Dismantling the World’s Largest Democracy
ON JAN. 26, A SUNDAY BUT ALSO A NATIONAL HOLIDAY, India celebrated its 70th constitutional anniversary. The government hosted a grand military and cultural parade at Rajpath, a boulevard that links the stone arch of India Gate to the presidential palace in New Delhi. Looking on, in a saffron turban, was Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with his guest of honor, Jair Bolsonaro. The president of Brazil had been snubbed by numerous democratic world leaders, but here he was, standing in the same place as earlier guests of honor such as Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama.
In another part of the capital, the Muslim neighborhood of Shaheen Bagh was also celebrating Republic Day. The guests of honor there were two women wearing simple clothing and somber expressions. Radhika Vemula’s son Rohith Vemula was a Ph.D. scholar who had taken his own life in 2016 after a campaign of harassment led by authorities at the University of Hyderabad. Saira Bano’s son
