India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar contradicted the Western view at the Munich Security Conference 2025 that democracy is in trouble around the world, highlighting India’s robust democratic system.
Jaishankar expressed his opinion during a panel discussion on ‘Live to Vote Another Day: Fortifying Democratic Resilience’, which included Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, US Senator Elissa Slotkin, and Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski. Asked for his opinion of Western democracy, Jaishankar started by holding up his finger, declaring, “Well, before I do that, I seemed to be an optimist in what is quite a pessimistic panel, if not room. I will start by holding up my finger and don’t mind it, it is the index finger. This, the spot you see on my nail, is a spot of a voter. We recently had an election in my state. We had a national election last year.”
He added that almost two-thirds of voters in India participate in elections, with about 700 million of 900 million voters taking part in the national elections. “We cast the votes within one day,” he added.
India’s Democracy and Its Success
Jaishankar countered the belief that democracy is weakening all over the world by saying, “Nobody disputes the (election) outcome once it’s declared and by the way, ever since we’ve been voting in the contemporary world, 20 per cent of individuals vote more today than decades ago.” He said, “For us democracy is indeed delivered,” highlighting the success with democracy in implementation by India.
Responding to US Senator Elissa Slotkin’s comment that ‘democracy doesn’t put food on the table’, Jaishankar snapped back, “Actually, in my part of the world, it does. Today, because we are a democratic, we give nutrition support, and food to 800 million people and for whom that is a matter of how healthy they are and how full their stomachs are.” He described various regions of the world having different conversations regarding democracy and warned against the presumption of a universal trend, saying, “Please do not assume that this a kind of universal phenomenon, it is not.”
Jaishankar calls for ‘Honest Dialogue’
Jaishankar admitted that if democracy is thriving in some areas, it is under pressure in others. He called for ‘honest dialogue on why it is not’ functioning in some places. He also pointed out that most of the existing issues are due to the model of globalization pursued in recent decades, saying, “I would argue that as to an extent as someone dispassionately viewing it, which was your question, there are some problems, a lot of it is a accumulated problem of the model of globalisation that we have followed for the last 25-30 years.”
In a tweet on X, Jaishankar explained that at MSC 2025, he differed ‘with the prevailing political pessimism’ and spoke on the subject of ‘foreign interference’.
India’s Democratic Model and the Global South
Jaishankar continued to bring to the forefront that upon becoming independent, India took the democratic route because its society is basically consultative and pluralistic in nature. He added that even though the West had earlier looked at democracy as a Western attribute, most of the nations of the Global South are more inclined to identify with India’s journey, which they can apply in their own society. He insisted that India has stuck to its democratic principles notwithstanding many challenges it has encountered.
The External Affairs Minister ended by calling on the West to acknowledge successful democratic examples elsewhere in the world if it is to witness democracy flourish everywhere.
The 61st Munich Security Conference, which took place in Germany from February 14 to February 16, is an important venue for foreign and security policy and global issues discussion.
