SATURDAY, MAY 04, 2024
Soter D’Souza
As the world watches the evolving Indian politics, there is hardly any doubt that this Lok Sabha Election 2024 is not about a level playing field for the opposition parties. Federal agencies targeting prominent opposition parties and leaders by freezing bank accounts, initiating inquiries and jailing them after election dates have been announced is unprecedented in the history of democratic India. Let us not fool ourselves into believing that this ‘tamasha’ to entertain the galleries will cleanse the nation from a cultural DNA of corruption and reduce crimes. Assurances to the courts about not initiating coercive action against a political party during the LS polls are no consolation. The EC appointing special observers to oversee the poll process and ensuring an equal playing field does not necessarily make an election free and fair. With the Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of opposition leaders on financial matters, frozen bank accounts and a controversial EC, it is but normal that the focus of the opposition parties during the elections will be diverted and their spending power blunted. In such a hostile political climate, how can any responsible civil society sit back and ask, “...but where is the credible opposition which we can vote for?”
Autocracy which has enveloped India’s governance has been desperately attempting to offload its corruption and abuse of power onto the political opponents through aggressive propaganda at public cost. A toxic ideological group, which worked to weaken democracy and internationally defame the country while in opposition for over 6 decades after independence, seeks to label its dirty motives on its opponents and critics when in power. The rhetoric of a dark leadership fits a ‘desi’ proverb “ulta chor kotwal ko daante” (the thief accusing the policeman), or in other instances it is ‘the pot calling the kettle black’. How can any responsible citizen defend such a government which shamelessly dodges accountability and transparency and villainizes the opposition and critics?
A political regime with a mindset that an emphasis on civil rights had kept the country ‘weak’ and interprets a people’s mandate as a license to impose destructive programs and projects on the people is far more dangerous than the 1974 emergency. The last one decade has shown that the regime in power is a sore loser and will resort to any unethical tactics to overturn electoral mandates, as witnessed in the Chandigarh mayoral elections, or in the engineering of defections to snatch power through the backdoor. After being beaten in its game by some stinging Apex court judgements, a government on the back foot is now manufacturing and marketing suspicions about a ‘vested interest group’ employing pressure tactics to influence judicial outcomes. This agenda gets exposed when the government, which otherwise remains silent on Manipur and several horrific incidents of violence, finds its voice to support some letters from prominent personalities. Are we seeing frustrated egos now attempting to settle scores after failing to defend and cover up the electoral bonds scam in court? Were the pseudo patriots blind to notice the repeated humiliating swipes from a then Union Law Minister against the higher judiciary in the recent past?
The double (speak) engine governance has not only given a shield of legitimacy to corruption, but has also turned a blind eye to lawlessness branded as nationalism. The information which has spilled into public domain on the electoral bonds has exposed the ‘na khaunga, na khane dunga’ bluff of the anti-corruption crusade designed to malign the earlier regime. Let’s not forget that the allegations on black money and scams to malign the previous government turned nothing more than the fable of ‘the boy crying wolf’. Amidst the hysteria over corruption whipped up by these anti-democracy forces in 2011, the repeated warnings of many intellectuals about a game plan to overturn the Constitution and destroy democracy went unheeded and dismissed by citizens as Congress propaganda.
After weaponising religion, culture and food to politically exploit public emotions and blind reason, the game now seems to have turned towards exploiting women’s rights for regime survival. The defenders of Bilkis Bano’s rapists in Gujarat bestowing the title of ‘Shakti Swaroopa’ to the victim of sexual harassment in Sandeshkali, Bengal, is a mockery of woman empowerment. The nation saw how the government played hide and seek to shield the accused involved in the sexual harassment of female wrestlers. So, is the gender card employed for the South Goa LS polls genuinely about empowering women, or meant to facilitate the ‘ease of doing business’ for the mining and real estate lobby in the plunder Goa?
A very interesting essay titled ‘How Autocrats Weaponise Women's Rights’ by Elin Bjarnegård and Pär Zetterberg, both associate professors in political science at the Uppsala University in Sweden, introduce the concept of ‘autocratic gender washing’ to shed light on why authoritarian states adopt gender-equality reforms. According to them, “Autocratic gender washing occurs when autocrats take credit for advances in gender equality in order to turn attention away from persistent non-democratic practices, such as violations of electoral integrity and human rights.”
Amidst the current repressive and intimidating political climate, it needs nothing more than cowardice to criticise the opposition parties; whereas, it takes tremendous courage to question and speak truth to the regime in power. It’s fashionable for some with no grass-root political experience to tom-tom the need for honest and capable political candidates, but do these words actually play out in action on ground? Can a society which has lost honesty and basic civility on the streets tolerate honest leaders in government? Whether religion and education have trained citizens to first think wisely for them to vote wisely will be tested in this election.
(The writer was a Counsellor at a Drug Prevention and De-addiction Centre in Goa)
