We had great hopes when the newly elected PM kissed the first step of Parliament before he entered it, but he subsequently hardly attended sessions or debated critical matters in the House! With tremendous wastage of funds Parliament does not function, critical Bills are passed without discussion including increasing own salaries. This tramples on the very idea of democratic principles!
People are fed falsifications and fake news. Rape and serious issues involving blatant communalism proliferate, trampling on human rights. The brutal rape of an eight year old girl in Kathua and seventeen year old girl in Unnao, both in Kashmir and another minor girl in Uttar Pradesh, father arrested, reportedly beat up by MLA’s brother and killed thereafter in custody, involving BJP MLAs, and shockingly of lawyers and police in preventing justice and also of terrorizing the victim’s families, finally forced the PM to denounce these deeds and the concerned influential officials which included police personnel were arrested/resigned. The involved MLAs still get their salaries and perks. In UK, after students were reportedly debarred from asking questions, our PM said rape is rape and should not be politicised? The Supreme Court directed members of the Bar in Kashmir not to obstruct judicial proceedings, and relentless media coverage forced a semblance of justice. Fear and insecurity bedevils the citizens.
India vowed never to witness an emergency like situation Indira Gandhi had imposed on our nation. Today we have an all powerful Prime Minister with the Opposition in disarray. The BJP with the mentor RSS is firmly in control imposing their own agenda and it appears the Congress evil will live, the good buried and in the process, history re- written. Sycophancy versus Dynasty? Moral and institutional corrosion have crept right up to one of our basic pillars the Supreme Court which frustratingly said “We are being befooled by the Executive as they generally do whatever they want!” The Supreme Court Bar Association President Vikas Singh confirmed “There is too much interference by the government”. Senior councils state “The Modi government is not interested in the best names, but is definitely interested in obstructing the names of people with independent minds”. Justice Chelameswar’s reported letter to CJI: “For sometime our unhappy experience has been that the government accepting our recommendations is an exception and sitting on them is the norm. Inconvenient but able judges or judges to be are being bypassed through this route”. The strongest bastion of democracy is under relentless attack and this cannot be ignored. The highest judiciary unfortunately is also at war within itself.
The manipulation of vote banks against unpopular decisions of courts to strike or declare bunds leading to violence, police quoting inability to maintain law and order letting mobs rule the roost is a dangerous game governments in power are playing. The culprits charge sheeted in the widely reported and televised Mutalik goons attack on a pub in Bangalore have now been let off for want of evidence. All the rioters held in UP have the government withdrawing cases against them as politically motivated and so on. People convicted as kingpins are being released. Police and investigative agencies reportedly destroy evidence or witnesses are “taken care of”. Thus no court can convict a criminal, and those convicted can be released with State patronage. Instead of GDP being a measure of a nation’s progress, GDH is the correct index which the United Nations has recognized by publishing yearly its World Happiness Report!
In the year 2018, we find Finland at the top and India is way down at 133. Sadly the land of Ahimsa is turning out to be a land of Himsa which is violence, intolerance and communal disruption. Parties “winability” candidates generally means criminals and moneybags. A cartoon: “That party will cease to exist as the corrupt leaders are with us now” surmises it all! It is futile living in denial and the governments appears full of prejudicial people more concerned about the perception rather than the reality. Justifying rape, lynching, murder, gender or any other discrimination under the garb of nationalism or by spreading atmosphere of fear, hate and communalism is dangerous. There is no room for civilized debate even in universities as violence in JNU proves! Arresting someone for their belief on social media and no action on politician’s religious, caste, communal hate speeches is discrimination and injustice.
It is reported that 14 of the most polluted cities in the world are in India. Whilst pollution in China is decreasing, the white marble Taj Mahal has turned brown due rapidly increasing pollution! This season a lot of things besides mangoes are out of reach of the common man. The general important discussion these days is about price rise and a dictatorial government intruding into our privacy and way of life. If there is any proof required that power corrupts, we are seeing it now in the swagger of those in power, crimes being committed with impunity/ cover up and government patronage/ machinery being used to control freedom, impose their will and of vested interests. A move was made to curtail media on the pretext of fighting fake news, withdrawn dramatically, but a Committee followed to frame governance norms for digital media and rehashing the Press Council of India! True Democracy, GDH and Freedom are too precious to lose in the emerging new India.
(The author is a retired naval officer, freelance writer)
