On 24 July 2025, while visiting the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that “there is simply no room to have double standards in the war on terror.” Although this is a world duty regarding counter-terrorism, it remains in question when juxtaposed against the actual record of his government, where the dissents , most importantly, of the diaspora have been systematically silenced.

Democracy is not upheld solely by state institutions; it is practised in society by equal rights, effective participation, and protection of freedom of speech and expression. These constituent pillars need to be preserved, particularly when counter-narratives and civil discourse are under attack.

Human Rights Watch and Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) reports bring to the forefront how critics overseas are subjected to visa cancellation, surveillance, and intimidation. These happenings raise doubts about the sincerity of democratic values when they are utilised selectively, both domestically as well as internationally.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is employing diaspora monitoring, political harassment, and propaganda to demonize Muslims and Pakistan, a practice being investigated in Canada, the US, and the UK. This is causing democracy to become an instrument of covering up repression, affecting its original essence. India’s global repression is a significant blow to its image as a democracy.

In 2023, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Indian intelligence murdered Hardeep Singh Nijjar, while the US accused Nikhil Gupta of conspiring in another assassination in New York.

The UK is monitoring Sikh and Kashmir activists, indicating parliamentary interest. The UN Special Rapporteur states that extraterritorial persecution against dissidents by India is still ongoing. This shift towards diplomacy and the destruction of democracy in foreign lands is concerning. India’s portrayal of democracy is contradictory to its domestic situation, with foreign observers expressing serious regression. Freedom House has ranked India partly free in its 2025 freedom rating, citing control and censorship of the press, internet shutdowns, and clampdown on free speech through anti-terror legislation.

India has been ranked at the bottom in its Electoral Autocracy category by the V-Dem Institute for five consecutive years, citing hampered institutions and eroded civil freedoms. This rating suggests that democracy is being reduced to a mask rather than the core issue.

The judiciary is increasingly used to suppress opposition, with laws such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and sedition laws being used to jail Muslim students, human rights lawyers, and anti-Citizenship Amendment Act activists. The National Security Act is also used for bulk detentions of activists in Manipur and Kashmir.

India’s foreign policy is increasingly reliant on narrative warfare rather than peacemaking. In June 2025, India presented a dramatised narrative of Daesh for the human cost of terrorism at the UN, covering up its terror activities in Srinagar, Manipur, and Punjab. In October 2025, CIVICUS and Amnesty accused India of using the demands of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to co-opt the effectiveness of the system, transferring funds to Hindu extremist groups and subjecting Muslim charities to unnecessary allegations.

India’s diplomatic resources in Western democracies are found guilty of suppressing dissent in foreign environments. In the UK, parliament members Debbie Abrahams and Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi approached the human rights issue and the situation in Kashmir, but were rebuffed diplomatically.

Indian diplomats have pressured institutions like Oxford, SOAS, Harvard, and Stanford to cancel events related to the CAA, Kashmir, and the farmers’ protest. This is part of a larger process of silencing and suppressing narratives, focusing on academic areas and legislative members of parliament.

This approach threatens to diminish democratic values and academic freedom in host nations where freedom of discussion is highly valued. India’s foreign policy has taken a worrying turn, leading to the abandonment of democratic interactions and the adoption of coercive hegemony, enhancing its soft power through pluralism.