Indian Democracy at Stake

On 22nd March 2024, the well-known political gi­ant of India Arvind Ke­jriwal, CM of Delhi, was arrest­ed on a fraudulent case of excise policy by the En­forcement Director­ate (ED). He was the first sitting Chief Min­ister who was arrest­ed ahead of a general election in India which is going to be held from 19 April 2024 to 1 June 2024. Fur­thermore, India’s largest oppo­sition party- the Indian Nation­al Congress- bank accounts were frozen so it would unable to car­ry out its election campaign. In­dian Congress has also faced a colossal fine of Rs.17bn by the income tax department ahead of the general election. There are also reports in the air about how candidates of opposition parties are being harassed by ED. All of these trends show two things: In­dian democracy is in the decline and PM Modi is afraid of Opposi­tion Party Alliance INDIA.

There is no doubt in saying that since the arrival of PM Modi in Delhi, India is no longer a liberal and secular democracy. PM Modi and his political party BJP largely operated on the ideology of Hin­dutva, which is explicitly defined by my previous article in this newspaper. Therefore, PM Modi has seen any kind of opposition from the minority, media, civil so­ciety, and opposition as a threat to his Hindutva goals and must be crushed by using hard tactics of government agencies. The V-Dem report finds that India has ceased to exist as a liberal democracy under PM Modi. As per its latest finding, India has been placed as an “electoral autocracy”, which........

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