Democracy Situation in India: the causes and solution

Babloo LOITONGBAM

The Constitution of India in its preamble calls itself a “sovereign, socialist, secular democratic republic” and promised to secure for all its citizens “justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity”. In part III it guarantees certain fundamental rights to its citizens covering, if not all, at least most of the universally recognized civil and political rights. In part IV it also provides the directive principles of state policy covering most of the economic, social, and cultural rights.

In actual practice, however, Indian democracy suffered from serious democracy deficits, particularly in its manifestations in the peripheries. For example, the North East region of India, and more recently the Jammu and Kashmir, has always been kept under some form of military rule with the operation of laws like the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958. The impunity provided under these laws renders the fundamental rights, including the non-negotiable human rights including the right to life, totally hollow and meaningless. This impunity, initially justified as a state of exception needed for the protection of “national interest” and “national security” is gradually becoming the norm in governing the whole country.

After the Hindu nationalist right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power after winning the 2014 election, the time-honored democratic values and principles have started to be compromised. But the same BJP party, led by its populist leader Narendra Modi, won a landslide electoral victory in the 2019 Parliamentary election. On the face of it the majoritarian nationalistic jingoism seems to have resonated well with the masses of the Hindu majority; but the undercurrent of unflinching support of the super rich Indians who sees Modi’s rise as an opportunity to further consolidate their corporate empires seems to have played a crucial role behind the dramatic election outcome.

With a comfortable majority in the Parliament, particularly in the Lok Shabha or the lower house on the one hand and equipped with an overzealous effort to create a strong unified India under the Right Wing Hindutva ideology pursuing the slogan of Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan (Hindi speaking, Hindu religion and Hindu nation), the new BJP government started openly defying the very foundational principles of Indian democracy enshrined in its constitution such as secularism, socialism, and federalism. A stream of anti-democratic legislations undermining the organically plural multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-linguistic Indian ethos started flowing out of the Parliament in the last two years.

In the same year, Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 that openly discriminate against Muslims immigrants from getting Indian citizenship was passed by the Parliament amidst massive protest in the streets. The same year Parliament also passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019 by revoking Article 370 that recognized the special status of the erstwhile kingdom where the territorial claim by Pakistan and China is still a matter of international concern. The anticipated people’s outcry in Kashmir was subdued with an iron hand by imposing a lockdown, arbitrary detention of all the key politicians, Internet shutdown, and media blackout. The administration also strengthened its grip to control any dissenting voices by giving itself more power through the Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment Act, 2019. Under the new amendment the administration can declare not only organizations but even individuals as terrorist. The 84 year old Jesuit priest Father Stanislaus Lourduswamy, who had dedicated all his life for the upliftment of the indigenous people of Jarkhand, is one of the detainees under this law. Many more activists peacefully struggling for realization of human rights of the marginalized communities, who do not conform to the ideology rule of the Hindu nationalist party, are currently detained under this law.

Even though the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act had its origin in the infamous emergency era of the 1970s, where the government tries to politically control the flow of foreign funds to NGOs, the 2020 amendment has made it even more stringent. The democratic space for independent civil society s who do not conform to the government’s thinking or who are critically assessing its compliance to international human rights standards has received a severe blow. Registration under FCRA has been suspended for many NGOs for their advocacy work in the international forums. The list includes People’s Watch, Lawyer’s Collective, Centre for Social Development etc. Amnesty International India too had to close down its operation in India due to constant harassment by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of money laundering in violation of the domestic law.

The lockdown imposed after the COVID 19 pandemic followed by intrusive surveillance of citizens came in handy for the government that was on the lookout for an excuse of installing such surveillance infrastructures. Amidst the COVID crisis and harsh weather conditions, thousands of farmers are still protesting in and around Delhi against what they see as laws that prioritize the corporate interest over their livelihood and survival. Despite the massive popular resistance, the government is stubbornly pushing for the new farm law. The brutality of the government is exposed when a 21 year old environmental activist Ms. Disha Ravi was arrested and slapped with sedition charges for sharing an online document (toolkit) with Swedish climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg to support the famer’s protest.

In fact, in March 2021, the US based non-profit Freedom House in its annual report¹ on global political rights and liberties downgraded India from a democracy to a “partially free democracy”. The Sweden-based V-Dem Institute in its latest report² on democracy concluded that India has become an “electoral autocracy”. Similarly the latest Democracy Index³ of The Economist Intelligence Unit downgraded India two places to 53 position and described it as “flawed democracy”. The rankings pointed out the increased pressure on human rights groups, intimidation of journalist and activist, and a spate of attacks, especially against Muslims.⁴

The democracy challenge in India today is deep and it cannot be left to the civil society watch dogs. Internationally when democratic government engages with each other the issue of democracy and human rights should be centre staged. The United Nation’s human rights procedure needs to be strengthened. The last time India was discussed in the UN Human Rights Committee was in 1997 and thereinafter it has not submitted its fourth periodic report. Most of the UPR recommendations on India, including the ratification of Convention Against Torture, remain un-implemented.

Domestically, the unholy alliance of the right wing populist leader and the super rich is expected to be confronted by a broad alliance of democratic forces. Unfortunately the mainstream centre-left politics represented by the Indian National Congress is functioning on crisis mode and has not being able to throw up the necessary leadership to build such a broad enlightened alliance. There is however people’s grassroots movements addressing the local issues, needs and right of the communities. An alliance of the movements of the marginalized communities can perhaps provide the necessary democratic people’s resistance to the present onslaught to democracy.