THEIR SILENCE

The first one is about presence of women 'erased from public life in Taliban-ruled
Afghanistan. More recent one is about the United Nations (UN) flagging high
civilian casualty after Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. While the UN has done its
job in this regard, the silence of champions of democracy, rights activists,
thinktanks, intellectuals and authors across the world has thrown open certain
questions.

The first and foremost question is: Is all the talk about democracy and rights and
gender sensitisation restricted for the thriving democracies like India? Another
question is: Why is there deafening silence of the elitists on democratic
backsliding, nay, absence, in fundamentalist, radicalised, and authoritarian
regimes across the world?

To understand the situation better, one must realise that the Western world has
been adopting double standards. The dominating Western powers have, over the
years, developed an ecosystem of intellectuals, academics, thinktanks, so-called
independent organisations, rights groups, founda-tions, and trusts and using them
as extended arms of diplomacy to further own interests to exert control over
resources, narratives, political or economic institutions. However, they ignore the
situation in countries with fundamentalist or authoritarian regimes if it does not
suit their agenda.

The ecosystem groomed by the Western powers has conveniently ignored to

comment on happenings in Myanmar where military junta overthrew
democratically elected Government. The ecosystem has conveniently forgotten
an incarcerated Nobel Peace Prize winner Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, who was once
celebrated the world over. Similarly, silence is observed about Pakistan whose
history has been defined by radicalisation, dictatorships undermining democ racy,
atrocities on Balochis, suppression of dissent etc. The authoritarian regime in
Communist China has been accused of atrocities against Uyghurs, Tibetans,
other dissenters.

However, the ecosystem attacks China only due to 'com-petition' and not out of
genuine concern for democracy.

The US, Canada, and the UK have been the dominating Western powers. They
grant asylums to separatists from other countries and use them for own political
gains, as and when needed. That, they celebrate as liberalism. However, their
ecosystem hides the dark history of slavery, discrimi-nation, surveillance, cancel
culture. Instead, it comes up with reports targeting potential competitors like
India. Not long ago, a report on safety of journalists placed India below
Afghanistan, Belarus, and Egypt. In academic freedom, India was placed behind
Pakistan, Iraq, and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan! There are several examples where
the Western-bred ecosystem applied skewed logic to downgrade a thriving
democracy and rising economy like India.
The so-called liberals in such cases prove to be dogmatic, and prefer to twist the
narrative instead of offering genuinely convincing answers to above- raised
questions. They create modern orthodoxies wherein democratic countries are
pressed for values and violators are left untouched.

Unfortunately for them, in the changing world, people are becoming smarter and
realising such devious games of Western powers and their ecosystem foot
soldiers. People have started questioning these ecosystem foot soldiers - abroad
and within India on their blindness towards need for democratic restoration in
countries with fundamentalist and authoritarian regimes and wilful neglect of rich
Indian democratic system. Probably, this is the beginning of the end of Western
hegemony in various spheres, and emergence of sustainable and culturally rich
Indian thought leadership that aims at global good.