BJP’s agenda of the murder of India’s democracy has to be defeated

The BJP seems to be in a tearing hurry to accomplish its aim to establish an Opposition-free India, following which the RSS can turn its attention to realise its ‘One Nation, One Culture’ vision of a monolithic country. And in its mad rush, it seems to be totally unscrupulous about the way in which it is going about using its money, muscle and administrative power. The minimum vestiges of morality and ethics have been relegated to the backburner. If Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh in 2016, Manipur and Tripura in 2017 were dress rehearsals for the murder of democracy, the actual stage show has finally started playing out now.

The manner in which the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka has been dislodged following the rebellion of 15 MLAs who, the Congress and JD(S) say, were bribed, is ominous for the future of Indian democracy. And not even a day had passed after toppling of the HD Kumaraswamy-led state government that the BJP’s leader of the state opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly issued a warning to the state’s Chief Minister Kamal Nath. The BJP leader has said that should the BJP’s ‘Number 1 or 2 desires’ so, the Congress government in the central Indian state would collapse within 24 hours. The vast majority of the Indian media, specially the TV channels, kowtowing to the BJP, have been inconspicuously silent about this abuse of money and muscle power to throttle democracy. It is curious that this same bunch had been the cross bearers of the crusade against alleged corruption during the UPA-2 government’s final years. This clearly points towards the collusion of India’s corporate media with the ruling party at the Centre. The masks are off. India’s fourth estate’s hands are filled with the blood of India’s democracy. No amount of shouting in prime time hours can ever erase that stain and stench.

The Modi government has pushed through an extremely controversial RTI Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha. It has done away with the fixed tenure of five years for the Chief Information Commissioner and the information commissioners. Their salaries too have been altered and both will now be separately notified by the government of the day, if the Bill is passed by the Rajya Sabha too. This essentially means that the government can threaten or lure the Chief Information Commissioner and information commissioners with arbitrary removal or extension and curtailment or increase in salary.

Tinkering with the status of the Central Information Commissioner, a euphemism for a downgrade, is also designed to prevent the official from directing higher-ranked officials in government departments for RTI disclosures. The RTI Act of 2005 was a landmark step in making the government more accountable to the people of India, strengthening its democratic structure. It seems from these steps that the BJP is hell bent upon destroying Indian democracy, a must prerequisite for achieving its dream of a Hindutva nation. Opposition leaders, activists, members of the civil society and ordinary citizens have to come together to fight and defeat this agenda.