Dhruv Rathee’s two latest movies on the supposed “dictatorship” in India have gone viral on YouTube. Together, they have gathered over 40 million views. Most of those people will never be able to take him on with the right questions. How can you say that India is a dictatorship? To be fair, Dhruv Rathee never said that. He only said that India is on the way to becoming one.

But what does that even mean? If you leave Delhi and drive one mile out west, you are technically somewhere on the way to London. So unless you let us compare India’s democracy to other countries, you have told us nothing on whether India is becoming a dictatorship. So let’s compare our democracy to Germany.

Why Germany? For one, Dhruv Rathee is based there and must know something about the country. His 17 million strong base of YouTube subscribers, mostly Indians, deserve to know as well. In any case, Germany gets excellent ratings from the supposed international experts on press freedom and democracy. Also, the other day, the German government began commenting on our internal affairs, totally uninvited. So let’s turn it around.

On social media in India, an argument between two sides might go something like this – Farmers in Germany are protesting too. They have come out on the streets with tractors. Why is there no outpouring of support from international publications such as The New York Times or The Washington Post? Do they report only on protests in India? In Western countries, do they not have folks like say, Dhruv Rathee, who will speak truth to power?

Maybe not, a thoughtful Indian liberal would reply. But those countries also do not have “godi media.” And no one in Germany known as the protesting farmers “anti-national.” So, checkmate!

Except that is exactly what the German establishment, the media and the political class did. In fact, they did much worse. They accused the farmer protesters of being Nazis. In Germany, the ruling government even spies legally on the phones of the Opposition. The head of the German spy agency issued an official statement directing Germans on how to vote. Imagine the outcry if the Intelligence Bureau here in India did something even close to that. But in Germany, it happens all the time.

Germany is also a country where the police pulled out a 16-year-old girl from school to question her over a post on TikTok that appeared to support an Opposition party.

But we Indians were not supposed to know all this. We were just supposed to assume that Western countries are better in every way. Their newspapers judge us and push their narratives, yet we remain largely uninformed about their domestic politics.

German government and media demonised farmer protesters

Earlier this year, farmers in Germany feared that their subsidies would be taken away. So they decided to protest. They brought their tractors out on the street and blocked traffic. Sounds familiar?

So how did the German government deal with the protest? The Vice-Chancellor was the first to react. He had been on an island holiday when he was confronted by protesters. He lost his temper and accused the protesters of being extremists who were out to uproot democracy. A week later, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the same thing. The obedient German media took it from there. The leading Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper ran a headline that translates to “pampered farmers,” bashing their subsidies and sense of entitlement. The BBC went a step additional and revealed an extended article claiming that the protests had been infiltrated by neo-Nazi teams. Incidentally, John Reith, the founding father of the BBC, was himself a Nazi sympathizer. But that may be a story for an additional day.

These weren’t simply empty phrases from the federal government and media institution. A month later, the federal government introduced a 13-point plan geared toward countering the protesters. This plan included measures reminiscent of seizing the financial institution accounts of the protesters. Additionally, people who donated to the protest motion have been to be recognized and subjected to investigation. “Those who mock the state have to be able to face a powerful state,” Germany’s inside minister introduced.

This demonisation of working-class protesters is not limited to Germany. The same happened to truckers protesting in Canada in 2022.

What kind of threat did the Canadian government identify then? As a ruling Liberal Party MP explained in Parliament, the truckers had been sounding their horns. Or in other words, honking. He pointed out that repeating the word “honk” leads to “Honk Honk,” which can be abbreviated to “HH”. According to him, “HH” could stand for “Heil Hitler”. This is the standard of proof on the idea of which Canada concluded that the protesters have been all Nazis, and imposed nationwide emergency. The world media performed alongside, in fact.

You have to be questioning, however what about elections? Are politicians in Germany not apprehensive about indignant voters on the streets? As we will see later, they don’t must. Because of a really particular provision in German regulation that stops new events from profitable seats.

Imposing Christianity

Is Germany formally secular? Of course, it’s. But there may be a straightforward means round it. Germany imposes Christianity just by calling it “tradition” in place of “religion.” For occasion, the German state of Bavaria requires that the Christian cross be displayed prominently in each authorities constructing. The trick has been examined repeatedly in court docket and it really works simply positive. In truth, the courts themselves should show the Christian cross. And public colleges as effectively. Incidentally, the identical authorized trick can also be utilized in Italy to show the cross in public colleges. As an emblem of “tradition,” not “religion.” By the way in which, whose concept was it initially to place the cross in Italian public colleges? That could be Benito Mussolini. But that’s apparently not a crimson flag for consultants who look out for indicators of dictatorship.

Believe it or not, the Church is the second largest employer in Germany, after the federal government itself. The Church employs over 1,000,000 folks immediately. And thousands and thousands extra look as much as the Church for ethical steerage. This provides the Church immense lobbying energy with politicians.

This exhibits even within the names of the political events. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has been essentially the most dominant get together in Germany because the Second World War, together with its ally the Christian Social Union (CSU). The Church even collects its personal taxes. Again, this energy comes immediately from a 1933 settlement between the Vatican and Adolf Hitler, which continues to be in power. Another title that isn’t a priority for consultants who compile the democracy rankings.

Germany’s Continued Embrace of Politicians with Nazi Connections

Perhaps no dialogue on Germany and dictatorship may be full with out wanting into the nation’s Nazi previous. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is descended immediately from the Catholic Center Party of Konrad Adenauer, which existed earlier than the conflict. It is that this catholic get together whose votes gave the Nazis a two-thirds majority wanted to go the 1933 constitutional modification that made Hitler dictator.

In truth, Adenauer himself had been briefly arrested by the Nazis in 1934. But then he wrote a letter to the federal government detailing all of the favours he had carried out for the Nazi Party as a public official within the metropolis of Cologne. Should we name {that a} “mercy petition?” In any case, the Nazis released him and granted him a pension, with which Adenauer built himself a nice home in the south of the country.

But that never hurt Adenauer’s political career. After the war, Adenauer was elected Chancellor of Germany, and he led the country from 1949 to 1963. As Chancellor, he ended the denazification process and released from jail thousands of Nazis who had been convicted of crimes against humanity. Today, Adenauer is recognised as one of the founding fathers of the European Union. A glowing profile of him on the official website of the European Parliament even refers to the embarrassing pension incident. But that is cited as one of his “struggles” in opposition to Nazism! A battle for what, precisely? Getting a snug household residence below Nazi patronage?

But when you’re white, Christian and highly effective, historians have a tendency to have a look at you very in another way.

As if that was not sufficient, there may be Hans Globke. As a senior Nazi official, he had labored on the notorious Nuremberg race legal guidelines for the exclusion of Jews. He had even been a part of the “Office of Jewish Affairs” under the Nazi regime. But after the war, he served under Adenauer’s administration as secretary of state. You must have heard of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and his radio broadcasts against Jews. Those were prepared with the help of Kurt Kiesinger, who went on to become Chancellor of Germany in 1966.

These are not isolated examples. Across the “free world,” a number of Nazis went on to make glowing careers for themselves. During the conflict, Kurt Waldheim was a Nazi intelligence officer in Greece and Yugoslavia. He went on to grow to be Secretary General of the United Nations and was later elected President of Austria. Prince Bernard of the Netherlands had been a card-carrying member of the Nazi SS. He continued in his royal place till his dying in 2004.

The soiled reality is that a lot of the Western world had few issues embracing precise Nazis and fascists after the conflict. At varied phases, many legendary Western leaders have overtly expressed their admiration both for Hitler or Mussolini. The listing contains Winston Churchill, Pierre Trudeau and even John F Kennedy. It even contains celebrated thinkers like George Bernard Shaw and authors reminiscent of P G Wodehouse. Tell this to the common Indian liberal who thinks they will win each argument by connecting the RSS to fascism. Who is “WhatsApp University” now?

Germany is an “electoral autocracy”

Beyond the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the opposite main political get together in Germany is the Socialist Party (SPD). But right here is the place it will get loopy. The two greatest events are virtually at all times in alliance, ruling in a coalition authorities. From an Indian perspective, that might be like a BJP-Congress alliance in energy. So there may be principally no Opposition get together in Germany. Angela Merkel, who dominated Germany for 4 phrases, was from the CDU. But in three of these phrases, she dominated collectively along with her essential “Opposition.” The current Chancellor Olaf Scholz is from the SPD. He used to be Merkel’s deputy in her previous CDU-SPD coalition government. So in the latest 2021 elections, was the ruling party thrown out of power, or voted back to power? It is impossible to say.

But what if a new party emerges to challenge these two ruling parties? To win even a single seat in Parliament, a party must get at least 5 per cent of the popular vote. That would be quite difficult. Remember that in India, there are just two parties, the BJP and the Congress, that win more than 5 per cent of the votes. This also means that in Germany, existing political parties cannot split. Because if a faction falls below 5 per cent of the popular vote, it would be down to zero seats. Also, independents cannot emerge.

Remember when we said that political parties in Germany have no reason to fear the voters? This is what “electoral autocracy” appears like.

And as soon as folks have voted, there may be the query of deciding which get together will get what number of seats. This is finished as per sophisticated formulation such because the “Hare-Niemeyer methodology” or the “Sainte Lague-Schepers method.” And they hold altering the components each ten years or so. Also, there are “overhang seats” and “levelling seats” that may be added or subtracted to Parliament as per different formulation. There isn’t any means the common voter can hold monitor of this. The confusion implies that a everlasting political class stays in energy.

In latest years, a brand new political get together known as the Alternative for Germany (AfD), has managed to interrupt via the system. It obtained 10 per cent votes within the final election. Opinion polls now present them getting above 20 per cent. Now the present political events say they wish to ban the AfD. Or at the very least, ban all funding to it. Apparently, that’s each attainable and authorized. And by some means, it isn’t a hazard to democracy.

How is India much less democratic than Germany?

We are conscious that this text breaks a variety of unwritten guidelines. For one, we Indians will not be alleged to have robust opinions about home issues of overseas nations. The Western media give solely themselves that privilege, that of judging others on their inner affairs. But that’s only a psychological block. We can overcome it.

We are additionally conscious that liberals will accuse us of “whataboutery.” Once upon a time, hypocrisy used to be a terrible thing.  But now exposing hypocrisy is considered much worse. In any case, they started it with those silly democracy rankings. Should we Indians not respond?

And when they make those rankings, they make sure to place India below Qatar or North Korea in things such as the safety of journalists, or press freedom. It is a clever strategy to keep us on the defensive. Because when we see this, the temptation is to respond: how are we worse than Qatar or North Korea?

But in fact, we’ve extra press freedom than Qatar or North Korea. That goes with out saying. By trolling us with these outrageously low rankings, they make it possible for we don’t problem the West immediately. How are we much less democratic than Germany or America? Show us. That is the query we needs to be asking them.