NEW DELHI (AP) — An August 5 demonstration by India’s main opposition parliamentary party against soaring food prices and unemployment began like other recent protests — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s huge popularity A weak opposition party has gathered in the streets of New Delhi in an election against a government.
But the protests quickly changed, with key members of parliament, led by Rahul Gandhi (who was Modi’s main opponent in the last two general elections), gathering in parliament and escalating into violent confrontations with the police. did.
“Democracy is memory (in India),” Gandhi later tweeted, describing a dramatic photo showing him and his party leader being temporarily detained by police.
Gandhi’s statement was seen as yet another desperate effort by the crisis-ridden opposition to strengthen its links and was dismissed by the government. It struck a chord amid growing feelings that democracy was in retreat and its foundations were shaken.
Experts and critics say trust in the judicial system, which checks executive power, is eroding. Attacks on the media and freedom of speech have become brazen. Religious minorities face increasing attacks by Hindu nationalists. And peaceful protests, sometimes against provocative policies, have been quelled by internet crackdowns and the imprisonment of activists.
“Most former colonies have struggled to introduce lasting democratic processes,” said Booker Prize-winning novelist and activist Arundhati Roy. After all these years, it’s traumatic to see it being dismantled in such a systematic and shockingly violent way.”
Modi says India’s democratic principles are strong and even thriving.
“If there is any sense in the world today that democracy is somehow the future, it is largely due to India,” Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in April. “There was a time when we were the only democracy in this part of the world.”
History is on Jaishankar’s side.
At midnight on August 15, 1947, the shrill voice of the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, echoed over the red sandstone parliament building in the heart of the Indian capital.
“At midnight when the world sleeps, India will wake up to life and freedom,” Nehru famously said, heard on live radio by millions of Indians. We salute the world and pledge to work together to advance peace, freedom and democracy. “
It marked India’s transition from a British colony to a democracy — the first in South Asia — since then India has transformed from a poverty-stricken country into one of the fastest growing economies in the world, becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the world. and a democratic counterweight to its authoritarian neighbor China.
Aside from a brief hiatus in 1975 when an official state of emergency was declared under parliamentary party rules, which saw complete censorship, India has remained relentless in its democratic beliefs. Stick to. Opposition and peaceful transition of power.
But experts and critics say the country is slowly deviating from some of its commitments, arguing that the setback has accelerated since Modi took power in 2014. , accuses his populist government of using liberal political power to undermine democratic freedoms and obsessed with pursuing Hindu nationalists.
Staffan I. Lindberg, political scientist and director of the V-Dem Institute, said: A Swedish-based research center that assesses the health of democracies.
The Modi party denies this. Spokesman Shezad Poonawala said India was a “thriving democracy” under Modi and had witnessed a “rebirth of a republic”.
Most democracies are largely immune to tension.
The number of countries experiencing democratic setbacks is “more than ever” in the past decade, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance said last year, listing the United States alongside India and Brazil. added.
Still, the decline appears to be more pronounced in India.
Earlier this year, the US-based nonprofit Freedom House downgraded India from a liberal democracy to “partially free.” The V-Dem Institute classified India as an “electoral dictatorship” on par with Russia, and the Democracy Index published by The Economist Intelligence Unit called India a “flawed democracy.”
India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the downgrade “inaccurate” and “distorted”. Many Indian leaders have said such reports are an intrusion into “internal affairs” and India’s parliament does not allow discussion on them.
Globally, India is a strong supporter of democracy. At the first US-hosted democracy summit in December, Modi argued that the “spirit of democracy” is essential to India’s “spirit of civilization.”
Domestically, however, his government has defied that very spirit, with independent institutions coming under increasing scrutiny.
Experts point to a long-standing lawsuit with India’s Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of a key decision taken by the Modi government as a major concern.
They include cases related to the controversial citizenship review process that left nearly 2 million people already potentially stateless in the state of Assam; semi-autonomy, opaque campaign finance laws seen disproportionately favoring the Modi Party, and alleged use of military spyware to monitor political opponents and journalists.
India’s judiciary, which is independent of the executive branch, has faced criticism in the past, but that criticism is increasing, said former Supreme Court Justice Deepak Gupta.
Gupta said India’s democracy appeared to be “on a downward trend.” This is a failure of courts to preserve civil liberties by denying people bail in some cases, police agitation and abuse of anti-terrorism laws, a tactic also used by previous governments. is.
“In terms of adjudicating disputes … the courts have done a good job. ‘ he said.
The country’s democratic health has also taken a hit due to minority status.
The predominantly Hindu nation prides itself on its multiculturalism and is home to approximately 200 million Muslims. It has a history of bloody sectarian violence, but has recently seen an increase in hate speech and violence against Muslims. Some states led by Modi have used bulldozers to demolish homes and shops alleged to be Muslim protesters, a form of collective punishment critics say.
The government has tried to downplay these attacks, but the incidents have terrorized minority communities.
“Sometimes minorities need special protection so that they are not seen as second-class citizens,” Gupta said.
The rise of Hindu nationalism has boosted the Modi party’s fortunes, as evidenced by its electoral success. It is also in line with the rather obvious fact that for the first time in Indian history, the ruling party has no Muslim members in parliament.
These concerns are exacerbated by the inability to completely eliminate discrimination and attacks against other minorities, including Christians, tribesmen and Dalits, who form the bottom of India’s Hindu caste hierarchy. The government sees the installation of an indigenous woman as India’s ceremonial president as an important step towards equal representation, but critics call it a political optic and question it. ing.
Under Modi, India’s parliament has also come under scrutiny for passing important, largely uncontroversial laws, including a religiously-driven citizenship law and controversial agricultural reforms that led to mass protests. In a rare setback, his government repealed the Farm Bill, which some viewed as a triumph for democracy, but that sentiment quickly faded as attacks on free speech and the press increased.
In this year’s Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders, India fell from 8th to 150th out of 180 countries, noting that “Indian journalists who are too critical of the government face a sweeping harassment and attack campaign. “There are.”
The curtailment of press freedom in India dates back to previous governments, but has worsened in recent years.
A journalist has been arrested. Some are prohibited from traveling abroad. Dozens face criminal prosecution, including sedition. At the same time, the government introduced sweeping regulatory laws to give social media companies more power to police online content.
“If you look around, you can see that the media has definitely shrunk under Modi,” said journalist Koomi Kapoor, author of The Emergency: A Personal History, which documented India’s only emergency. said.
“What happened in the emergency was ahead of time and never pretended. What’s happening now is looser and more sinister,” she said.
Still, optimists like Kapoor say all is not lost “if India strengthens its democratic institutions” and “gives hope to justice.”
“I fear that if judicial independence is lost, there will be nothing left,” she said.
Others, however, argue that Indian democracy has taken so many physical blows that the future looks increasingly bleak.
“The damage is too structural, too fundamental,” said novelist and activist Roy.
Associated Press journalist Rishi Lekhi contributed to this report.
