NEWS ARTICLE - OPINION

#ModiShahJugalbandi – Indian Democracy on the deathbed

Is BJP using the Democracy to destroy Democracy?

 - By Zeeshan Akhtar

    (Photo Source - The Indian Express | PTI)

India is the world’s largest performing democracy, this in itself is a compliment to the country with a population of 1.3 billion people of different casts, religions, and ethnicities who are governed by a democratically elected government. We do have an independent Judicial system that builds the trust of the people, a constitution that gives equal rights to the citizens of this country, and a free press that can question the government and its decision anytime they want. But, in the last few years, the definition of a free-flowing democracy has changed under the rule of BJP or as we call it, the Modi-Shah “Jugalbandi”.

When BJP won the 2014 General Elections with a huge majority, people had big hopes from the leader Mr. Narendra Modi, who made many promises and gave people hopes that India can change for the better. As soon as the party came into power, things started to change and that too, not for good. BJP is understood as a Right Wing – Hindu Nationalist party that has its own beliefs and systems that it works on. A healthy democracy works, functions, and stands on four major pillars, that are the Legislative, Executive, Judiciary, and lastly the Press or Media. The independent functioning of these major institutes lets a democracy function smoothly, any government interference in the functioning of these institutions hampers the rights and freedom of people.

BJP has been accused of interfering in the matters of the judiciary, hampering the functions of the election commission, pressurizing the media to hide important stories, interfering with the functioning of CBI, and much more. In the past few years, such incidents have raised major concerns for the people who believe in the idea of a democratic country and they claim, that the BJP is using democracy to destroy democracy. These incidents highlight a single major point, that the BJP is miss-using its political power, to destroy the basic and natural ethos of this country, and that this is an uncalled emergency.

It all started with getting complete control over the media, now this might sound as if the private and independent news channels were directly taken under governments control, but it's not true, in reality, the free and independent media of this country, was destroyed very systematically over-time by the BJP. Media works as the voice of the people; it is a major mouthpiece for dissent and a platform that openly questions wrongdoings of the government.

BJP over the years somehow managed to make the media as its puppet, a puppet that started ignoring the major issues and incidents that were happening in this country, a puppet whose major focus was to destroy and bash the opposition anytime they got a chance, a puppet who could distract the people of this country by formulating news stories that were not real or were of no importance, a puppet who would never criticize the government for what it does and also shutting the mouth of those who disagree with them, a puppet which can kill dissent easily. Media eventually became the mouthpiece of the BJP.  

Mr. Narendra Modi in his 6 years of being in power only did a single press conference, in which he did not face or answered any of the questions that the journalists asked. In 2019, Modi was seen on different news channels giving interviews to some of the news anchors, people believed that questions asked to the Prime Minister will include important issues such as the economic crisis, unemployment, farmer suicides, rising fuel prices, inflation, falling GDP, etc., but the questions were more sensible. Anchors asked our Prime Minister whether he carries a purse or not, something 135 crore people eagerly wanted to know, or some asked him his favorite dish, or how many hours does he sleep, what song he listens to when he is free. This was not on just one or two major news channels, this happened on every news channel he went to give an interview on. To prove a point, India’s rank in the Press Freedom Index has fallen from 133 to 140 in the last three years.

The BJP did not just stop here, in 2018, four Supreme Court judges namely Justice J Chelameswar accompanied by Justices Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph mounted a virtual revolt against the CJI Deepak Misra raising two major issues. The first was regarding how then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra was constituting benches for important cases. It was believed that CJI Deepak Misra who had close relations with the BJP, was very particular in selecting benches for politically sensitive cases. And second, regarding finalization of the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for the appointment of judges which was still pending with the government. This came as a shocker for the whole country as this was a direct threat to the independent judicial system and our democracy.

The supreme court in the last 3-4 years, passed some major judgments including the Justice Loya case, the Decriminalization of article 377, and the most important and controversial judgment in the history of this country – The Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi dispute. Experts believe that these important decisions were taken with utmost priority by the SC under CJI Ranjan Gogoi and the selective constituting of benches were formed that would have anyway voted in the favor of the BJP. Building a Ram Mandir over the disputed site has always been an important part of the BJP election manifesto, and they knew the decision would help them in the future elections. BJP nominated Rajan Gogoi as a member of the Rajya Sabha this year.  

In October 2018, another major independent institution became a hot topic in the news for all the wrong reasons, it was called the CBI Vs CBI crisis. CBI director Alok Verma at that time was busy investigating corruption charges against Rakesh Asthana who was a special director and was the second most senior officer in the agency. Asthana, facing corruption charges himself, wrote to the Central Vigilance Commission accusing Verma of corruption charges. This raised an alarm over the ongoing investigation, and as a result of this power tussle, the center had to move in.

This led to an unusual event when the CBI raided its own office overnight on the orders from the Centre. As a result, both the officers were sent on leave, with the government moving to put a new officer in charge while setting up a special team that would look at the corruption charges against both the officers. The developments had prompted criticism from both the opposition and civil society, alleging that the government is trying to stand in the way of a corruption investigation into an officer who was hand-picked by the Centre.

Election Commission, a constitutional body independent of executive control and interference, also became a victim of criticism for the decisions it took during the 2019 General Elections that were questionable and even troubling to some extent. The perception had grown that it is biased, now this may not be completely true, but it is a worrying sign that the voters and citizens have come to believe that the organization has favored the BJP in the elections. This came after the seven-phase election schedule was announced in the summers of 2019 and the party’s started their election campaigns all around the country.

Election Commission is accused of showing a blind eye to the numerous infractions of senior BJP leaders including the Prime Minister – the EC’s many decisions stand problematic. The number of clean chits issued by the EC to our Prime Minister, despite him making provocative remarks and statements in his rallies, striking very close to the regulations has raised many eyebrows. Narendra Modi and other senior leaders from his party were often seen flaunting and promoting the surgical strikes as something they did for the country, to rouse the nationalism of the voters and appealing the first time voters to keep in mind the sacrifice of our soldiers while casting their votes, which was completely against the rules designed by the EC, but very few actions were taken against the ruling party, and their stance of campaigning did not change, as in most of the cases, EC did not find anything wrong with these political campaigns.

Year after year, such incidents of government interference in the free and fair functioning of these independent organizations and institutions raise major concerns for our democracy. These incidents highlight major violations of ethics and regulations that should be followed in a democracy. The government should be made accountable for the decisions that it makes, and the way it treats the independent institutions in this country, this job should be done by the media, but the media has itself become a mouthpiece of the BJP. Every day or the other, media is seen busy with highlighting topics that are of no importance, this is done only to distract the voters from real issues. Experts believe that this systematic interference by the BJP in hampering the independent institutions will be very dangerous for the future and prosperity of this country.