THE BJP is conducting fortnight campaign to celebrate the completion of eight years of the Modi government. The campaign seeks to highlight claims of the various achievements of the government regarding economic growth, infrastructure development, foodgrain production, social welfare schemes and foreign policy. All these are attributed to the initiatives and the tireless work of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, what is missing from the elaborate list of achievements are the steps taken by the Modi government to strengthen democracy and the constitutional framework to safeguard democratic rights of citizens and to ensure social and economic justice as enjoined in the directive principles of the constitution. This is a deliberate omission as it is in these spheres that the Modi government has worked in the past eight years to inflict immense harm to the democratic system and the constitution. The eight years of Modi rule have been marked by systematic efforts to abridge parliamentary democracy, curtail democratic rights of citizens and subvert all the institutions which uphold the constitutional order.
The devaluation of parliament and the degrading of parliamentary procedures have become particularly virulent in the second term of Modi government. Parliament has sat for less than fifty days last year. Apart from lack of discussion on legislations, there is hardly any scrutiny of legislative bills. From 60 to 70 per cent of the bills being referred to the standing committees by the Lok Sabha during the UPA government, it dropped to 27 per cent in Modi’s first term and to just 13 per cent in the second term. This is compounded by the denial of the right of the opposition to raise issues and press for a vote during the legislative process. The way the three farm bills were railroaded through the Rajya Sabha is a prime example.
If parliament is subject to restrictions and the rights of members stifled, the entire parliamentary democratic system itself is being undermined. The Election Commission, which is the centrepiece for the conduct of free and fair polls, has itself been bridled and is increasingly seen as compliant with the wishes of the executive. The criminalisation of dissent and the suppression of civil liberties have reached unprecedented heights through the use of draconian laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the sedition clause. Between 2014 and 2020, in a period of seven years, around 690 cases under UAPA were registered and 10,552 persons were arrested under the provisions of the UAPA. These include political activists, civil rights advocates, journalists and writers. The sedition clause, section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, is also wielded as a weapon against those who voice their opposition to the regime. From 2014 to 2021, over 450 cases of sedition were registered. The media has been subject to intimidation and coercion to prevent it from playing any independent role. Apart from the use of repressive laws against journalists, certain media owners were targeted for economic offences and the agencies let loose on them. A big part of the corporate media has now fallen in line and have become cheer leaders for the government.
The centralised authoritarian style of the Modi government has trampled upon the federal aspect of the democratic system. What is sought to be replaced instead of democracy is majoritarian rule. laws are passed in BJP-ruled states such as anti-conversion laws, prohibition of cattle slaughter of all types and at the central level, the Citizenship Amendment Act. All these laws have targeted the minorities depriving them of their basic rights. Such laws provide a legal cover for the vicious attacks on minorities at the ground level by the Hindutva outfits. The central fact of the eight year rule of the BJP government is the relentless pursuit to reshape the Indian State according to the Hindutva agenda of the RSS. For this, all the existing parameters of a parliamentary democracy, the role of the judiciary, civil service and the media are being altered and subsumed to serve an insidious authoritarianism.
Democracy and the basic economic, social and civil rights of citizens are in peril from the ruling dispensation. The unprecedented social unrest and economic disasters, where the Indian economy plummeted and the dollar billionaires surged to capture the top positions in the Forbes list. It was also a period in which Indian polity and society has made disastrous shift towards a Hindutva fascist order in spite of a democratic, secular Constitution. Prime Minister Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chose May 28 as the D-day because it on this day their ideological mentor and the proponent of India as a Hindu Rashtra, VD Savarkar took birth. It was a kind of Gurukanike, a tribute to their mentor.
During this period India has been classified as Electoral Autocracy by V-dem Institute of Sweden for the fourth consecutive year. It is during this period that India’s ranking in the press freedom index collapsed to an unprecedented 150th position. During the previous three years the possibility of a genocide in this country has increased say global watch dogs. Genocide Watch, a human rights group, has increased the caution related to India from Genocide watch to Genocide warning. The biggest disrespect Prime Minister Modi has shown to Indian sovereign Republic is when he campaigned in US for the Trump, giving slogans like “Ab ki bar TrumpSarkar”. By this Modi acted as a governor of one of the 50 provinces of USA and not as a head of an independent sovereign State. This episode and hundreds of other episodes of international shame and disgrace the Modi government has brought to India in his brief eight years plus of misgovernance and pompous autocracy.
Speaking in New Delhi on April 25, 2022 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen referred to India as a “vibrant democracy,” sharing common values and interests with the European Union. But these cliches, repeated by rote by European leaders seeking closer trade and political ties with India, do not reflect the reality of growing abuses and discriminatory policies under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule. This reflects the growing sentiment that Europe is willing to overlook the plight of affected communities in India because it needs India as an ally against China and Russia. The bulldozers politics is just the latest symbol of the erosion of rule of law in India and escalating violence against minority populations. The prejudices embedded in the Indian government have infiltrated independent institutions, such as the police and the courts, and provoked Hindu mobs to threaten, harass, and attack religious minorities, which they do with impunity. Lately Over 100 former Indian civil servants, including senior diplomats, recently wrote to Prime Minister Modi, saying: “What is alarming now is the subordination of the fundamental principles of our Constitution and of the rule of law to the forces of majoritarianism, in which the state appears to be fully complicit.” The Indian authorities have also cracked down heavily on civil society, prosecuting human rights activists, journalists, academics, students, peaceful protesters, and other critics in politically motivated cases using counterterrorism and sedition laws. The Modi government has shut down foreign funding for thousands of civic groups, particularly those that work on human rights or the rights of vulnerable communities. The Indian government is also using technology to curtail human rights as part of its broadening crackdown on freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly. Indian authorities have been implicated in using the Israeli-produced spyware Pegasus to target activists, journalists and political opponents.
Over the last few years, United Nations-appointed independent human rights experts have repeatedly raised concerns over India’s regression in human rights. But India’s Western partners, including the EU and its member states, have failed to echo those concerns, ignoring requests by human rights groups and the European Parliament. in April, 2022 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken publicly made reference to “concerning developments in India, including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials.” On April 25, the congressionally mandated US Commission on International Religious Freedom stated that “religious freedom conditions in India significantly worsened” in the last year and for the third year in a row. The commission recommended that the State Department designate India a “country of particular concern” for “engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.” India’s growing partnership in a rule-based global order and condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, world leaders should not forget the lives destroyed by the bulldozers or those of the journalists, activists and critics unjustly held behind bars or repeatedly threatened by BJP supporters. World leaders should stress and call on the Indian government to live up to its obligations and commitments and protect the human rights and dignity of all its people, not just some of them. Repeating empty slogans and forsaking scrutiny of government abuses will not help that happen.
