THE fact that there has been a rise of 104% in the number of political parties between 2009 and 2024, is good enough to explain how democracy is thriving in the country. This finding of the Association for Democratic Rights (ADR) should silence all the sections of the society wondering if democracy is on the verge of dying. This figure is good enough to assert that the critics are mounting a fake narrative on the country when they accuse the Narendra Modi regime as a time when democracy is dying. The statistical details state that the story is exactly the opposite and democracy is in good health in India. This is certainly a matter of celebration -- though the common people always believed that democracy is in its safest haven in India. In the current socio-political situation in the country, this is an important detail since the propaganda that democracy is dying here has reached its political peak. The propaganda is purely political in nature, and indicates that enough freedom of speech and expression is available to all people of India, no matter their respective ideologies. For reasons that are rarely explained, many countries around the world have been given to understand that democracy is getting weaker every day in India.

 

This impression has been created by some political elements belonging to the Congress fold. Through seminars and speeches in prestigious places of academics in England and the United States plus a few other countries, political persons such as Mr. Rahul Gandhi have gone to the extent of asking interested elements in those countries to intervene to save democracy in the country. Hence the importance of the statistical details that India had recorded more than 104% growth in the number of political parties in the past fifteen years. Disturbed by the negative propaganda, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi had chosen to explain in detail most dimensions of democracy in India. One of the points of his speech in the United States Congress was that the country boasted of as many as 2,500 political parties -- which indicated the importance India gave to free speech, an essential dimension of democracy. When Mr. Modi said this with a clearly visible tinge of pride in the country, there was a huge round of applause from the Senators and Representatives in the US Congress. Mr. Modi insisted in his speech that democracy was thriving in India like never before and had a great future in the land.

 

In the past ten years, an ugly ecosystem has been operational in the country accusing the Modi regime as a time when democracy is not thriving. Thankfully, it must be noted that democracy is thriving because of many robust reasons -- belonging to system, belonging to political maturity of the Indian leadership and the larger society ...! The 104% increase in the number of political parties in just past fifteen years is a great indication of a thriving democracy. It is unfortunate that some elements keep making attempts to malign the country’s image in the world by stressing that democracy has been on a decline in the country. These elements are shameless about their attempt to spread fake narratives in the country and the world. By indulging in false propaganda, they are interested in garnering whatever anti-Modi vote they could and oust the Prime Minister. Ousting one person is not the issue at all -- for all right-thinking persons in the country across political dividing lines. No matter how strong a particular political leader is, he -- or she -- has to walk into sunset some moment. But that does not mean that falsehood should be heaped on the society. Such propaganda will never succeed in India.