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 placed the Indian state of democ­racy under PM Modi as similar to Indira Gandhi’s state of emer­gency (1975-77). Additionally, other major international-rank­ing outlets are also drawing the same conclusion about the Indian state of democracy. A scared dic­tator wants to lead a lifeless de­mocracy: a recent tweet by Rahul Gandhi. According to him, oppo­sition politicians are being threat­ened, money is used to overthrow governments and politicians are thrown into Jail by the Modi gov­ernment. Remember that Rahul Gandhi faced a deformation case due to an uprising of his politi­cal stature as he completed the Bharat Jodo Yatra (2022-2023).

Now let’s talk about Indian me­dia. Indian media has become the mouthpiece of PM Modi and the BJP party and often labelled other opposition as “traitors”. According to the findings of Al-Jazeera (2024), most Indian me­dia outlets have branded Modi as the Hindu supreme leader and campaigned their political nar­ratives. They polarised each de­bate on the dimensions of Paki­stan vs India, Hindu vs Muslim, and Mosque vs Temple. In doing so, the alliance between PM Modi and Indian media has become a win-win situation for them.

That’s why independent jour­nalists called this phenomenon “Godi Media”. According to famous Indian Journalist Karan Thapar, Godi Media is largely responsible for polarising Indian politics and society, breaking the idea of inclu­sive India. As per upright Indian famous journalist Ravish Kumar, it is dangerous times to be a jour­nalist in Modi’s India as he lost his prime time show on NDTV when the media outlet was overtaken by a friend of Modi Gautam Ada­ni, an Indian billionaire business magnate. Therefore, one should not be surprised at Indian Press Freedom (2024) which ranks In­dia at 161th out of 180 countries, the lowest in South Asia.

Apart from Indian media, ac­cording to Indian experts, Indian civil services and lower judicia­ry are now in tight control of PM Modi. This leads to total control and total surrender of the Indi­an Executive branch before Modi. Furthermore, the Indian Election Commission, which supposed to be an independent body, now its members are appointed by Modi and Shah. All of these trends indi­cate that Modi has become a civil­ian dictator of India who wants to control everything within India.

It is also worth mentioning what happened in Indian-Occu­pied Kashmir and Manipur dur­ing the second tenure of PM Modi. On 5th August 2019, 35A and 370 of the Indian Constitu­tion, which guaranteed semi-au­tonomous status to Indian Occu­pied Kashmir, were revoked and Kashmir was placed under se­vere curfew. This is followed by gross root human rights viola­tions in Kashmir which are well documented by International outlets and these grim measures also alienate pro-Delhi Kashmiri Politicians. Even Farooq Abdul­lah, the well-known political fig­ure and former CM of J&K, regret­ted his father’s decision to join India rather than Pakistan.

The same happened in Manipur. On 3rd May 2023, ethical violence erupted between Meithei and Ku­ki-Zo tribal. According to the Indi­an government, 175 people have been killed 1,018 others are in­jured and 386 religious structures were vandalised, most of them churches. Despite all of these, PM Modi remained silent on Manipur violence, signaling to minorities that India belongs to Hindus only.

Another fault line that emerged during Modi’s tenure is grow­ing divisions between North and South. Southern states of India, which are not ruled by the BJP, are much advanced in education, healthcare and technology but are being sidelined and declined proper share in revenue by the central government of India. This also casts a dark shadow on the future of Indian democracy.

All of the above arguments depict that all is not well in In­dia and India has embarked on the trajectory of Hindu Rashtra. This has far-reaching grim con­sequences for Indian minorities, opposition, politics, civil society, region and beyond. PM Modi and BJP have ideological goals for In­dian democracy in his upcoming three tenure, which casts a dark shadow on the largest democra­cy on the earth. Therefore, Pak­istan has to remain vigilant and prepare ahead of the general election in India.

Sher Ali Bukhari
The writer is a UET alumni with keen interest in Pakistan’s foreign policy.