27 May 2024, NIICE Commentary 9169
Juhi Sharma
The eighteenth parliamentary elections in India- the world’s largest democracy began on April 19. The election spans 7 phases lasting until the first week of June. The 2024 parliamentary elections in India is the largest democratic exercise in human history with India now being the most populous country in the world. Notably, the 2024 Indian parliamentary election is set apart from the previous general elections in India with respect to the democratic narrative that the election accompanies which does not merely restrict itself to the fact that India is the world’s largest democracy. The prelude to the 2024 general elections in India has been marked by important occasions where the Indian government has sought to decolonise the concept of democracy in both tangible and intangible ways. Another important facet of the 2024 parliamentary elections in India is that the BJP government in India has increasingly sought diplomatic parlance for the democratic exercise in India.
First, India inaugurated the new parliament building in September 2023, a few months before the 2024 general elections. The new Indian parliament building, which cost the country nearly $120 million, boasts national symbols such as the lotus flower, peacock, and banyan tree, reflecting India’s traditional culture and history through specifics that reinforce India’s indigenous characteristics. It is a symbolic gesture of decolonising the democratic centerpiece of the country. The old parliament building is a British-era infrastructure built by British colonizers. The old parliament, constructed nearly a century ago during the British colonial era, has been turned into a museum. The new parliament is the centerpiece of the Modi administration’s Central Vista Redevelopment Project, which seeks to rid the Indian capital of colonial traces. In his inaugural speech, Modi stated that “the new parliament isn’t just a building” and is going to witness “the sunrise of a self-reliant India.”
Second, India’s Ministry of Culture curated an art exhibition on ‘Bharat: The Mother of Democracy’ during India’s G20 presidency. It was a major diplomatic communique conveying India’s age-old democratic traditions. It highlighted the democratic roots in India’s ancient sacred texts. The exhibition included the democratic concepts in sacred texts of Rigveda and Atharvaveda such as ‘sansad’ meaning assembly of representatives among several others. Notably, the Indian parliament is referred to as ‘sansad’ in the modern day, a term symbolic of India’s democratic heritage. This diplomatic move was instrumental in demystifying the notion that democracy is not a Western concept.
Third, a few months before the 2024 parliamentary elections, the Indian government entrusted the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank with the task of developing India’s homegrown Democracy Index, one that follows a different methodology as opposed to Western think tanks such as the V-dem Institute. While Modi’s India hails itself as ‘the mother of democracy’, the Western metrics have shown an opposite image of India. The West delivers a narrative of democratic backsliding in India and Western think tank reports label India as an ‘illiberal democracy’. Elections in India are free and fair. Hence, the West must recognise India as a democracy. India is regarded by the West as an ‘electoral democracy’. Nonetheless, the West attacked Indian democracy on grounds of majoritarianism and the breach of minority rights. India notes that the Western think tanks rank the same 4 to 5 former colonial powers in the top ranks of the democracy Index, while the mother of democracy doesn’t even feature in the top 100. India is described as a ‘flawed democracy’ by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The 2024 V-dem Democracy report categorizes India as an ‘electoral autocracy’ ranking India 104th in its Democracy Index list. Surprisingly, Kuwait where the parliament was dissolved recently ranks 6 places above India in the V-dem Democracy report. Niger where there was a coup in July 2023 ranks right above India at 103rd. In the 2023 Press Freedom Index, India ranks 161 out of 180 countries. Notably, Afghanistan under the Taliban’s rule ranked 152 in the Press Freedom Index, which is higher than India. These make India believe that the methodologies used by Western think tanks are flawed. For instance, the Press Freedom Index has a very small sample size of ten respondents per country. To address this apparent folly, the Indian government has entrusted the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank to develop an alternative democracy index with a revamped methodology that provides accurate indices of democracy. India’s homegrown democracy Index plans to factor in parameters such as gun violence, abortion rights, immigration laws, etc in a bid to develop a fair democracy Index for the Global South.
Fourth, the BJP has added yet another diplomatic hue to the 2024 general election. Parliamentary elections are conventionally an internal matter of domestic politics for countries. However, the Indian government has made the 2024 parliamentary elections in India into a diplomatic project. The Indian government invited 18 political parties from 10 countries to witness the parliamentary elections in India to provide them with first-hand experience of the grand festival of democracy in India. These representatives from foreign political parties received insights into the electoral process in India, particularly the BJP’s election campaign and strategies. The political parties include Vietnam’s Communist Party of Vietnam, Australia’s Liberal Party, Bangladesh’s Awami League, Uganda’s National Resistance Movement, Israel’s Likud Party, and Russia’s United Russia Party, among several others. The ruling BJP has boasted its ‘mother of democracy’ narrative, particularly India’s free and fair elections to foreign countries with the promotion of election tourism as part of its electoral diplomacy. Notably, free and fair elections is a metric where India scores relatively high even in Western indexes.
The new government will take its oath in the new parliament- a symbol of infrastructural decolonisation. The post-election period awaits an Indian redefinition of democratic metrics with India’s homegrown democracy Index. Importantly, one is yet to see how India- the leader of the global South’s diplomacy of democracy unfolds in terms of the democratic debate between the global North and the global South.
Juhi Sharma holds a masters in Political Science from the University of Delhi, India. She is currently pursuing a second Master’s in Development Studies from IGNOU, India.
