In Public Interest: Police excess & Political silences in Tamil Nadu | Henri Tiphagne interview

As election campaigns intensify in Tamil Nadu, public debate is dominated by political rhetoric, corruption charges, and electoral calculations. But beyond the headlines lies a far more serious question about the state of human rights under the present DMK government.

Over the past few years, Tamil Nadu has witnessed growing concerns over custodial violence, police excesses. Despite being repeatedly flagged by human rights groups and defenders', these concerns rarely find sustained space in mainstream election discourse.

What do the data on custodial deaths and encounter killings reveal? Are accountability mechanisms working? And why do human rights violations struggle to become a central electoral issue?

In this week's In Public Interest, Shabbir Ahmed speaks to Henri Tiphagne, the Executive Director of People's Watch, to examine the government's approach to human rights violations, the systematic failures that enable them, and what meaningful accountability would be in a democracy.