I heard one youtuber in India saying that a bunch of journos/observers from the US came to see for themselves the deterioration of democracy in India and found nothing of the sort, obviously. He had talked to them, and they said vibrant, etc., which seems to be echoed in the White House statement.
As pointed out by veteran US observers, the Washington Post and the New York Times are more for the elite/deep state to talk and signal each other than for the aam aadmi. But in the past couple of decades their narrative has drifted majorly from the truth on the ground, even within the US. It has been a gradual process, where the deviation of narrative from truth on the ground has slowly increased. I can provide you plenty of evidence of aam American aadmi catching on to the fact over the years. Some early on, ten years ago, and some only now. And as the deviation between narrative and ground truth is increasing these institutions are crumbling.
Remember always that the successful and enduring narrative is built based on facts on the ground. So, e.g., every person in India may not have received all of the benefits of the Modi Sarkaar programs that they should have. Even the PM acknowledges there are gaps, and part of the third term agenda is to close the gaps, so he has said in recent interviews. Nevertheless, people have received at least one of the programs and see others have received some, and so they trust they too will get it sooner or later; and the BJP’s election narrative is based on these facts on the ground, though the BJP may be portraying it rosier and better than reality. But the underlying facts support their narrative. The opposition is thus unable to get any traction for their spin that things have not improved or things are bad.