A dangerous slide

Democracy may have its flaws, but authoritarianism is never a solution

Alok Tiwari

Suspension of disbelief is required to enjoy a play or a movie. It is a tool without which we cannot really enjoy the show because many things we see on stage are just make believe. Unless we leave our disbelief at home and accept the premise of the playwright or moviemaker, the show will appear meaningless. We do it unconsciously all the time. However, what is one to do when the reality one is seeing is so terrifying as to numb our senses? We might resort to suspension of belief. While that may aid our sanity, it will not change the reality just as suspension of disbelief does not make things on the stage real.

I refer to the mass suspension of opposition MPs from Parliament during its recent winter session in the aftermath of security breach in the premises. It is not that opposition MPs have been suspended for the first time. This time though the scale and manner of their suspension has had no precedent. True, Indian parliament is often a raucous place. Many among the intelligentsia are frustrated at its inability to conduct business in an organized manner seen in legislative houses of more mature democracies. Obstruction has been for some time an accepted tool to register protest.

Presiding officers in the past have been accommodating of this. They often preferred to adjourn the house rather than suspend the members. Parliament has seen multiple adjournments in the same day. Sometimes entire session has been washed out without transacting any worthwhile business as discussions were often demanded or denied. Funnily, it has not always been the opposition doing the obstructing. Parliament under this government itself has seen disruptions by ruling party members when government was fighting shy of issues being raised. Farmer protests and Manipur violence immediately come to mind. Never have been presiding officers come down so heavily on protests.

Suspensions always have been weapons of last resort and used for extreme violations. This time, they appeared to have been used as first resort. What is worse is that the government proceeded with virtually opposition-less houses to pass important legislations that needed all round discussions. Was it the idea to avoid discussion in the first place? By itself, the mass suspensions would have been a matter of concern but not particularly alarming. However, when seen in a pattern they are scary and point to a dangerous slide to the bottom of democratic norms in the country.

The suspensions followed the rapid and summary expulsion of TMC MP Mahua Moitra following recommendations of ethics panel whose manner of investigation in the case itself did not follow any established norms. Over the past few years, the government has systematically used salami tactics to chip away at the democratic structure of the country. Sometimes surreptitiously sometimes brazenly. The net effect has been to snuff out or chill the opposing voices.

Instances are too numerous to recount. While on the outside, the government has been projecting itself as champion of majority Hindus, it has quietly been working to take away civil rights from the citizens a vast majority of whom are very same Hindus. Be it treatment of Bhima Koregaon case accused who continue to languish in prison without their trial getting underway in a meaningful way to harassment of civil society organizations that dared to criticize the government.

Law enforcement agencies have been used to intimidate opposition leaders as well as media houses and journalists who raised uncomfortable questions. This in tandem with infamous BJP washing machine has been used to wrest control of several state governments even when the ruling party clearly did not do that well in the elections. Institutions stand degraded. The recent law that effectively again puts power of appointing elections commissioners squarely in the hands of government, quite against the spirit of SC ruling is another step. Independence of judiciary has been eroded by simple tactic of delaying appointment of judges deemed inconvenient to ruling dispensation, much to the annoyance of supreme court itself. At the same time, the governors have compromised sovereignty of states by not approving legislation enacted by duly elected legislatures.

While these and many other measures have shrunk the opposition space and abridged the rights of common citizens, I am unable to think of a single step taken by the government in the last 10 years that empowered the citizens against the overwhelming power of the state, something on the lines of Right to Information Act or a civil liberties act. On the contrary, the new penal code passed by parliament without opposition adds to the powers of police to deprive citizens of their freedom for much longer period and makes their release more difficult.

What is terrifying about these developments is that a vast section of population seems blind to and even supportive of them. To it, this government can do no wrong. Riding on the high of majoritarianism, every argument to the contrary is dismissed as irrelevant or, worse, anti-national. India has seen Emergency and that too had its supporters. But then the support was limited to party acolytes. Hence, when the government changed, the new one could swiftly undo the excesses. The popular mood was very much against the civil right infringements. This time the support to government measures appears more broadly based and hence they would be much tougher to roll back.

There are many ordinary citizens who mistakenly think that concentrating power in the hands of government is a good thing because people they think nefarious need ‘to be taken care of’. But make no mistake, all governments love power over their citizens. There will be a time, eventually, when the shoe will be on the other foot and those cheering on right now might well be at the receiving end. Democracy may have a lot of flaws, but authoritarianism is never a solution to them.

This column appeared in Lokmat Times on Dec 27, 2023