{"id":155518,"date":"2021-04-07T01:35:59","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T20:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=155518"},"modified":"2021-04-07T01:35:59","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T20:05:59","slug":"indias-plurality-at-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2021\/04\/07\/indias-plurality-at-stake\/","title":{"rendered":"India’s plurality at stake?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eroding Democratic Rights<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\nBy Dhurjati Mukherjee<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lately reports by independent and reputed agencies batting for democracy and civil rights have downgraded India\u2019s status claiming it is gradually turning into an illiberal democracy and can be counted among the 10 autocratising countries! While the BJP-led NDA government, under fire, has rubbished all such reports, its actions as brought out by these reports and other authorities only heighten the growing concern over blatant attempts to stifle dissent in the country. Rather than ignoring or discounting criticism, the government would do well to view it as \u2018constructive criticism\u2019 and work earnestly towards changing its image.
\nThe V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute, an independent research organisation based in Sweden, says in \u2018Autocratisation Turns Viral: Democracy Report 2021\u2019, the \u2018world\u2019s largest democracy has turned into an electoral autocracy. India\u2019s autocratisation process has largely followed the typical pattern for countries in the \u201cThird Wave\u201d over the 10 years: a gradual deterioration where freedom of media, academia, and civil society were curtailed first and to the greatest extent India has turned into an \u201celectoral autocracy.\u201d
\nNarendra Modi-led BJP to victory in India\u2019s 2014 elections and most of the decline occurred following BJP\u2019s victory and promotion of a Hindu-nationalist agenda, says the report, released last month in the presence of Sweden\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Robert Rydberg. \u2018India\u2019s level of liberal democracy registered at 0.34 by 2020-end after a steep decline since its high at 0.57 in 2013. This makes it one of the most dramatic shifts among all countries in the world over the past 10 years, alongside autocratising countries like Brazil, Hungary, and Turkey.\u2019
\nWhile it said that the \u2018overall freedom and fairness of elections also was hard hit, with the last elections held under Modi\u2019s reign in 2019, yet, the diminishing of freedom of expression, the media, and civil society have gone the furthest.\u2019 The Indian government rarely, if ever, used to exercise censorship as evidenced by its score of 3.5 out of 4 before Modi became Prime Minister. By 2020, this score is close to 1.5 meaning that censorship efforts are becoming routine and no longer even restricted to sensitive (to the government) issues. India is, in this aspect, now as autocratic as is Pakistan, and worse than both its neighbours Bangladesh and Nepal.
\nIn general, it says, the Modi-led government has used laws on sedition, defamation, and counter-terrorism to silence critics. For example, over 7,000 people have been charged with sedition after the BJP assumed power and most of the accused are critics of the ruling party.\u2019 The law on defamation has been used frequently to silence journalists and news outlets that take exception to the government\u2019s policies, punishments for which range from two years in prison to life imprisonment for \u201cwords, spoken or written, or signs or visible representation that can cause \u201chatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection\u201d toward the government.
\n\u201cModi and his party have also placed constraints on civil society and have gone against the constitution\u2019s commitment to secularism. Recently, the UAPA is being used to harass, intimidate, and imprison political opponents, as well as people mobilising to protest government policies.\u201d In addition it is being used to \u201csilence dissent in academia. Universities and authorities have also punished students and activists in universities engaging in protests against the CAA. Civil society is also being muzzled in the autocratization process.\u201d
\nThe development comes just after democracy watchdog, Freedom House, mostly funded by the US government, dropped India from the list of \u2018free\u2019 countries and designated it as \u2018partly free\u2019. It said: \u201cWhile India is a multiparty democracy, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist BJP has presided over discriminatory policies and increased violence affecting the Muslim population. The Constitution guarantees civil liberties including freedom of expression and freedom of religion, but harassment of journalists, NGOs, and other government critics has increased significantly under Modi.\u201d
\nThe private media, it said are vigorous and diverse, and investigations and scrutiny of politicians do occur. However, attacks on press freedom have escalated dramatically under the Modi government, and reporting has become significantly less ambitious in recent years. Authorities have used security, defamation, sedition, and hate speech laws, as well as contempt-of-court charges, to quiet critical voices in the media. Hindu nationalist campaigns aimed at discouraging forms of expression deemed \u201canti-national\u201d have exacerbated self-censorship. Online disinformation from inauthentic sources is ubiquitous in the run-up to elections. Separately, revelations of close relationships between politicians, business executives, and lobbyists, on one hand, and leading media personalities and owners of media outlets, on the other, have dented public confidence in the press.\u201d
\nA wide variety of NGOs operate, says the report but some, particularly those involved in the investigation of human rights abuses, continue to face threats, legal harassment, excessive police force, and occasionally lethal violence. Since 2015, the government has deregistered nearly 15,000 associations under the FCRA, amendments to which were passed in 2020, without consulting civil society groups and tightened restrictions on foreign funding.
\nIt also said \u201cAcademic freedom has significantly weakened in recent years, as intimidation of professors, students, and institutions over political and religious issues has increased. Members of student wing of RSS have engaged in violence on campuses across the country, including attacks on students\/professors. Academics face pressure not to discuss topics deemed sensitive by the BJP government, etc.
\nAgain, India was derided as the \u2018world\u2019s largest illiberal democracy\u2019 under Modi during a festival of ideas organised by The Financial Times in London, watched in over 100 countries. The comment was made during an exchange between Edward Luce once the FT\u2019s South Asian Bureau Chief and author and journalist Fareed Zakaria, recipient of Padma Bhushan in 2010. Luce said the world\u2019s 10 leading liberal democracies, including the US, \u201cwould have to criticise it (Modi government) for turning non-Hindu citizens gradually into second class citizens.\u201d Zakaria pointed out: \u201cwhat we\u2019re mostly seeing is the degradation of democracy from within \u2013 what is happening in Hungary, what is happening in Turkey, what happened in Russia…And what do you do in India (when it) is one of the key perpetrators of the problem rather than a solution to it?\u201d
\nTo a certain extent, the judiciary has been somewhat been critical of government decisions. Recently, the Supreme Court, while quashing the FIR registered against The Shillong Times Editor Patricia Mukhim, stated that free speech cannot be stifled by implicating people in criminal cases. Further, it observed: \u201cDisapprobation of governmental inaction cannot be branded as an attempt to promote hatred between the different communities\u201d, and noted that \u201cIndia is a plural and multicultural society. The promise of liberty, enunciated in the Preamble, manifests itself in various provisions which outline each citizen\u2019s rights\u201d.
\nIn the academic realm, the situation is far more distressing as has been manifest by the resignation of two renowned scholars \u2014 Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Arvind Subramanian, from Ashoka University. \u201cMy public writing in support of a politics that tries to honour constitutional values of freedom and equal respect for all citizens, is perceived to carry risks for the university,\u201d said Mehta in his resignation letter. Adding \u201cIt is clear it is time for me to leave Ashoka. A liberal university will need a liberal political and social context to flourish. I hope the university will play a role in securing that environment. Nietzsche once said that \u2018no living for truth is possible in a university.\u2019 I hope that prophecy does not come true.\u201d It is understood that around 90 faculty members expressed solidarity. Worse, 150 academics from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, LSE, MIT questioned Ashoka\u2019s commitment to freedom.
\nRecall a report way back in 2017 of Pew Research Centre survey which showed 55% Indians support a \u2018strongman\u2019 unchecked by Parliament and judiciary and almost half i.e. 53% said military rule would be a good thing. Today, as seen various factors are creating even more apathy towards democracy. When populist nationalism reigns supreme and rulers shower sops and freebies at election time, who cares about democracy and holding leaders accountable? Also when public life is intensely polarised, it is almost impossible to build a consensus on what constitutes danger to freedom.
\nUnfortunately, Indians don\u2019t usually punish political parties for violating democratic rights. In 1977 elections after Emergency, Indira Gandhi was defeated in North but she got 34.5% vote share in the south. Likewise, Modi government\u2019s crackdown on dissent scarcely seems to influence voters. A national lockdown, announced at 4-hour notice, forcing millions of migrant workers to walk hundreds of miles home, did not affect the BJP\u2019s electoral prospects, as Bihar Assembly elections showed.
\nIn such a precarious situation, while political parties need to think of the country, various stakeholders such as academics, civil society organisations should put additional pressure on the government, both internally and globally. Unless the situation changes, the character, strength of India\u2019s democracy and its social bonding and stratification will get further eroded.\u2014 INFA<\/p>\n

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Eroding Democratic Rights By Dhurjati Mukherjee Lately reports by independent and reputed agencies batting for democracy and civil rights have downgraded India\u2019s status claiming it is gradually turning into an illiberal democracy and can be counted among the 10 autocratising countries! While the BJP-led NDA government, under fire, has rubbished all such reports, its actions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-155518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}