Can we look forward to a hope-filled, hate-free India in 2023?

When we look back from the vantage point of the last day of December, how did India’s world change in the year gone by? What should we look forward to in the coming year? The wise thought in this country, handed down through generations, is that the world has always been like this, unchanging and immutable. That could be true in a philosophical sense, or over the long span with respect to the human condition.

In the short span of a year and looking at it as part of a continuity, and in terms of the lived everyday reality of most people, lives change, and things and circumstances change. The changes in the lives and circumstances in India over the last one year cannot be missed, especially under a political dispensation that takes it that with its coming, everything changed for the better eight years ago and that the country is in a new age, with a new history and a future as good as an imagined ancient past.

The year started with the virus, which terrified the country and the world for about two years, receding; and the year ends with the virus again at the door, worrying and bothering us. In between, life went back to near-normal, even if it was a new normal, at homes and in offices, schools and workplaces, on roads and playgrounds, and in politics, business, sports, the arts and society.

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There were high points and low points, good and bad, right and wrong, the acceptable and the unacceptable. Politics dominated the proceedings of the nation as it has increasingly done in recent years, taking hold of more and more areas of life. Politics manifests in elections, and in key elections in many states, the country’s dominant party, the BJP, asserted itself again.

It also gained power in one state, Maharashtra, by toppling a government through the most questionable means, which it has employed in other states in the past. It also lost power in another state, Bihar, where it had shared power, because the leader of the allied party, the JD(U), took a pre-emptive measure to protect himself. The Congress, which was being ruled out as a party of the past, came back to report that it was still alive and kicking. The AAP came on the national radar, affirming its position in Delhi, winning Punjab, and marking its presence in Gujarat. Parties win and lose elections, wax and wane, and appear and disappear in democracies. They widen and deepen the spirit and practices of democracy. But the politics that has been ascendant in the country in recent years has not seen an expansion of democracy but its shrinkage, and it was no different in the year gone by.

Any democracy is tested by the rights the citizens enjoy and the ability and willingness of the State to protect them. The Indian Constitution has guaranteed to its citizens all important rights -- the right to life, the right to free expression, the right to dress and eat the way one wants to, and other rights that make human life full and meaningful. Those rights came under increasing pressure during the passing year. The hijab controversy in Karnataka was a case of how a basic right was sought to be undermined in manufactured circumstances and on specious grounds. In fact, it was not as much the right but the persons who bore the rights that were under attack. The final word now lies with the judiciary, which should guard and protect the rights of all citizens and the Constitution as such. There are threats to food, ways of worship, and places of worship.

The record and performance of the judiciary is under scrutiny. This year, the Supreme Court had three Chief Justices and there have been ringing declarations of the importance of individual freedom from the court. It did well during the year to start hearing some important cases that have been pending with it for years; the decisions are awaited. In one case, where it has pronounced the verdict, it upheld the government’s decision to provide 10% reservation to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), raising questions about the very fundamentals of the reservation system. The Supreme Court itself is under pressure from the government over the collegium system of appointment of judges, with the potential for a judiciary-executive confrontation looming large.

This was also the year of the central investigating agencies — the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the CBI, etc — which gave special attention to opposition leaders and opponents and critics of the government. Many were arrested, and most found it difficult to get bail, though bail is the rule and jail the exception. Institutions of governance and constitutional bodies like the Election Commission are also under stress and duress, as is the idea of parliament and parliamentary democracy. The executive is all, and it is in thrall to a single leader. It is the year that marked 75 years of Independence, but the idea of freedom has never been under so much pressure at any time in the past except during the Emergency. Majoritarian sentiment is on the rise and spreading, and gets support from governments. Minorities are under stress and attack, individually and collectively, and are alienated and othered. Hate speech and actions are rampant and there are even calls for genocide. Discrimination gets new names and euphemisms and is sought to be justified on wrong and unfair grounds. Prejudice prevails, and a Muslim is called a terrorist, hate speech becomes a knife, and malice takes the form of bulldozers that demolish houses.

The economy fared well during the year, better than all other major economies, but high unemployment and inflation hurt everyone, especially the weaker sections and wage-earners. The outlook is uncertain because of the threat of the return of the virus and the impact of the war in Europe. But human nature always loves and longs for a brighter world, and so when the New Year arrives, there should be hope for a better year. We should get ready to fight the virus that may be at the door; the experience of fighting it for over two years should stand us in good stead for that. But we should fight the more dangerous virus in the mind that is evolving and creating ever more variants and infecting politics and society. Damaged economies can be repaired and improved but societies infected by the virus of hatred and conflict will take much more time and effort to heal. We should protect and shield ourselves from it.