• Prakash Pohare

Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in June 2014. While going to Parliament for the first session, he reverently touched his head on the steps of Parliament House and made an emotional declaration that he was entering a ‘Democratic Temple’. Nine and a half years have passed since this incident. His aim was to portray himself as a Prime Minister who preserves the sanctity of Parliament, but unfortunately that image was shattered in the later stages. By taking over the Parliament only on the strength of majority, he transformed the parliamentary system into an authoritarian system. This has been proved many times by the incidents that have happened in the last six years. The disturbance by the Central Government and the ruling party and its affiliated organizations has increased to such an extent that there is a widespread feeling that ‘undeclared emergency’ is in force in the country. There are some symptoms which can be clearly identified. The environment is being poisoned. A deliberate attempt is being made to create an atmosphere of mutual distrust and ‘fear’ among castes and religions. This effort is being made at the government level to divert public attention from basic issues.

The most important issue is the weakening of the institutional framework. What is before our eyes right now? So, is the Cabinet and Rashtrapati Bhavan nominal or not? There is doubt that all the departments are being managed by the Prime Minister’s Office. Controlling the economy and exercising an invisible hold on the judiciary. The Election Commission is under suspicion. Making second class people prominent in major centres of higher education and manipulating history through curriculum. It is unbelievable that the media can work without pressure. It appears that they are being controlled in some way or the other. It becomes difficult to work without pressure or inducement and maintain freedom of invention while maintaining autonomy.

It is noteworthy that BJP announced Modi’s candidature in September 2013. Since then, he has experimented at the national level to bring the media to his story. By colluding with the helpless media and industrialists and managing the Election Commission, he contested and won the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well as the assembly elections of other states during these nine and a half years. BJP gave huge advertisements to big electronic media houses and the media gave a lot of publicity to BJP. Their barter was crystal clear.

The elements who especially enjoy thought and expression are always restless. In fact, they should be like this. But when the restlessness increases so much that it starts bursting, then the steam that has formed struggles to find vent. What is more important is that one-by-one the social elements are slowly coming out on the streets. There is increasing dissatisfaction among the common people where they are saying that inflation is increasing way too much. There is a growing feeling in the industry and business sector that the scope of government policies is becoming too narrow. The farming class is always accustomed to bear hardships, but now it has also started to bear it. It seems that the government is not paying attention to this problem, the working class is always partially satisfied. They have to live, but their employment opportunities are dipping. As a result of all this, economists may be predicting that ‘the economy is collapsing.’ Experts in the foreign field are indicating that ‘our international credibility is declining.’ All these matters should certainly force one to think seriously. Yesterday’s news was that India’s debt burden has increased and the country has a total debt of Rs. 205 lakh crores. Global organizations have warned India to be cautious, but the government is not paying attention to it.

As the Lok Sabha elections are approaching, the government seems to be becoming more aggressive. At least this can be said from the brutal manner in which 146 MPs are being suspended and the voice of the opposition is being suppressed. Monday and Tuesday will be recorded as two black days in Indian parliamentary history. In these two-three days, about 150 MPs from opposition parties have been suspended. On December13, two youths entered the Lok Sabha and tried to present their demands or complaints. Then they released smoke pipes. The investigation so far has not revealed whether these youths have any connection with any armed or anti-national organization. Fortunately, they were not Muslims, had they been, then BJP would have done so much that the mere imagining of it gives goosebumps!

If those burglar youths had deadly weapons and had attempted any sort of violence, the situation would have been different. However, this incident definitely brought shame on the security arrangements of Modi government. Now the opponents are being targeted to recover this. On one hand, it is being examined whether these youth can be kept in the category of Naxalites, on the other hand, efforts are being made to suppress the voice of the opposition by suspending them for raising the issue of laxity in security arrangements. This demand was not at all unreasonable that Union Home Minister Amit Shah should give a statement in this matter, but it was also not accepted and taking advantage of the confusion, MPs were suspended in bulk. At such times, one needs to remember Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. At least it was clearly going on at that time, but now the repression continues without any actual declaration of emergency. Whatever is said in Parliament is recorded in minutes. The speeches of the opponents and the questions asked by them constitute a written history. The Modi government is trying to ensure that no such evidence or history is available to future generations. There have been cases in the past when while opposition leaders were speaking, their microphones were switched off, the issues raised by them were not taken up within minutes. Now, they have been strangled.

Obviously, today there is a very favourable environment for the Modi government in the country. BJP has got great success in the recent elections. Modi and BJP are confident that they will get similar success in the coming elections too. In 2019, BJP got more seats than before i.e. 303 seats. At that time Congress got only 52 seats and since it was not even ten percent of the total seats, there was a struggle to get the post of Leader of the Opposition. Parties allied with Congress got 91 seats and other parties got 98 seats. There was a difference of about two hundred seats between the BJP alliance and the opposition including Congress. The voice of the opposition was already weak in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. An arrangement was made that even if the opposition leaders do not say anything, they will not get any publicity from the media, but from today’s situation, it is clear that even this is not enough for the Modi government. Authoritarian rulers live under constant fear. They are afraid that someone might assassinate them. This is the condition of Modi’s government. Even though the strength of the opposition is less, but Modi knows that tomorrow the opposition can swallow his strength. That is why he has become unable to tolerate any voice of opposition. History is witness to the fact that such dictatorial, self-absorbed but fear-mongering rulers end up pitiably. But at present the BJP rulers believe that they were born immortals. On one hand, eliminating the opposition by using ED, CBI and other tactics, breaking their party if necessary, accusing them of corruption and then taking them into their fold and making them understand how popular they are, this is the basis of BJP’s thinking. There is no doubt that at the right time the public will definitely uproot this foundation.

It was no coincidence that all this happened at the same time when the leaders of ‘India’ Alliance were to meet in Delhi. Earlier, during the meetings of India Alliance held at places like Patna, Bengaluru, Mumbai etc., some false discussions were also held to divert attention from it. For example, in one such meeting, a proposal to hold all the elections in the country simultaneously was presented and the entire discussion was diverted there. On the very day of the meeting in Mumbai, Maratha protesters were lathi-charged in Antarwali Sarati village and the politics was completely overturned. Therefore, we cannot rule out the possibility that there is some connection between the India Alliance meeting and this wholesale suspension. Modi government is continuously saying such things to divert attention from important issues. Earlier, it was arranged that if they raised their voice on the Adani issue, the membership of the MPs - first Shri Rahul Gandhi and then Mahua Moitra - would be cancelled. Modi is constantly trying to show that he does not give any weightage to the opposition. Since the sanctity of Parliament has thus been destroyed, today’s Parliament is no longer a constitutional law-making body, but has become the registry office of the Cabinet, alternatively the executive. The Modi government’s demonetisation decision in 2016, the law against triple talaq, the Citizenship Amendment Bill and the Agriculture Reform Bill as well as the way the three Criminal Code Bills were passed in the current winter session are a fair example of this. Therefore, we should oppose such dictatorship without any guilt, no matter what colour it is! Only the sovereign people can stop the rulers from moving towards dictatorship!

(The author is the Editor of Marathi daily ‘Deshonnati’, Hindi daily ‘Rashtra Prakash’ and weekly ‘Krishakonnati’) The author can be contacted at 9822593921