Republic in crisis

After nearly nine years of Narendra Modi’s helmsmanship, the Indian Republic is in deep crisis. Several institutions of our democracy stand destroyed, or their independence compromised, since he took office as Prime Minister in mid-2014.

One of his first acts was to abolish the Planning Commission. That official economic think-tank, which traced its origins back to Subash Chandra Bose, had been soundly alive even during NDA-1 under Prime Minister A B Vajpayee. No explanation was given as to why it was killed.

Then came the exit of Raghuram Rajan as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. The central bank as an independent monetary policy-setting entity is vital to managing a sound economy. The mismanagement of the economy that has subsequently followed can be traced back to that moment.

The Election Commission, it is widely felt, has been packed with officials who had been close to Modi. The polling agenda in UP, Bengal and other states was seen to be set to favour the BJP’s star campaigners.

Before 2014, few governors ever went out of their way to court controversy by obstructing the functioning of duly elected state governments and legislatures. Never before have we seen the kind of crass conduct on the part of governors as we have in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Tripura, West Bengal and other non-BJP-ruled states as witnessed in recent months.

The electronic media is now almost entirely controlled by entities close to the BJP and to Modi. Meanwhile, we’ve witnessed disastrous decisions, such as the note-ban/demonetisation and the sudden Covid lockdown – decisions that caused innumerable deaths and economic hardship.

There have been arrests under concocted charges of intellectuals and dissenters, such as Prof G N Saibaba and many others. India is dropping in several human development and freedom indices.

Now, Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju have mounted an assault on the Constitution and the judiciary. The Basic Structure of the Constitution was something that BJP stalwarts such as Vajpayee, L K Advani and Arun Jaitley have sworn by.

Several NGOs rendering yeoman service to disadvantaged groups now find themselves bound and gagged, not least by using the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act as a weapon against them.

But there is hope, too: The spectacular farmers’ protests, and the anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi and Bengaluru’s Bilal Bagh. Sections of the print media have maintained independence.

On the one hand, history shows that fascist and quasi-fascist regimes eventually crumble: Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea, Taiwan -- to mention but a few – have seen this.

Alas, it also presents us with examples of those lingering for long: North Korea, China, vast parts of West Asia, including ‘democratic’ Israel, and others.

Fascism, majoritarianism and racism are on the rise in Europe too -- not only in Italy, Hungary or Poland but also in France and in the home of the ‘mother of parliaments’, Britain.

The people of India, armed as yet with a model Constitution authored by visionaries such as Babasaheb Ambedkar, might well be able to reclaim the republic from majoritarian fanatics and fascists who’ve been seeking to destroy it.

But we’ll need to work hard to do so. Freedom from the British was hard-fought and lasted several decades. Reclaiming the idea of India as envisaged in the Constitution will have to be fought for too, relentlessly and over a long period.

Modi has not faced a single press conference nor an unscripted interview since becoming Prime Minister. He rarely attends parliament, which itself is summoned or prorogued at will. Bills are being passed with hardly any legislative scrutiny. Time was when bills had to be vetted by non-partisan legislative committees, discussed in both houses of legislature or parliament, and only then put to vote. Of late, bills turn into laws at the Centre and in BJP-ruled states with almost no legislative discussion or scrutiny.

This writer remembers that during Indira Gandhi’s 1975-77 Emergency, when parliamentary proceedings stood suspended and she took recourse to ordinances, some underground pamphlets distributed in Karnataka by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of which Modi has been a life-long member, said in Kannada: “Sugreevajnegalinda aalalu idu kapigala rajyavalla”, meaning “this is not a kingdom of monkeys to be ruled by dictats (ordinances)” (alluding to the Ramayana character, Sugreeva, the monkey king).

Since 2014, the only way the Prime Minister has been addressing Indian citizens is through his monthly ‘Mann ki baat’ broadcast via Prasar Bharati and other channels obliged to do so but mercifully limited to 30-40 minutes or so. Surely, not the best way in a country of 1.4 billion now?

(The writer is a senior journalist)