Had Indira Gandhi been alive today, she would have learnt how to run an Emergency without declaring it.
That she invoked, injuriously, a then-existing provision of the constitution to so do gave her little cover from history. But in our times, you may have your cake and eat it too, to frenzied shouts of hysterical approval.
No mean achievement, that.
Things now happen routinely without an eyebrow raised that would have drawn uproar from pretty much all sections of the media, from academe, the world of public intellectuals , and the men and women on the street.
All that, we are instructed, only underscores the great “developmental” advance of the so-democratic nation (the term “republic” seemingly now heavy on the official tongue).
Thus, in the latest episode of discipline (the punish part always waiting in the wings) over free speech, Prasar Bharati, the public broadcaster, ordained that contestants in the current election allotted airtime, namely, Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M) and G. Devarajan of the Forward Bloc, could not call communal ‘communal’, draconian ‘draconian’, authoritarian ‘authoritarian’, bankruptcy ‘bankruptcy’, and Muslims ‘Muslims’ in their address to the nation.
Euphemisms, such as “failure” for “bankruptcy”, and “particular community” for “Muslims” were kindly permitted.
Sadly, what euphemisms could there be for “communal,” “draconian”, or “authoritarian”?
These can only be seen to exist on the ground.
Prospects
Having seen over the past few years how transgressions of even the most basic features of the constitutional order have come to be normalised – the use of religion in executive functions, institutional life, education most of all, and electioneering being the stark instances – why is it not conceivable that other overthrows of the constitutional applecart will not follow, should the current Modi-led regime receive a further mandate from the people.
These could conceivably be the whittling down of the federal structure to a non-discernible formality, achieving a single-party democracy, installing a one-nation, one poll system in order to consolidate the ominous make-over to a Presidential system (a goal dear to the urban elite/corporate heart), curtailing the heft of the judiciary by rearranging the modalities of judicial appointments and the autonomous prerogatives of the judicial branch of the state (sometimes still a thorn in the executive flesh), regimenting the educational order in order to produce loyal citizens under a temple-regime, listing all the spades that may not be called spades any more on pain of the gulag, far or near, etc.
Overall, diverse interests, diverse voices, diverse attitudes and opinions, diverse cultures, may all come to be taught to speak one loyal and disciplined dialect to the glory of an invincible Vishwaguru.
To think of the opprobrium the late Indira Gandhi suffered for just 19 months of discipline and punish – something she rued, returning to the hustings in the face of much “sensible” advice and the sure knowledge that she would lose.
This here is a new India: in it, citizens are free to feel great, to feel that they are free, but not free to be free.
Democracy is no longer about liberty, or fraternity, not to speak of equality; it is about slogans that the oppressor is in fact the liberator, and the excluder the arch-includer.
Call a spade a banana henceforth, and you will see a new republic born.
Badri Raina taught English at Delhi University.
ZNetwork is funded solely through the generosity of its readers.
Donate
