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.
再过两周多一点，印度将会开启被标榜为史上规模最大的选举民主实践。预计近10亿人将在长达44天的普选中参与投票。印度总理纳伦德拉•莫迪(Narendra Modi)援引印度古代民主传统，曾屡次称印度为“民主之母”。如果真是这样，对反对党不断加剧的打压意味着这个代议制政府的母国已经健康不再，这种打压对即将到来的投票以及之后的情况会产生何种影响也令人担忧。
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