According to traditional Indian philosophy Truth is hidden from the observer by maya or illusion. This maya is not passive but a dynamic force capable of projecting what is untrue and thus hiding the truth.
The rulers of India have also, unfortunately mastered the art of spreading a net of misinformation and illusion and thus have, to a certain extent, succeeded in misleading the world about the true nature of the things there.
India professes to be a democracy. This is an illusion created by the web of misinformation and the control of information by the authorities who directly own and operate the radio and television.
Foreigners are not allowed into Punjab without permits, foreign newsmen not at all. The government cannot afford to let the world know that the crimes by which it wants to bring the Sikhs a bad name are actually being perpetrated by its own agents. It was perhaps a frustrated former police chief Julio Riberio who disclaimed that the people were totally fed up of the violence but they were not with the government.
The purportedly democratic regime imposes press censorship at the smallest of excuses. Freedom of the press is universally recognized as the major component of a system of checks and balances through which modern society seeks to keep order. Press in India is free within certain bounds.
‘Another pillar of democratic functioning is the Judiciary. India has, during the past few decades suspended fundamental rights of its citizens in various states whenever it suited the authorities convenience. During the state of internal emergency rule imposed in 1975 all these fundamental human rights were suspended in the country and Indira Gandhi assumed dictatorial powers.
‘Due process under law is but a mirage in Punjab and a number of other dissident states in which police whimsically kill innocent people in staged encounters. To date, no police official has been punished for these murders in spite of overwhelming evidence. In fact their promotions depend on these crimes.
That even women are facing the bestiality of police was rather portrayed in the WSN supplement “So much suffering, So much sorrow, Such a shame.”
Even the right to judicial redress can and has been curtailed by the state. Anyone arrested under the numerous preventive detention laws can be technically kept in jail indefinitely. Of course, the police do not book a number of those they apprehend and thus they can say they are not in custody.
In all parliamentary and presidential democracies in the world, including the United States, the administration of the police force is invariably delegated to local elected bodies. In India, no citizen has the power or saying the working of the police in their area. The government continued to persist with the colonial system of police administration.
As has been noted by a commentator, “If the coercive power of the state is not accountable to the average citizens, democracy remains in name only.”
Considering these facts, one marvels at the web of maya but one is sure of another ancient axiom, TRUTH SHALL PREVAIL.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 8, 1989
