Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations on January 26. He also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is an opportunity for Asia’s two giant democracies to start working together to promote shared values on human rights.
On January 7, Indonesia also joined BRICS – the Brazil, Russia, China South Africa-led intergovernmental bloc that India is a founding member of and which seeks multilateral cooperation to promote health, education, and the “fight against poverty and social inequality”. These are crucial initiatives that should also translate into domestic policy in both countries.
President Prabowo and Modi both won divisive elections in 2024. Majoritarian politics can win votes but they split communities, often risking discrimination and violence. Both leaders now govern large, diverse populations and they urgently need to adopt policies that protect those most at risk, instead of ceding space to religious extremism.
Some Modi supporters in India want a ban on the hijab, while in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population, many Prabowo supporters promote mandatory hijab regulations.
Instead of allowing extremists on either side to dictate and control what women should wear, both leaders should publicly defend the right of women to choose – and more broadly work toward protecting women and ethnic and religious minorities.
In Indonesia, which has a Sunni Muslim majority, the blasphemy law and the so-called religious harmony regulation are often used to discriminate against non-Muslim minorities such as Hindus and Christians. In India, laws and policies systematically discriminate against minorities, particularly Muslims.
As former colonies, India, which was ruled by the British and Indonesia ruled by the Dutch, both countries inherited complex demands for self-determination in Jammu and Kashmir and in West Papua. This has led to human rights violations by security forces, who are seldom prosecuted for their crimes, and by armed groups. The governments of both countries should address historical grievances instead of punishing people for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.
The two countries have long shared the principle of non-alignment to shield their citizens from the vagaries of disagreements among powerful countries. However, this is no longer a world where principles of non-alignment can translate into non-engagement. Human rights abuses linked to conflict, migration, disease, poverty, or climate change, tend to disregard borders.
Instead of complaining about Western double standards – true as they may be – India and Indonesia can take a leadership role on justice, equity and accountability.
The world is on fire and people are being killed, wounded, raped and tortured whether in West Asia, Sudan, Ukraine and closer to home, in Myanmar. Modi and Prabowo have avoided taking sides in the differences between the United States and Europe on one side, and China and Russia on the other. However, they can demonstrate universal commitment to human rights, democracy and humanitarian action.
Indians and Indonesians are particularly focused on the atrocities in Gaza. With Israel and Hamas having agreed to a multi-phase ceasefire, Modi and Prabowo should call on Israel to lift its blockade on Gaza, allow humanitarian aid into the region at a scale necessary to meet urgent needs and ensure that basic services like electricity and water are restored. They should call on Palestinian armed groups to immediately and unconditionally release all civilians held hostage. Both leaders should support efforts to hold those responsible for heinous crimes to account and address root causes, including Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians.
In Myanmar, the military junta has ramped-up its “scorched earth” tactics against opposition areas amid a growing armed resistance and territorial losses. The junta has deployed aerial and artillery attacks using explosive weapons in populated areas, increasing the risk of harm to civilians. The Rohingya continue to flee in droves, often ending up as refugees in India and Indonesia, as they seek to escape killings, unlawful forced recruitment, and arson attacks by junta forces as well as the opposition Arakan Army.
Over a million Rohingya refugees remain in Bangladesh, without proper access to education or livelihoods, falling prey to violence by armed groups. Indonesia has offered shelter to Rohingya refugees, but should protect them from discrimination and attacks by host communities. India, meanwhile, should stop the arbitrary detention and deportation of Rohingya refugees.
Prabowo and Modi should also recognise that the Rohingya crisis needs a lasting solution in Myanmar, and encourage regional governments to engage the opposition, instead of prioritising talks only with the junta, which is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Both governments should press for holding those responsible for serious crimes to account.
Both leaders should also raise concerns with their BRICS partner, Russia. Since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which has resulted in widescale abuses and suffering, it is rare for leaders of major democratic powers to visit Russia. However, both Modi and Prabowo have travelled to Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin. Russia is also keen to build commercial and military ties with countries like India and Indonesia to circumvent Western financial sanctions and export controls. But Prabowo and Modi should also not hesitate to press Putin to end the Russian forces’ abuse of Ukrainians.
Prabowo and Modi are popular leaders and they should use that good will to promote rights both at home and abroad. The world needs political leadership to counter instigators of violence and hate. Otherwise celebrating an independent Constitution will just remain a photo opportunity.
Meenakshi Ganguly is deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
