The widely accepted meaning of the word democracy is a government elected by the people, of the people and for the people. India is considered the largest democracy in the world. Earlier in the year, however, the country was marked down to ‘partly free’ in the ‘Freedom in the World’ index, where research and advocacy not-for-profit organisation, Freedom House rates political rights and civil liberties around the world. In terms of ‘freedom on the net’, which is an important contemporary indicator of the health of democracies, India was similarly found to be ‘partly free’.

Recent revelations about surveillance and hacking of devices with Pegasus spyware as well as the WhatsApp-Government of India (GoI) tussle over user privacy show that there are curbs to the online independence of Indian citizens.