Babones, who has suddenly risen to prominence because of his pro-India observations, said that he has been carefully researching India for the last three years while being in Australia
Salvator Babones, Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, who has been touring India shared his views about Indian intellectuals and democracy. Babones, who has suddenly risen to prominence because of his pro-India observations, said that he has been carefully researching India for the last three years while being in Australia, reported Odisha Network.
In an event organised by the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation (SPMRF), Babones said: “I am not here to defend Indian democracy. That is to be done by the Indians themselves. I am here to expose those who criticise Indian democracy”.
Babones said that he found Indian democracy unique. This was in reply to the western media categorizing India as a ‘fascist nation’, and international surveys criticizing India for a ‘falling democracy’,
Comparing India with other democratic countries globally, Babones said that democracy in eastern European countries was buttressed by European Union (EU) rules. South Korea and Taiwanese democracies were just about 30 years old. Therefore, “you have to look at the world’s best democracies to compare India’s 70-year-old democracy. India is the only post-colonial country to have retained its democracy all these years”.
The professor said that India was an “extreme outlier” in the democracy sweepstakes. “It is the world’s most extraordinarily successful democracy. Yet it has been placed just two levels above post-coup Myanmar,” he said, adding that India was in a tough neighbourhood and yet it had maintained its democratic tradition. He stressed that India had seen peaceful elections and transfer of power.
Replying to a question, Sibal said that a lot of damage had been done to India’s and the BJP’s image by our own people and the Western media. “This ‘business of fascism’ has taken root among people in the Western nations which is unfortunate.”
Talking about journalism and India’s ranking in the world, the Australian professor said that India had been placed close to China over the number of deaths of journalists. Trying to explain these contradictions, he said that people “are cherry-picking data and sharing it selectively. Many journalists function more as activists and end up mis-representing information about India”.
Former ambassador to the US, Kanwal Sibal said that as part of the foreign service, he has always been fighting negative perceptions about India. He said that after the book, The City of Joy, was published, the European countries retained an enduring image about poverty in India. Another perception in comparison to China was that India never generated enough intellectual capacity.
Sibal added that after the poverty perception, the foreign service had to defend India over its non-aligned status, followed by the nuclear issue, proximity to the USSR and now the country has to defend itself over “strategic autonomy”.
Talking about his time in Washington as India’s ambassador in the nineties, Sibal said: “The West’s obsession with Pakistan brought onslaughts on India regarding Kashmir and human rights. NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) was against us. HRW Asia had direct proximity in the US State Department.”
Replying to a question, Sibal said that a lot of damage had been done to India’s and the BJP’s image by our own people and the Western media. “This ‘business of fascism’ has taken root among people in the Western nations which is unfortunate.”
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