, by harassing a renowned activist and intellectual, Harsh Mander. And he gives lectures to others on inclusiveness and democracy,” said Congress politician Jairam Ramesh.

Following the Enforcement Directorate's raids, over 600 people, including academics, journalists, filmmakers, activists and lawyers, have voiced their support for Mander.

In a joint statement, they have said the "Constitution of India and the law of the land shall prevail, exposing these intimidatory tactics exactly for what they are - an abuse of state institutions to try and curtail all our rights".

Space for dissent shrinking


Free speech practitioners and media activists fear a bigger and more organized attempt from the government to rein in freedom of speech

In the past, writers, academics, and artists have also come under attack from politicians and religious groups, and various films, theatre plays, books, and paintings have also been banned. Harassment has not been limited to just social networking sites.

Around the same time of raids against Mander, actor Sonu Sood, who has been hailed as the messiah of migrant workers during the lockdown in the country, came under the spotlight, with income tax authorities searching his premises for alleged tax evasion.


The raids were conducted days after Sood's meeting with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal where he was declared as the ambassador for his government's mentorship programme for school students in Delhi.

Both the BJP and Kejriwal’s party, Aam Aadmi Party are political adversaries.

Party leader Raghav Chadha described the raids as a “witch hunt” done by an “insecure government”.

“His only crime is that he worked for the welfare of downtrodden when they were orphaned by the state,” Chadha tweeted.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
×