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From Pakistan, we watch India’s political landscape not out of rivalry, but because the stability of South Asia depends heavily on the democratic health of its largest country. When India falters, the region feels the tremors. And the recent Bihar elections — marred by allegations of voter suppression and institutional bias — are yet another sign that India’s democratic fabric is under visible strain.
The BJP’s victory in Bihar — with a thumping majority of 202 seats out of 243 up for grabs — is a domestic milestone for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political project. Modi, unsurprisingly, hailed the outcome as a celebration of democracy. Yet the celebrations unfold amid serious doubts. A voter list revision removed 4.7 million names from Bihar’s electoral rolls, a staggering number by any measure. In India, this gerrymandering has become a routine. Every electoral cycle now comes with accusations that Muslims, Dalits and other marginalised groups are being engineered out of the democratic process. The BJP denies it.
The Election Commission, increasingly perceived as an extension of the ruling party, denies it. But the pattern speaks louder than their rhetoric. India still insists on calling itself the “world’s largest secular democracy”. In reality, it is increasingly functioning like a controlled political marketplace, and elections serve as a rubber stamp for the ruling party’s ambitions. They lecture the region on democratic values, yet at home they appear comfortable with disenfranchisement and state-directed political engineering.
The consequences of this will not remain confined to India’s borders. A more autocratic India is almost always a more aggressive India. When domestic legitimacy weakens, nationalist chest-thumping becomes the default political tool – and Pakistan has historically been the easiest target.
India’s journey toward one-party dominance will only further destabilise an already fragile region. South Asia cannot afford a neighbour that weaponises its internal insecurities. A democracy collapsing inward tends to lash outward.
