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In the recent past, several reports have come out questioning the functioning of the Indian democracy. Responding to these reports, the Indian Foreign Ministry said that India had “robust institutions and well established democratic practices” and did not “need sermons especially from those who cannot get their basics right.” Ministry further stated that the political judgments of the report were “inaccurate and distorted”. These attempts of tarnishing India’s reputation as an emerging world leader are nothing but propaganda. In the continuation to the monthly discourse on contemporary issues, the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), on 30 March 2021, organised a virtual Vimarsha on “Defining Democracy”, in which Dr A Surya Prakash, an expert on issues related to Indian politics, constitution and governance and Chairperson of the Prasar Bharti was the guest speaker. Dr Arvind Gupta, Director, VIF chaired this virtual meeting.

In his remarks, Dr Surya Prakash highlighted that the rankings provided by these reports are unjustified. They have placed Indian democracy below some of the countries which do not even practice democracy. In these reports, there are countries placed above India that do not even follow the secular order, while secularism is at the heart of Indian democracy. During his talk, Dr Surya Paraksh articulated many arguments which thoroughly rejected the claims made by these reports.

The talk generated good interest, and there were many points of discussion.