Modi's Crackdown: Mosques Threatened, Protest Leaders Detained, X Accounts Blocked
NEW DELHI — A heritage mosque across from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official residence has won a four-week reprieve from possible demolition. Its worshippers still face a locked gate. Elsewhere, mosque protesters, opposition organizers and journalists have been detained, while online reporting is disappearing behind location-based blocks. These are distinct episodes, but together they illuminate a widening dispute over religious freedom, protest rights and censorship in India.
On October 29, the Land and Development Office told the Delhi High Court that it would take no coercive action against Race Course Masjid while deciding a representation by the Delhi Waqf Board. The undertaking is a temporary protection, not a permanent guarantee. The court refused to order the restoration of access for prayers, citing ongoing demolition work and safety hazards in the surrounding area.
A mosque protected for four weeks, but closed to worshippers
Race Course Masjid is a Grade-II heritage structure and a Waqf-notified property near the prime minister's official residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg. Its electricity and water connections were disconnected on October 7. The dispute arose during government efforts to reclaim a wider land parcel containing the Delhi Race Club, Jaipur Polo Ground and homes belonging to hundreds of lower-income families.
Housing for roughly 700 families in the vicinity has already been demolished. The government says the land operation serves public purposes and that access restrictions around the mosque are necessary for safety; mosque representatives say the building's religious and heritage status requires protection. The October 29 court record does not establish that Race Course Masjid was demolished. It establishes a continuing threat that has been temporarily stayed.
The alarm extends beyond one Delhi property. On October 12, in a separate dispute at Masjid-e-Mohammadia in Hyderabad, authorities moved to demolish a disputed wall and AIMIM legislator Mohammed Mubeen was detained alongside supporters protesting the move, according to local reporting. And in September, Delhi police detained Muslim politicians and community leaders protesting attacks on mosques and other grievances.
Political protest met with mass detention
In October, the Cockroach Janta Party and other opposition and civil-society groups mobilized protests over alleged irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls. Human Rights Watch reported large-scale detentions, harassment of journalists and restrictions on movement. On October 10, police took three Cockroach Janta Party leaders into custody aboard an aircraft after it landed in Delhi.
Human Rights Watch also reported a major police deployment, closed metro stations and mobile-internet restrictions during those demonstrations. Opposition figures fear that voter-roll revisions have excluded eligible citizens; election authorities say the process is intended to remove duplicate, deceased and otherwise ineligible registrations. These election-related demonstrations are separate from the mosque-demolition protests, but both raise questions about authorities' response to dissent.
Elon Musk's free-speech promise and X's India blocks
India's online censorship system has grown sharply. An Indian Express investigation found nearly 195,000 government directions to restrict content sent to Instagram, Facebook and YouTube between March and July 2026 through mechanisms including the Sahyog portal. This total applies to those three services, not to X.
Yet X has been subject to similar demands. In March, several government-critical accounts were withheld within India under legal orders. Reporters Without Borders has documented X restrictions affecting journalism and reporting about police violence, Kashmir and marginalized communities. In July 2025, after Reuters accounts were briefly blocked in India, X itself criticized what it described as government press censorship.
Musk's company has challenged aspects of India's content-removal system in court and publicly objected to some restrictions. That legal opposition is important. So is the fact that X has complied with blocking demands, leaving readers unable to access some posts or accounts from inside India. A promise of free expression offers little practical comfort when the platform serves one version of the public conversation to users outside India and a restricted one to people inside it.
One India-based Pamphlets reader described needing a VPN to see the publication's posts and said many people were blocked. That is a reader's account, not independently verified proof that a specific Indian order targeted Pamphlets. But the broader practice of country-specific withholding of news and political commentary is independently documented.
The right to know cannot depend on a VPN
Modi's administration cites public purpose, law and order, and legal compliance in these different controversies. Rights groups say safeguards against arbitrary detention, religious discrimination and unjustified takedowns are insufficient. Reporters Without Borders has urged the government to disclose legal grounds for blocking journalism and urged platforms including X to subject censorship requests to meaningful review.
As of October 29, the core facts remain: Race Course Masjid is not being demolished under the current four-week undertaking, but worshippers cannot freely enter; political leaders and journalists have been detained at demonstrations; and material critical of authorities has been restricted online. For a government that describes itself as democratic, and a platform whose owner champions free speech, these are questions that demand answers rather than silence.
Sources and verification
Cover photograph: Race Course Mosque, reproduced from an image published by The Independent (October 23, 2026; originally marked 'supplied'). All photo credit and underlying rights remain with the source or rights holders.
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