Signs of new Orwellian State in Modi’s India

The death of Russian democratic leader Alexei Navalny did not make big news in the Indian media. No TV channel debated the circumstances in which he died in a Siberian prison. It is not that the Indian media is not interested in world affairs. However, the Indian media completely ignored news related to the death of Navalny. Was it a chance miss or deliberate? It must have been done keeping in view the implications in India of a debate on an activist who was raising issues such as the connivance of the Putin administration and the corporate in thwarting the democracy in Russia.

In fact, the silence on the TV screen ideologically prepares the public for an authoritarian regime. How intimately connected they are could be understood when we see how disproportionate force is being used to prevent protesting formers from entering Delhi and how the media is taking sides with the Modi government. Farmers’ protests are being criminalized. It is being portrayed as parochial and communal. Let us leave the issue of legalizing Minimum Support Price (MSP) based on the Committee formula: do farmers have no right to organize a protest in Delhi? Farmers have shown how peacefully they can organize their protests. They withstood extreme weather conditions and all sorts of humiliations from the Modi regime, but never lost their calm.

However isolated instances of attacks on democracy will not allow us to a complete picture of institutional collapse. We need to move the scanner in all directions. Just look at the CBI raids on the premises of former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik at three places in Delhi, Gurgaon, and Baghpat districts. The man who has been a governor in a sensitive State like Jammu and Kashmir and governed the State under central rule is being hounded as a criminal. He is being punished for raising his voice against the corruption and inefficiency of the current regime. He brought both the cases of corruption that the CBI has registered before it. First, he told the Prime Minister how an important BJP functionary of the RSS was trying to bribe him on behalf of an industrialist.

One case is related to the health insurance scheme of the State government. Another case is related to civil works at the Kiru Power Project. Satya Pal Malik says that he informed the Prime Minister about both cases. When the Prime Minister did not do anything, he revealed it to the public. The Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor was left with no choice other than to institute a CBI investigation. He is a whistleblower, and the CBI has acknowledged his status as a witness. However, the men who were accused by him of orchestrating the corruption have not been interrogated or raided. Instead, his premises and the premises of his drivers and other personal staff are being raided. Have we seen that the culprits should roam free while the witness is being raided? Has the action against Satya Pal Malik had anything to do with corruption?

It is an open secret that Malik rebelled against the government on farmers’ issues. He went to the extent of revealing the laxity in the Pulwama attack. He alleged that the CRPF personnel were not airlifted and transported on the road. It led to the loss of so many lives. He did not stop there. He wanted the Modi government to punish those who were responsible for the lapses. He also accused Prime Minister Modi of using the attack for electoral gains.

The latest trigger for Malik being harassed is his siding with Rahul Gandhi and the protesting farmers. Do we not see a clear pattern of intimidating and harassing those raising their voices against the government?

Many could see an exaggerated sense of scare in citing instances such as the government’s asking the social media platforms to shut down the accounts of protesting farmers. Should the statement of the Global Government Affairs Team of X (Twitter) be taken lightly?

“The Indian government has issued executive orders requiring X to act on specific accounts and posts, subject to potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment.

In compliance with the orders, we will withhold these accounts and posts in India alone; however, we disagree with these actions and maintain that freedom of expression should extend to these posts.

Consistent with our position, a writ appeal challenging the Indian government's blocking orders remains pending. We have also provided the impacted users with notice of these actions in accordance with our policies.

Due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders, but we believe that making them public is essential for transparency. This lack of disclosure can lead to a lack of accountability and arbitrary decision-making,” says the statement. The hypocrisy of the government is obvious. On one hand, the government has been talking to farmers’ organizations and showing that it is sympathetic to their demands. On the other hand, it is preventing them from expressing their voice. Is it anyway in conformity to the basic principles of democracy?

However, the Indian scenario is unique. It does not present the typical picture of the Orwellian State of dictatorship and surveillance. Here, different tools are available to depict the ruler. We have seen how our union cabinet and parliament declared that Modi led the country in an epoch-making event of the consecration of the Shri Ram Temple at Ayodhya. The Cabinet resolved that he had been chosen by God to do the same. In an address at Kalki Dham in Madhya Pradesh, the Prime Minister attempted to compare himself with Lord Krishna and took the Supreme Court to task that it would term a small offering from Sudama as corruption. This Orwellian State uses a medieval tool, which is an improvement to the original form.

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)