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| India's status in the Freedom Report |
India is set to celebrate its
75th Independence Day amid a pandemic that seems determined to teach
the world certain lessons. One of the first lessons that India should learn at
this juncture is the meaning of freedom.
As long as
every citizen is not free – free from poverty, superstition, illiteracy,
ignorance, and other such evils – the country’s independence from a foreign
rule cannot make much sense. That was the firm opinion of the father of the
nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Freedom, in other words, is not mere political freedom.
Freedom is personal, highly so.
It is this
personal freedom that is being killed brutally by the present dispensation in
Delhi. Narendra Modi has created an India that the is the exact opposite of
what Gandhi had envisaged. The transition from Gandhi’s mystic vision to Modi’s
cabalistic vision is total now. Even international observers have made detailed
studies about it and put out reports.
Freedom House
is one such international organisation whose latest
report has taken India out of the list of free countries and placed it
among ‘partly free’ countries. Freedom is dying in India. It is being killed
slowly. Democracy is dying. Being killed by none other than the country’s Prime
Minister.
“India’s
status declined from Free to Partly Free,” says the report, “due to a multiyear
pattern in which the Hindu nationalist government and its allies presided over
rising violence and discriminatory policies affecting the Muslim population and
pursued a crackdown on expressions of dissent by the media, academics, civil
society groups, and protesters.”
A lot of
Indians have been stripped of their various freedoms by Modi and his cabal.
Muslims, academics, civil society groups, and protesters are mentioned specifically
by the Freedom House Report. There are many others too who belong to that list.
Dalits, for example. Stand-up comics. Cartoonists, Journalists. TV channel
owners and executives. Poets. Even students and farmers. Who is left then? Who
is free, that is? Only those who belong to the cabal, those who chant ‘Heil
Modi’ on every available public platform.
Ask young students
like Natasha
Narwal and Devangana Kalita whether they are free in India. Ask climate
activist Disha
Ravi how free she feels in Modi’s India. Ask a politician like Akhil Gogoi
or a much senior one like Farooq Abdullah. You have Erendro Leichombam and
Kishore Chandra Wankhem from Manipur to narrate the ridiculous losses of their
freedoms. Ask Aisha Sultana how a metaphor can land you in jail for treason.
You have
people from every walk of life now languishing in stinking prisons, perhaps
even dying there like Stan Swamy, merely for expressing their dissent with the
Modi government. Of course, serious charges are levelled against them.
84-year-old Stan Swamy was accused of nothing less than treason. He conspired
to kill Modi! That old man’s story is at once heart-breaking and farcical. He
was arrested along with 15 others for allegedly organising the Bhima Koregaon commemoration
of a battle which was won by a British army - consisting mostly of Dalits – against
the Peshwas in 2018. None of the 16 arrested, except one, participated in the event.
The real culprits who created the ruckus during the event were not arrested at
all; they were all upper caste Hindus who supported Modi’s party. Later false
data was planted in the laptops of the arrested people like old and ailing Stan
Swamy, data that hit two very potent targets: 1. conspiracy to assassinate Modi
(the biggest crime in the cosmos!) and 2. Maoist treason.
What was Stan
Swamy’s actual crime? He had questioned many of the government’s policies that
went against the interests of the Dalits.
You are not
free to question the Bigg Boss of India. But you are free to celebrate the 75th
Independence Day next week with him. Jai Hind.
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| From India Today |
PS. This post is a
part of Blogchatter Half Marathon.
Hari Om
ReplyDeleteI had noted that report came out - and was glad to see the downtick against India. Now it is hoped that the world will start to make noises towards the perpetrator so that he knows he runs a risk of intervention... though saying that, without oil as a motivator, does the world at large (and the USA in particular) have any interest in helping out its neighbours? It's like COVID. Knowing the disease is one thing, eradicating it is quite another. YAM xx
In the old world, countries helped one another. Now it's like they are all trying to prove that each one of them is the best.
DeleteI read this post with a heavy heart.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, just yesterday, I finished writing the last verse of a poem I've been working on for sometime. It's about personal freedom--and what my views of independence are. The personal and the political are never separate. And therein lies the tragedy of what's happening in India today.
Sadness and disbelief at how far we've come from the days and views of Gandhi.
It is indeed immensely saddening. The present scenario in the country is an ideal example of how a system can distort people's thinking, attitudes and emotions.
DeleteBloggers and Vloggers are getting arrested i Kerala. Yesterday, two people were arrested in Kerala. So according to you Kerala communists can do anything.
ReplyDeleteThey are arrested for crime, not for writing or speaking... What are you trying to do here? Indulge in the typical Sanghi pastime of distorting truth?
DeleteRight you are. This freedom is a hoax. The Indian premier has even outsmarted Machiavelli. He has mastered the art of playing the victim while being the oppressor himself. Now the funny situation is that the conspirator himself spreads the news that some people are conspiring to kill him. Wow ! His weeping for the Corona victims in front of the camera must be one of the most seen video clips gone viral. After seeing that clip, the thought that came to my mind was that his performance deserved an Oscar award.
ReplyDeleteOscar can think of a special lifetime achievement award 😅
DeleteDiscriminating the majority for the minory's welfare is the very seminal plot at the centre of an India evolved around the Chrisitan era, the death of the old India and the emergences of the royalty. It continues. Was Gandhi free from that ideolgy is a question when he is darkened by Ambedkar.
ReplyDeleteIs that discrimination really true? If it were, the Muslims in India would be much better off.
Delete