Monsters don’t come down from the sky to strangle democracy. Military coups too are passé. Silent, hidden assassins come in the form of crafty demagogues, pliable bureaucrats, gutless judges, corrupt media and vile spin doctors. Democratic structures are slowly hollowed, without shrieks and carnage of proclaimed destruction. Institutions are captured, liberties are curtailed, dissent and protests are disallowed, injustice and deceit are normalised and the gullible masses are given crumbs and high doses of religiosity to overlook their wretched existence.When international agencies refer to diminishing democracy in India, our government contemptuously rejects the charge instead of sincerely probing the reasons for such a critical assessment. Freedom House or V-Dem Institute does not report out of personal pique against Narendra Modi. They too have their eyes and ears. Events, ugly or laudable, aren’t hidden from the world in this age of information explosion.If the world knows India has won the cricket world cup, it will also know getting bail for Modi critics has become difficult, even after being in jail for years without a trial. Those who scream at Rahul Gandhi for talking about the threats to democracy on foreign soil insult the global understanding of current affairs. If the world has relished the beauty of diversity and the taste of varied Indian cuisines, it has also picked up details of cruelty and injustice. The stink of political vendetta and persecution of minorities spreads beyond domestic boundaries.If somebody rejoices about the extension of Umar Khalid’s incarceration, they don’t understand that such prejudiced occurrences inflict much deeper wounds on India’s image than exacerbating a personal tragedy. The agonising experience of Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhat might have troubled his family but the real message of his story is different; it accorded credibility to perceptions about lack of fairness and judicial infirmities in Modi’s India. If protests are not allowed in the country, or protesters intimidated or jailed – as seen recently in Uttarakhand in the Ankita Bhandari case – then those calling India an “elected autocracy” earn vindication.Indians were rightly outraged at lynching of Hindus in Bangladesh. Any country that cannot protect its minorities will be accused of political barbarism. A big country that couldn’t firmly deal with lynching of Muslims over the last decade doesn’t have the moral right to give sermons to smaller neighbours.India has unfortunately seen people occupying key posts spewing venom against minorities. Calls for a Hindu Rashtra have created fears about the fate of constitutional democracy. Jinnah fought for an Islamic republic in 1947 but some people in India are nursing similar aspirations in 2026. Jinnah was proved wrong as Pakistan turned out to be a failed state, riven by anarchy and violence. When Pakistani poet Fahmida Riaz wrote “Tum bilkul hum jaise nikle,” she was given this idea on platter by contemporary rulers who are hell-bent on undoing Mahatma Gandhi’s India. Alas! the land that gifted the world the sacred principle of truth and non-violence has fallen from the high pedestal.Modi’s isolation on the world stageWhat is the view of our prime minister on US President Donald Trump’s politics of coercion and blackmail? What does Modi think of Trump’s use of tariffs as a political weapon? Does Modi appreciate Trump’s bullying tactics in stopping India from buying cheap Russian oil? What is Modi’s opinion about Trump’s repeated praise of Pakistani General Asim Munir who has demonstrated disturbing hostility towards India? How did he feel when the Venezuelan President was abducted by American forces? What’s Modi’s assessment of Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocidal operation in Gaza? How does Modi see China’s growing clout in the world?Do we have answers to these important questions? Are we doomed to hear from our prime minister only about Jawaharlal Nehru’s follies, history of temples and empty electoral rhetoric? Will his intellect and energy be consumed only by trivial diktats like banging plates and flashing mobile phone lights? Will the master of teleprompter-aided monologues not guide the nation on the critical concerns of our time? The country is yearning for a prime minister who communicates with the nation on real problems and offers credible solutions. Can’t we expect a prime minister who doesn’t waste his time on ridiculing and defaming opposition leaders, in hawking ‘danka-baj-raha-hai’ falsehood, in selling enticing dreams for a future so distant as 2047? Can we see a prime minister who deliberates on the essence of personal and institutional freedoms and explains how he nurtured the democratic framework instead of mouthing the ‘Mother-of-Democracy’ platitude?Modi today stands isolated when Trump is ceaselessly showering insults on him and India because he behaved more like a BJP commander than the country’s prime minister in all of his three tenures. He had nothing to offer to the political class except contempt, intimidation and neglect. He tried to muzzle the voice of democracy by imposing his own voice on the country. Public debates, critical analysis and heterodoxy have been part of India’s history and tradition. By expunging and silencing dissenting voices, the government tried to replace India’s voice with Sangh parivar’s. That’s why Modi is standing alone today, without the force of the greatest democracy. Modi should realise now that real battles cannot be fought with the army of trolls and sycophants.Elections and EDElectioneering now has new elements. While financial clout has acquired bewildering proportions in Indian elections, with individual voters getting bribes as high as Rs 10,000 each in some states, the Election Commission (EC) too has established itself as a partisan player rather than an objective adjudicator.But the most shocking is the intervention of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the police and the Income Tax Department. It is difficult to recall one election in the recent past when these agencies and instruments of state didn’t contribute actively to weaken the rival’s challenge to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The unseemly drama unfolding in Bengal, where ED raids and counter raids by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, have compelled us to wonder if India was drifting towards anarchy.Series of events have revealed a BJP plot in the sinister scheme of electoral manipulation because only opposition leaders have been targeted before elections. Sitting chief minister Hemant Soren was sent to jail just before the assembly election in Jharkhand; so was Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. While Congress leaders like Kamal Nath and D.K. Shivakumar were hounded by the central agencies before elections in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s son too were deeply troubled in the middle of campaigning. The less said the better about the travails of Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar. The Income Tax Department went so far as to freeze the accounts of the Congress before the parliamentary elections in 2024. No BJP chief minister or senior leader has ever faced such legal troubles just before the election.No independent observer will argue that such courses of events are normal and there is no reason for suspecting a political angle in this trend. Eggs are eggs and everybody knows that. If the BJP thinks that information about such developments does not flow out of India to cement perceptions about diminishing democracy, they need to educate themselves instead of howling at independent observers. Poet Munnawar Rana warned us long ago: “Jhooth ke masnad-nasheen hone ka yah anzam hai/ Jisne sach bola usi ka sar kalam hone laga.”