2023 will go down as a year when all privileges of India’s electoral democracy were fully utilised by the government but none was afforded to the Opposition
As 2024 arrives, it is with an air of despondency that one is forced to look at the year gone by. 2023 started with more freedom and democracy in the country than now; globally, conflicts only increased with no sign that any of them will get resolved soon.
The immediate worry is the future of India’s parliamentary democracy. Never before had 146 MPs suspended en masse for any reason. In their absence, one bill diluting the process of choosing the election commissioner was passed into law, along with another delineating a new set of criminal legislation. The two bills would have required extensive discussion, considering their far-reaching impact. Instead, the government went ahead and passed the two bills despite the near-opposition vacuum caused by the suspension.
The reluctance of the Narendra Modi government to make a preliminary statement on the December 13 security breach, as is the convention and sought by the Opposition, was the latest sign that the BJP dispensation is ill at ease with the working of Parliament and its obligation to ensure that parliamentary niceties are observed, despite hitches. When the Opposition MPs protested (as is the norm) against Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s silence on the issue, they were promptly suspended.
Parliamentary democracy in peril
2023 would go down as a year when all privileges of India’s electoral democracy were fully utilised by the government but none was afforded to the Opposition. Some political parties will be in a majority and in charge of the government, while others will need to function as the Opposition. Within Parliament, all MPs are equal and historically, barring exceptions, an atmosphere of collegiality has prevailed among them.
Those in the media who have covered parliamentary proceedings in the two Houses over the years would have witnessed civility, if not outright bonhomie, among MPs across party lines when not in session. But all this appears to be missing. Today, the Opposition is virtually viewed as the “enemy”, nothing less. If such notions get entrenched, the loser is the common citizen who has reposed confidence in the functioning of Parliament and stands to benefit when it works well.
The case of a bright and articulate Opposition MP Mahua Moitra, expelled by the Ethics Committee even before a thorough investigation into charges of misdemeanour against her, sets a dangerous precedent of punishing individuals before they are proven guilty.
Bad example
Mass suspensions and expulsion of MPs are not one-off and standalone events. They set an example that can be used by any future dispensation, not necessarily the BJP, to defang political parties or neutralise the Opposition, at the expense of time-tested democratic practices.
In 1975, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency. It was immaterial if the reason was to confront a “foreign hand” that was claimed to destabilise the nation or for her political survival. What it did was set a precedent that has become a copybook on how not to repeat the mistake but nevertheless open the doors for future manipulation in other ways. The end result, it opened up possibilities to stymie India’s democratic functioning.
Similarly, whatever is being done today either through legislation or otherwise that belittles democracy will in the future be quoted by a government to do something even worse. The consequence of all this is worrisome for India’s hard-fought freedom.
Threat to country’s federalism
The interference of governors in the functioning of elected governments in several non-BJP-ruled states reached new heights in 2023, directly threatening whatever remains of India’s diluted federalism. Again, this had a precedent since the 1970s when the calibre of governors was disregarded in favour of political considerations. The position turned into a veritable retirement posting for favoured politicians.
Now, in the time of the Modi government, this has been taken several steps forward to the extent of even subverting the powers of an elected government. Democracy functions through a combination of laws and conventions, either of which can be easily disregarded if the ruling dispensation so wishes. This is the message from 2023.
We may be notionally moving from one year to another but no change for the better can be expected. At a time when Constitutionally-backed secularism is being hollowed out from within with the blessing of the state, the hype and engineered fanfare around the launch of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya is yet another big step in this direction. While the end result – the construction of the temple – will be celebrated by the Sangh Parivar, the controversial means to how that end was achieved has for the moment become a footnote in history. No surprises if this facilitates similar events in Mathura and Varanasi.
Conflicts threaten global peace
If India was witnessing a threat to its democratic functioning, the world in 2023 faced worse challenges. As news headlines around the Russia-Ukraine conflict started fading, the simmering seven-decade-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict was back in the limelight with Hamas’ daring (or, foolhardy) attack on Israel in October, that has since triggered a genocidal bloodletting in Gaza against the already besieged population.
That Israel has gone about brazenly targeting innocent Palestinian civilians (over 20,000 dead and counting) in the face of global outrage is the latest sign of widespread injustice that has become normalised in modern decades despite the world having seen similar or worse massacres in history pre-1945. Under the benevolent gaze of a “democratic” United States and a dysfunctional United Nations, Israel appears to be attempting a mass eviction of Palestinians from Gaza, if not outright extermination.
The war between Russia and Ukraine is continuing, with no relief in sight for ordinary Ukrainians, subject to constant bombardment by Putin’s troops. And, lest we forget, the fighting since 2014 in Yemen between neighbouring Saudi Arabia-led coalition backed by the West and the rebel Houthis has turned the country into a mess. The United Nations has termed it a humanitarian crisis but the war continues unabated.
Fleeing model state?
As 2023 turns over to make way for 2024, it would take the most hardened optimist to glean some good news from the mass of dark headlines and stories that are hurling the world into another abyss.
Some 70 people from Gujarat, among 276 others, skirted the world’s immigration checks to sneak out of India’s much-hyped model state, also the home of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to the forever attractive US and Canada. Whatever the reason for taking the risk, little do the poor blokes know that the green pastures they dream about are not too different from their existence at home – the only difference being that the US and Canada are built on far more powerful global hype.
The sooner the hapless “illegal” migrants realise they have no choice – either in India or abroad – but to suffer it out, the better.
Let’s face it. Hopelessness is everywhere on the cusp of 2023-24.
