On such things as the meat ban and hijab ban, we are finding that elements that comprise the system are enthusiastic about denying people their rights.
It says something awful about us as a society, asserts Aakar Patel. https://www.rediff.com/news/column/aakar-patel-why-india-cant-be-a-modern-civilised-free-society/20220415.htm
What is democratic government? Often it is reduced to one essential element, and that is the electoral process.
This refers to having heads of government who are elected through fair and free elections.
And also to whether or not all sections of society have the right to participate.
India usually scores well on this count.
Even in the rankings of Freedom House, which says India is only 'partly free', on electoral democracy, India scored 33/40, which is pretty good.
In fact it is one point more than the United States of America, which got 32.
On civil liberties, however, India only scored 33/60 while the US scored 51.
And so the US was rated as 'free' while we got 'partly free' (and Kashmir was rated 'not free').
It may surprise readers that electoral democracy was only good for 40 points while civil liberties was 60.
It is about the rights and freedoms of the individuals and not just limited to a single act once every five years.
This, then, is how democracies are rated and why we are slipping.
15/04/2022