Driving India Towards Authoritarianism!

 

 

 

 

 

Driving India Towards Authoritarianism!

The world is witnessing the rise of authoritarian regimes, even in democratic countries. The authoritarian regime is something which has complete control over people- a government where there is total concentration of power in the hands of a single leader, demanding blind submission to authority. The synonyms of an authoritarian regime are:  authoritative, autocratic, despotic, dictatorial and tyrannical.

Hitler was younger to Gandhi by some twenty years; the two were contemporaries and dominating the world stage. It was at around the same time that Hitler burnt books and Gandhi defied the colonial salt law and chose to be jailed. It was the same time when Gandhi came up with his idea of ‘civil disobedience’ as a statement of one’s moral courage in the face of injustice and Hitler started demanding ‘complete obedience’ towards the supreme leader. Hitler justified and promoted violence in every form; Gandhi devoted himself to preaching non-violence. Hitler made propaganda the basis of his continued right to dominate, Gandhi spoke of truth as the path towards freedom. Gandhi is seen by the larger humanity, irrespective of one’s nation, creed, language and race, as the prophet of freedom.

Right wing authoritarianism is characterized by obedience to authority, moral absolutism and punitive action against dissidents. The Right-wing authoritarians are people who have a high degree of willingness to submit to authorities they perceive as established and legitimate, who adhere to societal conventions and norms, and who are hostile and punitive in their attitude towards people who do not adhere to them.  They want society and social interactions structured in ways that increase uniformity and minimize diversity. In order to achieve that, they tend to be in favour of social control, coercion and the use of group authority to place constraints on the behavior of people such as political dissidents and immigrants. These constraints might include restrictions on immigration, limits on free speech and association and laws regulating moral behaviour. It is the willingness to support or take action that leads to increased social uniformity that makes the right-wing authoritarianism more than just a personal distaste for difference.

India-the world’s largest pluralist liberal democracy- is witnessing the rise of authoritarianism under Narendra Modi.  The democracy has become very fragile and vulnerable. The critics believe that Indira Gandhi’s regime during the Emergency (18 months: 1975-77) was authoritarian, due to detention of political rivals, press censorship and curb on civil rights, though for a short specific period. However, it is important to remember that the Emergency was declared under Article 352(1) of the Constitution of India for “internal disturbance’ (the words changed to’ “armed rebellion’ by 44^th Amendment Act, 1978). It was Indira Gandhi who declared the Emergency, under the Constitution, and it was she who revoked the Emergency,released the political detainees, lifted the press censorship and ordered the elections. During the Emergency, the common people did not suffer. Nor did the fear grip the nation.  As Professor Kaushik Basu said, during his conversation with Rahul Gandhi on March 2, 2021, Indira Gandhi “had a fair election and lost, having made a huge mistake, she had rectified it and brought back democracy.”

Her party-the Indian National Congress- had won a massive record number of seats (353  out of 531) in Lok Saba ,following the mid-term  election held between December 1979 and January1980,  due to the fall of the Janata Party Government. The Indian people had  voted  Indira Gandhi back to power in a short span - a remarkable record- as if they regretted voting her out some 20 moths ago. It is unfair to continue to harp on the Emergency conveniently to discredit and belittle her and all her  extraordinary achievements, having the stamp of history.

Speaking of Indian democracy, Former President of Cornell University Hunter Rawlings, said, a few years ago, before Modi became the Prime Minister: “India is one among the top countries in the world in terms of freedom of speech, space for public debate and open criticism.” The world felt proud about Indian democracy. All this has changed now. What Modi government doing is very damaging, worse than what happened during the Emergency, though no constitutional emergency is declared. Today, the democratic institutions- the judiciary, the media, the parliament, the election commission,the bureaucracy, the investigating agencies and the academia- are under siege.

There is intensive global scrutiny of Indian democracy.  The world cannot believe what is happening in Nehru’s India known for secular liberal democracy. The overwhelming tone and nature of the international media’s coverage of contentious domestic political issues reinforce a narrative that India is turning back on its democratic, secular, pluralist roots and its open and free society is no longer as open and as free.  P.Chidambaram makes a pertinent observation, “Never before in the history of independent India have the powers of the State been mobilized so ruthlessly to suppress every voice of dissent or protest or defiance. During the Emergency, the target was the political opposition. Now, the target is every voice of dissent-be it political, social, cultural, artistic or academic…Every voice of dissent or protest is regarded as opposition to the government and is sought to be suppressed.”

It is a fallacious assumption that democracy means elections and rule by the majority. It is much more than that. It is freedom from fear and the right to freedom of speech and expression, and the right to criticize and dissent more than anything else. Otherwise, democracy will be reduced to a farcical exercise of capturing power by foul means, creating a vitiating atmosphere, as we could see from the manner in which the elections are conducted these days.  As Processor Ashutosh Varshney says, “Elections alone cannot be equated with democracy…” The other parameters are:  “Is the power of the executive checked by the legislature and/or judiciary? Are citizens free to speak? Are they free to organize and protest?" And “Democracies do not charge peaceful protesters with sedition, do not have religious exclusionary principles for citizenship, do not curb press freedoms by intimidating dissenting journalists and newspapers, do not attack universities and students for ideological non-conformity, do not browbeat artists and writers for disagreement, do not equate adversaries with enemies, do not celebrate lynch mobs, and do not cultivate judicial servility…these are sings of creeping authoritarianism.”

How seriously democracy in India is damaged and corroded could be gauged from the report of a Washington-based internationally reputed think-tank Freedom House.  India is demoted from “free” to ’partly free” status,  score decreased from 71 in 2019 to 67 in 2020, with 100 being the ranking for the most free country, and its rank fell from 83 to 88 out of 211 countries, putting India on a par with Ecuador and Dominican Republic.

These are some of the scathing findings in the Report:

“Right and civil liberties have been eroding since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014. His Hindu nationalist government has presided over increased pressure on human rights organisations, rising intimidation of academics and journalists and a spate of bigoted attacks-including lynchings aimed at Muslims. The decline deepened following Modi’s reelection in 2019 and the government’s response to the corona virus pandemic in 2020 featured further abuse of fundamental rights…pattern in which the Hindu nationalist government and its allies have presided over rising violence and discriminatory policies affecting the Muslim population and pursued a crackdown on expressions of dissent by the media, academics, civil society groups, and protesters.”

The Reports further indicts the government:

“The government of Prime Minster Narendra Modi and its state-level allies continued to crack down on critics during the year, and their response to COVID-19 included a ham-fisted lockdown that resulted in the dangerous and unplanned displacement of millions of internal migrant workers. The ruling Hindu nationalist government also encouraged the scapegoating of Muslims, who were disproportionately blamed for the spread of the virus and faced attacks by vigilante mobs. Rather than serving as a champion of democratic practice and a counterweight to authoritarian influence from counties such as China, Modi and his party are tragically driving India itself towards authoritarianism.”

These are too serious an indictment of India. Any right thinking Indian , concerned about the future of Indian democracy and India’s image abroad, must ponder over where the Republic, that the founding fathers visualized and dreamt about, is heading and raise voice to stop the drive towards authoritarianism..