The West is displaying “pure hypocrisy” by criticizing Indian democracy while overlooking the restrictions imposed on protesters in Europe, former Indian high commissioner to the UK, Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha, has told RT.
He made the remarks when asked about opposition protests in India over the controversial revision of electoral rolls. New Delhi last month rejected concerns raised by the United Nations Human Rights Office over reports of mass detentions of demonstrators and journalists in the Indian capital.
“There is a certain narrative which certain sections of opinion makers in the West… in certain countries, try and weave about India,” Sinha told RT India’s head of news, Runjhun Sharma, on the India, Russia and the World podcast.
He pointed to the absurdity of European governments, which tackled protests with a heavy hand and imposed fines on the protesters, criticizing India’s democratic record. “When they hector us, when they lecture us, it is pure hypocrisy,” Sinha said.
In contrast, he argued that the protests in Delhi were proof that India offered space to its citizens to express dissent – an essential feature of democracy. While calling India “far from perfect,” he pointed to the challenges in maintaining democratic institutions in a country of 1.4 billion people.
Sinha, who also served as India’s ambassador to Venezuela and chief information commissioner, rejected the characterization of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s style as “macho politics.”
“I would qualify him as a people’s leader,” Sinha said, noting Modi had steered India through major challenges, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic headwinds caused by the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The former diplomat also compared India to a “large oasis of stability in a turbulent world.” However, he added that hostile forces wanted to disrupt that stability and growth. “I think we need to be mindful of that because we can’t remain immune to what’s happening around us.”
Sinha also said he had “no doubt” about the involvement of a “foreign hand” in Bangladesh’s student protests that toppled the government of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.
“It was very brazen” and planned, he said, adding the caretaker leader, Muhammad Yunus, had paraded a student leader as the person who’s “responsible in Washington.”
Sinha praised Russia as a strong partner because “Russia, and before that the Soviet Union, has always stood by India.”
“And Indians don’t forget that. We are very grateful for what Russia has done for us.”
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