1. The government has been, or is trying to take down media pieces critical of them, including but not limited to investigations on Indian Army Torture in Kashmir[1] and documentaries about the current Prime Minister's role in locally fomented pogroms in 2002[2]. They have also been using the income tax enforcement apparatus to punish dissident independent news organisations such as The Quint[3] and Newslaundry[4]. That these news organisations are allowed to exist (as of 2024) is merely a compromise because outright banning and suppressing the organisation for no clear wrong doing would be bad for optics. It is in no way a litmus test for the measure of effective press freedom there actually exists.

2. The previously mentioned 2002 Gujarat pogrom[5], come to mind, supported by complacent ministers such as the now Prime Minister Modi, who was banned from the USA and several other nations due to his role in the incident (until recently)[6]. The Prime Minister and his party have been silent on ensuing regional ethnic conflict that has killed more than 200 people thus far.[7] The term 'Bulldozer Justice' was coined from the practice of BJP ruled states demolishing Muslim people's homes using bulldozer machines with public support, under the pretext of "illegal constructions" [8]

The BJP party is the political wing of the Hindutva outfit RSS (whose claim to fame is one of their members having assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. [9]) Throughout the decade of their governance, they, their regional sub-parties and their corporate partners have systematically enacted policies of aforementioned media suppression, public communications suppression in the face of mass protest/mobilization[10][11], arbitrary arrest of protesters under British colonial era sedition laws without bail[12][13] mass internet traffic surveillance via Deep Packet Inspection[14]. They have suspended around 150 opposition MPs as of a few months ago[15].

All the above which I've listed are bad enough but there are many more skeletons in the proverbial closet which I don't have the energy to recall and cite at the moment. None of the above points to India as being a free and secular nation. To engage in semantic handwaving is a frankly pathetic attempt of apologism. I wish I had more time to elaborate but I'm horrified that I even need to.

[1] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/govt-orders-magazine-... [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/01/25/india-bbc-na... [3] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/it-raids-at-premises-... [4] https://www.newslaundry.com/2023/05/05/at-least-44-times-ove... [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Gujarat_riots [6] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/22/uk-ends-boycot... [7] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-natio... [8] https://time.com/6303571/how-bulldozers-became-a-symbol-of-a... [9] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/pm-modi-continues-to-... [10] https://www.deccanherald.com/india/haryana/farmers-protest-m... [11] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/25/a-tool-of-poli... [12] https://www.livelaw.in/articles/father-stan-swamy-uapa-marty... [13] https://main.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2023/29067/29067_2023_1... [14] https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/reliance-jio-... [15] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-natio...