Too much democracy
24.3.2021 — Mohak Doshi
“Freedom of speech and civil liberty are the very roots of Swaraj.’’ said Mahatma Gandhi. Looking at the recent developments surrounding these subjects, I’m sure Gandhiji would be wistful. On one hand we’ve had leaders like him, Jayprakash Narayan, Jawaharlal Nehru and many more who were in pursuit of civil liberties and empowering the citizens. On the other hand we have a govt which is so obsessed with curbing civil liberties that it is safe to say that we’re in a ‘so-called-democratic autocracy’ fuelled by fascism and majoritarian policies.
So, where exactly do we stand globally under the NDA-II regime when talking about simple freedom and liberties? In a report by Washington-based ‘Freedom House’ recently, India was categorised as a ‘partly free’ country, ranking 88 out of 211 countries. This is concerning as India used to be on the list of ‘free’ countries not so long ago. Discriminatory policies; crackdown on expressions of dissent by the media, academics, civil society groups, and protesters are some of the reasons why India saw a dip in exercising civil liberties and freedom.
The most concerning area is journalism. We have a media which is so biased/scared/partly-blind or maybe even worse, my job isn’t to call them names but you can pick any name you like. But the fact of the matter is that this is not at all the way a democratic country’s media houses should perform. In the name of journalism we have several ‘brokers’ who have made it their life’s mission to defend the govt whatsoever. The govt has delegated the job of brain-washing opinions of general public to these media outlets/broker agencies. By doing so, the actions of the govt are justified so easily, questions are answered without allowing the people to actually question. And if you’re wondering if Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi loves the way the media treats him then how many times has he graced press conferences with his presence? The answer is - 1. Yes, a single PC in 7 years as a PM. Mr. Modi has addressed countless rallies, given countless interviews and Lok Sabha speeches but he has socially distanced himself from PCs way before COVID-19 happened. More about this press conference? Out of nearly 11 questions directed to him, he answered 1, skipped 2 and passed on to Honourable Home Minister Shri Amit Shah the rest of the times, citing ‘he is the party leader so he speaks for me’.
It is ironic how we Indians were provided with internet at such a cheap cost thanks to Mr. Ambani who seems to have Mr. Modi on his speed dial, yet India went from having a total of 14 internet shutdowns in 3 years starting 2012 to a total of 479 internet shutdowns in 5 years starting 2016. Kashmir saw a historic abrogation of Article 370, but the internet in Kashmir was also reportedly social distancing from the people of Kashmir since 2016, with 4G services being restored after 2 years. In 2020, the world saw a total of 155 shutdowns with India reigning at the top with 109 of them.
Amnesty International, a global watchdog for humans rights violations says it was forced to halt operations in India due to ‘reprisals’ from the govt. This just happened to come sometime after the organisation released a report on how the Delhi police might have committed human rights violations in the role they played to ‘stop university students to hold peaceful protests against discriminatory laws’ and a few other reports on Kashmir. This isn’t the first time Amnesty suddenly became a ‘hurdle’ for the govt as it isn’t used to getting questioned & cross checked by domestic media houses. Hence it is justified why the govt would slap sedition charges so frequently in these cases. Sedition and UAPA charges are thrown by the govt more frequently than ever, the laws which were made to primarily protect the country from traitors and other grave offenders. These charges had a 165% increase from 2016 to 2019.
The newly announced IT Rules, on the pretext of ‘curbing misuse’ go on to show how far this govt will go to curb the freedom of its citizens. India’s video streaming platforms which saw a new dawn for the industry will now find itself under constant censorship of content. Censorship is to art, as lynching is to justice. These rules are an overreach and have a potential to seriously undermine media freedom. They are a hodgepodge of inept regulations which gives through and through power to the govt to control more than required aspects of public’s life.
The resignation of political commenter and govt critic Pratap Bhanu Mehta and former CEA Arvind Subramaniam are a new low for India’s educated political scenario. The fact that the university in which they were employed saw them as a political liability & their views and works perceived to carry risks for the university seems surreal. PB Mehta in one of his finest articles talked about ‘judicial barbarism’, which now makes you wonder how the govt sees scholars and political commenters as ‘hurdles’.
With all this going on around us, Mr. Amitabh Kant, the CEO of Niti Aayog recently made us all aware about the real issue in an interview. He said and I quote ‘Reforms are difficult as India has too much democracy’. How much democracy is ‘too much’, Mr. Kant? I didn’t know we had a quantitative measure for something barely existing in our country as of right now.
