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Modi and the Farmers

 

Image from Scroll

There are millions of Indians who are fanatic supporters of Narendra Modi who is seen as a macho PM and saviour of Hindu religion. These people are Modi’s real strength. He gets away with a lot of balderdash as well as maliciousness because of the mass support he enjoys. He has paid scant attention to the ongoing farmers’ stir as if farmers are below his dignity to meet and discuss with.

Modi regards himself as the greatest person on the earth if not in the entire cosmos. He has brought down to dust every democratic institution in the country so that his authority will remain beyond questioning. His strategy is to subtly alter the way the institutions function so that they are slowly and steadily crippled and eventually rendered effete.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been converted into a “caged parrot” by Modi. Prior to the Modi era, the CBI was “the gold standard of Indian crime-fighting” (Shashi Tharoor’s description). It has now become Modi’s puppet.

The same fate has befallen every institution of some national value. The Supreme Court and the Reserve Bank of India are just two glaring examples. An efficient governor like Raghuram Rajan was not allowed to continue his remarkable services at the RBI. Urjit Patel who succeeded him ended up as the Governor of the bank with the shortest tenure though he had been “the government’s blue-eyed boy” (Tharoor’s phrase again). The Deputy Governor Viral Acharya too stepped down seeing the government’s politicisation of the Governor’s appointment.

It is too early to forget the drama played out by the Supreme Court judges and the Chief Justice himself. Dipak Misra and Ranjan Gogoi were no more than Modi’s puppets. Gogoi declared himself innocent when a sexual harassment charge was brought up against him even as Adityanath of UP wrote off all criminal cases against himself when he became the Chief Minister. Modi and his beloved people are like gods – above all laws.

The Election Commission has also been rendered a highly attenuated version of what it was under eminent people like T N Seshan and J M Lyngdoh. Today the Commission is merely a handmaid of Modi and his party.

All these institutions have been debilitated precisely to enhance the power of one man called Narendra Modi. That man who regards himself as some kind of a divine incarnation hasn’t done much good for the country’s ordinary people. The affluent have benefited much under him. The poor have suffered untold agonies and ignominies. The agitating farmers are just the latest victims.

A protest of similar nature arose in Delhi when the Citizenship bills were passed. But a pandemic erupted and rescued Modi. It is possible that Modi will use some devious method to suppress the farmers’ agitation. Efforts have already been made to bring schisms among the farmers. The usual rhetoric was also employed time and again by the eloquent Prime Minister. What next? Wait and watch. Our PM is good at both entertaining and strategizing.

A lot of people in the country are unhappy. Those affected by the Citizenship Acts. Adivasis and Dalits. Now farmers. How long can a leader ignore the problems of such large numbers of citizens? Don’t forget that a cry in the wilderness can set an avalanche in motion.

PS. Prompted by Indispire Edition 356: The farmers' agitation is going on for long. Do you think the government is failing to address the grievances of the farmers and is being autocratic? Or is the government as magnanimous as the Prime Minister claims? #FarmersAgitation

 

 

Comments

  1. magiceyeDecember 23, 2020 at 6:11 AM

    Looking forward to the avalanche.

    ReplyDelete
  2. जितेन्द्र माथुरDecember 23, 2020 at 10:19 AM

    Agree with most of the stuff of this article. Though CBI was always considered as leaning towards the ruling ones, Mr. Alok Varma tried to make it independent as its Chief but thrown to dust by the great Indian PM and his puppet Rakesh Asthana who was Mr. Varma's deputy then and now has been rewarded by being made as the NCB Chief. The Supreme Court under stewardship of (rewarded by being made a Rajya Sabha member) Mr. Ranjan Gogoi who had participated in creating a storm in the tea-cup by calling a press-conference of SC judges against Mr. Deepak Mishra, the then CJI. This is the greatest disservice of the Pradhan Sewak of India to the nation that he has very systematically weakened the democratic institutions of India and resultantly, they are no longer trustworthy for the masses. Most unfortunately, the Supreme Court of India has also become one of them and therefore, there is no institution remained for the commoners to look at for justice or minimum relief from the state oppression. India no longer deserves to be considered a true democracy as envisioned by our Constitution-Framers as independent and autonomous institutions only are the founding blocks of any democracy. The new parliament building proposed to be made within a couple of years, will only be a structure of stone and bricks sans the spirit of democracy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 23, 2020 at 11:02 AM

      Yes, the CBI was seldom a "gold standard" as described by Tharoor. It had its own political leanings. That's how the law always is, I think. No wonder long ago Jonathan Swift compared it to a cobweb which traps only small insects.

      Indeed the Central Vista will be a mausoleum for Indian democracy.

      Delete

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