It was thought that Prime Minister Modi would provide a new direction and restore India’s prestige globally. But various global surveys reveal a completely different outlook for our democracy and our freedom. The 2019 democracy index by the Economist Intelligence Unit showed us having dropped 10 places to rank 51 out of 167 and countries like Chile, Botswana ranked higher than us. We were actually placed in a category of ‘flawed’ democracy.
Just last week, we scored the biggest decline amongst the world’s 25 largest democracies. A report from the Freedom House, the oldest American organisation involved to support and defence of democracy globally has placed us along with Haiti, Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey, Hong Kong and Ukraine. The Freedom House also records deterioration of the world’s established democracies over the past 14 years. But our fall has been the steepest which could ‘blur the value based distinction between Beijing and New Delhi’. In fact the report puts us in the same basket as authoritarian China for eroding the country’s pluralism. The report states “Just as Chinese officials vocally defended acts of state repression against Uighurs and other Muslim groups before international audiences in 2019, Modi firmly rejected criticism of his Hindu nationalist policies, which included a series of new measures that affected India’s Muslim populations from one end of the country to the other”.
World press freedom index 2019 ranked us at 140th out of the 180 countries in the annual ‘reporters without borders’ analysis. In fact the report records alarming rate of coordinated hate campaign based on social net works against journalists who dare to speak or write about subjects that annoy Hindutva.
On the economic front the Geneva based World Economic (WEF) forum ranked us 58th in the annual global competitive index among the worst performing BRICS nations along with Brazil and in the overall ranking we are followed by some of our neighbours Sri Lanka 84th, Bangladesh 105th, Nepal 108th and Pakistan 110th place.
How has this been brought about? Why at all such embarrassing results when the loyal media continue to celebrate the new India?
The indications are very clear. We score points only for the timely conduct of elections but both the democracy civil liberties and the freedom index show a dip due to the dismantling of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the implementation of the National Register of Citizens in Assam and the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, in recent times.
At the international level we wish to play a key role and our endeavour to find a permanent place in the United Nations Security Council is still being seriously pushed. The UN high commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet move of filing an intervention petition of before the Supreme Court of India over the CAA has almost set the cat among the pigeons. Our official stand has been that CAA is a matter pertaining to India’s internal matter. But we are a signatory to the International Convention on Human rights. The UN high commissioner’s stand that the CAA being discriminatory and violates India’s commitments under international law is, what is sought to be pushed. The UN Human Rights Commission has been moving such proceedings before the International Criminal court, US Supreme Court and the final appeals courts in Asia and Latin American countries. The UN inter government body intervening in the Indian Supreme Court is a first of its kind for us. Certainly a great embarrassment.
The US commission on international religious freedom voiced grave concern and asked the Indian government to protect the people irrespective of their faith, the chairman of the US house of representatives foreign affairs committee said that it was deeply concerned by the communal violence. Last week the commission held the hearing on citizenship laws and religious freedom and clubbed India with Myanmar. The Indonesian government took up the case of the violence on the minorities and summoned the ambassador of India for discussion. The Iran foreign Minister condemned the wave of organized violence against the organized Muslims. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has now joined the chorus.
MPs across parties in the United Kingdom House of commerce urged the British government to act against India. In fact Nigel Adams a junior minister in the foreign Commonwealth office told the house that British government would not ‘pursue trade to the exclusion of human rights’. The conservative baroness Sugg, speaking on behalf of the British government, said that the protests across India leave no doubt that the legislation is divisive.
Our reputation as a democracy and our adherence to constitutionalism has taken a severe beating at the international level. Our human rights record is under a scanner and there is alarm over India’s slide towards majoritarianism. Constant criticism and legitimate attack on the policies followed by us certainly undermines our standing at the international level. At a time when we need global partnerships for development it is only fair that legitimate criticism is taken with the seriousness it deserve.
But instead of looking at the criticism with a democratic trajectory, we live in denial mode. Our parliament has postponed the debate on Delhi violence beyond Holi, while the British Parliament is discussing Delhi violence with the alacrity the situation warrants! The impact can be seen on our standing through the various indices internationally. The fall is really catastrophic. We are fire in the UK parliament across the political spectrum. Those who lit the fire must take their responsibility of dousing it. Or else the race into the pit shall only be complete.
(The writer is practising advocate, senior faculty in law and political analyst)
