Is India really a liberal democracy?
Successive governments have contributed to making the Indian state increasingly intrusive. Representative image | Photo Credit: IANS
As another year begins in the life of an Independent India, debates will continue to rage over the multiple ideas that define it. Is India a nation-state or a civilizational state, are we a secular country or is plural the right, and the most apt, term to describe us? We are a democracy, of that there is no doubt, but are we truly liberal? Or are we an illiberal democracy which meets the basic criteria of free and fair elections, but finishes significantly short on several other parameters that define a commitment to liberalism? Is the Indian state an intrusive one, and are our fundamental rights as part of the social contract we as citizens have entered into with the state under the Constitution truly being protected? These questions will continue to be asked, as they have been for al