By Prof. D.K. Giri
Indian elections are seldom influenced by international issues or reactions. But this time around, there is quite a bit of engagement with the western media and international institutions especially by India’s External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar. The EAM, coming from the Upper House, is not fighting the current elections but is stoutly defending India’s electoral process and its enduring democracy.
He is doing it with a twin-strategy, one is to fulfil his mandate as the Foreign Minister, and second is to prevent the opposition parties from taking electoral advantage of the reactions from overseas. The silver lining in such debates on democracy is perhaps that India is taken more seriously than before by world powers.
Let us note that there are three international agencies which occasionally assess democracies across the world and rank the countries in terms of their performance. One is the Economic Intelligence Unit of the leading media house of Britain, ‘The Economist Group’. It ranks democracies into three categories – fair, flawed and hybrid. India has been put as a flawed democracy.
The second agency is V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) located in Gothenburg, Sweden which had called India, “An electoral autocracy”. The third one is Freedom House, a non-profit organisation based in Washington D.C. which assesses maintenance of civil rights and liberties. It had ranked India ‘low’ in terms of upholding various freedoms.
India’s ruling regime had reacted strongly to these observations. Now the Foreign Minister is engaging with these agencies and others on India’s democracy. In particular, he is extensively talking about the remarks made by spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, for the UN Secretary General, “What we very much hope that in India, as in any country that is having elections that everyone’s rights are protected, including political and civil rights, and everyone is able to vote in an atmosphere that is free and fair”.
The spokesperson said this in response to questions about political unrest in India ahead of the upcoming national elections, namely the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the freezing of Congress Party’s bank accounts.Jaishankar strongly responded to these remarks, “I do not need the United Nations to tell me our elections should be free and fair. I have the people of India. The people of India will ensure that elections are free and fair. So, don’t worry about it.”
Jaishankar was campaigning for his ministerial colleague and BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrashekhar in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala’s capital. Addressing a forum of nationalist thinkers, Jaishankar tore into the western media, saying, “I get a lot of these noises from the western press. If they criticise our democracy, it is not because they lack information. It is because they think they are also political players in our elections”.
Admittedly, there are different versions and standards of democracies across the world. One can list the major ones – representative democracy, people’s democracy, socialist democracy, guided democracy, basic democracy and direct democracy (this is no longer in practice). Therefore, the parameters of democracy for each country may vary. So, it is easy to criticise one democracy by the other. One may also disagree with the variables that constitute an evaluation matrix used by above-said agencies. The buzz is that India might come up with its own evaluation criteria for democracies in the Global South.
At any rate, let us engage with at least seven points Jaishankar makes in reference to the remarks on Indian democracy. One, he says these are on our domestic politics which is going global. The global politics feels they must now interfere in our electoral process. They think they ought to know who rules India. It is an open secret that the world powers try to influence the government formation in other countries. The gossip is that rich countries in the Middle-East finance those who seek to destabilise democracies. Jaishankar’s complaint is not misplaced.
Second, “the west actually thinks they are part of our electorate. I think it is time today that we disabuse them and the best way to do that is by our self-confidence”. This seems to be an overreaction. The west has a condescending attitude towards Global South. But their comments on our democracy need not be overplayed.
Third, “we need to stand up to these kinds of attacks and criticisms, and rankings and reports because they will question everything”. This is a display of cynicism. We cannot dismiss all rankings and reports. We need to be sensitive to them and use them as self-introspection.
Fourth, “they will question our election system, our EVM, our Election Commission even the weather”. No international agency has commented on any of these so far. It is the opposition parties which are raising these doubts and questions. The main agency ECI is responsible for our elections including the use of EVM. Only they can clear these doubts and answer these questions.
Fifth, “one complaint is …. The BJP is so unfair, the BJP thinks it is going to win very big”. One can sympathise with EAM’s angst on this. It could be politics of envy. At the same time, it could also be considered as politics of arrogance as BJP initially claimed to cross 400 MPs in Lok Sabha.
Sixth, the EAM said the decisions, this government will be making are not just for the five years, and will give India, its society, and the coming generations a very big vote of confidence. This is a statesman-like statement. The saying goes that a politician looks at next election whereas a statesman looks at the next generation. So, Jaishankar’s assertion is worthy of appreciation.
Seventh, “it is the guarantee. The guarantee is an expression of confidence. It is an expression of confidence based on what we have delivered for the last ten years”. This is the politician Jaishankar speaking. Although, he is not a career politician, he has picked up some of the political lingua in the last ten years.
Guarantee in the strict sense of the term is an irrevocable commitment. When you purchase a product in the market, there is a guarantee on it. If the product does not work, it is returnable. Will that work with the Prime Minister? If a certain promise is not delivered, will he resign?
Coming back to the international criticism on our democracy and Jaishankar’s allegation of western press and powers wanting to influence our elections, it is not new. It has been happening one way or the other since elections began in India. Instead of being defensive, we should deepen our democracy to silence the critics.
Any remark on democracy in any country is a matter of international concern. The corollary to democracy is solidarity within the country and across the world, of course while isolating the vested interests. India stands out in Asia for sustaining its democracy. Indians have proved time and again that they will not compromise on their democracy and diversity. —INFA
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