The last three weeks have passed like a flash before our eyes and the only certitude they brought was the knowledge that the executive, in the avatar of a crouching tiger, is preparing to spring on that poor dragooned creature that goes by the name of Indian democracy.
We have it on the excellent authority of the prime minister no less that the tiger, much like his own party one could say, is enjoying a sharp surge in its numbers.
So watch this carnivorous feline crouch to capture its prey. Note its rippling sinews strengthened by electoral victory. Observe its well rounded abdomen filled to satisfaction with the bodies of legislators from opposing parties rushing to be embraced between its retracted claws. Watch how it adds more teeth to its jaws through a string of legislations designed to enhance their draconian quotient and which bestows upon it the power of absolute discretion.
But hark, do we hear some noises in response somewhere in the distance? Could it be the sounds of resistance in the outback, some stirrings of outrage in the gloaming? Perhaps a television chat show on how such a beast should and could be tamed?
Alas, no. Those are the mere bleatings of lambs.
Two developments over this fortnight in particular need highlighting – the continuing capture of assemblies and the legislative processes and the hollowing out of the regime of rights in the country.
Also read: Allowing the State to Designate Someone as a ‘Terrorist’ Without Trial is Dangerous
Neither of the two developments are new – after all, the Goa and Manipur elections were stolen through money power and political muscle flexing two years ago and the state has always tried to render ineffectual laws like the Right to Information.
What is an alarming new dimension though, and one that has escaped the media’s attention, is the overlapping of the two processes. Capturing parliament to pass anti-democratic legislation represents a serious breakdown in the system of checks and balances. Presently, Modi 2.0 government bears all the markings of one-party rule and religious majoritarianism.
Before long, if we continue to allow ourselves to be frog marched blindfolded down this road, what is now de facto could become de jure.
Nothing brings us closer to this scenario than the manner the amendment to the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) sailed through not just the Lok Sabha but the Rajya Sabha. The Wire commentary, ‘Allowing the State to Designate Someone as a ‘Terrorist’ Without Trial is Dangerous’ (August 1) regards it as “the most dangerous bit of legislation the country has ever seen” since it invests the government with the power to “label and stigmatise an individual as a terrorist”.
Watch | #BeyondTheHeadlines | UAPA Bill: India’s Most Dangerous Law Yet
Nowhere does the new law define what constitutes terrorist literature and it can punish an individual “even when it doesn’t have the evidence to actually prosecute and convict him. It is, in other words, an extra-legal form of punishment.”
This “bizarre” amendment, another Wire analysis observes, “shows the change in thinking about criminal laws – as an instrument of public shame rather than an instrument of providing justice” (‘Between the NIA Amendment and Now UAPA, the Squeeze on Human Rights is On’, July 24).
‘Public shame’, in fact, are mild words. This, in intent, is public hanging.
The Rajya Sabha, which has thus far acted as a backstop for many a dangerous Bills getting translated into law without adequate parliamentary scrutiny, allowed this draconian amendment through without even sending it to a select committee. This eloquently signals the new pusillanimity of the majority of our elected representatives.
In fact, the Upper House has let down the people of this country this time, not just on one, not just on two, but three pieces of legislation that have significant human rights dimensions – the other two being the Triple Talaq Bill and the amendment to the RTI law. That this happened despite the numbers in the Upper House not being weighted in favour of the ruling party, reveals the new capacity that the executive has to commandeer legislators across party lines.
This is a consequence, as The Wire piece reminds us (‘With Pressure Tactics and Opposition Disarray, Rajya Sabha No Longer a Hurdle for BJP’, July 31), of oppositional disarray and the ruling party’s capacity for meticulous data crunching and pre-emptive planning – the booth karyakartas who snagged elections for the BJP seem to have their counterparts in parliament.
But there could be a disturbing and completely unacceptable factor that has not figured in media coverage as prominently as it should have – the use of the tax and enforcement arms to coerce MPs in the opposition to fall in line. In Derek O’Brien’s words, “This is not floor management. It’s the not-so-invisible but most dependable allies of the BJP: the CBI and ED.”
Could the weaponisation of the tax and enforcement agencies be one of the secret ingredients in BJP’s recipe for shoring up political presence, getting bills passed and winning elections; the reason why MLAs are beginning to change party affiliations as they do their kurtas? (‘Congress-NCP Mass Defections in Maharashtra Signal a Deep Rot in Leadership’, August 1; ‘Congress Decimated in Goa: 10 of 15 MLAs Defect to Ruling BJP’, July 10; ‘The Imminent Implosion of the Congress-JD(S) in Karnataka Has Happened’, July 9).
How these agencies operate we will never know, given the opacity that protects them and which they protect fiercely and seek to deepen (‘NIA Wants Media Gag in Trial Against Pragya Thakur, Cites ‘Communal Harmony’ (August 2).
The Indian mainstream media would have earned the title of being the fourth pillar of democracy, even as the second pillar – the legislature – looks decidedly shaky, if they had investigated these developments and connected the dots. That has not happened even when major leads have surfaced like the suicide of a prominent Karnataka businessman which hinted at the deployment of corrosive tax scrutiny for political ends (‘Watch | V.G. Siddhartha Death: A Symbol of India Inc’s Debt Crisis?’, July 31).
As in most ominous patterns of this kind, silence quickly descends on such issues of momentous public interest and they are erased from public consciousness. Out of mind they might be, but sooner or later they will surface when a Surendra Gadling or a Sudha Bardwaj or a Shoma Sen is summarily locked for a year without access to even the FIR filed against them.
Ravish Kumar’s riposte
The humble question is the most important device in the toolkit of a journalist. The fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not answered a single one of them in a press conference during his last term in power, and is unlikely to do so in the present one, is what this year’s Magsaysay Awardee Ravish Kumar perceives as undemocratic (‘Journalist Ravish Kumar Wins 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award’, August 2).
As he put it in an interview with The Wire given this February, ‘I’m Not Anti-Modi, I Merely Ask Him Questions’. The citation to his award comes to the core of his journalistic practice: “In a media environment threatened by an interventionist state, toxic with jingoist partisans, trolls and purveyors of ‘fake news,’ and where the competition for market ratings has put the premium on ‘media personalities,’ ‘tabloidisation,’ and audience-pandering sensationalism, Ravish has been most vocal on insisting that the professional values of sober, balanced, fact-based reporting be upheld in practice” (‘Magsayasay on Ravish: Space for Independent, Responsible Media Has Shrunk in India’, August 2).
Engaged students
Clearly, university students are among The Wire’s most engaged readers. I received two mails over the last fortnight from students wanting to explain the state of play in their respective universities.
One of them is distressed by a crisis raging in her alma mater, the National Law University Odisha, where students “have been denied their basic human rights” and forced to protest against a “lethargic administration”. He/she believes that one pertinent issue that has, so far, not been raised by the student body is corruption charges against the administration. There have been pending cases in the Odisha high court. The matter, the mail emphasises, requires a thorough investigation as it cuts across not just the college administration, but the state government as well. These are forces a student body is incapable of taking on, given its limited resources.
Also read: Students at NLU Odisha to Go on Indefinite Protest Against Administration
The alumni of the institution have been trying to mobilise support for the cause of the present student body as they themselves have faced similar issues but could never raise them on such a massive scale. Student bodies of other national law colleges, including NLSIU, NALSAR, NUJS, HNLU, and others, have also recognised the gravity of the present struggle. Although students pay hefty annual fees, they have been deprived of the basic amenities that “premier” law schools should have.
From Benaras Hindu University, a research scholar writes that she has been consistently sexually and mentally harassed by the dean of her faculty. She had filed a complaint to the BHU administration, with all the required citing of evidence, and has also been assured by the internal complaint committee (in BHU, it is the women’s grievance cell of WGC) that she will not have to face such harassment in the future and that appropriate action will be taken in the case.
However, while the complaint was with the WGC, the said dean began to make her name public in the local media, and through other means such as social media. She has once again complained against this to the WGC, with all the evidence. The BHU administration is, she alleges, completely unwilling to act against the dean.
Meanwhile, student researchers working in various universities around the world have just sent this mail:
“We are a group of Indian citizens currently positioned as doctoral and postdoctoral fellows in various institutes in the USA, Canada and Israel. We are very concerned by the recent passage of the RTI (Amendment) Bill, 2019, by both houses of the parliament. It is necessary for the Information Commission to function independent of external influence for the proper functioning of the mechanisms proposed by the RTI Act, 2005. We have collectively put together over 90 signatures (over 50 of them from the US and Canada alone) appealing to the Hon. President to not sign the bill and to urge him to return it to the Parliament for reconsideration.
“We thought we should let you know about our letter, as we feel that our letter along with the many other letters and petitions being sent to the President should be paid their due attention by the President’s Office/Secretariat. We would really appreciate your help in spreading the word about all the grievances that are being sent to the President regarding this matter, as we see no other way of letting the country know about the number of people who are raising their concerns about this.”
§
Dhiman Barman, a young poet from Assam, wants to withdraw his virtual consent to a statement titled, ‘Public Statement Against the Recent FIRs Against Miyah Poets and Online Trolling’, which appeared in The Wire piece, ‘Writers, Academics and Activists Condemn FIRs Against and Online Harassment of Miyah Poets’, July 21).
Barman writes:
“After reading the statement with closer scrutiny (which I confess that I did not do before giving unfortunately the most casual consent for which in turn I solely am to be responsible), a revelation came to me that I would no longer be able to continue extending my support to the statement, being a responsible Indian citizen and an aware Assamese youth. Henceforth, I should not hold myself responsible for any further use of my name as such and involuntary involvements with the said statement, on the basis of my earlier unfortunate and rather casual consent which I hereby declare null and void from my side. I express my highest esteem towards the sovereignty of India and have the utmost faith in Indian constitution and judiciary.”
§
The last word goes to an unnamed young satirist who wishes to respond to the prime minister’s invitation to the public for suggestions on his forthcoming Independence Day speech:
“You asked [for] suggestions for your Independence Day speech, so I couldn’t stop myself from contributing to the making of New India…
“You are requested to please legalise dalaali completely, because dalaali is what is feeding your dedicated and honest dalaals (touts).”
Write to publiceditor@cms.thewire.in