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Comment by naruvimama | Hacker News Reader

What makes this democratically elected government authoritarian?

India is surrounded by communist China, Islamist Pakistan, Afganistan, Bangladesh (where only a couple of days ago 300 Hindus were murdered by Islamist for no reason), Military dictatorship in Myanmar.

I do not know what benchmark you use for authoritarianism.

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India falling in various democracy and freedom indexes [1][2] are definitely a benchmark.

But of course, your next reply will be how flawed these indexes are and how the entire world has some vendetta against India.

[1] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-natio...

[2] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-again-placed-at...

In a democracy the only thing that matters is the mandate of the people.

I am certain after all the fake votes and drama that ultimately ended with storming of the capitol, I would perhaps place Indian democracy above that of the US.

> In a democracy the only thing that matters is the mandate of the people.

No it doesn't. Freedom of press and speech are a key component of democracy.

EXACTLY. You can't just label any government you don't like as undemocratic or authoritarian randomly. If elections were held and when there were no electoral fraud and people voted for this Government, it doesn't just magically become undemocratic just because you don't like it.

Calling India undemocratic is definitely a stretch. But the current government is definitely more authoritarian. Considering the huge lack of respect to law and order in India, that's fair to a certain extent. Here, in the US, anti-vaxxers practically have a free reign in certain places. Any attempt to coerce them into vaccination is considered as "authoritarian".

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