Slap on the wrist

NEW DELHI: In the past two weeks, India has been lectured by two western capitalist nations about democratic principles, legal fair play and judicial independence, the trigger being the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and the income-tax proceedings against the Congress party in the midst of the election season. Breaking its reticence over years of authoritarian actions by the Modi government, Germany’s foreign ministry released a statement hoping that “standards relating to independence of the judiciary and basic democratic principles” would be applied in the Kejriwal case. It added the homily that “the presumption of innocence is a central element of the rule of law…” India’s reaction to this was to summon the German Deputy Chief of Mission in New Delhi and tell him that this amounted to unwarranted interference, stemming from “biased assumptions.”

A few days later, the US State Department’s official spokesman weighed in with patronising remarks “encouraging” New Delhi towards “a fair, transparent, and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal.” These remarks followed concerns expressed by Washington earlier in the month over implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act, which is brazenly discriminatory against Muslims seeking asylum in India.

New Delhi called in the acting deputy chief of mission of the US in India, Gloria Berbena, and is understood to have taken “strong objection” to the State Department’s statement. The statement by the MEA alluded to the need for “fellow democracies” to be “respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others” lest they end up “setting unhealthy precedents.” While the Modi regime’s record on due legal process, democratic functioning and human rights is quite awful, MEA was quite correct to push back against these attempts by Western governments to pose as global conscience-keepers.

The US, in particular, has no basis to preach to New Delhi about fair play and such like. By continuing to bankroll and arm Israel in contravention of international law and humanitarian principles, it is complicit in the genocide being perpetrated by the Jewish state in Gaza. Ironically, it did not need New Delhi to point out the hollowness of Washington’s policy on human rights. Just this week, yet another State Department official, Annelle Sheline, has resigned, protesting the US’s prevarication on the Gaza genocide, pointing out that “whatever credibility the US had as an advocate for human rights has almost entirely vanished since the war began.”

Liberals in India need not read too much into these self-avowed stirrings of conscience from Bonn and Washington. These G2G (government-to-government) dealings, especially those between Quad bedfellows, tend to play along like a pre-rehearsed script and never are likely to be anything more than a slap on the wrist. If anything, the BJP government’s deplorable record of democracy is only going to serve as leverage to western governments.

More useful to the fight for democracy in India is the statement released this week by 16 prominent global academics expressing concern over the Modi regime’s detention without trial of writers, journalists and activists. The signatories including Amartya Sen, Amitav Ghosh, Martha Nussbaum, David Shulman, are respected figures and carry great conviction owing to their work on democratic freedoms. Only an international chorus of authentic voices of dissent that can amplify the cause of India’s democracy. Governments on the other hand are susceptible to geopolitical calculations and therefore are wont to play pretend games.