In the second episode of Frontline’s SpeakEasy, independent journalist Amit Baruah speaks with political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta about the future of Indian democracy and the global turn towards strongman politics. Mehta examines whether India is drifting toward one-party dominance, why Hindutva has become the ideological centre of gravity, and how political fragmentation, weakened institutions, and a fading opposition have reshaped the democratic landscape. He warns that India’s constitutional norms are being stretched to “infinite elasticity”, that authoritarian trends are deepening, and that the ruling elite may no longer find it easy to relinquish power if pushed into opposition. From the collapse of AAP’s political promise to the Congress’s leadership crisis, from institutional capture to the dangers of partisan citizenship, Mehta draws parallels between India and other democracies sliding toward executive overreach—including the United States and France.
Has Indian democracy entered a one-party era? Pratap Bhanu Mehta explains|SpeakEasy-Episode 2
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alas if bjp could only be as ‘democratic’ as the family based parties that are ruling bengal, punjab, tamilnadu, karnataka, …..
that’s true India is interestingly arrayed like fiefdoms versus the centre; presumably like Pakistan
the BJP win elections where Congress can’t, so…
“The hostage crisis ended on 31 December when the passengers and crew were released after the Indian government handed the three prisoners over to the Taliban. Despite Indian expectations that the three former prisoners and the hijackers would be arrested, the men were driven to the Pakistan border and released, and they have since been suspected of involvement in other terrorism-related incidents such as the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, 2002 kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, 2016 Pathankot attack and the 2019 Pulwama attack. India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charged ten people in relation to the case (with whereabouts unknown for seven including the five hijackers), of whom only two were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The hijacking is a part of the millennium attack plots in late 1999 and early 2000 by Al-Qaeda linked terrorists.”
interesting Vajpayee was PM then. he seemed like a very liberal PM. It’s interesting Brahmins tend to be naturally liberal on account of their privilege?
Israel is like a mad dog
The largescale attacks occurred despite what’s supposed to be a agreed upon truce in effect going all the way back to November 2024. Prior to that, Hezbollah had been engaged in daily exchanges of rocket and drone fire, in a war which kicked off in tandem with the Gaza war.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-launches-new-wave-huge-airstrikes-lebanon
isn’t Bibi under some sort of investigation now
RecoveringNewsJunkie: I have repeatedly told you your comments are not welcome on my threads. Yet you keep posting them. Are you being deliberately obtuse?
You are welcome to keep wasting your time by posting them but the minute I see them they will be summarily deleted. I’m not going to back down on this.
yes RCN should respect that boundary