Times of India’s Edit Page team comprises senior journalists with wide-ranging interests who debate and opine on the news and issues of the day.
Even as government mounts a strong defence of India’s democratic record, managing global perception is proving tough. On one hand, Centre’s push to operationalise the Quad is one of the most exciting global engagements by India in recent times – as it helps India break out of its isolationist shell which masqueraded as ‘non-alignment’ (when confronted by an informal but powerful China-Pakistan alliance, Zimbabwe and Palestine aren’t going to be of much help to India). The NDA government undoubtedly deserves credit for the strategic clarity manifested in this intellectual breakthrough. But it’s just as noticeable that Quad is shaping up into a fight by countries with shared democratic values, and any democratic backsliding in India would be perceived to be at odds with the new order.
Signs of this emerging realpolitik are evident in concerns flagged by influential US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Bob Menendez, just days after democracy watchdogs Freedom House and Sweden’s V-Dem Institute downrated India. Even while backing growing US-India strategic ties, Menendez has asked the Biden administration to raise various human rights concerns, jailing of dissidents and passage of discriminatory laws. The strategic rivalry between the West and China is foregrounding China’s scant respect for territorial sovereignty and individual autonomy. China’s dangerous gaming of trade, technology, internet, intellectual property and totalitarian surveillance state are being posited as a threat to all democratic nations.
India betraying undemocratic tendencies, though not a dealbreaker, will naturally be disconcerting to the new partnership. Laws like CAA and criminalisation of interfaith marriages, widespread use of sedition laws, targeting of Bollywood citing hurt sentiments and curtailment of academic freedoms harm India’s soft power, which cannot be separated from its hard power. Rather than bristle at the criticism or withdraw again into an isolationist shell, NDA government must show greater confidence over free speech and democratic rights than its predecessors by repealing sedition, blasphemy and restrictive marriage laws.
Courtesy - The Times of India.
0 comments:
Post a Comment