A series of incidents in the country in the recent past, as well as over the last few years, have led one to question the status of our democracy. A true test of democracy is when there is justice for the lowest in the social strata of the society, as well as minorities; the protection of fundamental rights of every individual, the ability to live in the country without fear and to get justice when it is sought.
Unfortunately, in India minority has become synonymous with Muslims. This is due to the religious fanaticism of certain political parties and religious bodies. While it is not wrong to say that the Muslims are a minority, there are several other religious minorities in the country as well — including Christians, Buddhists and Jains — and the Muslims are a majority among them.
V-Dem Institute, a Swedish organisation had pointed out in its report on democracy, released last year, that India’s democracy is ‘flawed’ and that India had become an ‘electoral autocratic’ state, having gone down two steps to reach 53rd position in the Democracy Index. The report added that there has been increased pressure on human rights groups, intimidation of journalists and activists, and a spate of attacks — especially against Muslims — leading to a deterioration of political and civil liberties in the country.
Apart from the religious minorities, we have minorities of thoughts, political as well as reformists. As a nation, we often seem to be intolerant to these, as we have fixed opinions and do not wish to deviate from them, even if these views are against minorities, women, the underprivileged and Dalits — in effect, against the good of the nation.
Day in and day out there are reports of attacks on Dalits in various parts of the country and atrocities of all sorts continue to be committed against them. Even 75 years after attaining freedom, we are yet to deliver social justice to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other backward classes. Dalit men and women have been beaten up, their houses burnt and often they have been made to drink their urine or lick spit from the ground. Even today, Dalits are still being treated as untouchables in many parts of the country.
While all this happens, an impotent society is mute on such incidents. Over a majority of legislators and Members of Parliament are also silent and the abysmal minority of elected representatives who raise their voice against such attacks on Dalits do so only when they are in the Opposition in the state where such atrocities are committed. The same seems to be the case with attacks on women. Elected representatives and political leaders raise their voice against rape and other offences against women when they are in the Opposition, and ignore such crimes when their party is in power in the states where these crimes are committed.
Subversion of democracy is also seen in the complaints of misuse of investigating agencies by the ruling party, in framing leaders of opposing parties. At least in one such case, that of Sanjay Raut, Member of Parliament of the Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction, the special court is on record that Mr Raut’s arrest was illegal and that there was no parity in the arrest, as the main accused in the case were not arrested.
It is clear from the 122-page order of the special court in the Sanjay Raut case that the arrest was due to political vendetta. This is also corroborated by a threat issued by Maharashtra Excise Minister Shambhuraj Desai, threatening that if Sanjay Raut does not stop flaying state Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his Government, Mr Raut would be sent to jail once again, to spend more time there the way he spent three and a half months incarcerated. Such threats can be issued by those who neither respect democracy nor fear the courts. The threat should not be looked at only as one issued to Mr Raut, but it is a threat to democracy if a minister can issue such warnings so openly.
Mr Desai belongs to the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena, but he is not the only minister in the country who has made such threats. Karnataka Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai went a step ahead and warned Maharashtra ministers against going to Belgavi in his state. Bommai, threatened that he would get the ministers arrested if they entered Belgavi, where they were to meet Marathi-speaking residents who are in sizeable numbers in towns like Belgavi, Nipani, Karwar and Bidar. Such threats speak of arrogance that comes from electoral success and from scant respect for democracy or the rule of law.
The repeated armed skirmishes on the boundary of Assam and Meghalaya are also of serious nature, as is the behaviour of Assam Chief Minister Hemanta Sarma, who claimed that the killing of six Meghalaya residents in the firing by Assam security forces was not a border issue between the two states, but in the same breath blamed the Congress for not resolving the boundary issue.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in power in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Assam, needs to speak out and explain its stand on the incidents involving the Governments in the states, as such incidents will further weaken our democracy.
The author is a senior journalist and media trainer. He tweets at @a_mokashi
