Outgoing Vice-President of the RS (Rajya Sabha) Hamid Ansari stated that our founding fathers with wisdom and foresight created the Rajya Sabha to portray India’s diversity and to be a calibrated restraint on hasty legislation. He quoted Vice-President VP Radakrishnan who served two terms like him “A Democracy is likely to degenerate into tyranny if it does not allow the opposition groups to criticise, fairly, freely and frankly the policies of the government. Vice-President elect Venkaiah Naidu promptly rubbished Ansari’s claim claiming “History proves there is no discrimination. Indian society is the most tolerant in the world because of its people and civilization!” I recall Gobbles, the German propaganda minister, proved that lies repeated often enough become the truth. The arrogance of power was on display when the Amit Shah Reception was held in Dabolim airport as if laws and rules do not apply to the BJP.
The government insists in brazen denials, enforcing its views and not tolerating dissent. Shoot the messenger. Most of the media have jumped on to the ruling dispensation bandwagon to be safe. The brave ones and inconvenient NGOs are hounded and trolled. Winston Churchill said 70 years ago “Power will go to the rascals, rogues and freebooters. All Indian leaders will be low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles. A day would come when even the water and air would be taxed in India”. When I contemplate my water bill today and think of the polluted air in Delhi requiring masks/ oxygen bars and our politics, I wonder why some are trying to make Sir Winston’s prophecy come true and yearning to turn India into a Hindu Pakistan.
We have just celebrated our 71st Independence Day. We do have a lot to be proud of. Despite all our religious, caste, language and cultural differences we have still survived as a democracy. The world admires us for our achievements and unbelievable unity in diversity which has contributed to our rich tapestry existing in our noisy Democracy. The PM’s I-Day speech had a sense of the occasion. The 1942 slogan of “Quit India” he extended to Bharat Jodo (Join India), our “chalta Hai” attitude to change to “badal sakta hai”. The Kashmiri problem cannot be solved by ‘gaali (abuse)”, or “goli (bullets)” but by “gale lagaana (embracing)”. He made a strong pitch against violence in the name of faith, the poison of casteism and communalism “which can never benefit the country and is harmful for the social fabric”. The PM says the right things, but his lieutenants act otherwise with impunity, also pursuing a dangerous strategy of “Opposition Mukt Bharat” to be achieved by any means available.
The Election Commissioner rues the new narrative of total exclusion of ethics in winning elections. With a Hindutva agenda dominated by the RSS and Sangh Parrivar, we are witnessing the tyranny of vote bank politics.
Let us not deny our history of bloody partition, killing of Mahatma Gandhi, the importance of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Emergency when we almost lost our hard won freedom, massacre of Sikhs (Delhi 1984) and Muslims (Gujarat 2002) and so many other injustices and painful memories besides continuing inflicting of VIP arrogance today, which are hard facts. History is sought to be re written, all Institutions are being controlled/taken over by RSS ideologues, the CBI and enforcement machinery appears to be selectively targeting those who are inconvenient to the government and its philosophy. Doordarshan recently refused to broadcast Tripura CM’s Independence Day address unless he “reshaped” it!
Goa under the jurisdiction of the Pune NGT was by dictate sought to be transferred to the Delhi NGT to make access to justice difficult for our environmentalists.
Aadhaar was meant to be limited to government schemes, not linked everywhere except surprisingly to Epic cards. Besides the government has no right to mind our business! A nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court has unanimously come to our rescue by declaring privacy as a fundamental right in no uncertain terms.
The last bastion the judiciary and media are sought to be blamed whenever there is poor governance. Democracy elects government to serve and not rule. Many systems of governance have been tried and true democracy with all its flaws has been found to be the best. Unfortunately people with power and money manipulate and corrupt the systems to further their own vested/ communal interests. Moral policing, intolerant hyper nationalism with arrogance of power is alarming. The NDA appears to have also taken over the RBI and banks. Government turning exploitive reminds me of the saying “If you have a gun, you can rob a bank. If you have a bank, you can rob everyone”. It surprises me how the intelligent majority of our people are quiet, and accept everything in silence. Modi generally acts like he is the PM of the BJP! Today’s scenario will be tomorrow’s proud Indian history. We have meekly surrendered to political power and their hegemony of our lives. Thankfully most of our Judiciary and some of our NGOs are not silent.
I end with the words of J F Kennedy: “There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than long range risks of comfortable inaction”.
(The author is a retired naval officer resident in Porvorim. A freelance writer and member of the State Consumer Protection Council)
