Let’s cut through the spin. The world is actively enabling India’s descent into authoritarianism. Global leaders cozy up to New Delhi, hypnotized not by genuine prosperity, but by a $3.7 trillion GDP figure that looks impressive on paper but masks the grinding poverty engulfing hundreds of millions.
For these world leaders, India is less a country of people and more a useful square on their global game board. They’ve done the cold math and decided that strategic advantage is worth more than the actual, lived agony of people in Kashmir or minority families fearing for their safety. Don’t pretend this is just ignorance; it’s a calculated, cynical choice to be partners in silence, and it’s utterly shameful.
Kashmir is the open wound showcasing this global indifference. Since Delhi violently stripped its autonomy in 2019, it has been under a suffocating military and digital lockdown. Imagine being cut off from the world, no internet, no phones for months.
That was the reality, imposed by a state claiming to be a democracy. Behind this curtain, thousands were snatched– politicians, students, shopkeepers, journalists– many jailed without charge under the draconian Public Safety Act, essentially vanishing.
Respected human rights organizations like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, alongside UN experts, have documented torture, killings, and the systemic crushing of any dissent. What has been the response from the self-proclaimed defenders of freedom? Pathetic whispers. Meaningless statements drowned out by the clinking of champagne glasses at trade summits. No real consequences, just continued engagement.
This rot spreads far beyond Kashmir. A chilling message echoes across India: if you’re not part of the Hindu majority elite favoured by the current regime, your life, your rights, are secondary. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) etched this bigotry into law, deliberately excluding Muslims from a pathway to citizenship offered to others, based on religion. Did this give pause to the leaders chasing India’s mythical economic boom? Not for a second.
This silence is a roar of complicity. It emboldens the oppressors. It abandons millions of Indians to fear and violence. It tells Kashmiris under siege, Muslims targeted by mobs, Christians attacked at prayer, Dalits denied justice, and the millions struggling in poverty, that their lives don’t register on the global Richter scale. It’s a profound moral failure, a stain on the conscience of every government that chooses expediency over humanity.
They chase the headline GDP, a figure starkly disconnected from the lived experience of countless Indians struggling for their next meal. While billionaires multiply, India continues to rank abysmally on global hunger indices, with vast swathes of its population lacking access to basic necessities. This state-sanctioned discrimination against minorities adds another layer of suffering. Hate speech, often amplified by figures linked to the ruling party, ignites violence.
Remember the 2020 Delhi riots? Mobs hunted Muslims, killing over 50 people, while police reportedly stood by or joined in. Christians face attacks on their churches, are harassed under anti-conversion laws spreading through nearly a dozen states. Dalits endure centuries-old oppression with near-total impunity for attackers. The US government’s own commission on religious freedom repeatedly recommends listing India for severe religious freedom violations. Yet, year after year, the State Department buries the recommendation, prioritizing the strategic partnership– particularly using India against China– over the actual lives being destroyed.
This is the grimy reality of international relations today. Human dignity, basic rights, democratic norms– they’re all expendable when there’s money or strategic advantage to be gained. Nations ignore the suffering, the crushing poverty obscured by shiny GDP numbers, the state-sponsored terror, because it’s convenient. By staying silent, by continuing business as usual, they send a loud, clear message to Modi’s government: “Your brutality is acceptable. Your assault on your own people won’t cost you.”
This silence is a roar of complicity. It emboldens the oppressors. It abandons millions of Indians to fear and violence. It tells Kashmiris under siege, Muslims targeted by mobs, Christians attacked at prayer, Dalits denied justice, and the millions struggling in poverty, that their lives don’t register on the global Richter scale.
Let’s cut through the spin. The world is actively enabling India’s descent into authoritarianism. Global leaders cozy up to New Delhi, hypnotized not by genuine prosperity, but by a $3.7 trillion GDP figure that looks impressive on paper but masks the grinding poverty engulfing hundreds of millions. For these world leaders, India is less a country of people and more a useful square on their global game board. They’ve done the cold math and decided that strategic advantage is worth more than the actual, lived agony of people in Kashmir or minority families fearing for their safety. Don’t pretend this is just ignorance; it’s a calculated, cynical choice to be partners in silence, and it’s utterly shameful. It’s a profound moral failure, a stain on the conscience of every government that chooses expediency over humanity.
