India is one of the most important players on the global stage, so Indian elections matter. The world has gotten used to dealing with PM Narendra Modi and vice versa.
Modi has been the face of India’s foreign policy, but will that continue? Or will a coalition force him to focus more on domestic politics? This looks unlikely now as India’s foreign policy is largely multi-partisan, plus Modi isn’t new on this stage. So partners and rivals shouldn’t expect a change. Not unless something drastic happens later this week.
This isn’t just about politics; it is also about perceptions. We have seen a lot of critical commentary, especially from Western countries. They have questioned India’s judicial process, the timing of the elections and even the free and fair nature of them.
Well, this should answer all the critics. India’s democracy is alive and kicking. The ruling side saw its majority cut down. Yet, Indians did not resort to violence, nor did they march to the parliament. They did not say that the elections were ‘stolen’ and accepted the results.
Same with the opposition, which did raise issues with the polling process and accepted the mandate. In fact, that’s the first thing the Congress president said while accepting the results.
However, the question is how far this will satisfy the Western agencies and pollsters. Or, is Indian democracy still in danger?
India ranked 27th in the EIU Democracy Index in 2014. By 2023, the ranking dropped to 41, with India being dubbed a ‘flawed democracy’. Another index is V-Dem, prepared by a university in Sweden. In 2018, this index declared India an ‘electoral autocracy’.
But the results on June 4 don’t support the categorization. This is not how a flawed democracy votes. The ruling BJP has gotten around 37 percent of the votes. Compared that to real autocracies — in Russia, President Putin won 87 percent of the votes, in Iran, the last presidential winner won 72 percent of the votes — that is what autocracy looks like. Yet, the West wants to club India with those countries.
This is simply a smear campaign, and Tuesday’s results should serve as a wake-up call that India’s democracy is not in danger and Indian voters are not misguided. They are actually quite intelligent, and they know how to vote.
In Delhi, all seven seats went to the BJP, but in assembly elections, it’s the opposite, as the Aam Aadmi Party enjoys a massive majority there.
The same is the case with Karnataka, where last year, voters voted for a Congress government, but this year, the BJP has won a majority of seats in Lok Sabha elections from the state. This applies to Odisha, to some extent, where the BJP swept the parliamentary polls, winning 20 out of the 21 Lok Sabha seats and ousting the 24-year-old Naveen Patnaik government with a thumping majority in the Assembly election, securing 78 seats in the 147-member House.
This vindicates the sagacity of Indian voters. Quite different from what you see in other countries, for example, the US. As many as 50 US states may vote in the elections, but only seven swing states matter. The rest never change their mind, whether it be record-breaking inflation or endless foreign wars—a blue state will remain blue and a red state will remain red—yet, the Indian voter is claimed to be misguided.
The West should stop under-estimating and insulting Indian voters. They should learn to respect India’s process; as for the Global South, it is inspirational. Democracy’s stock is going down globally as we are seeing coups and hostile takeovers. So this election sends out a strong message that democracy works. It is the best form of government, not just in rich Western countries but everywhere.
So India should be proud of this election; it has sent a message to everyone, especially to the West, that India’s democracy is healthy and to the Global South that democracy still works.
The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
