In an ominous sign for India’s democracy, the Modi Government is displaying contempt for all democratic structures and bodies, to ram through its pro-corporate policies and its ‘Hindu Rashtra’ at one and the same time.
On the one hand, the RSS and its outfits, backed by prominent MPs of the ruling BJP, are intimidating the minorities with the ‘Ghar Wapsi’ campaign. The HRD Ministry, and then the Prime Minister himself, systematically undermined Christmas by declaring that it would not be a holiday. Instead, Christmas Day was hijacked and turned into a sarkari celebration of the birthday of BJP leader Vajpayee and Hindutva ideologue Madan Mohan Malviya. There are moves afoot to make statues and temples for Godse, even as a BJP MP declared Godse to be a patriot. BJP leaders including a Cabinet Minister, and Ramdev, Modi’s most prominent Godman campaigner, issued warnings and threats against the film PK, even as RSS outfits vandalized movie halls. The systematic RSS infiltration of educational institutions is happening at a fast pace.
There is no room any more for the illusion that Modi himself is ‘distanced’ from the communal campaigns of a ‘saffron fringe.’ With Modi at the helm, the so-called ‘fringe’ is now in the driving seat and is pursuing its aggressive agenda of ‘Hindu Rashtra’ minus any brakes. The Hindu Rashtra agenda of intimidating minorities and dissenting voices is very much part of Modi’s ‘governance’ package.
Meanwhile, the Modi Government is bypassing Parliament and taking the ‘Ordinance’ route to push through all kinds of controversial pro-corporate decisions minus any debate or discussion. The Opposition is kept engaged in fire-fighting the Hindutva muscle-flexing, while the Coal Ordinance, Insurance Ordinance and now Land Acquisition (Amendment) Ordinance are passed without a minute’s debate.
The Coal Ordinance has opened up unbridled commercial coal mining for private players, who can now mine coal and sell it in the open market. The Insurance Ordinance will be a boon for beleaguered US insurance companies, which were responsible in great measure for the 2008 economic crisis, and which can now enter and exploit India’s insurance market and jeopardize India’s economy.
The Land Acquisition Act 2013 was passed by the UPA Government following massive agitations by farmers against land grab all over the country. Now, the Modi Government’s Ordinance is undermining key provisions of the Act, to remove the protections to farmers and facilitate land grab for corporates. For a Government to overturn and undermine a law that was enacted in Parliament, by an Ordinance, is a brazenly authoritarian move. Ordinances are meant to be for very sparing use in urgent situations. What was the urgency to pass ordinances now in these crucial sectors? Clearly, an undeclared Emergency is in place, where democratic processes are being subverted to appease corporates’ urgent demand for unbridled plunder.
The Government that is feeling urgency to facilitate corporate grab of farmers’ land, feels no urgency to curb the rising spiral of farmers’ suicides all over the country. Instead, a BJP MP in Maharashtra has declared, ‘Let the farmers die, if they cannot afford farming.’
Further, the Modi government ordered a cut of nearly 20 percent in its 2014-15 healthcare budget. India’s public spending on health is already among the lowest in the world, and Modi has now slashed it even further. This means that key disease control initiatives will lose funding – leaving India’s poor people more vulnerable to killer diseases.
Modi’s trademark Governance model is also displayed in its blatant manipulation of the CBI to protect the BJP President Amit Shah – who was accused in the heinous triple murder of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, Kauser Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati. In an unprecedented move, a CBI court has decreed that Shah has been exempted from facing a trial in these murders! For a lower court to summarily declare that an accused is innocent, even before evidence is examined carefully in a trial, is a travesty of the justice system. And the CBI itself presented a weak case, and has yet to challenge the ruling – making it clear that they are in on the game of saving Shah.
The New Year is going to be a challenging one for all Left and progressive forces and people’s movements. Onwards to a New Year of determined, united, people’s resistance against the communal and corporate offensive that is threatening to overwhelm India’s democracy!
