Modi’s party using ‘authoritarian playbook’ to cripple opposition in India

From the arrest of opposition leaders to the silencing of critical media, there is a broad consensus among scholars and analysts that India is moving in a worrying direction. Maroosha Muzaffar reports

An artist dressed in traditional attire performs in front of an election sign board during the Vote-A-Thon, an awareness campaign organised by Karnataka’s Chief Electoral Office to encourage turnout for the upcoming 2024 general elections, in Bengaluru on 17 March 2024 (AFP via Getty)

Earlier this month, India was labelled one of the world’s “worst autocratisers”, an assessment by a Sweden-based watchdog that describes a rapid backslide on democractic ideals in the most populous country on Earth.

India is about to go to the polls in a marathon election lasting more than six weeks, and the V-Dem Institute’s report warned that a victory for Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – widely considered the most likely outcome – could further entrench the country’s status as an “electoral autocracy”.

It bases this assessment on “the already substantial democratic decline under [prime minister Narendra] Modi’s leadership and the enduring crackdown on minority rights and civil society”. In just the past few weeks, India’s authorities have arrested a key rival to Modi, frozen the bank accounts of the largest national opposition party, and been revealed to be by far the biggest beneficiary of a now outlawed system of secret political donations.