By M L Satyan
Coimbatore, April 3, 2024: It pains me to read the Democracy Report 2024. According to this report India, downgraded to an “electoral autocracy” in 2018, has further declined to become “one of the worst autocracies.”
The V-Dem Institute’s Democracy Report 2024 paints a grim picture of India’s democratic decline, categorizing the country as an electoral autocracy for the sixth consecutive year. The report’s findings underscore the need for a renewed commitment to democratic principles and the protection of civil liberties in India to reverse the country’s ongoing autocratization process.
India’s Decline from Democracy to Electoral Autocracy: The report notes that eight out of ten countries in the top 10 standalone autocratizers group were democracies before the start of autocratization. Democracy broke down in six of those eight cases, including India, while only Greece and Poland remain democracies as of 2023. The report cites a recent study showing that 80% of democracies break down if they start autocratizing.
Deterioration of Freedom of Expression and Media Independence: The report highlights the gradual but substantial deterioration of freedom of expression, compromised media independence, crackdowns on social media, and harassment of journalists critical of the government. The report also points to attacks on civil society and the intimidation of the opposition parties as contributing factors to India’s declining democracy scores.
Federal Government’s Role in Suppressing Dissent: The report specifically mentions the role of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in using laws on sedition, defamation, and counter-terrorism to silence critics. The government is also accused of undermining the constitution’s commitment to secularism by amending the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in 2019.
Suppression of Religious Freedom and Academic Dissent: The government is reported to continue suppressing the freedom of religious rights. The report also highlights the silencing of dissent in academia as a concerning trend in India’s autocratization process.
Implications for the 2024 Elections: With India set to hold general elections in 2024, the report raises concerns about the potential impact of the country’s ongoing autocratization on the democratic process. The report suggests that a third consecutive term for the ruling party could lead to further autocratization, given the already substantial democratic decline and the enduring crackdown on minority rights and civil society.
Electoral process: Today election in India has become a meaningless ritual for three main reasons:
a) My right to vote is taken for granted. The EVMs are easily manipulated and as a result the vote that I cast for a particular candidate goes to some other candidate. This is a sheer violation of my right to vote.
b) I am not sure whether the candidate, for whom I cast my vote, will stay with the same party till the end of his tenure (5 years). Today the elected candidates are purchased as commercial commodities. There is no guarantee that the candidate will remain in the same party in whose name he/she wins the election. There is no law to prevent the ‘horse-trading’ that is mostly adopted by the ruling federal government.
c) The distribution of freebies/election gifts is thriving in every nook and corner of the country today. Many ignorant, illiterate and greedy voters become victims of freebies and vote for unworthy candidates. Money and muscle powers make the elections undemocratic.
Black money for politics: While referring to the politics of Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Bhimrao Ambedkar once said, “In establishing their supremacy they have taken the aid of big businesses and money magnates. For the first time in our country, money is taking the field as an organized player.” Ambedkar made this statement in 1943 and today it is truer than ever.
The country has come to know the illegal ways of collecting black money through electoral bonds. A major portion of the money has been contributed by the donors under threat or to get benefits. No political party is accountable for the money that it has received. The prevalence of corporate funding in India’s politics reveals the disproportionate influence that the corporate classes wield over the democratically elected government.
Pro-corporate approach: The ruling federal government has created and implemented pro-corporate policies and projects. Almost all profit-yielding public sector companies/institutions have been sold to a few selected corporates. So, a kind of “corporate-politician” nexus exists. In this nexus both benefit from each other.
Growing inequality: While India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it is also one of the most unequal countries. Inequality has been rising sharply for the last three decades. The richest have cornered a huge part of the wealth created through crony capitalism and inheritance. They are getting richer at a much faster pace while the poor are still struggling to earn a minimum wage and access quality education and healthcare services, which continue to suffer from chronic under-investment. The World Inequality report of 2024 shows that India is at the rock bottom. “Inequalities are now worse than the British period” says the report.
Dictatorship: There was a popular YouTube video recently by a young man named Dhruv Rathee, which irked the government’s supporters. Its broad argument may be understood by the title, which was, ‘Is India becoming a dictatorship?’ The examples used in the video included the recent rigging of the Chandigarh mayoral elections by the BJP, the recent rigging of the panel to select the chief election commissioners, the misuse of government agencies against opposition leaders, and so on.
The dictionary defines dictatorship as ‘a form of government in which one person or a small group possesses absolute power without effective constitutional limitations’ and ‘a form of government in which absolute power is concentrated in an individual or a small clique’. Today we can clearly see and experience that India is slowly becoming a dictatorship.
The Preamble declares India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic. The objectives stated by the Preamble are to secure justice, liberty, equality to all citizens and promote fraternity to maintain unity and integrity of the nation. It is indicated by the Preamble that the source of authority of the Constitution lies with the people of India. Is democracy in danger in India?
As responsible citizens we need to arise, awake and stop the mockery of Indian democracy. Of course, we need to be ready to pay a heavy price for this.
All manipulations and hackings of EVMs have been proved by various IT experts. As long as the EVMs exist, elections in India can never be fair. My strong view, like many other responsible citizens, is: “abandon EVMs and return to Ballot paper”. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.
India has the largest electorate in the world. Reverting to paper ballot system will not only entail huge paper cost and tell on the environment, it will also open up the age-old tactics of muscle power, booth capture and ballot box loot as was witnessed in the 2023 Panchayat Polls. Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) an independent system attached with the Electronic Voting Machines will allow the voters to verify that their votes are cast as intended. Further improvement to make the system water-tight is always possible.
So far manipulation of EVMs as claimed has not been established to the engineers of Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), the two authorized entities for the manufacture EVMs in India.
Satyan’s contention “The EVMs are easily manipulated and as a result the vote that I cast for a particular candidate goes to some other candidate” still remains an allegation. It has not been conclusively proved by leaders of the Opposition neither to the Election Commission of India nor in any court of law.
A very poignant article by M.L. Satyan. Indeed several parameters of our Democracy are being weakened by successive governments. It distinctly began with late Indira Gandhi promulgating Emergency to stay in power. Similarly Anti Conversion Laws (Freedom of Religion Act!) and UAPA were first introduced by the then Congress government at the Centre, contrary to the popular and oft-repeated notion that the NDA introduced them. The UAPA – Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), was first passed in 1967 by the now-opposition Congress party. In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government amended the law, allowing authorities to categorise individuals as terrorists. During the Congress regime the law was applicable only to organisations. UAPA assigns absolute power to the Central Government, so much so the Union Government had no qualms to put an 84-year-old frail Fr Stan Swamy behind bars.
The need of the hour is not to be martyrs in blind rage but to go in for intensive training and awareness programs on our Constitutional in particular Minority Rights. Intensive means conduct of awareness programs in all parishes or cluster parishes. In this respect, there are some forces which are clamoring for erasure of the word “Minority” from parliamentary proceedings and ultimately from the Constitution! As of now we are protected under the Basic Structure – Fundamental Rights in Part III (Articles 12 to 35) of the Indian Constitution. In this respect, instead of sound technical inputs, some NGOs (one in Bengal)/ bodies are spreading fear psychosis among the Christian community. This is tantamount to putting the fragile community from frying pan to fire. The need of the hour is for CBCI, CCBI and Diocesan Laity Commissions to sponsor production of many more professionals (lawyers, judges, IAS, IPS, etc) from our community across all dioceses. Once a few representatives from All India Catholic Union (AICU) visited various parishes in Bengal and announced they were on a drive to promote professionals from the Christian community. I was very impressed. I do not hear of such concerted programs anymore!
In this context the office bearers of Catholic Association of Bengal (established in 1911) are busy in the circus of power-grabbing, political and personal ambition. Power has gone into their head. They were elected on Sunday 02 September 2018 for a term of three years. This tenure long elapsed in September 2021. Yet they are shamelessly clinging to power without conducting Annual General Meeting and election of office bearers. The Archbishop of Calcutta is the ex-officio chairman of the Association. So, one cannot expect any great initiative of Laity awareness under the current office bearers. Similar observation can be made on Bangiya Christiya Pariseba (BCP) which despite having a large network in Bengal engages more in rhetoric (mass prayers, rallies, etc) and much less in substantive delivery and qualitative development of the Laity.
Despite the despondency painted by M.L. Satyan, I am still optimistic about the rise of our Christian Community in terms of Logical/Critical Thinking and Qualitative Development. Ultimately quality will speak.