Western mainstream media bias towards India is obvious

The United States has refused to comment on the results of the recently concluded general elections in India and stated that electoral matters are for the people of India to decide. Ultimately, the West has been silenced by the people of India who elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling BJP party. The US non-statement on the electoral process in India came during a press briefing by White House spokesperson Matthew Miller, who emphasised that the US celebrates the Indian elections, describing it as the largest electoral exercise in the world. Despite this acknowledgement, Western media continues to push the narrative that Modi lost the elections and is merely a leader of a coalition government.

The remarks by the White House spokesperson came in response to a query by a Pakistani reporter, who claimed that “Prime Minister Modi is attempting to transform India into a Hindu state, causing other religions to feel insecure.” The question is contradicted by the statement made by Shibli Faraz, the Leader of the Opposition in the Pakistani Senate, who recently praised the efficient electoral process of India and criticised his own country for not being able to conduct a similar election to ensure a peaceful transition of power.

He said during a recent Parliamentary session in Islamabad that "Elections have just been conducted there [in India]. More than 800 million have voted. There were thousands of polling stations. Even for a person living in a remote area, a polling station was set up. The election lasted for a month and was conducted using electronic-voting machines. Not a single voice has been raised that the election was rigged. We want to progress in the same way.”

This election was not about an individual or a party, as was portrayed in the Western media, but about India. Western media highlighted a significant bias in their coverage of the election and its result, reflecting their tendency to focus on narratives that sought to undermine Modi’s achievements while ignoring the democratic endorsement he received.

The Washington Post viewed the general election results as an “unexpected repudiation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership,” further calling it a “stunning setback.” To call a clear mandate a “stunning setback” simply because the BJP did not get a majority on its own is flawed. Further, it calls the election episode as the one “piercing the aura of invincibility around the most dominant Indian politician in decades.” The Washington Post even remarked, “For the first time in years, Modi seemed vulnerable.” Again, this takes away from his achievement in the last decade, such as rapidly making India the world’s 5th largest economy, which makes the West feel further vulnerable to Asia’s rise.

The New York Times claimed that Modi’s “carefully cultivated brand has now peaked, and that he can no longer outrun the anti-incumbency sentiment that eventually catches up with almost any politician.” Every Indian Prime Minister, including Indira Gandhi, has seen anti-incumbency while in office and in the current elections, the results in some states like Orissa demonstrated the power of anti-incumbency. The front-page statement in the print edition of the NYT called it “a sobering result for a prime minister on the cusp of a third term,” a reality the Western media is unable to accept.

These narratives did not suddenly sprout out of nowhere and were a carefully built-up advance. Numerous Western media, including the Washington Post took up the issue of alleged targeted killings by India in the West, questioning India’s right to undertake covert action. The West ignores that it has carried out assassinations and targeted killings aplenty.

Another narrative being spun is that of the Southern states “rejecting” the BJP in the recent polls. Bloomberg, in its special report, argued that southern India had rejected Modi, saying, “The more progressive and successful part of the country is drifting away from the poverty-ridden north and its majoritarian leader.” The situation is not as simple as was made out and relates to voting patterns, with even abnormal weather affecting voter turnouts.

The Western narrative of this election has been too individually focused and is also why the Western narrative has failed. This perspective does not appreciate the nuances of Indian politics and the substantial voter base that continues to support Modi. For this reason, Western media’s brazen undermining of India’s democratic exercise highlights the highly problematic approach towards New Delhi.

When Francis Fukuyama wrote his essay “End of History” and claimed that the Western political, economic, and social systems constituted the culmination of humanity’s socio-cultural evolution, the West expected all countries to follow them. But it was not a matter of free will and choice, and the West devised a series of arbitrary indexes on liberty, human rights, freedom of religion and even human happiness, styled on their values to measure how others functioned. That is how they sought to keep their control in a multipolar, post-colonial world.

When countries like India charted its own independent path, the West started vilifying them. A rising India, like a rising China, refuses to buy the Western narrative of development. India is today becoming more assertive in its approach to diplomacy and national security. This has become unpalatable to the West, which wants India’s democracy to be under its continuous vigilance and control.

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