Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Wasteful Poking

“Nations which would like to ensure that foreign powers do not meddle in their internal affairs, must see to it that generally, their foreign policy does not become a matter for party controversy. If our relations with other countries are determined on a party basis, and our various parties take up variegated attitudes in that regard, foreign powers will surely begin taking interest in our internal politics. India is a free democratic country where foreign nationals anew legation enjoy unfettered liberty. According to the terms of some foreign loan and aid agreements with India, some embassies also have the right to disburse considerable moneys in the country. In these circumstances, if political platforms are to be used for advocating or canvassing associations or alignments with particular blocs, it is tantamount to an invitation to them to gamble with our international affairs”. – Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya, Alignment Vs Non Alignment, Special Article, Organiser, July 18, 1960

As Bharat is going for the grand democratic exercise in terms of Lok Sabha Elections -2024, Western countries, think tanks and media houses have started meddling in the internal affairs of one of the ancient and most successful democracies. From the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) to the arrest of a politician in a corruption case, they would find everything problematic and use it to cast aspersions and create doubts about democracy in Bharat. The think tanks would develop dubious reports on democratic participation, religious freedom and the free press to sustain the same. After flouting the legal provisions related to transparency, international NGOs working in Bharat would cry about losing their FCRA licence and further the narrative. Some political parties and colonised minds in Bharat would amplify that for the petty, short-term interests. Why they employ this tool against Bharat and how to counter it should be the concern of every responsible unit of Bharat.

The problem lies in the racial and colonial supremacist mindset of Europe and America. After brutally looting and destroying the social institutions for their colonisation project, they feel that dictating the terms of democracy, model of development and cultural values to suit their neo-imperialist interests is their democratic right. As Dr Ambedkar remarked in his speech at the Law College of Delhi University on April 10, 1948, “When inhabitants of Europe were living under almost barbaric and nomadic conditions, this country had reached the highest peak of civilisation. It had parliamentary institutions when people of Europe were mere nomads”. That is the reason we have successfully rebuilt our democratic institutions based on adult franchises without the fuss that Europeans and Americans had to go through. The British colonisers, like all other European countries, negated that heritage and perpetuated the narrative of ‘primitive and barbaric’ people for the ‘colonised’. Unfortunately, even after the Independence, the same mindset persists.

None of those democracies have special rights for so-called minorities in terms of educational and religious institutions. All of them are facing the brunt of demographic imbalance due to illegal migration and uneven birth rates. The gun culture is growing, leading to a series of mass murders every week in the US. The anthropocentric economic model is failing miserably. Hence, they have a lesson or two to learn from the Bharatiya wisdom. If Western minds are seriously concerned about democracy, they should get rid of double standards regarding values and legal norms. The US Government can pass a special law to make exceptions for Christians and Jews coming from the erstwhile USSR or Iran after the revolution to grant citizenship. Still, Bharat cannot make similar exceptions for persecuted minorities who are victims of the Partition in the neighbourhood. The prominent opposition leader, the country’s ex-President, could lose even the right to use a social media platform for his campaigning in the US, but law enforcement agencies in Bharat could not arrest a politician facing corruption charges and produce him in a court of law. These double standards are nothing but the colonial hangover and unsatisfied ambition of ruling others with a supremacist mentality.

The resurgent Bharat, striving to regain civilisational consciousness, has realised this plot now. Technologically and economically, Bharat seeks to be self-reliant. We believe in our potential to provide solutions to global challenges. The obvious question is, if this is so, then why should we even bother about Western interventions and reports?

Firstly, the Western decision-making apparatus and its academic and media narratives still influenced the elites with colonial minds in Bharat despite their diminishing power. Secondly, we must assert our autonomy and successes as an independent nation to make the Western countries realise that we are a bright spot not just in economic but also in social and political terms for the actual ‘liberal’ and ‘democratic’ environment. In this General Election, one of the crucial considerations for voters is which political party is better positioned to resist the neo-imperialist agenda and promote the assertive Bharat. Hence, exposing the wasteful poking of the nose by the West is an essential exercise for the political education of the masses.