Amnesty’s India chief on Modi’s shrinking of space for activism and why he won’t abandon his post

Amnesty’s India operations have sparked a head-on clash with Narendra Modi’s administration, but Aakar Patel, the man at the helm, tells Arpan Rai he is not going down without a fight

Amnesty International India’s Aakar Patel addresses a press conference in New Delhi (AFP via Getty)

For a man going toe-to-toe with the state in the shrinking battleground of human rights activism in India, Aakar Patel is surprisingly upbeat about dealing with the government agents who raid his office from time to time.

“Maybe I should make some money by starting a class teaching people how to handle investigative agencies and their officers,” jokes the chair of the board at Amnesty International India.

Plans for an interview with The Independent at Amnesty’s India office had to be hastily rearranged because “there’s not much space to sit amid [case] files”. Patel, a former journalist turned author and activist who operates out of the southern city of Bengaluru, isn’t exaggerating.