Merry Crisis and a Happy New Fear: Democracy under a Dictator

The clampdown in Kashmir was absolute – every voice of dissent was totally silenced, and the entire Valley was put into deep freeze.

In contrast, the crackdown on the protests against the Citizenship Act has been clumsy and crude - instead of handling the mass uprising with empathy, the heavy- handed police action is only fanning the flames of public anger.

Taken together, the cruelty of the repression in Kashmir and the sadistic suppression of students and citizens in the rest of the country are sending out ominous signals to the world outside.

The West, and foreign media in particular, are beginning to wake up to the true nature of the Modi doctrine.  They are starting to wonder if they had been profoundly wrong about accepting the Indian Prime Minister’s bear-hugs and viewing him as a democrat with a progressive agenda.

Democratic governments do not suspend the human rights of the people in an entire region for four months running.

Nor do they order the police to beat up unarmed students and bombard peaceful marchers with tear-gas shells day after day in town after town.

Neha Dixit, an Indian journalist who is the recipient of the 2019 International Press Freedom Award probably phrased it best when she told ‘Democracy Now’ in an interview:   “Even though India has a democratically elected leader, we are in a Democracy under a Dictator”.

Western liberals understand such concepts.   Especially when they have been seeing what has been happening on the ground in India over the past several days.  Even one graphic piece of factual reporting can sometimes capture the reality, particularly when there are viral videos to authenticate the narrative:  “Police entered the Jamia Millia Islamia University campus.

They went inside the library. They broke the windowpanes.

The police fired tear gas shells inside the library hall, even though tear gas in confined spaces is a violation of United Nations norms.  The students couldn’t breathe, they couldn’t escape. Some had locked themselves inside bathrooms - baton-waving policemen barged into the bathrooms, smashed the CCTV cameras and charged the covering students with batons.  One student even lost his eyesight because he was viciously poked in the eye”.

This is just one of the incidents, one among many gory narratives appearing in the international press.  In city after city,  similar episodes are being repeated and are being reported despite Internet shutdown,  often with video footage,  of marchers being pushed back by water cannons,  beaten by lathis,  a well-known historian grabbed and dragged into a police van,  young girls thrashed and kicked even after she has fallen down on the ground. The horrendous scenes are endless – all conveying only one message:  this is can happen only in a democracy under a dictator.

Then there are the posters and slogans which catch the eye with the crisp and often witty lines that the international journalists have no difficult in putting into context:  One poster says “Rioters can be identified by their dress” along with a photo of an RSS man in khaki shorts.

Another simply says: “Error 404:  Hindu Rashtra Not Found”.

There is another bearing the words:  “I will show you my documents if you show me your degree”.

Still another: “You Can Loot us, You Can Shoot Us, But You Can’t Mute Us”.

In keeping with the Christmas spirit there is one poster with the greeting: “Merry Crisis and A Happy New Fear”.