Bulldozers have no place in dissent or Democracy
The oath of allegiance is mandatory for all elected to the legislatures and hold office as constitutional functionaries in the judiciary, not to forget the executive includes the words ‘Free from Fear and Favour’. Ironically, swearing to protect the Constitution appears to have become an empty ritual. In practice, partisan conduct by persons who occupy the highest offices of the land favouring a handpicked few cronies and minions has only created a climate of fear.
The Prime Minister in his address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort sought to convey a strong message to a billion-and-a-half people whose destinies his words shape. A climate of fear is being created to deter those who continue brazenly to commit heinous crimes and have no fear of administration. In brief, ‘Fear is the Key’ protects our hard-won freedom, our civilisational values, and the law-abiding, patriotic citizen’s rights. It may not be long that like the Preamble excised from some NCERT textbooks, the word ‘Fear’ may be excluded from the oath of allegiance.
Not all four-lettered words begin with the alphabet F. Bail, Jail, Rape, Food, Jobs, and Life all are four-lettered. Times change and language usage changes with it. The trouble doubles and trebles when ‘F’ words more than four letters long have to be dealt with. Federalism, for instance.
Governors have often displayed utter disregard for the concept of cooperative or competitive federalism which the PM has also talked about frequently. Especially, Centre’s appointees in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and, most recently in West Bengal, have transgressed what is euphemistically referred to as the ‘Laxman Rekha’.
There is a petition in the Supreme Court to decide whether the governors can be prosecuted for acting beyond the powers given to them under the Constitution or they enjoy absolute immunity. Many a time their partisan conduct has played havoc with the people’s verdict in the elections and made the life of the chief minister, in the state they are titular heads of, impossible.
In fairness, the rot didn’t begin in the past decade. It was Mrs Gandhi who encouraged by servile sycophants identified with India and rode roughshod over the constitution during the dark days of emergency. Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded his mother after her assassination and enjoyed a brute majority in the Parliament, acted as if the Opposition didn’t matter. (He had to pay a heavy price for this.) It can also be argued with some justification that the charismatic Nehru himself wasn’t free from narcissism that subverted democracy.
However, it should not be forgotten that Nehru died in 1964, the Emergency was imposed in 1975 and Rajiv was voted out of power in 1989. India is populated by young citizen, majority of whom have been born at the cusp of the 20th and 21st centuries. For almost 14 out of the past 25 years, the government in the centre has been a non-Congress one. Turning the gaze to the past, prehistoric as well as the tragic Partition and its blood-soaked aftermath can only be counterproductive.
No purpose can be served by vilifying all Opposition and painting its leaders with a coal tar-soaked brush. Anyone who criticises the present government or utters a word against the Prime Minister, runs the risk of prosecution as a traitor-terrorist. There is no urgent need to create a climate of fear to curb crimes. A heavy pall of fear hangs over the nation. When the PM gives a strident call for a ‘Secular UCC’, those who are at the receiving end of a vigilante-like action of elected governments who have ushered in the era of bulldozer jurisprudence are bound to ask, however helplessly, can a secular democratic republic like India have an interpretation of laws that prioritises blasphemy and hurts sentiments of majority and some minority communities?
Incidents, even the most shocking and shameful, protests loud and lingering fade from news headlines. It is not that public memory is short. There is a well-orchestrated campaign to distract people. The Circus sans the bread can be anything. An ostentatiously obscene obese wedding, the media-generated excitement about the chase for the Gold at the Paris Olympics or the inauguration of yet another higher than any in the world bridge, faster train, multi-hued mirage of promises that will make India greater than any other nation as Amrit Kaal reaches its zenith.
For most of us past the teenage, 2047 is 23 years away. No doubt there will be conspiracies galore at home and abroad to stifle if not snuff out India’s ambition for power and glory. Divisive, abrasive politics can’t be our path. Dissent and differences in opinion must be managed by civil debate. Bulldozers—mechanical or human—have no place in democracy. India’s strength lies in diversity and inclusive pluralism. No one religion, language, or culture can claim to be its soul or identity.
Pushpesh Pant
Former professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
pushpeshpant@gmail.com