IAMC Weekly India Human Rights Monitor (July 30, 2026)

This Week at a Glance 

This week, the CIVICUS Monitor added India to its global human rights watchlist, citing an intensified crackdown on activists, journalists, and civil society under Modi’s third term. Delhi Police filed FIRs and issued takedown notices against social media posts critical of PM Modi. Nationwide student protests over the NEET paper leak were met with mass arrests disproportionately targeting Muslims. On the judicial front, the Bombay High Court quashed the externment of SDPI members and ruled that opposing the Babri Masjid demolition is not “anti-national,” and the Supreme Court granted bail to two Muslim men held for nearly 12 years under UAPA. Parliament passed a bill criminalising insults to “Vande Mataram,” while an Amnesty International report documented at least 2,596 weapons shipments from India to Israel since October 7, 2023, warning of complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

 

Top Stories

India Added to Global Human Rights Watchlist, Rated “Repressed” by CIVICUS

CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, has added India to its latest Monitor Watchlist, citing a rapid deterioration in civic freedoms during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term. India is currently rated “Repressed,” the second-worst category on CIVICUS’s global civic space index, and joins Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, and Georgia on the latest list. The report highlighted the continued use of UAPA against dissidents, tightening restrictions on NGO funding under the FCRA, and the use of excessive force against protesters.

 

 

Delhi Police Targets Social Media Posts Critical of PM Modi, Rights Groups Condemn Crackdown

Delhi Police filed a criminal complaint against social media handles and issued takedown notices to platform X over posts allegedly targeting PM Modi during the recent protests, directing the platform to remove content and hand over subscriber details within three hours. Digital rights groups condemned the crackdown as unconstitutional, with the Internet Freedom Foundation arguing that political expression enjoys constitutional protection and that the student movement has been “conducted as much through reels, memes, posters and digital artwork as through assembly on the ground.”

 

 

Anti-Muslim Targeting Shadows NEET Protest Arrests Across India

In Assam, three Muslim students were jailed for creating a WhatsApp group to organise a peaceful protest in solidarity with the nationwide student movement. In Goa, two youths were detained for expressing support for jailed activist Umar Khalid during celebrations over Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. In Bihar, over 400 people were arrested, with police releasing photographs of identified protesters. In Kolkata, 13 of 14 people arrested in connection with protests were Muslim. In Bengaluru, police registered a case against a woman protester for displaying posters supporting Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam at a NEET protest.

 

 

 

Courts acquit Muslims wrongly jailed, push back against selective targeting and prolonged UAPA detention

A Madhya Pradesh sessions court acquitted all 11 Muslim men accused in the 2022 Ram Navami violence in Khargone, finding that the prosecution failed to prove its case, with forensic tests revealing no traces of explosives. The Bombay High Court quashed the externment of two SDPI members by Mumbai Police, observing that expressing the view that the Babri Masjid should not have been demolished is not “anti-national”. Separately, the Supreme Court granted bail to Mohd. Saquib Ansari and Waqar Azhar after nearly 12 years in jail under UAPA, calling their prolonged incarceration a “gross violation” of the right to personal liberty.

 

 

Parliament Criminalises Insults to “Vande Mataram,” Opposition Slams Bill

Parliament passed the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, extending the same statutory protections and penalties as the national anthem to “Vande Mataram.” Offences under the amended law are punishable with up to three years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both. Opposition leaders criticised the bill, which comes amid a broader pattern of mandating the singing of “Vande Mataram” in madrassas across BJP-ruled states.

 

 

Amnesty Reports India Sent at Least 2,596 Weapons Shipments to Israel Since October 7

Amnesty International released a report titled “Made in India,” documenting at least 2,596 shipments of arms, ammunition, and military components from India to Israel between October 7, 2023 and November 30, 2025, including 564,970 explosive ordnance parts, 390,516 small arms components, and 298 armoured vehicle parts. The report warned that Indian companies maintaining business ties with Israeli military suppliers, including Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, could risk complicity in crimes under international law.

 

 

Resistance & Organizing

Jauhar University Gets Interim Relief as Commissioner Halts Demolition of 38 Buildings

The Moradabad Divisional Commissioner’s court granted interim relief to Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur, staying the proposed demolition of 38 buildings on its campus until the final hearing. The Rampur Development Authority had issued the demolition order on July 15, triggering protests from students, faculty, and opposition leaders who accused the government of politically targeting the institution.

 

 

Defender of the Week

This week, we’re spotlighting Neha Bora, the national president of the All India Students’ Association (AISA) and a JNU research scholar, whose 23-day hunger strike at Jantar Mantar helped define the student movement that forced the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. After the strike, Bora spoke out against the communal dimensions of the state’s response, asserting that the crackdown on protesters “clearly has an anti-Muslim angle,” noting that Muslim students were more vulnerable than other protesters and that intimidation in Bihar and West Bengal was “largely directed at Muslims.”

 

Voices from the Ground

“”The Education Minister of India… is a man who is a defender of rapists. That is the most filthy type of man. There can be no filthier man than somebody who says that rapists need protection. It is strange. There are so many people in his Cabinet, but he chose a person who protects rapists.” 

— Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, addressing Parliament on Education Minister Pralhad Joshi’s defence of the Bilkis Bano convicts’ release.

 

IAMC in Action

• IAMC chapters in Washington DC, Boston, Dallas, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Chicago organised solidarity protests over the weekend of July 24–26 in support of India’s student-led movement demanding accountability for examination fraud. Read our statement here.
• IAMC published a feature on why General Shah Nawaz Khan, a Muslim officer in Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army who later served as a Union Minister for over two decades, deserves to be remembered this Independence Day. Read the piece here.