New Delhi, (#thestates.news) In a scathing attack on the NDA Government at the centre, Congress
president Sonia Gandhi on Monday alleged that Democratic institutions in the
country are being targetted by its political opponents.
In an article in an English daily, Soniya Gandhi said that all the pillars of a democratic system of governance
are under assault.
‘’The world’s largest Democracy is at the crossroads. That the economy is in
deep crisis is clear. But what is less appreciated is that all the pillars of a
democratic system of governance are under assault. The fundamental right to
freedom of expression has been systematically suspended through suppression and
intimidation. Dissent is deliberately stifled as ‘terrorism’ or branded as an
‘anti-national activity’. Many institutions that are meant to uphold the rights
of citizens and society at large, have been co-opted or subverted,’’Ms Gandhi
said.
Alleging that all organs of the state are being used to target political
opposition, Ms Gandhi said, ‘The Indian state now diverts attention from real
problems of the people by pronouncing bogus threats to ‘national security’
everywhere. Of course, some of these threats are real and have to be dealt with
uncompromisingly but the Modi government and the ruling BJP conjure up sinister
conspiracies behind every political protest, indeed behind any and everything
they see as opposition to them. The system unleashes investigative agencies on
dissenters and deploys proxies through sections of the media and online troll
factories. India’s hard-won democracy is being hollowed out.
Every organ of state that could possibly be used to target political opposition
has already been pressed into service — the Police, the Enforcement
Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the National Investigation
Agency (NIA) and even the Narcotics Bureau. These agencies now dance only to
the tune of the Prime Minister and Home Minister’s Office.’
Asserting that the use of state power must always obey constitutional norms and
respect established democratic conventions, she said that the Modi government
has consistently done more than any previous government in independent India to
violate these core principles.
Ms Gandhi said that the Modi government move to designate political opponents
as enemies of the Indian state, which began in 2016 with the invoking of
sedition charges against young student leaders in JNU, has continued
relentlessly in a wide variety of contexts, with a series of disturbing arrests
of well-known activists, scholars and intellectuals.
‘ The most cynical attempt to label anti-BJP protests as anti-India
conspiracies is seen in the Modi government’s response to the extraordinary
protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the proposed National
Register of Citizens (CAA-NRC). This movement received wide-spread support from
civil society activists and organisations across the political spectrum who
also opposed the divisive CAA-NRC. But the Modi government refused to
acknowledge this movement. Instead, it chose to vilify it and made it a
divisive issue in the Delhi elections’.
BJP leaders – including the Minister of State for Finance and the Home Minister
– used abusive rhetoric and violent imagery to attack what was essentially a
Gandhian satyagraha. Other BJP Delhi leaders publicly threatened to attack the
protestors.
The ruling party created the conditions in which violence broke out in
northeast Delhi. These riots in February would have never occurred had the
government wished to prevent them. In the months following, the Modi government
carried its vendetta to extreme lengths, claiming that the protests were a
conspiracy against the Indian state. The result has been – blatantly biased
investigations with around 700 FIRs filed, hundreds being questioned, and
dozens detained under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Prominent
civil society leaders, some of whom are renowned all over the world, are being
named as masterminds and instigators of the Delhi violence.
It is nothing less than shocking that eminent economists, academics, social
campaigners and even very senior political leaders that includes a former Union
Minister have been maliciously targeted through so-called disclosure statements
in the investigations by the Delhi Police. This only shows that the BJP is
determined to pursue its authoritarian strategy regardless of consequences,’ Ms
Gandhi said.
Stressing that undermining the basic principles of liberty and freedom of expression in this manner poisons politics and the society itself, Ms Gandhi said that to paint genuine civil society leaders as evil conspirators and terrorists, is to burn the bridges of communication with the common people, on whose behalf they speak.
‘’The BJP, like every other political party, is entitled to propagate any ideology within the framework of the Indian Constitution. But our Constitution also assures every Indian that fundamental rights do not end with the right to vote — they also include the right to freedom of expression, the right to protest and dissent publicly and peacefully. To paint genuine civil society leaders as evil conspirators and terrorists, is to burn the bridges of communication with the common people, on whose behalf they speak.
Citizens do not cease to be citizens when the party they voted for loses an election. The Prime Minister repeatedly claims to represent 130 crore Indians. But his government and the ruling party are treating political opponents, dissenters, and those who did not vote for the ruling party as second-class citizens without democratic rights. The people of India are not just an electorate. They, and only they, are the nation. Governments exist to serve them, not vilify this or that part of them. This nation will thrive only when democracy as envisioned by our Constitution and the Independence movement is followed in its letter and spirit,’’ Ms Gandhi said.(UNI)(mediasaheb.com)
