In little over two weeks, India will commence what is billed as the largest exercise in electoral democracy in history. Close to 1bn people are expected to vote in its 44-day-long general election. Citing ancient traditions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly called India the “mother of democracy”. If so, an intensifying clampdown on opposition parties suggests this matriarch of representative government is in ill health, with worrying implications for the coming polls and what may follow.
再過兩周多一點，印度將會開啟被標榜為史上規模最大的選舉民主實踐。預計近10億人將在長達44天的普選中參與投票。印度總理納倫德拉?莫迪(Narendra Modi)援引印度古代民主傳統，曾屢次稱印度為“民主之母”。如果真是這樣，對反對黨不斷加劇的打壓意味著這個代議制政府的母國已經健康不再，這種打壓對即將到來的投票以及之后的情況會產生何種影響也令人擔憂。
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