India’s Democracy Under Siege as Anti-Modi Satire Is Silenced

NEW DELHI, Oct 10: Instagram has removed a parody video by Indian stand-up comedian Brijesh Jha criticising the deletion of his name and those of his father and sister from West Bengal’s voter list, citing “local laws” without providing further details, according to Al Jazeera.

Jha posted the video on Sept 29, alleging that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had disenfranchised millions of voters at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The video received 1.7 million views before being taken down two days later.

The controversy comes amid mounting opposition to the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls, an exercise launched to identify deceased, duplicate and ineligible voters. Critics have accused the commission of unfairly removing eligible voters, while the government and BJP have rejected allegations of wrongdoing.

An investigation by The Indian Express reportedly found that two of the Election Commission’s three members had raised objections to decisions concerning the revision process. Opposition parties have called for an independent inquiry and demanded Kumar’s resignation.

The dispute has also fuelled protests and renewed concerns about online censorship. Political cartoonist Satish Acharya told Al Jazeera that several of his cartoons were removed from Instagram and that his account was blocked in India from Sept 28 until early October.

According to The Indian Express, the government issued nearly 195,000 content-blocking orders to Instagram, Facebook and YouTube between March and July. The government disputed the report’s implications, arguing that the volume of online content shared in India makes the blocking of unlawful material necessary.

Jha said humour and art had become forms of protest against those in power. He urged Modi to respect voters’ rights and questioned why the prime minister should fear a satirical video.