What shocks Indians in ‘New India’?  Well, nothing really, we are shockproof

It’s hard to know where to start. That businessperson-TV personality Arnab Goswami’s WhatsApp chats have revealed that he is close to the top brass of the BJP, as everyone knows? That Goswami really did “negotiate” with the ratings agency to push his TV channels to the top, as alleged by others and is now under investigation by the Mumbai police? That the lack of privacy in the digital world is now self-evident?

Or is it at the point where it seems that Goswami knew about the Balakot “attack” three days before it happened? And appears to celebrate the deadly assault on CRPF personnel in Pulwama in February 2019, which Balakot was supposed to avenge?

How about the problem that few in the media want to even tiptoe into this minefield, for fear not just of getting blown up but in case a bit of the mud splashes on to them?

Fear is what dictates the compulsions of the bulk of India’s media. Fear of repercussions by the government on individuals, fear of media owners that any mention will impact their other businesses. Fear that if they speak up for the truth once, it might become a habit detrimental to their best interests.

For the past six years it’s been clear that the pillars of the democracy are on the verge of collapse. The bulk of the mainstream media was the first to fall. And the likes of Republic TV, full of toxicity and BJP propaganda, become India’s ‘most watched’ TV channel. At the same time, the boss of Republic TV is himself insecure and paranoid about his ratings. Despite his proximity to power and his constant allusions to his contacts in high places and his frequent contact with them, from the top down, Goswami appears frantic about staying on top at any cost.

But Goswami’s revelations via his WhatsApp chats with Partho Dasgupta, former head of the ratings agency BARC, are just one more symptom in the decline of India. It’s almost as if we are so cowed down, inured to horror, that nothing shocks us anymore.

Which brings us to “Vaccination Day”. When Covid19 vaccines were rolled out on January 16 for health workers in India, both Serum Institute’s Covishield from Oxford University and Astra Zeneca, and Bharat Biotech’s indigenous Covaxin were included. This despite Covaxin still being in the midst of its Phase 3 trials.

Not only are health workers – those at the forefront of fighting the pandemic – being forced to take Covaxin, they are also being forced to sign a consent form. A form which states that the vaccine is as yet untested.

When vaccine announcements were first made, the government said that only Covishield would be used for the first three months until Covaxin finished its protocols. But it also added “restricted emergency use” as an addendum to Covaxin. Since then, allegations have emerged out of Bhopal that gas victims from the 1984 Union Carbide explosion have been used in ongoing clinical trials, without being provided proper information, without proper records or follow ups.

That all vaccines have not been through the usual years of testing is not an adequate defence. The scale of the pandemic has led to global consent on some testing protocols. Covaxin has just not finished them yet. What was the hurry to push it through?

Simply put, the only explanation seems to be a misplaced sense of “nationalism” because Covaxin is “all-Indian”. The Narendra Modi government is apparently willing to risk the lives of India’s health workers for his conveyor-belt of endless publicity. Science be damned. As long as by the next election, the photograph is ready.

And because it’s going on for the past two months, I have to end with India’s farmers, braving the cold, waiting for justice. After nine rounds of “talks”, it is clear that the Modi government believes that obduracy is strength and that it is always correct. As with the vaccines, it can neither listen to reason nor does it have any concept of compassion.

A Supreme Court intervention has been rejected by India’s farmers. The allegation that these farm laws are at the behest of big corporates cannot be easily dismissed or wished away now. Increased government recalcitrance only cements the suspicion.

The collapse of India as a democracy is imminent all around us. There is not an institution left which has the courage to do its basic job. Forget doing its duty.

The rest of us just have to sign the consent form.

(Views expressed are author’s own)