The world’s largest democracy is collapsing before our eyes
The world’s largest democracy is collapsing before our eyes
Narendra Modi’s war on India’s democracy, explained.
(first post here. hope this is okay)
Don't like Modi one bit but it's far from death of democracy. BJP is getting their ass kicked in many state elections. It's just that the opposition parties are incompetent af even with their marketing. People haven't forgotten Congress's corruption that happened over the years and Modi knows how to maintain a persona.
My understanding is that India has a fairly weak federal government. The real power rests with the states, and they are ideologically diverse.
States do have power to decide how money is spent by them in their state. Taxes collected through gst have a 50:50 ratio in collection by state and center. But nationally it still matters quite a bit who's governing. India is not like USA where some states can decide to ban abortion and decide on what's not allowed. Usually whats legal in your state is also legal elsewhere. Some restrictions like beef meat, age of drinking are decided by states.
The center still holds considerable powers as it can decide to implement president's rule in a state which is not able to form a government. They also control union territories and decide on finance bill, defense pacts, etc. The president and many other positions like income tax dept, crime investigation agencies are just puppets of central govt. They have a record of using them to harass opposition. It's not just BJP who does that. Almost every party did it in their time. Congress was jailing cartoonists, activists when they were in power too. Basically India is fucked by corrupt politicians. There is no left or right here. Whatever gets you the vote is the king.
modi pushed hindus away to brand him as secular thats gonna haunt him soon. Hindus are really pissed
Actually no. Indian democracy has a clear division of power as per the constitution divided between the state and central government, which is followed very religiously. The ruling party is actually quite popular among the people when it comes to national election, but the same party gets proper ass whopping in a lot of state assembly elections. Indian democracy crumbling is a false narrative that is peddled by a lot of western media, but the reality is there is no strong opposition to the ruling party at national level, but at state level a lot of regional parties decimate the central ruling party.
The prime minister’s anti-democratic behavior has accelerated over time. In the past year alone, Modi’s government has:
Expelled the leader of the opposition party, Rahul Gandhi, from parliament after he was sentenced to two years of prison for allegedly defaming the prime minister with a joke. Taken over one of the few remaining independent television stations through a crooked billionaire ally. Created an official panel empowered to take down social media posts critical of the government. Sent tax officials to raid the BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, a move widely seen as retaliation for a documentary critical of Modi.I don't have a lot of knowledge on Indian political system but this seems like a pretty clear indication of them trying to make the country less democratic. The West doesn't have any grudges towards India and I certainly don't benefit one bit from badmouthing India but this does seem like control is being taken away from Indian citizens
India as the biggest democracy ?