IT is usually assumed that spying on citizens is a feature of authoritarian regimes. But if one were to ask American whistle-blower Edward Snowden, the answer would be a resounding no. Democracies are in trouble and the assorted freedoms they once promised are crumbling. The media bears the brunt of the betrayal, a fair share of which comes from perennially fragile South Asian democracies. But it is in India that democracy is sliding on the steepest of slippery slopes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in particular, has put Indian and foreign media alike in the crosshairs of his Hindu nationalist project. The raid on the BBC’s offices following its well-chronicled documentary on the Gujarat pogroms was symbolic of the times. Journalists are being harassed and jailed, opposition leaders getting expelled and suspended en masse from parliament.

It was of a piece with the rot when in October, Apple warned independent Indian journalists and opposition politicians that government hackers may have tried to break into their iPhones. Mr Modi’s officials promptly acted the next day, but against Apple, questioning whether the Silicon Valley company’s internal threat algorithms were not faulty. An investigation was announced into the security of Apple devices, instead. Many of the more than 20 people who received Apple’s recent warnings have been publicly critical of Mr Modi or his long-time ally, Gautam Adani, an Indian energy and infrastructure tycoon. Of the journalists who received notifications, Anand Mangnale and Ravi Nair belonged to the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a global alliance of independent, investigative newsrooms. A day after the OCCRP emailed Mr Adani seeking comment for a proposed story on alleged stock manipulation, a forensic analysis of Mr Mangnale’s phone by Amnesty International, and shared with The Washington Post, found the Israeli spyware Pegasus planted in it. Is it a coincidence that Mr Adani runs Israel’s Haifa port, and Mr Modi supports Israel’s war in Gaza? Where do freedoms stand a chance?

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2023