Indian democracy is on the decline

Indian democracy is on the decline

The Indian democracy is on the decline under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Millions of Indians are protesting against the policies of hate and divide. The amendments in the citizen act that practically denied the Muslims to get Indian nationality. The mass protests have been erupted since the new citizenship act being enforced.

India’s Overall Score is 6.90-It Ranked 51. It has dropped 10 places in one year in the Index. India scored 8.97 in Electoral process and pluralism- functioning of government 6.79- Political participation 6.67-Political culture 5.63 and Civil liberties 6.76.

 The Muslims are being targeted in this new citizenship law.  At the same time, they want to compile a register of all India’s 1.3bn citizens. Those sound like technicalities, but many of the country’s 200m Muslims do not have the papers to prove they are Indian, so they risk being made stateless. Ominously, the government has ordered the building of camps to detain those caught in the net.

The scheme looks like the most ambitious step yet in a decades-long project of incitement against Muslims. That is electoral nectar for the BJP, but political poison for India. By undermining the secular principles of the constitution, Mr Modi’s latest initiatives threaten to do damage to democracy. They also risk spilling innocent blood.

The Modi government continues to attack the democratic rights of Indian people. The quality of democracy is falling under Modi. Indian society has become less tolerant in last few years as the result of politics of hate and divide.

The India has dropped 10 places in the annual Index of EIU. The biggest democracy in the world, India, dropped ten places in the global ranking, to 51st place. India’s overall score fell from 7.23 in 2018 to 6.90 in 2019. The primary cause of the democratic regression was an erosion of civil liberties in the country,” the Economist survey said.

The survey said: “The Indian government stripped the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) state of its special status by repealing two key constitutional provisions granting it powers of autonomy. Article 370 gave the state assembly of J&K powers to decide which articles of the Indian constitution would be applicable in the state—except for matters related to defence, communication and foreign affairs.

 Furthermore, Article 35A prevented Indian residents from other states from purchasing land or property in J&K. Following the removal of these provisions of the constitution and the passage of a new Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019, J&K no longer enjoys statehood and is now divided into two union territories: one that retains the name Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

 Ahead of the move, the government deployed a large number of troops in J&K, imposed various other security measures and placed local leaders under house arrest, including those with pro-India credentials. The government also restricted internet access in the state.”

                                                         Rukhsana Manzoor