Democracy diminished in South Asia by its own prodigal sons
https://arab.news/2tuwv
South Asia’s two most popular leaders Narendra Modi and Imran Khan were brought to power and nurtured by democracy, but in a twist of irony, ironically they are responsible for shrinking democratic spaces in their respective countries.
When Khan assumed office in Pakistan, he was hailed as a beacon of democracy and many saw in him a new hope in Pakistan’s chequered democratic history.
Three years down the line, the Islamic republic’s space for dissent and freedom of expression has shrunk, with the government bringing in new regulations to curb digital freedoms and trying hard to curb dissenting voices and noises.
Across the border in India, similarly democracy is facing its toughest challenge in over seven decades with the country witnessing an unprecedented assault on its democratic rights and expression under Modi. A man who won a historic democratic mandate in 2014 and was hailed as India’s first social media prime minister for aggressively leveraging digital space, is now hell bent on curtailing that space and freedom. His government has nearly declared war against social media giants like Twitter and other platforms for giving space to dissenting and critical voices.
In February, New Delhi brought in a new social media law that makes it difficult for digital platforms to operate independently. It is forcing them to regulate content and restrict their independence.
The majority of traditional media is already under government control. With most of them peddling the narrative of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the assault on digital media and social media platforms is an expansion of the government’s authoritarian footprint. It’s an open war against liberal, critical and dissenting voices.
A man who won a historic democratic mandate in 2014 and was hailed as India’s first social media prime minister for aggressively leveraging digital space, is now hell bent on curtailing that space and freedom.
Sanjay Kumar
Today the world’s biggest democracy is the world leader in Internet shutdowns and one of the few democracies in the world that is turning authoritarian with a wide-ranging curb on social and digital media. In 2012 there were only three Internet shutdowns but in 2020 there were 129. It is now normal for the state to jail users for unpalatable posts. Social media users in India live in fear. The government lodges police cases and arrests people for posts questioning the government’s acts of omission and commission.
A special branch of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) recently raised “serious concerns” about India’s new IT rules, calling them an “infringement of a wide range of human rights” and an attack on free speech.
The UNHCR’s concerns came days after the Group of Seven (G7) richest democracies and its partner countries including India, signed a charter vowing to work together to create an open and inclusive rules-based international order, protect human rights and ensure freedom of expression, both online and offline, to help people live free from fear and oppression.
Many critics in India question New Delhi’s moral rights to be part of the charter when the South Asian republic is doing everything against what that charter vows to do. There are however some who believe that the charter was brought in to keep the South Asian republic under check.
No matter how loudly India claims its shining democratic credentials at international forums, the fact remains that democracy is gasping for breath in India, and the atmosphere is so vicious that journalists, cartoonists, human rights activists, any liberal voices in fact, cannot be sure of their safety if they question Modi and the political eco-system he has created in his seven-year rule.
The same social media which portrayed the BJP leader as a hope for India, is now questioning his leadership failures to help the lives of millions of people hit by the second wave of the pandemic.
Digital platforms are now openly questioning Modi’s achievements. They are exposing the BJP’s lies and showing how diminished India has become in such a short span of time with the nation looking politically, socially and economically battered and bruised.
The BJP now lives in mortal fear of losing its political narrative and Modi’s image. It believes that by controlling the democratic debate, digital space and dissent, it can retrieve lost ground. The focus is not to save India’s democratic image but the political persona of the prime minister.
The situation in Pakistan is similar, where the leadership no longer inspires hope as it used to in the past. Therefore, Khan, faced with the reality of his dwindling popularity, tries to contain dissenting voices and all platforms that give space to them.
And so it is, that democracy in South Asia stands diminished and marginalized by its own prodigal sons.
- Sanjay Kumar is a New Delhi based journalist with experience of covering South Asia for more than fifteen years. He is the correspondent for Arab News in Delhi.
Twitter: @destinydefier
