Democracy is vibrant in India. This has been corroborated by the White House. “India is a vibrant democracy. Anybody that you know happens to go to New Delhi can see that for themselves. And certainly, I would expect that strength and health of democratic institutions will be part of the discussion”, said John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House. The White House has further said that Rahul Gandhi ridiculed India. The White House praise on Indian democracy is a tight-slap on Rahul Gandhi who has been crying hoarse over ‘democracy in peril’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s relationship with Barrack Obama, Donald Trump and now with Joe Biden is quite cordial. Rahul Gandhi’s malicious campaign against the Modi government has no takers in the US. The misinformation and malicious campaign by Gandhi against India in the US has fallen flat. Kirby has acknowledged the importance of India not only for bilateral reasons but also multilaterally on very many levels. Modi’s proposed visit will further strengthen the bilateral relations with the US. Democracy had been totally destroyed when emergency was declared on June 25, 1975 in the wake of the Allahabad High Court verdict unseating Indira Gandhi. It was a nightmarish time. Opposition parties and common citizens were gagged from speaking anything about government. After Lok Sabha election in 1971, the next election which was to have been held in 1976 was held in 1977 since the emergency intervened between 1975 and 1977. Lok Sabha election was delayed by one year. It was then that the democracy given a death blow. Unfortunately, the parties that fell victims to the imposition of emergency are now rallying round Congress with the sole objective of dislodging the Modi government at centre. Freedom of speech is the most important feature of democratic order. But the freedom of speech guaranteed by the Constitution is being blatantly misused by the political parties. The submissiveness and politeness that can be seen among political parties on the eve of elections would be replaced by the arrogance and autocratic rule soon after the elections. With all this, democracy has been surviving. The message by the White House debunks the claim of the opposition parties that democracy in India is in peril.
