Era of 'Techno-democracy' ...... Elections across the world .....and Will Democracy survive 2024???

 Were elections in Pakistan genuine? Why should an US Senator demand probe into poll fraud in India's neighbour? 

Polls are due this year in India, Korea, Sri Lanka, and Mongolia. These Asian nations are preparing to hit the polling stations in the coming months and mind you, 80 nations across the world, such as the US, the UK, the Netherlands (to elect members of the European Parliament), Finland, Portugal, Russia, and several African and South American nations also go for polls.

Besides 'shaky' polls and shakier outcome in Pakistan, in our neighbourhood Bangladesh and Indonesia have concluded their elections. 

But everywhere down the line, there is one question -- what happens to Democracy? In India, the growing Sickular question is while on one hand the polls in 2024 will be extremely important for the Future of India; why on earth and how Narendra Modi has able to win the hearts and minds of 1.4 billion Indians?  

India has a young population, Modi successfully has tapped into this aspirational class -- a fast growing huge army of neo-middle class. His government has delivered big time -- infras, cleanliness but there is also a lot of talk about Modi's majoritarian style of governance. 

For its part when it comes to Taiwan and elections in that country; China has a better way of countering all campaign and dis-information campaign and so on when it says, Democracy is a western invention !! 

In general, the analysts say polls should bring hope for change and betterment. However, such hopes are allegedly keep fading. Mutual trust, brotherhood, and faith in democratic constitutions are at their lowest ebb as right-wing religious forces make sustained efforts to capture power. 

In several Asian countries, Christians are a tiny minority.

Christians in Pakistan are a case in point. They together with other minorities like Hindus and Sikhs make up less than 5 percent of the South Asian nation’s 241 million population. 

"Polls are not going to make any difference to their sorry plight. There is no sign of amending the controversial blasphemy law and no steps are being taken to set up a minorities’ commission to safeguard their interests,"writes Ben Joseph for UCA News. 

Modi !! A Dutiful Indian where diversity is Natural (snap - UCAN/AFP)

The BJP in India is known for what they say 'pandering' to the aspirations of the majority Indians. PM Modi strongly denies any such perception and says, " We are home to all faiths in the world and we celebrate all of that". Moreover, he said this in his address to the US Congress in 2023.  

He had further pointed out -- "In India diversity is a natural way of life".  But politics on ground is real politics and here he has pushed India towards a Hindu Rashtra. 

The new common law in BJP-ruled Uttarakhand criminalizes Islamic divorce practices and 'iddat' or the period a woman must observe after the death of her husband or after a divorce, during which she may not marry another man. Two other major demands of the Hindu community have been delivered -- Article 370 has been abolished and Ram temple has been built up in Ayodhya. 

Not accidentally,  Ayodhya falls in Uttar Pradesh and the province sends as many 80 MPs into Lok Sabha. PM Modi himself has started claiming his party will win or should win 80 out of 80. God Ram's blessings count !! 

Let's move on !!  

In Bangladesh, opposition political parties boycotted the Jan. 7 elections. But it helped the ruling Awami League come to power for a third consecutive term.

For Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy, the February elections took place amid limited diversity in political ideologies for some 200 million Indonesian voters. 

In bankrupt Sri Lanka, the Catholic Church has been at loggerheads with the government due to the tardy progress in the probe into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, which killed at least 269 people and injured some 500 when simultaneous blasts occurred at three churches and three luxury hotels in the capital Colombo.

A major problem for west is their own history. Most powerful western countries including the US at best can be seen as a hypocrite when it comes to true democracy. Forget India, even South Africa sees the west as countries who all have grown powerful and rich due to their past legacy of Colonialism, and who can deny such observations?  

In South Africa polls will be held May 29. This election is expected to be fiercest since the end of apartheid system in 1994. The African National Congress (ANC) has dominated South Africa but this time round, there will be tough competition. 

Ruling ANC faces a tough challenge to retain its majority in the seventh election since the end of the apartheid system. In 1994, the country held its first democratic elections after the fall of the racially segregationist system of apartheid that had brutally oppressed Black and other non-white South Africans since 1948.  

The Democratic Alliance (DA) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are the main opposition parties. Political analysts also say record power cuts, poor service delivery and high levels of unemployment are likely to hurt the ANC at the polls in May.

Why Techno-democracy??

Ahead of the Jan. 7 elections, Bangladesh passed the Cyber Security Act to replace the controversial Digital Security Act, enacted in 2018. 

All possibilities of communication technologies are now exploited. It is the time of techno-democracy. The possibilities of the internet, social media, and all forms of electronic communication are controlled to protect the political interests.

Sri Lanka did it with its sweeping Online Safety Bill on Jan. 24 which proposes jail terms for content that a five-member panel considers illegal ahead of parliamentary and presidential polls.

India passed the Digital Personal Data Protection Act on Aug. 12 last year after being rushed through the nation’s parliament in six days. The law empowers the government to ask journalists and news organizations to reveal their sources. It expands the state’s censorship powers.

The interim government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Pakistan has hastily adopted controversial amendments to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) Ordinance. The law empowers the government to suspend any media outlet for spreading “fake news.”

The Indonesian government of President Joko Widodo passed the second amendment to the Electronic Information and Transactions Law on Dec. 5 last year. The law gives the state excessive power to regulate online content, privacy, and cybersecurity.