Jaishankar sets the record straight: Democracy isn’t the copyright of West

The last week’s diplomatic calendar was packed to the full. Amongst many other things, the Munich Security Conference was also an important event for India. This conference was originally set up in 1963 to discuss military issues between high-profile officials of Western countries during the Cold War in order to present a united front to Soviet-led communist camp. But it became an interesting venue for a host of world leaders to hotly debate the future of democracy last week.

Speaking at the event, India’s Minister for External Affairs, Dr S Jaishankar, emerged as quite an assertive leader from the Global South when he reminded the power-packed audience that democracy is not just a Western characteristic. In fact, it is because of a non-Western country like India that chose a democratic model immediately after Independence that democracy has become a more globally accepted form of governance. He also highlighted the Indian example as a more plausible and workable example for the global south to emulate, unlike the West that first grew rich and then embraced democracy.

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Jaishankar pretty much made many strong points at the MSC because despite being a poor and illiterate country on the eve of Independence, India not only made a bold move by choosing universal adult franchise, something that many in the West even did not practice at that time. In fact, what India did at that time by allowing every single adult above 18 years of age to vote, irrespective of status or gender or any other consideration was something which took a few more decades for the much developed West to practice. Picture this, till the year 1971 women did not enjoy voting rights in Switzerland whereas Afro-Americans did not have voting rights till 1969 in the United States.

Despite the West proving to be much slower than India in adopting a full-fledged democratic model, today many of the think-tanks, rating agencies and media based in these countries do not spare a minute in judging India’s democracy, something which Jaishankar also rightly pointed out. He clearly cautioned that West has a shady history of encouraging non-democratic forces especially by co-opting fringe elements in global south for its own benefits.

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A good example here would be the sequence of events in Bangladesh. Yet it rides a moral high horse and preaches how an ideal democracy should be. Interestingly, Jaishankar’s remarks resonated with a number of people not only in the audience but also world wide. Social media was all praises for his observations, thanking him for raising the very pertinent issue.

What also makes Jaishankar’s remarks particularly significant is the choice of platform. Munich Security Conference after all is a gathering of Western countries including the US and the European countries that try to project themselves as the epitome of good behaviour at every single opportunity. In 2023, the conference skipped an invite to Russia for the first time in 20 years because of the latter’s war on Ukraine. However, of late this solidarity between the Americans and the Europeans over ‘shared values’ has started to fall apart.

The biggest example of this was on display at this year’s conference when the newly elected Vice President of the United States, JD Vance accused the European countries of moving away from values of freedom and liberty which are fundamental to the Western, liberal global order that the US and Europe have together championed for so long. In fact, he minced no words when he accused the organisers in Germany of banning populist parties both from the left and the right from participating in the conference. He did have a point when he said that agreeing or not agreeing to something is secondary but the fact that a political force that represents an important constituency has been banned from expressing its thoughts is a cause of great worry.

The fact is that though both JD Vance and S. Jaishankar spoke about different aspects of democratic behaviour but both had one point in common that the West needs to widen its own understanding of democracy before it pinpoints fingers at others. The West is not doing a great job at all when it comes to promoting democratic values within their countries. A whole election in Romania was cancelled last year due to allegations of Russian interference. An activist in Sweden was jailed over burning of a religious book when the country itself pontificates to India over freedom of speech. Even his murder by fanatics was not criticised as strongly despite it being a direct challenge to the so-called liberal values. The truth that emerges from all these incidents is that democracy is under a crisis in the West. Maybe this is why Vance’s statement has led to such a charged backlash from European leaders who are now cancelling the democratic status of even the United States.

At a time when the West has its own internal contradictions regarding democracy coming to the fore, it is the right moment for them to recognise non-Western examples of successful democracies such as India. As Jaishankar also rightly pointed out at the Munich Security Conference that India’s roots as a consultative-pluralistic society from the ancient times is responsible for the way it has adopted and practises a democratic model of governance even today. The Sanskrit phrase, “Ekam Satya, Vipra Bahudha Vadanti” which translates to ‘The truth is one, the wise speak of it in many ways’ captures the essential spirit of Indian democracy the best. We have the most diverse and complex society in the world where people from various religious, linguistic, ethnic backgrounds exercise their political preferences through multiple elections every single year.

Despite the best attempts by the left-liberal intelligentsia to shame the right side of political spectrum, people are still free to engage with all sides on an equal footing. Not to forget the right to political association is a fundamental right enshrined in the Indian Constitution that allows every single political constituency to organise themselves. No doubt that the most vibrant and successful example of democracy comes from a non-Western country like India despite all the regular criticism from the West. But now that the West’s illiberal ways are being countered by their own including JD Vance or American entrepreneur Elon Musk, it is high time that they stop judging us and do the much needed course correction by shifting their gaze.

The author is a New Delhi-based commentator on geopolitics and foreign policy. She holds a PhD from the Department of International Relations, South Asian University. She tweets @TrulyMonica. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.