The conspiracies and foreign hand can be clearly seen in the Khalistan movement, Pakistan and China’s machinations, but to become paranoid with propaganda, deceit and hypocrisy against foreign entities and almost every contrary opinion and dissent of our own citizens calling them anti national/urban naxals/intellectual terrorists etc, slapping them with FIRs and draconian laws is not commensurate with a country professing democracy!
The biggest liars all over the world starting with Trump have been continually exposed by fact checking social and independent media which they want to control/shut down.
We foolishly believe the government will fact check itself! The government has managed to overpower all the Opposition in our country and now they are trying to apply the same yardstick to world opinion. Any western media questioning the India narrative is biased and are anti-Indian forces, example the raids, FEMA probe and trolling of BBC India.
The Supreme Court’s recently lifted the ban on a media channel pulling up the Home Ministry for refusal to grant security clearance, raising national security claims from “thin air” without facts! The Bench headed by the CJI noted the High court relied on material in a sealed envelope raising national security in a “cavalier manner; the Press has a duty to speak truth to power.
Critical views on government policies cannot be termed anti national, expecting Press to fall in line. Invoking NSA in cases of political nature is abuse of law!” The common man’s only hope against the State is the court’s ability to uphold their democratic rights and act against injustice as they do not have the time or wherewithal to fight back!
Prime Minister Modi creating narratives using the fascist way is resulting in a chilling effect on democracy and our hard won freedom! People seem to respect authority not scholarship. Economic growth is no criteria for social justice! When I hear all the achievements being listed by the PM denigrating all before 2014, and the industrial, digital, military, make in India success, I am reminded of firebrand member Mahua Moitra in Parliament pointing out the lesson from history where Germany under Hitler rose to be a super power, with the best inventions, developing superior economy and lifting up German pride in the world!
The same arrogance of power is likewise clearly visible in our rulers today with a difference that national pride is monopolized by government corporate nexus, the Hindutva religious brigade revolving around rituals, sanctity of animals, epic past figures, grand temples and glittering corridors more important than high prices, poverty, income disparity, unemployment, malnutrition, hunger, human trafficking, child labour and millions still living on the streets! There are various international surveys and for example one such is the happiness index where we are numbered way down. Author Chetan Bhagat lambasts the various criteria on which the assessment is based, outright rejecting it stating we are in fact the happiest nation in the world. D M Deshpande sensibly analyses “with all its infirmity and flaws the index is still useful if we take it in the right spirit will only help us move in the right direction quickly”.
India has borne the invasion of the British, Portuguese, Dutch, French and other rulers. We need to acknowledge the past tremendous good and bad inflicted on us! Also acknowledge our present successes and disasters? Government wants the Puranas and Vedas to be taught compulsorily in schools and under the guise of rationalizing excessive coverage of Moghul history, bring in more of our own Indian History. The problem is it appears they want to change History according to their perception. So events showing BJP or RSS in bad light are reportedly being removed like banning of the RSS by Sardar Patel, Gujarat riots, Gandhi’s dislike of Hindu extremists etc!
The finance minister goes to the United States and boasts there about how the minority community is safer in India than Pakistan and rubbished the view of communal disharmony and riots!
Our population is more than 70% Hindus, around 14% Muslims, less than 3% Christians. Never mind if there is no Muslim in the cabinet or discrimination so very obvious or somewhere in India boycott being called of Muslim and Christian shops, Mosques and Churches being vandalized by patronized so called militant fringe groups, hate speeches, lynching, violence, Jai Shri Ram slogan weaponized and communal riots being instigated. This is all attributed to the foreign hand and conspiracies! The PM star BJP campaigner whilst officially visiting the electoral states to lay a foundation stone or inaugurate some mega scheme converts the visit into a grand road show and double engine election rally! With article 370 nullified, Ram Mandir done, to bolster his ultra-national macho credentials and achieve his Hindutva objectives, the PM needs conspiracies and the foreign hand excuses to control external forces defaming India, NGOs foreign funding, cancelling FCRA clearances, popularizing his agenda under different guises.
The world is watching a democracy where the ruling party can hold up with impunity a whole session of Parliament, unilaterally accuse an elected MP of disgracing India abroad, demand an apology denying him a reply on the floor of the house, remove him as MP and also deny the combined opposition demand to discuss the Adani issue!
The slogans Sub Ke Saath, Vikas, Vishwas, Prayas (Together, everyone’s growth, trust, efforts) are what is preached. Hopefully truth will prevail.
(The author is a
retired naval officer,
freelance writer resident in Porvorim)
