Middle class (Upper, middle, and lower) are crushed into shambles. The Rich and those who can gather means are leaving the country at an alarming rate. The fake leader is worried about his narrative and ratings.
India's Battle to Control the Democracy Narrative
11–20 of 110 posts
Re: India's Battle to Control the Democracy Narrative
#12A pivotal quote in the article: >How could theocratic states with no separation of religion and government score higher than India? How could a country with universal suffrage and constitutional rights rank below nations that didn’t even hold elections? Since the article talks quite a bit about Sanjeev Sanyal, I think it might be interesting to point to some of his podcasts. Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Sometimes I do find it bizzare when western media praises a theocratic absolute monarchy like Saudi Arabia for “modernizing” (by allowing women to drive and allowing them to not have chaperones) while simultaneously these same media organizations accuse a constitutional liberal democracy like India (which has strict separation of powers and an active independent Supreme Court) of somehow being authoritarian or fascist or some other slur.
Re: India's Battle to Control the Democracy Narrative
#13A pivotal quote in the article: >How could theocratic states with no separation of religion and government score higher than India? How could a country with universal suffrage and constitutional rights rank below nations that didn’t even hold elections? Since the article talks quite a bit about Sanjeev Sanyal, I think it might be interesting to point to some of his podcasts. Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Media sensationalism is everywhere. But I’ve become especially distrustful of these rankings and labels from random think tanks or nonprofits. A good example is the one the other day from “civicus that claimed civic freedoms were disappearing in the US even though no law has changed that would affect civil rights. When you look at their report it basically complains about political decisions rather than civic freedoms. I imagine the bias is 10x worse for India.
Re: India's Battle to Control the Democracy Narrative
#14Modi has the highest approval rating, according to western pollsters, of any leader in the world. India’s elections are free and fair. That’s all democracy requires. Democracy doesn’t mean western democracy or liberal democracy. Shadi Hamid has done excellent work on this issue: https://www.brookings.edu/books/the-problem-of-democracy-ame... ; see also https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/18/the-problem-of...
The Guardian article is interesting because it helped untangle the idea of liberalism and democracy in my mind. How did they become so deeply linked?
Re: India's Battle to Control the Democracy Narrative
#15As I get older, I realize increasingly that there is a huge gap between how most people think the government works and how it actually works... Also, the government and other entities which benefit from the incongruity spend a massive amount of effort constructing narratives to obscure the discrepancy in the public eye.
If you boil it down and peek beneath the many layers of complexity and misdirection, reality is disturbingly dark and you wonder how society functions at all and how so many people can be fooled into believing surface narratives... But in a way, it's because people are fooled that society can function as-is, in spite of its dysfunction. If people knew how the system really worked, it would have to change.
IMO, the good news is that generally, when the system is forced to change to become more transparent, things improve. But the system is always at the edge; constantly gaslighting the public as much as it can get away with at any given time. The state rarely apologizes for past mistakes; unless it serves some new agenda which it benefits from (e.g. the mistake happened under different leadership).
There should be some rule like "The state is precisely as corrupt as it can get away with." Or "The state is corrupt proportionally to how passive and delusional its citizens are."
Re: India's Battle to Control the Democracy Narrative
#16A pivotal quote in the article: >How could theocratic states with no separation of religion and government score higher than India? How could a country with universal suffrage and constitutional rights rank below nations that didn’t even hold elections? Since the article talks quite a bit about Sanjeev Sanyal, I think it might be interesting to point to some of his podcasts. Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Sometimes I do find it bizzare when western media praises a theocratic absolute monarchy like Saudi Arabia for “modernizing” (by allowing women to drive and allowing them to not have chaperones) while simultaneously these same media organizations accuse a constitutional liberal democracy like India (which has strict separation of powers and an active independent Supreme Court) of somehow being authoritarian or fascis…
The BJP is certainly authoritarian and fascistic, this is not contested. The country itself though probably isn’t. They failed to get an outright majority in the recent elections, and perhaps the main reason they still win is the opposition is completely incapable of reform (like the OP said they keep putting up members of the Gandhi family despite them losing elections repeatedly).
Re: India's Battle to Control the Democracy Narrative
#17> Western standards didn’t apply here. India had its own definition of democracy. I think this is core thrust of narrative of Indian state and its card carrying supporters. On ideological part this of course makes sense. But practical aspect of cheap cost of informational bit vs physical bit that makes state so obsessed with this. As it makes so easily achievable. It would be very much clear to anyone who do not spen…
I disagree with the physical infrastructure bit. Indian Govt has invested massively in all kinds of infrastructure and they don’t seem to be slowing down. All of this has already paid off massive dividends and will continue to accelerate development.
Re: India's Battle to Control the Democracy Narrative
#18[deleted]
Re: India's Battle to Control the Democracy Narrative
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sometimes I do find it bizzare when western media praises a theocratic absolute monarchy like Saudi Arabia for “modernizing” (by allowing women to drive and allowing them to not have chaperones) while simultaneously these same media organizations accuse a constitutional liberal democracy like India (which has strict separation of powers and an active independent Supreme Court) of somehow being authoritarian or fascis…
The BJP is certainly authoritarian and fascistic, this is not contested. The country itself though probably isn’t. They failed to get an outright majority in the recent elections, and perhaps the main reason they still win is the opposition is completely incapable of reform (like the OP said they keep putting up members of the Gandhi family despite them losing elections repeatedly).
Has there been an Indian government that will be viewed favorably through western lenses?
- Pt. Nehru wanted Socialism and State Control.
- Indira Gandhi brought the Emergency and all that came with that
- PM Vajpayee conducted the nuclear test
- PM Modi is viewed as an authoritarian and fascist
I think these cover the most influential leaders over the last 75 years. Only PM Manmohan Singh stands up to such scrutiny.
Re: India's Battle to Control the Democracy Narrative
#20A pivotal quote in the article: >How could theocratic states with no separation of religion and government score higher than India? How could a country with universal suffrage and constitutional rights rank below nations that didn’t even hold elections? Since the article talks quite a bit about Sanjeev Sanyal, I think it might be interesting to point to some of his podcasts. Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Media sensationalism is everywhere. But I’ve become especially distrustful of these rankings and labels from random think tanks or nonprofits. A good example is the one the other day from “civicus that claimed civic freedoms were disappearing in the US even though no law has changed that would affect civil rights. When you look at their report it basically complains about political decisions rather than civic freedom…
i wouldnt describe it as rapid, but there certainly are examples of covil rights declines, mostly via court decisions.
eg. overturning roe v wade, and allowing gerrymandering based on race
the most recent wpuld be executive orders stripping visas and greencards based on protected speech