In order to appreciate my answers to your questions, I must first point out that civil liberties are the foundation of democracy and an infringement even of one of them seriously affects the democratic functioning of society. Secondly, civil liberties also consist of inherent and inalienable rights of man. These rights are born with man, and in a democratic society they are the essential accoutrement of the citizen. They are not given by any statute, including the fundamental statute, the Constitution, and hence they cannot be taken away by any statute. That is why the right to life is not mentioned in our Constitution in specific terms and is assured, while imposing the restrictions on its deprivation in Article 21.
Instances of repression of civil rights have been galore since the Bharatiya Janata Party/Modi government came to power in 2014. You have already mentioned some of these instances, such as the abrogation of Article 370, including the clampdown on the media; the treatment of the Bhima Koregaon activists; the vindictiveness against the police officer Sanjiv Bhatt; the recent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act amendment; and the action against Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa. In addition, mob-lynching and the persecution of Dalits and members of religious minority communties have to be strongly emphasised. There are many such instances which are not reported in the media taking place almost every day in all corners of the country. The other prominent instances are the murders of Judge B.H.Loya and Haren Pandya, the Sohrabuddin encounter, the Malegaon bomb blast conspiracy where Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Thakur are the accused. It is interesting to note that Amit Shah, who was one of the accused in the Sohrabuddin encounter case, is the president of the ruling party and now the Home Minister. These are some of the prominent cases which come to mind in answer to your question. As regards the Election Commission, some of its decisions have raised many questions of public importance.
We should not be surprised by these developments. This government does not accept our Constitution and they have, from time to time, made it clear, including in their manifesto, that they want to change the same. They are against democracy, secularism and socialism. Their avowed objective is to establish a dictatorship, a Hindu Rashtra, in this country and give free rein to the free market economy. In pursuance of this objective, they have already made inroads into key institutions of governance and have even been trying to control the judiciary by various ways, including interference in judicial appointments. The media are infiltrated by the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh] gentry and are also repressed by controlling the owners of both print and electronic media. The critics of this regime are trolled, the opposition is sought to be silenced, and even independent writers, speakers and social activists are sought to be subdued. Untruth, false propaganda, illusions and manufactured events are being used as weapons for misguiding and fooling the people. These are all the trappings of a fascist regime, to which the country has been treated since the inception of the present regime.
