Can India remain Democracy’s poster child?

Playing to the Western gallery, Modi in his speech at the Quad summit in May 2022 described the Quad as "a force for global good" because "We [the four Quad countries] are united by our democratic values."

The Age editorial, 10 March 2023:

Albanese has enjoyed a display of "soft power" the likes of which only India can turn on: covered in flower petals at a holy festival, cheered by crowds at a cricket match, the first foreign leader to tour a particular flagship aircraft carrier and charmed by Bollywood stars in Mumbai. In return, he has …lavished praise on his hosts at every opportunity, calling his visit one of the "honours of my life" and praising the "magnificent nation of India".

India: one of the world's worst autocracies

But what is the value added democracy that Modi's government has introduced to India and the rest of the world?

The reality is emerging that India's democracy is not only deeply flawed, it has also regressed into what the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute calls "one of the worst autocratisers in the last 10 years". The Institute's 2023 report placed India in the bottom 40-50% on its Liberal Democracy Index at rank 97; 108 on the Electoral Democracy Index (below Tanzania, Bolivia, Mexico, Singapore and Nigeria) and 123 on the Egalitarian Component Index out of 179 countries

Perhaps the most disconcerting is the finding that religious freedom in India is at its lowest level since 1975. Long seen as a shining example of a secular state, in reality the Indian state has increasingly privileged Hinduism and trampled over the positions of other religions and religious communities.

Today, some Western media are beginning to view Modi's India through less rosy lenses. A recent opinion piece in the New York Times had the following conclusion:

Neoliberal policies have compounded inequality, with the state retreating from fundamental responsibilities such as health and education. This breeds a life of indignity and powerlessness for millions who take refuge in group identity, gravitate toward strong leaders promising to defend them against other groups and easily become hooked on the mass opioid of religious hatred now being used to redefine secular India as a Hindu state.

India's response

India's response to the recent downgrading of its democratic credentials can best be seen in this denunciation of the reports by Foreign Minister S Jaishankar at the India Today Conclave South 2021:

You use the dichotomy of democracy and autocracy. You want the truthful answer…it is called hypocrisy. Because you have a set of self-appointed custodians of the world, who find it very difficult to stomach that somebody in India is not looking for their approval, is not willing to play the game they want to be played.