India within the World 

• On the 4th of August, US President Donald Trump threatened to boost tariffs on Indian items over India’s continued buy of Russian oil, accusing Indian oil refiners of prioritizing ‘huge income’. President Trump had already introduced 25% tariffs on Indian imports in July, and, on the sixth of August, introduced an extra 25% tariff to be imposed on Indian items from the twenty seventh of August, ‘To cope with the nationwide emergency described in Government Order 14066’ (referring to Russia’s actions in Ukraine). In response, the Indian Ministry of Exterior Affairs reasserted its place that the extra tariff is “extraordinarily unlucky” and acknowledged that the US and EU proceed to commerce with Russia themselves. The Ministry added that “India will take all actions essential to guard its nationwide pursuits.” Chief of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, has labelled the 50% tariff “financial blackmail.”  The US and India are searching for to determine a free commerce settlement; nevertheless, US officers cited India’s protectionist market in addition to “geopolitical points” (together with India’s membership of the BRICS and purchases of Russian oil) as the present points standing in the way in which of an settlement. 
• Each the EU and US have sanctioned Indian corporations for buying and exporting Russian oil and supplying Russia with twin use applied sciences, enabling the Russian authorities to avoid sanctions. Regardless of that, Russian-backed Indian refiner Nayara Vitality exported its first cargo of gasoline on the fifth of August.  
• On the ninth of August, simply someday after the US imposed a 50% tariff on Indian items, the Ministry of Exterior Affairs introduced that the federal government ‘welcomes’ a US-Russia summit because it holds ‘the promise of resolving the Ukraine battle and unlocking alternatives for peace.’  

 Civil society, human rights defenders, and journalists 

• On the seventh of August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with senior Indian journalists in Jerusalem to reply their questions and signal autographs throughout a go to that additionally concerned discussions with the Indian ambassador to Israel about increasing bilateral cooperation in safety and financial areas. The assembly got here because the Committee to Defend Journalists (CPJ) and 15 different media and human rights organisations issued a joint letter demanding an finish to the compelled hunger and killing of journalists in Gaza by Israel. In its joint assertion, the CJP stated that “the journalistic neighborhood and the world bear an immense accountability to help our colleagues on this noble occupation”.  
• On the twenty first of August, eighteen opposition political get together MPs have have launched an announcement to the media expressing concern on the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering-led Assam authorities’s repeated use of a sedition regulation in opposition to the founding editor of The Wire – an Indian impartial information website-, its editors, journalists and columnists who’ve written for it. Within the assertion they categorical concern over the harassment by the Assam Police to the journalists, misusing Part 152 of the BNS, a bit of the Indian legal code in opposition to acts that endanger India’s sovereignty. “The summons to journalists is a blatant assault on press freedom and democracy itself. The BJP authorities in Assam is misusing rebranded sedition legal guidelines to intimidate impartial voices and silence criticism”, a part of the assertion reads.  
• On the twenty second of August, the Assam police registered a First Data Report (FIR) in opposition to Delhi-based journalist Abhisar Sharma below a number of sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) over a video during which Sharma mentions important remarks by excessive courtroom decide Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi about Assam’s authorities’s switch of tribal land to a personal firm. Within the video, Sharma additionally accuses Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of utilizing communal hate and violence for political achieve. The grievance in opposition to Sharma alleges that the video “contained statements ridiculing and denigrating the duly elected Governments of Assam and the Union of India” and the Assam Police in its FIR in opposition to Sharma has invoked part 152, charging him of acts “endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India”. The incident, which occurred days after the Assam Police summoned a few of The Wire’s journalists below Part 152, highlights how sedition legal guidelines are weaponized to silence criticism and intimidate the press. 
• On the thirtieth of August Deep Saika, an Indian reporter, was shot in a Naga village within the Senapati district of Manipur. One week earlier than the incident, on the twenty third of August, the reporter was threatened by Nagaland deputy Chief Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) chief Y. Patton for a information report for Hornbill TV during which Saika accused Patton of not having visited Naga villagers whereas the Assam authorities was finishing up an eviction drive on the Rengma Forest Reserve, a land which has a boundary dispute case within the Supreme Court docket. Deep Saika is now in a steady situation. Hornbill TV has issued an announcement condemning the assault as “not simply an assault on his particular person however a direct assault on press freedom”.  

 Hate Crimes and Hate Speech in opposition to Minorities 

• On the tenth of August in Assam, a state in northeastern India, a Miya Muslim man was allegedly threatened by a gaggle of people that informed him to “depart this place” and accused him of not being “a correct Bangladeshi”, regardless of having proven them his Aadhaar card. Shortly after, the group of individuals got here with a bulldozer and allegedly demolished the maktab, a conventional Islamic elementary faculty, during which the Muslim man was working. The incident is just not an remoted case, however a part of a wider sample of intimidation and displacement, with Miya Muslims being essentially the most affected. The Chief minister of Assam has repeatedly referred to the evicted households as “unlawful Bangladeshis” in a number of posts on X, and these statements have fueled not less than 18 incidents throughout 14 districts. The incidents included celebrations of compelled evictions of Muslims, hate speech on social media and public requires additional demolition of settlements belonging to “unlawful immigrants”. Many of those assaults have been organized or supported by Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJP) leaders and their associates as a part of a broader rise in evictions throughout Assam because the BJP got here to energy in 2016. 
• On the twenty second of August, an impartial Indian information web site revealed a report on the rising phenomenon of mass evictions concentrating on particular teams, akin to Muslims and Bengali audio system, with the pretext that the affected people aren’t Indian residents. The report got here days after Sunali, an eight-month pregnant lady, was detained by the Delhi police on suspicion of being “Bangladeshi”, earlier than being allegedly blindfolded and pushed into Bangladesh in the course of the evening alongside her husband and eight-year-old son. The household of the lady claims that, despite the fact that the couple confirmed police ID playing cards, police nonetheless handed them over Border Safety Forces (BSF) accusing them being “Bangladeshi”.  Since Sunali and her household are undocumented in Bangladesh, they now have to remain in hiding, which means that Sunali can not get entry to the healthcare she wants as a pregnant lady. Bhadu Sheikh, Sunali’s father, has now filed a case within the Excessive Court docket. This episode is certainly one of many incidents of harassment in opposition to Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant staff which have occurred in India’s states in latest months.  
• On the twenty eighth of August, the BBC revealed a reportage on 40 Rohingya refugees who have been allegedly deported by the Indian authorities to Myanmar in early Might 2025. On the sixth of Might, the refugees, who had UNHCR refugee playing cards and lived in several components of Delhi, have been allegedly taken to their native police stations below the guise of gathering biometric data- course of mandated by the Indian authorities. The subsequent day, after being transferred to the Inderlok Detention Centre, they have been flown from Hindon airport, east of Delhi, to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an Indian territory within the Bay of Bengal. As soon as there, they have been allegedly certain, blindfolded and brought onto a naval vessel, the place some have been crushed and humiliated. On the eighth of Might they have been compelled into small boats, given life jackets, and informed to swim ashore. They later found that they had been left in Myanmar, the place native fishermen discovered them. Commenting on the information, Thomas Andrews, the UN’s particular rapporteur on the state of affairs of human rights in Myanmar, says there’s “vital proof” proving these allegations. On the seventeenth of Might two members of the family of the refugees filed a petition urging India’s Supreme Court docket to carry them again to Delhi, to instantly cease comparable deportations and to supply compensation to all 40 people. India’s Supreme Court docket agreed to listen to arguments on the twenty ninth of September to resolve whether or not Rohingya may be acknowledged as refugees. 

 Non secular Freedoms and Minority Rights 

• On the 2nd of August, the Nationwide Investigation Company (NIA) granted bail to 2 catholic nuns from Kerala and a tribal man who have been initially charged with non secular conversions and human trafficking. The three have been arrested on the twenty sixth of July at Durg Railway Station in Chhattisgarh, accused of changing and trafficking three tribal ladies who have been travelling with them. In line with the allegations, the nuns have been accompanying the ladies to position them in convents in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, for home work. The incident escalated when a railway ticket examiner requested the ladies for his or her tickets, and the nuns intervened to say that that they had them. Shortly after, the examiner knowledgeable native members of Bajrang Dal, a Hindu extremist militia organisation, who arrived inside minutes and pressured law enforcement officials to register a First Data Report (FIR). Regardless of members of the family of the three ladies confirming they have been already Christians previous to the incident, the police proceeded with the arrests, backed by Bajrang Dal members who allegedly compelled the three tribal ladies to offer false statements in opposition to the nuns. The arrests sparked outrage amongst political and non secular leaders in Kerala, who questioned why police acted regardless of proof exhibiting no compelled conversion or human trafficking had taken place. The case is seen as a part of a broader sample of Hindu extremist organisations weaponising the so referred to as ‘Anti-Conversion Legal guidelines’ to focus on non secular minorities.   
• On the 4th of August, the Non secular Liberty Fee of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFIRLC) launched a report during which it documented 334 incidents of systematic concentrating on in opposition to Christians throughout India between January and July 2025. The incidents are all verified and mirror an “alarming consistency” of concentrating on Christian communities throughout 22 states and union territories. Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh emerged as “major sizzling spots” not just for the quick violence, but additionally for the misuse of legal guidelines, together with the Anti-Conversion Legal guidelines, to intimidate Christians. The report additionally disclosed 13 instances during which Christian households have been denied burial rights, in some instances even on non-public property.  
• On the eighth of August, the Catholic Bishops’ Convention of India (CBCI) launched an announcement, strongly condemning the mob assault in opposition to two Catholic monks and a catechist which came about on the sixth of August in Jaleswar, Odisha. One media outlet reported that the mob comprised of practically 70 Bajrang Dal members, which “stopped, abused, manhandled and falsely accused of spiritual conversion”. The police didn’t intervene and, to date, no FIR had been filed in opposition to the perpetrators. The CBCI highlighted of their assertion that this assault was not an remoted incident, however a part of the rising violence in opposition to Christian minorities in India and outlined it as a violation of constitutional rights and human dignity of minorities. 
• On the tenth of August a gaggle of individuals attending a Sunday prayer at an area pastor’s premises in Bihar have been attacked by 30-40 members of the Hindutva militant organisation Bajrang Dal carrying iron rods, sticks and pistols. Bajrang Dal district president Poddar declared that the group discovered proof of “conversion actions”. Police are investigating and have recognized these concerned within the assault, submitting expenses in opposition to them.  
• On the tenth of August, St. Xavier’s Faculty in Mumbai cancelled its annual lecture commemorating Jesuit priest Fr. Stan Swamy, an Adivasi rights activist who was one of many 16 human rights activist and lecturers arrested by the Nationwide Investigating Company after being accused of being a part of a “chilling Maoist conspiracy” to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Swami, who was 84 on the time of his arrest, died in custody on account of pre-existing well being circumstances and Coronavirus. The annual lecture at St Xavier’s Faculty was organised as a part of the World Indigenous Day celebrations, however it was cancelled after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) -a Hindu nationalist scholar organisation- accused the faculty’s administration of glorifying an individual accused in a “terror case.” The ABVP is a Hindu nationalist scholar organisation.   

 Web and Expertise 

• On the sixth of August, a assessment of courtroom filings carried out by the information company Reuters confirmed that federal and state companies ordered X to take away round 1,4000 posts or accounts between March 2024 and June 2025. Greater than 70% of those removing notices have been issued by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, which is throughout the Dwelling Ministry headed by Dwelling Minister Amit Shah. This company developed the Sahyog Portal, the place all social media platforms are imagined to register, however X has not joined defining it as a “censorship portal”. To counter X in courtroom, the federal government filed a 92-page report drafted by the Cybercrime Unit to point out that X is “internet hosting unlawful content material”. The unit analysed 300 posts it deemed illegal, together with misinformation, hoaxes, and little one sexual-abuse materials.  Within the June twenty fourth submitting, X stated a few of the blocking orders issued by officers “goal content material involving satire or criticism of the ruling authorities, and present a sample of abuse of authority to suppress free speech”. The federal government’s determination to permit police and all central and state companies to subject takedown notices for “any info which is prohibited below any regulation” is seen as a direct menace to free speech and skill to dissent, two rights anticipated to flourish in a democracy.  

 Political Events    

• On the first of August, the Election Fee of India (ECI) revealed the draft voter checklist after conducting a ‘Particular Intensive Revision’ (SIR) forward of the Bihar state elections. The draft checklist excluded 6.5 million voters on account of their loss of life, everlasting relocation or replication of their identify within the electoral checklist. The Communist Social gathering of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation submitted a grievance after discovering authentic voters’ names being eliminated “with none cause”. The get together additionally acknowledged that “Voters from deprived financial backgrounds are primarily within the checklist of names which have been deleted.” Equally, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, primarily based mostly in Bihar, submitted a grievance to the Chief Election Officer, alleging that many deceased voters’ names have been within the checklist while real voters had been eliminated.  
• On the seventh of August, Chief of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi held a press briefing, during which he alleged that the Election Fee of India (ECI) ‘colluded with the BJP to win the Maharashtra elections’ and to ‘steal elections’ in a single Karnataka constituency in the course of the 2024 Indian common election. Gandhi raised a number of allegations together with duplicate votes, invalid or pretend addresses, an unusually bigger variety of voters registered on the identical residence and misuse of the brand new voter registration type. On the eighth of August, Gandhi launched a video during which he questions the neutrality of the ECI, and reiterates the declare of a ‘vote chori’ or ‘vote theft’, including that, throughout a number of state elections each the Congress Social gathering and INDIA opposition bloc discovered that the outcomes didn’t mirror the ‘public temper’ on the bottom. Priyanka Gandhi, chief of the Indian Nationwide Congress Social gathering, supported her brother’s claims, including that ‘there’s been huge foul play.’ The BJP responded to the claims by accusing Gandhi of ‘chosen outrage’ for under questioning the ECI in elections they misplaced. In response to the allegations, on the eighth of August the ECI challenged Gandhi to submit his ‘vote theft’ claims below oath or ‘cease deceptive the general public.’  
• On the eleventh of August, the chief of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Tejashwi Yadav, claimed that the Deputy Chief Ministry of Bihar, Vijay Kumar Sinha, holds two voter playing cards and is registered to vote in two constituencies. Hours later, the Election Fee of India served a discover to the Deputy Chief Minister, searching for to grasp why he has two IDs. Bihar, which is presently led by the BJP authorities, is headed to the polls in October or November, with many viewing the upcoming election as a take a look at of the ECI’s independence.  

 Police and authorities 

• On the twenty first of August, two Jammu and Kashmir law enforcement officials and 4 police personnels have been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his or her involvement within the custodial torture of a policeman in 2023. The incident had taken place in February 2023 in Kupwara, when Khursheed Ahmad Chohan, a police constable was illegally detained throughout what was introduced as a narcotics inquiry. In line with the Supreme Court docket paperwork, he was allegedly tortured for six days, throughout which his testicles have been surgically eliminated and “vegetative particles” compelled into his rectum. When Chohan’s spouse informed the Kupwara police concerning the severity of the assault, they didn’t act in opposition to the alleged perpetrators and insinuated that Chohan suffered a self-inflicted wound. The case reached a turning level when Chohan’s spouse filed a Proper to Data Act (RTI) with a purpose to receive Chohan’s medical examination report carried out after the alleged torture. On the twenty first of July 2025, the Supreme Court docket criticised closely the police investigation, observing that it “reveals a disturbing sample of systematic cover-up” and “abuse of authority”. 

Judiciary 

• On the 4th of August, the Supreme Court docket of India stayed proceedings within the ongoing defamation case in opposition to Chief of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi. The case was instituted in opposition to Mr Gandhi in 2023, after he made feedback to the media that China had taken over 2000 sq. kilometers of Indian territory throughout border skirmishes between Indian and Chinese language troopers. The retired Border Roads Organisation officer, which instituted the defamation case, argued that Gandhi defamed the Indian Military. Throughout the latest courtroom proceedings, Justice Dipankar Datta criticised Gandhi for his remarks, asking if he had ‘any credible proof’, including that Gandhi ought to have aired his views in Parliament moderately than on social media, arguing that freedom of speech doesn’t imply a ‘accountable chief of the opposition would do all this.’ In response, Gandhi’s advocate argued that the regulation of defamation ‘can’t be used to freeze dissent to authorities insurance policies.’ The opposition INDIA bloc events launched an announcement on the fifth of August, calling the judges’ feedback ‘unwarranted’, including that ‘it’s the accountability of political events, particularly of the Chief of the Opposition, to touch upon problems with nationwide curiosity. When a authorities fails so spectacularly to defend our borders, it is vitally citizen’s ethical obligation to carry it accountable.’ Congress Social gathering chief Priyanka Gandhi defended her brother stating that he has the upmost respect for the Military and would by no means say something in opposition to it.  
• On the twelfth of August, Mintu Paswan, a Bihar resident who was declared lifeless by the Election Fee of India (ECI) in its ongoing Particular Intensive Revision (SIR), appeared within the Supreme Court docket, demonstrably alive. Paswan declared in an interview that whereas placing off his identify from the checklist “they didn’t ask for any paperwork” however so as to add his identify “they’re asking for therefore many”. Paswan is among the many 6.5 million voters who’ve been ignored of the draft elector ballot revealed by the ECI on the first of August. Activist Yogendra Yadav, who’s difficult the continued train in Bihar with the intention of exhibiting how electors have been wrongfully deleted by the ballot physique, stated in courtroom that “mass exclusion is just not a failure of implementation of SIR, it’s a design.” 
• The Election Fee has informed the Supreme Court docket, as a part of the ballot physique’s controversial Bihar Particular Intensive Revisions, that claims and objections on the draft electoral rolls may be filed even after the first of September. Because the begin of Bihar’s SIR, new reviews of arbitrary removals, deletions and the withholding of data have been obtained. The Court docket was reported to say that “the method (of submitting objections) will proceed till the final date of nominations, and all inclusions/exclusions are built-in within the closing roll”.  

 Enterprise & economic system 

• On the sixth of August, the US put a 50% tariff on Indian cotton exports. As a response, the Indian authorities eliminated the 11% import obligation on international cotton. Cotton performs a giant position in Indian economic system, sustaining six million farmers and forty-five million folks via the textile workforce. The choice allowed low cost cotton from nations like Australia and Egypt to be imported, figuring out a worth fall of 4% inside days after obligation removing. Many farmers, who have been already promoting beneath the minimal help worth (MSP), might be dramatically affected.  
• On the twelfth of August, a video clip exhibiting Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi reacting to the allotment of three,000 bighas of land in Assam’s Dima Hasao district to a personal cement firm went viral. The video was filmed throughout a Gauhati Excessive Court docket listening to during which emerged that land had been allotted for 30 years to Mahabal Cement Pvt. Ltd. The land in query had been used, till now, by indigenous communities for his or her cultivations. Protests erupted when excavation machines arrived on the land to scrub it, with out the indigenous communities’ consent. In the meantime, political tensions rose after Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi accused Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of transferring tribal land to the Mahabal Cement. Since December 2024, residents of the allotted space have challenged the choice in Court docket, claiming their households have lawfully lived on and cultivated these lands since 1975. 

Compiled by The London Story.