October 1, 2020
Modern India On This Planet
Syed Rifaquat Ali
We, as Indians, are living in an Age of savage rule. Democracy has gone to the dogs. Questioning the authority in power is labelled as crime. Press freedom has been brutally crushed. Freedom of speech has been unprecedentedly throttled.
The Federal agencies have become subservient to the diktats of the central government. Rulers have turned saddest. The phenomenon of art and culture has been buried deep.
A sense of intolerance toward the minority communities rules the roost. Sycophants are thriving in all aspects of life at the behest of Bharatiya Janata Party.
Rape has become the order of the day. Inter-faith and camaraderie are bygone words. The scenario is very disturbing and dreadful since the common man is faced with uncertain future.
The Judges in High Courts and Supreme Court have sold out their souls and conscience betraying the trust of the commoners.
This is Modern India on this Planet .Bansari Kamdar says "The BJP is increasingly infringing on the rights of the media with British colonial era 'sedition' laws and threatening pressure and violence against reporters who do not toe the Hindu nationalist government's line. Journalism in India remains a risky pursuit. Journalists in India are murdered and their killers go Scot free." (The Diplomat, May 29,2020).
The former chief minister of Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, who is still in detention under PSA is a glaring example. The coward BJP government does not want
to spell out the reason why she is in detention since August 5, 2019.
Her daughter, Iltija has sought Supreme Court's intervention. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi, separated from his wife and having no child, cannot understand the agony of a daughter in such circumstances.
The Indian brand of democracy is under virulent attack by international journalists but the shameless BJP government takes it with a pinch of salt.
Debarati Guha wrote: "It is alarming that Indian universities, including Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, have become a centre stage of an indeological conflict, in which the right wing groups are increasingly using the nationalism card to stifle dissent. India's future remains uncertain under the incumbent government (Deutsche Welle, Opinion, January 8,2020).
In a story 'How Modi's India is silencing criticism and failing to uphold the right to free speech' Aakar Patel observed: The State has a fondness for Laws that are broad and draconian in their ability to detain people such as on sedition and preventive detention. Free speech in India, while apparently guaranteed by the Constitution is in many cases forbidden in practice (South China Morning Post, 11 July 2020).
Mira Kamdar, Member, Pacific Council and Paris-based editorial board member of The New York Times, says "India has become a dangerous place to be a journalist.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) sounded the alarm in February 2016 after two journalists, one working for BBC, were forced to flee the Indian State of Chhatisgarh after threats to their lives and lawyers for imprisioned journalists were evicted from their offices. Tariq Mir, freelance journalist, based in Kashmir, wrote in The Washington Post (April 30, 2020)
"As the world remains consumed with containing the Coronavirus pandemic and the severe economic fallout, India has spotted an opportunity for another round of repression against the population of Kashmir, which had already been reeling from the harsh after effects of last year's six-month long military lockdown. By initiating gunfights with guerrilla fighters, jailing people for going to buy food and medicine, bringing charges against journalists, and beating doctors, paramedics and municipal workers, India is tightening its grip on Kashmir, seizing on pandemic measures to prevent a surge of resistance to its rule.
Prannoy Roy, NDTV proprietor of India's oldest and most credible news network, beautifully sums up: "They are trying to tell us that we can suppress you even if we haven't done nothing wrong. It is a signal to the entire free press of India." With the emergence of BJP as a superpower in India (thanks to EVM), Mahatma Gandhi
is termed as a traitor and British agent, while his killer Nathuram Godse as a martyr.
This shift tells us all about the mindset of BJP politicians who are inspired by RSS bigwigs.
Modi forgets that posterity will look at him as the most hated and communal-minded leader India produced in the 21st century, and one who killed democracy.
In this context, George Bernard Shaw comes to mind : he risked all by questioning government during WW1, a role he saw as democracy's bedrock.
Syed Rifaquat Ali is Sydney-based JoA correspondent
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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