The Hindu nationalist BJP has been open about promulgating a vision of India true to its ethno-nationalist roots. In order to achieve its aims, it has sought to centralize power, interfered in the operation of independent state institutions, and curbed public dissent. Indeed, the well-regarded V-Dem Institute demoted India to an “electoral autocracy” in its annual measurement of the quality of democracy on account of these factors. Social scientist Christophe Jaffrelot has argued that this democratic backsliding has yielded a “de facto Hindu state,” in which the state operates according to Hindu nationalist principles without any explicit constitutional alterations.
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