India: Government restricts protests amid election official accountability concerns

The Narendra Modi government is reportedly preventing protesters from gathering in an effort to shield the Chief Election Commissioner from accountability regarding disputed misconduct.

In discussing the right to peaceful assembly, the situation is compared to Mahatma Gandhi’s 1917 Champaran protest. During that event, Gandhi utilized civil resistance by accepting legal notices and maintaining correct conduct toward British officials to demonstrate that their authority was shaken without personal offense, eventually leading the British to withdraw the case against him.