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EDITORIAL: The link between politics and nationalism, especially of the variety prevalent in India, can be extremely corrosive for democracy. This reality is amply illustrated by Washington-based think tank, Freedom House, in its latest report that downgrades the world’s largest democracy – now a misnomer - from a “free” to “partially free” country. “Under [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi, India appears to have abandoned its potential to serve as a global democratic leader, elevating narrow Hindu nationalist interests at the expense of its founding values of inclusion and equal rights for all,” says the US government-funded institution. It goes on to note that political rights and civil liberties in the country have deteriorated since Modi became prime minister in 2014, with increased pressure on human rights organisations, rising intimidation of academics and journalists, and a spate of bigoted attacks, including lynching, aimed at Muslims.

Authors of the report substantiate their submissions by citing several examples. Such as that last year the Indian government intensified its crackdown on protesters opposed to a discriminatory (anti-Muslim) citizenship law, and arrested dozens of journalists who criticised the abrupt Covid-19 lockdown, “which left millions of migrant workers in cities without work or basic resources, resulting in a dangerous and unplanned displacement of millions of internal migrant workers.” They also note that judicial independence has come under severe strain, pointing out one case in which a judge was transferred immediately after reprimanding the police for taking no action during riots in New Delhi that left over 50 people, mostly Muslims, dead. Furthermore, they make note of a new law, cynically labelled as ‘love jihad’ law, adopted last December by India’s most populous state, Utter Pradesh, that prohibits religious conversion through interfaith marriage, effectively restricting interfaith marriages. Indian authorities have already arrested a number of Muslim men for allegedly forcing Hindu women to convert to Islam – it is difficult to comprehend as to how could Muslim men force Hindu women to convert in a country ruled by Hindu extremist BJP-RSS combine whose undisguised mission is to get even with history. As a matter of fact, a BJP-backed campaign launched a while ago under the “Ghar Wapsi [return home] rubric”, aimed at converting poor rural Muslim communities to Hinduism on the pretext that they were compelled to change religion under Muslim rule. Almost all the examples show India ruled by the BJP’s Hindutva philosophy promotes intolerance, victimization of followers of a particular faith, and forcible suppression of dissent, making it more and more like a fascist rather than just a “partially free” state.

In his first major foreign policy speech delivered a few days ago, US Secretary of State Tony Blinken referred to the Freedom House report, saying “authoritarianism and nationalisms are on the rise around the world. Governments are becoming less transparent”. And that his country would ask others to make key reforms, overturn bad laws, and stop unjust practices. Nonetheless, the US is not expected to push the extreme right-wing Prime Minister of India, a strategic partner, to change ways. For, where its interests are involved, values always take a backseat.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021

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