By Felix Anthony
Guwahati, March 4, 2020: The recent violence and pogroms across India leave us wondering if we are in a ‘controlled democracy,’ laments Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil, who recently won an award for journalism.
In India has seen a steady erosion of the importance of the legislatures, both at the state and federal levels, said the Salesian prelate, whose bold writings against communalism and fundamentalism earned him the ‘Luis Careno’ award from the Indian Catholic Press Association.
The 83-year-old archbishop asserts that the press must give voice to the voiceless. But this mission would cost one’s life as happened to people such as Gauri Lankesh, Govind Pansare, Jagendra Singh, MM Kalburgi, and Ranjan Rajdeo. Any criticism of the ruling party is met with fire and fatwa by rightwing groups in social media platforms, he noted.
Recalling how the leaders in the past collaborated with one another notwithstanding the difference of opinions at times, the octogenarian prelate said, “Gandhi used to urge leaders like Nehru to oppose him in common meetings if they felt convinced of their ideas. He thought that would contribute to the common good.”
Dissent is not hostility; it is an invitation to a new thought and diversity and secularism are what define our democracy. But, the brutality against the peaceful protesters and student community, arson and pogrom against the targeted minorities leave us wondering whether we are in a democratic democracy or a flawed democracy or a in a controlled democracy, said the Archbishop who received the ‘Ambassador of Peace’ award in December 2019.
In the context of too little intelligent debate in India, the archbishop emeritus of Guwahati said that the citizens must remain alert and courageously voice their opinions, even though the ‘power-wielders today accept no dissent.
The present regime is pressurizing every mind-shaping agency to be propagators of their ideology and promoters of their interests. The social media is being used to keep religious views and contentious themes alive in order to hold together the Majority community. The newspaper and Television news channel editors are forced to toe the political line of the owners, who have vested interest in flattering the Government.
The social media platforms have become the paid army of the established order, the Archbishop said and cautioned that the denial of truth will recoil on them one day like how Xi learnt too late ‘that silencing of truth does not pay, with coronavirus spreading’.
Expressing grief over the lack of reasoned debate and a decline of human caliber and of thinking power among the ruling elite, the archbishop highlighted how pandemonium receives attention in the press and anarchy in the street.
“In this context of increased disillusionment with chaotic, non-performing and exploitative democracy in the hands of Big Business, the media has the weighty responsibility of educating the public. University men and intellectuals in a special way play a unique role in this respect to become a democratic country in the true sense of the term,” the archbishop concluded.
The archbishop received the journalism award from former Supreme Court judge Justice Kurien Joseph at the 25th national convention of Christian journalists organized by Indian Catholic Press Association at Don Bosco Provincial House, Okhla, New Delhi on February 29.
Archbishop Menamparampil analysis of sociocultural and political issues has led to debates and concrete peace initiatives, for which he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.
Having spent more than half a century in northeastern India, the Kerala-born archbishop’s writings reflect his deep understanding of the region’s cultural values and ethnic diversity. He is the lone Indian to prepare the meditation prayers for the ‘Way of the Cross’ led by Pope Benedict XVI.