BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has asked his party leadership to actively address the ‘growing consensus abroad’ about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image as a ‘dictator’.
Swamy took to Twitter to write, “CNN’s Fareeq Zakaria has indicated in his latest broadcast what I think is Biden Government’s second bow string: Praise India’s democratic tradition and attack Modi as a dictator.”
The outspoken BJP MP added, “It is easy to dismiss this, but it is a growing consensus abroad which we in BJP must address.”
This was after Zakaria highlighted on his CNN show how activists and journalists in India were being harassed with the ‘colonial era’ sedition law for merely criticizing the Modi government. Zakaria had singled out the arrest of Disha Ravi, who was arrested by the Delhi Police for sharing the ‘toolkit’ on the farmers’ protests tweeted by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.
Zakaria reminded all how the US-based ‘pro democracy non profit Freedom House’ had changed India’s status from free country to ‘partially free’ country in its latest report.
“India has fallen short of its democratic ideals before Modi, but rarely has it fallen so far, so fast,” Zakaria added.
Today's What in the World segment: how freedom is eroding in the world's largest democracy pic.twitter.com/tdsIguRzbG
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) March 7, 2021
The celebrated CNN host also mentioned how more than 7000 cases of sedition had been filed against activists, journalists and opposition politicians ever since Narendra Modi came to power.