Dr. Klaus Schüler and Ms. Julia Carstens, his Executive Manager were in India to observe and absorb the atmosphere of the biggest festival of Democracy in the world- The Indian Elections 2019- wherein 543 Lok Sabha seats are being contested by over 350 political parties and 8,000 candidates in seven phases (beginning 11 April and ending 19 May 2019) with nearly 900 million eligible voters. The idea was to juxtapose the Indo-German experiences of elections and the various challenges being faced by them as liberal democracies in the constantly evolving political landscape of the world.
During his visit, Dr. Schüler was exposed to the electoral experiences in India, by e.g. being a part of the political rally of Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi in Bengaluru consisting of over 150,000 people. This has easily been the highlight of the visit, which was closely followed by a town hall rally of Ms. Poonam Mahajan in Mumbai, where Mr. Suresh Prabhu, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry as well as Aviation held center stage, acknowledged the presence of the delegation from Germany. These were interspersed with meetings with Mr. Tejaswi Surya, the youngest contestant of the country from Bengaluru, Ms. Poonam Mahajan and separately her election campaign team, Mr. Sanjay Jha (in Mumbai) as well as Mr. Pawan Khera (in Delhi), National Spokespersons of Indian National Congress and their counterpart from BJP, Mr. Nalin Kohli, Union Minister of State Shri Parshottambha Rupala and Mrs. Bijal Patel, Mayor of Ahmedabad who were on campaign trail for Mr. Amit Shah, the president of BJP.
Interwoven within the packed schedule were dialogues, with the running theme being challenges being faced by liberal democracies, at the cities of Bengaluru, Ahmedabad (separate report can be accessed here) and New Delhi (separate report can be accessed here). The participants included eminent members of civil society, political scientists, politicians, media, students and activists.
All these meetings were deeply interactive and helped Dr. Schüler to understand the respective narratives of the BJP and Congress while getting a sense of the underlying factors and personalities in play in the Elections 2019.
Apart from that, there was a very interesting dialogue with the alumni and aspirants of KASYP. The interaction was a no-holds-barred one a free flow of perspectives of the young politicians was evident with no quarters given while the bonhomie of these young politicians was very pleasant to experience and a tribute to the KASYP Programme. (separate report can be accessed at here)
To get the German perspective, briefings were arranged with Ms. Margit Hellwig-Bötte and Dr. Jürgen Morhard, the German Consul Generals at Bengaluru and Mumbai (where Mr. Bernhard Steinruecke, the Director of the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce was also present) respectively and in New Delhi with H.E. Mr. Walter J. Lindner the German Ambassador to India.
Any gaps that could have existed with regard to impressions in the mind of Dr. Schüler of his tryst with India, were filled by Justice Madan B. Lokur, recently retired Judge of the Supreme Court and Mr. Ravindra Kumar, editor of The Statesman in separate meetings.
In conclusion: The increasing extreme right tilt in democracies is a worrying trend and given the faster dynamics of change, the liberals need to get their act together, as Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.