Notion that India has become authoritarian under BJP total bulls**t: Former Australian PM Tony Abbott

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott

• Tony Abbott praised PM Modi's leadership at Raisina Dialogue
• Abbott dismissed claims of India becoming authoritarian under BJP
• Raisina Dialogue fosters open debate and global participation

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Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has showered praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership while also dismissing claims that India has become an authoritarian state under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Abbott made the remarks while reflecting on his experience at the Raisina Dialogue, India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics held annually in New Delhi. He said the forum stands out among global gatherings for fostering open debate rather than functioning as an exercise in deference to the host government.

"At every dialogue so far, Prime Minister Modi has set the example, attending the opening session, to hear the principal guest - last year the Prime Minister of New Zealand; this year the President of Finland - but not speaking himself. After the US and Chinese presidents, he's probably the most immediately powerful person in the world, yet he's not too proud to listen as well as to lead. Despite over a decade in office, perhaps because of his youth as a kind of Hindu monk, Modi has thus far managed to resist the hubris of power," he said.

Addressing criticism from some quarters about India's political trajectory, Abbott rejected claims that the country has become authoritarian under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"And as for this notion that India, under the BJP, has somehow become an authoritarian state -- that's total BS. No country with free and fair elections, a riotously free media, and a robustly independent judiciary is in serious danger of dictatorship. And no dictatorship would host a global conference where nothing is off-limits and no one is shouted down. This year's dialogue, after all, heard from both the Israeli foreign minister (virtually) and the Iranian deputy foreign minister," he said.

Since its launch in 2016, the Raisina Dialogue -- hosted by the Observer Research Foundation with support from India’s Ministry of External Affairs -- has grown into the country’s premier platform for debates on international security, economic issues as well as global governance.