Instead of the technological and digital revolution in India being used to enable the transition of ‘power to the people’, it appears to be channelled for a ‘nirbhala’ (weak) democracy. Corrupt and bigoted political forces have employed technology and digital connectivity to defeat reasoning and promote an appetite for irrationality in society. Even educated India seems no more able to tolerate rationality and decipher truth from falsity. This gets reflected in the increased circulation and viewership for bigoted and fake news. The Indian philosophical understanding about Truth being multidimensional is being exploited by corrupt Governments to deny all reports about their misdoings, and for rubbishing such claims as being the distorted perceptions of a baffled opposition. The deployment of IT cells to troll, shame, mock and bully critics of the Government and the abuse of State machinery for framing of political opponents and activists with false narratives of conspiracy and legal charges have become the pattern of governance. If critics cannot be bought out, they are driven to a point of mental and economic desperation though unending harassment.
The Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its post-lockdown strategies appear to be nothing more than the harnessing of people’s ignorance and fear as a political currency to quarantine fundamental rights and civil liberties. A careful dissection of the administrative interventions to contain the spread of Covid-19 will reveal the unscientific assumptions and gaping contradictions in the enforcement of Standard Operating Procedures which are in place. The words of assurance and hope from the Government, whether at the Union level or the State, just do not match its actions on the ground. The streak of aggression, lack of empathy, deceit, delusions of conspiracy and hostility towards political opponents observed in governance, is not a reflection of a healthy mentality. How is a reasoning mind to make sense of the Union Home Minister asking Rahul Gandhi about what he has done to fight Covid-19? Maintaining one’s sanity in a political era of progressing ‘desi’ irrationality and illogic, which is even more contagious than the infection with Covid-19, is fast emerging as a mental health challenge for citizens in this country.
There is a filmy story-line to every controversial policy of the Government. It begins with the hero’s chest-thumping and claiming credit for the master stroke. This is followed by the hero’s mysterious silence and disappearance no sooner the shortcomings of the policy begin to be exposed by the opposition. The stage gets occupied by supporting actors who indulge in mocking and defaming the critics. The finale is marked with the return of the hero in tears of regret for the hardships caused to citizens and a positioning of himself as a martyr for the nation. Every disastrous governance policy in the last 6 years is claimed to be unavoidable and accompanied with a promise that it will ensure clean governance and economic prosperity. The pain of demonetisation was sold to the people as an unavoidable necessity to eradicate black money and fake currency and was laced with the utopia of becoming a ‘cashless society’. The ghost of GST was released at midnight with a mirage of a ‘one nation, one tax’ which the Government swore would result in goods becoming cheaper for the consumers. But the reality on ground is diametrically opposite to what the Government claims.
As a traumatised nation struggled to recover from the impact of two economic policy shocks, it got struck with another blow. The harsh imposition of a 55-days lockdown of the country modelled on the western response to the Covid-19 pandemic, again with a justification that it was warranted in order to flatten the infection curve. But as the grave humanitarian crisis resulting from this policy blunder unfolds, an attempt is now being made to distract the nation with another pipe dream of an ‘Atmanirbhar (self-reliant) Bharat’. This is after individuals who were actually self-reliant have become ‘nirbhar’ (dependent) due to successive disruptive policies of the Government. So, before selling another dream of a self-reliant India, the Government actually needs to review its priorities, which at present seem nothing more than polarising society and destroying political opponents and certain communities both mentally and economically.
The increased abnormality in the political culture witnessed at the Union and State level appears to be percolating into the villages of Goa. The recent decision of some Village Panchayats to assume powers not vested in them, by declaring a lockdown under the pretext of containing the spread of Covid-19, is dangerous for democracy. The presumptuous curtailment of fundamental rights and liberties in villages by a motley group enjoying political clout, under a pretext of safeguarding the interests of villagers, is not what local self-governance is about. Elected Representatives having scant respect for the Constitution and the laws is not progressive politics in this 21st century. What we are currently experiencing in governance appears more like the ancient tyranny of Khap and Caste Panchayats. As citizens we have a dual challenge before us during these testing Covid-19 times. If one challenge is to keep ourselves and the community safe from infection with Covid-19, the other is to safeguard our democracy, rights and liberties from predatory political forces which are exploiting this crisis to chip away at the fundamental principles and rights enshrined in our Indian Constitution.
(The author is a social activist.)