Indian politics is showing signs of the kind of prolonged political confrontations that have kept Pakistan under pressure in recent years, with opposition leaders challenging the government, protests becoming a political battleground, and constitutional questions moving to the centre of public debate.
Let’s take a leaf out of our abnormal neighbour’s playbook here. India’s leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Saturday intensified his confrontation with power-hungry Narendra Modi by accusing him of cowardice and panic-induced relationships with other political leaders.
In a post on X, Gandhi said he had spent more than a decade confronting Modi and the RSS and particularly named Modi, Amit Shah, Mohan Bhagwat, Gyanesh Kumar and Ajit Doval guilty of violating India’s Constitution.
Gandhi also challenged the government’s decision to arrest opposition leaders and young protesters. Scenes we are not strangers to.
The increasingly confrontational nature of Indian politics has finally reached common ground with Pakistan, where similar questions about political freedoms, institutional independence and the treatment of dissent have become part of national debate and sleepless fantasies.
Pakistan offers a striking comparison, although the two countries have different political and institutional circumstances. But India still has a long way to go. Pakistan has come a long way. Rules have changed.
| Law | Date | Outcome |
| Original PECA Enactment | August 2016 | Introduced Pakistan’s primary criminal framework for addressing cybercrimes, hacking, online harassment, and digital data protection. |
| PECA Amendment Ordinance (Struck Down) | February 2022 | Promulgated as a temporary ordinance to criminalize defamation and criticism of government bodies. It was heavily contested and officially declared unconstitutional by the Islamabad High Court on April 8, 2022. |
| Major PECA Amendment Act | January 2025 | Officially signed into law by President Asif Ali Zardari to explicitly criminalize “fake news”. It also paved the way for the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) to handle online offenses. |
Since 2022, Pakistan has experienced prolonged political instability marked by disputes over power, constitutional rules, elections, allegations of electoral manipulation, arrests and repeated street protests.
The February 2024 general election made the political debate more toxic after conflicting reports over its legitimacy.
The parallel is not that India and Pakistan are identical, or that their political trajectories have converged. Rather, both countries illustrate how polarization can rise when rival sides question the legitimacy of their opponents, institutions become central to political disputes, and street protests become instruments of resistance.
Gandhi’s warning that the government could arrest thousands without stopping the movement is critical. Why can’t we resolve political disagreements through dialogue? Why involve foreign governments and institutions to determine any outcome?
India’s political future will depend on how these tensions develop. The situation doesn’t look like it will soften up any time soon.
For Pakistan, the past several years offer a reminder that once political differences spread across institutions and society, restoring stability can get harder.
The views expressed here belong to the author.
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