Is India becoming a Flawed Democracy?

 

India was declared a secular state during the 1975 emergency, and India has been secular since independence. If history has been an indicator India is a deeply religious country, with diverse religions rooted in its culture and population. Hence, making it a free spirit country with a rich heritage and faith.  

For ages, religion has been an important factor in Indian politics with politicians courting votes by caste or religious affiliation. But steadily, it is deteriorating the essence of the country and making it hollow day by day.

Even in the latest report by V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute, it has been said that India has become an “Electoral Democracy.” The rankings in the Democracy Index published by The Economist Intelligence Unit blame Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist BJP government for the relapse of democracy in the country. Under their power, there has been monitoring some pressure on human rights groups, menacing journalists and activists, and attacks, majorly against the Muslim community. Thus, once a secular country now coming off to be a single-handed religion-divided state. Now, this adds to the disruption of political and civil rights in the country.

 

Is India aligning towards one religion?

Since the battle of the construction of Ram Mandir upon the ruins of a historic 16th-century mosque by a mob in 1992 in the northern city of Ayodhya.

Mr Modi has called it a “divine moment” and the end of a “slavery mindset,” embarking on the termination of thousand years of slavery with the construction of the temple.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has always called upon the fact that India is a Hindu nation that was enslaved by Muslims in the 11th century and then later by British conquerors. The country has portrayed the secular position after independence, while the opposition parties — namely the Congress party that ruled India for decades — as having a “colonial mindset,” which has been called out that they have taken down on Hindus and have sought the votes of Muslims and Christians, who together constitute about 17% of the country’s population.

Still, secularism has always persisted in India, until recently, when a fringe section of the BJP publicly demanded a shift to an official Hindu Nation.

 

Do you think India’s democracy is on the verge of Backsliding?

India’s narrative as a prominent participant in the field of economics and geopolitics somehow strains when India’s democracy seems to be backsliding.

First thing first, what is Democratic Backsliding? Democratic Backsliding is a process of regime shift towards autocracy where restrictions arise in the space for political participation in the process of government selection. It leads to democratic decline, involving the weakening of democratic institutions. Democratic backsliding is the antonym of democratization.

The prominent causes for the democratic backsliding include personalist politics, economic equality, external influence from great power politics or cultural conservative reactions. As of 2021, the world’s one-quarter of the population is living under democratically backsliding hybrid regimes.

In the case of India, it has been observed that the country has been damaging its prospects. With India’s rapidly growing economy, its democratic values are also under pressure. Truly democratic India might serve as a counterweight to China, but the precise question to ask is—Is India ready to use all its tools?

The latest scenarios and reports by various newspapers and news channels have shown some restrictions on free expression across civil society, media, and politics and have exhilarated inter-religious tensions with India’s Muslim minority. Now, it has been projected as a “fear of speaking out.”  Freedom House, a US NGO, has disparaged the country from “free” to “partly free.”

The true belief is that India is holding itself back from reaching its true potential. It is a known fact that India’s democracy has never been perfect, but throughout the years it has shown spectacular results. It has raised the country’s economy to the fifth position in the world and cultivated a burgeoning middle class. For India’s sake, western leaders need to be more outspoken in condemning the Indian government’s attacks on civil society and free speech. At this point, when more and more investors and businesses are willing to invest in India, if Modi fails to reverse course, his vision of India as a superpower will remain only a dream.

 

When it comes to India’s democratic regression, there are three primary areas of concern: the consolidation of a Hindu-majoritarian brand of politics; the excessive concentration of power in the hands of the executive and decay in independent institutions; and a fall of political dissent and freedom of the press. Each is significant in its own right. Taken together, they constitute a major harm to Indian democracy.

It has been noticed that the indentation of a unique structure built by the BJP can assemble both official, state power and unofficial, street power to pursue its core objectives. But in the recent scenario, religion has been immensely used as a filter for determining citizenship, both in a formal legal as well as informal sense. Quite often, the BJP’s leadership does not immediately condemn extra-judicial violence aimed at Muslims; on the contrary, they often celebrate rather than prosecute such vigilantism. Also, there has been a rise in state-sanctioned, extrajudicial violence in states like Uttar Pradesh, where the requisite BJP government reports that there were 8,500 “police encounters” between 2017 and 2021; nearly 40 per cent of police targets were Muslim.

 

What is the final element of the Backsliding of Democracy in India?

The final element of Democratic Backsliding in India is the disintegration of freedom of expression. From a macro-perspective, two additional factors have reduced the space for dissent and free speech: the political balance of power and the ideological moorings of the ruling party. The BJP’s rulings are organized around a rational ideological commitment to a more narrowly formatted vision of the nation. Criticism of its ideological project, on various occasions, is criticized as “anti-national.” This term equates support of BJP policies with loyalty to the sovereign Indian nation.

Multiple scenarios can be contemplated before moving forward with the country’s current power and if it will affect our decision towards the current Parliamentary elections in the country.

 

Is it crucial to watch India’s current elections?

Under this year’s Parliamentary Elections, many news reports challenged the government and called their election propaganda eccentric.

The Constitution of India, declares, “India a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic, assures its citizens justice, equality, and liberty, and endeavors to promote fraternity.”  

Lately, it has been said that India is fostering a resurgence in Hindutva which is a nationalist ideology building a belief that India should be a Hindu-controlled state. Is it fair for a country with the term “secular” in its Constitution is drive its rule with religious narratives and beliefs, and execute its crucial resources towards the upliftment rather than economic enhancement?

Under numerous discourses which are taking place lately, a senior foreign policy expert at the India-based Center for Policy Research said, “There are serious question marks on whether these are free and fair polls if one thinks clearly based on all the evidence that is on record.”

It has been mentioned by the Vice President for Research Analysis, Freedom House, “What distinguishes democracies from autocracy is an ability to be self-critical to hold leaders accountable for mistakes and for abuses. And if we don’t have that, then there is no fundamental difference.”

 

Democracy needs to be seen beyond just the ability to vote. It needs to abridge how people have the right to express themselves and formulate their opinions. On the verge of the latest political and religious proceeds do you reckon you have been given a fair choice to vote?

Do we have an alternate to vote?