In the pomp and pageantry that defined our Prime Minister’s visit to Washington last week there was one thing that remained unsaid. This was the dodgy human rights record of the Modi government. If Joe Biden brought it up privately, as he may have done, it did nothing to spoil the magic of marching bands in the lawns of the White House or the specially designed state banquet with saffron flowers decorating the table and a vegetarian menu. At the first and only press conference that Modi has addressed in the past nine years he was asked a direct question about human rights by an American reporter, and he gave an indirect answer. “Democracy is in our DNA. Democracy is in our spirit. Democracy runs in our veins.” The implication being that where there is democracy there cannot be any threat to human rights.

Not true, Prime Minister. In the past nine years we have seen the targeted lynching of Muslim cattle farmers by vigilantes who owe allegiance to the RSS. And because Modi has not condemned these horrific murders, they are now so routine, they barely make news. On top of this have come demands for laws against ‘love jihad’ from BJP chief ministers and when there has been violence or riots, Modi’s chief ministers have sent bulldozers to demolish only the homes of Muslim rioters. Democracy may be ‘in our DNA’ but it has done nothing to prevent the brutal targeting of Muslims. Bulldozer justice is a direct threat to democracy because it gives officials the right to violate the rule of law.

Also read: Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: No more dog whistles, please

There is no question that the magnificent welcome given to India’s prime minister by the American president should fill the hearts of Indians (including your columnist) with pride. There is no question that one reason for Modi’s enduring popularity with ordinary voters is that they believe that he has done much to enhance India’s prestige in the forums of the world. Having said this, let me add that it is my fervent hope that Modi will have discovered from this trip that there is much that we can learn about real democracy from the Americans.

The difference between the first amendments to our constitutions says a great deal. The first amendment to the American constitution guarantees the right to free speech and dissent. The first amendment to India’s constitution was brought to restrict it. So, democracy may ‘run in our veins’ but it differs in vital nuances from American democracy. Free speech and dissent were always restricted in our dear Bharat Mata but never as ruthlessly as in the past nine years. Dissidents, journalists, human rights activists, and student leaders have been jailed without trial for months under laws made to prevent terrorism. It is because of this that India is now seen as an ‘illiberal’ democracy.

This is a shame because the world’s oldest democracy is a natural ally of the world’s largest democracy. Modi must be given full credit for having approached this relationship with real sincerity and without the antipathy that former Indian prime ministers so clearly had. Modi may not have condemned Russia openly for its war crimes in Ukraine but what has been evident for a while is that he sees the United States as a better friend of India. This was not true of prime ministers past who made it abundantly obvious that they thought of the former Soviet Union as not just a friend but a role model. Modi has shown an affection for the United States despite having been unfairly denied a visa for more than a decade. Rajiv Gandhi was not denied a visa after the pogrom he justified, and Indira Gandhi was not denied a visa after the Emergency.

If Modi wants to build on the success of his first state visit to the United States, he will need to do a lot more than say nice things about democracy. He will need to take some visible steps to allow more dissidence and free speech because these things are the lifeblood of real democracies. It is hard to understand why a man whose approval ratings are higher than any other world leader should be afraid of dissidence.

Also read: Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Lessons for both sides

Speaking for myself, I admit that the coverage of Modi’s American trip by our ‘independent’ news channels made me cringe. Famous anchors behaved like cheerleaders and ended up singing paeans to Modi and our ‘great culture’ instead of reporting the news dispassionately. It made me feel nostalgic about dreary old Doordarshan times. At least then we knew that the purpose of our state-owned TV channels was to support the leader in power and nobody else. Whenever I have said this before I have been reminded that those journalists who have dared to do real journalism have faced dire consequences.

Sadly, when democracies become places in which dissidence and free speech are seen as crimes, when religious minorities are wrongly targeted and when political opponents are crushed by the repressive organs of the state, they are called autocracies and not democracies. There is much more to democracy than holding regular elections and this appears to be something that has been forgotten by the people who Modi has chosen to gather around him. If this visit has given him some idea of what a truly democratic country looks like it will benefit not just him personally but all of us.