India is no longer a free country but a ‘partly free’ country, said Freedom House recently. VDem has classified India as an ‘electoral autocracy’. The government is fulminating against international “custodians” while critics are lashing out at the Modi government’s authoritarian ways. As charges fly, the public at large seems barely affected by the downgrading of India’s democracy. The question arises: Do Indians really care about our falling democracy index?
The recent arrest of 22-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi led to social media outrage. But beyond the echo chamber of Twitter, there was hardly any mass citizen anger. When FIRs were filed against the makers of the web series Tandav or when comedian Munawar Faruqi was jailed for a standup act Read More
