Who is the most fearless in fear-stricken India?

The upcoming Lok Sabha elections must be won at any cost; otherwise, we will not have much to go by, which is something they are certainly afraid of. It is true that they want to win the elections because they are power-hungry. It is also true that since this power has come into their hands after a long wait, it is needed to complete the rest of their agenda. But there is certainly a phobia. It is the fear that if they are not in power, then all the conspiracies of the last ten years will be exposed. If the opposition parties come to power, cases will be filed in court, and they will have to undergo rounds of inquiry for several of their decisions. They must be sure of this. Amit Shah will definitely have to visit the jail once again.

Last week, when Nikhil Wagle, Vishwambhar Chaudhary, and Asim Sarode were going to a public meeting of the 'Nirbhay Bano' movement in Pune, their vehicle was violently attacked by BJP workers with the help of the police. This movement has been going on for the past eight months; these meetings are being held in various cities in the state. They speak and writes publicly against the oppression of the BJP and the Modi government. Thousands of people feel as if they are speaking their minds. There are hundreds of people like them in Maharashtra, but they dare not express themselves in such a manner. In other words, the 'Nirbhay Bano Andolan' intends to reduce the fear that exists in the minds of all. Mainly, people from the social sector are at the forefront of this agitation, and people from the political sector are also involved to some extent.

At the national level, a similar movement is the 'Bharat Jodo' yatra, spearheaded by a political party, Congress. People from almost all walks of life are participating in it. For the past year, Rahul Gandhi has been speaking fearlessly during that journey, making big and concrete statements. It has received a great response at various levels. The words 'Daro Mat'—do not be afraid—are frequently part of Rahul's speeches. It means that the people of the country are scared, and alleviating their fear is their priority.

The summary of the very small movement 'Nirbhay Bano' and the much larger movement 'Bharat Jodo’ shows that the country is afraid. Alongside these two, many political parties and social activists are running campaigns at their respective levels in a more or less similar manner. This is because various elements in the country are more or less in a state of fear. The list can be extended, but the four main pillars of Indian democracy are fearful. Perhaps, barring the period between 1975 and 1977 during the Emergency, there has never been so much fear in post-independence India.

The legislature is the most important of the three official pillars of democracy. The boiling point of the fearful atmosphere in Parliament was apparent two months ago. Nearly 150 MPs were suspended from Parliament, all of them from major opposition parties. How fearful the 'current' judges of the Supreme Court are is apparent from the behaviour of the 'former' judges in recent times. Most of the officials at lower and upper levels in the administration do not dare to hear anything against the BJP leaders. Many owners-operators-editors of newspapers and other media houses, which are considered as the fourth pillar, are always under pressure.

The same is the case with institutions that are considered autonomous. RBI Governors after Raghuram Rajan are doing whatever the Centre wants. The directors of the CBI and ED are under constant pressure to implement orders from above. In 1990's, Because of T. N. Seshan, the public realised that the Central Election Commission has a mane, teeth, and claws. Although that fear seems to have subsided a bit over the next couple of decades, the form hasn't changed. However, there has been such a change in the Election Commission over the past decade to the extent of ‘turning a tiger into a cat’. During the past ten years, the public has not really known who the Chief Election Commissioner is. Every day, the media, the opposition parties, and the general public are hurling stones at the Election Commission, and they are silently bearing it. They are in a state of perpetual fear due to the pressure of the central power at one level and, at another, humiliation.

The governors of all states have always been anxious, but nowadays they accept every word of the Prime Minister's Office like never before. In fact, the President of India is also stricken; she was not invited to the inauguration of the Parliament House. The entire country found it disgraceful, but she had to swallow the insult.

In the BJP-ruled state governments, ministers and secretaries are assisted by the BJP & RSS workers, but they are in turn crippling the administrative officers. Vice-Chancellors of universities have become merely nominal in many places; the BJP or RSS workers appointed as special officers or something similar positions are the ones exercising the power of the Vice-Chancellors.

From Mamata Banerjee to Arvind Kejriwal, many firebrand leaders from the opposition parties are also horrified to see their colleagues being pushed into jail. Many leaders, from Chandrababu to Jaganmohan, do not utter a contrary word, even if they so desire. Forty MLAs who went with Eknath Shinde from Maharashtra can't even express their displeasure. Leaders from Ajit Pawar to Ashok Chavan are being suffocated by the fear of jail on one side and the positions of power given to them by the BJP on the other, and they are worried about how long they will have to live helplessly.

Of course, many activists and leaders of the Sangh and BJP are also under the shadow of a different kind of fear; they do not have the possibility to express themselves in matters that they do not agree with. Not a single leader of the BJP dares ask why they are accepting criminals and corrupt miscreants from other political parties in their party. Leaders who raise a voice of dissent in the party are being pushed to the periphery but are unable to stand up because of fear. If they do try, they are threatened with investigations, even if they are at a muted level!

It means that Modi and Shah are the only ones who are powerful. Because the power of the country is concentrated in them. They can make a turnover of thousands of crores of rupees in a few moments. They can assign anyone to any of the major positions. Anyone can be investigated. Any big or small decision can be taken quickly. Decisions that were not made over a quarter of a century after independence were taken very swiftly. All the government machinery can bend to their will.

But if we look inside, a different picture emerges.

The Prime Minister has not held a single press conference in the last ten years. He is afraid of questions from journalists. Apart from Akshay Kumar, Arnav Goswami, and the like, he is afraid of being interviewed by anyone else. Four boys rioted in the Parliament two months ago, and Modi-Shah were afraid to accept the simple demand of the MPs in the Parliament to 'make a statement stating facts'. They find it easy to suspend 150 MPs, but they find it scary to answer questions in Parliament. They are afraid to appoint the right person to the Election Commission. They want a person from their own clan; if not, the post can stay vacant. This means that they are afraid that an outsider will not do what they want or the way they want it. If they believed that they had the complete support of the people, they would have no reason to fear a free election. This suggests that there is a constant fear in their minds that the public is not wholly with them.

Meanwhile, they want to expel Congress leader Rahul, who is an MP, from Parliament and hatch conspiracies to facilitate this. This means they are afraid of hearing anything that Rahul says. They are afraid that the public will hear it. If an impartial judge comes to the Supreme Court, they fear that things will become difficult for them.

The directors of ED and CBI have to be given extensions over and over again, because they don't get the kind of devious people they want. They are afraid that if others come there, things will become difficult for them. On one side is the fear that they do not have enough troublemakers who could be used in many places. On the other hand, the concern is that there are no national icons like Gandhi, Sardar Patel, or Subhash Babu who would come of their use. Further still lies the fact that their own icons cannot be brought forward at the national level. Golwalkar Guruji or Hedgewar cannot be given a stature at the national level.

They are afraid to appoint a sober person to the post of vice president. They fear that if L. K. Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi are brought ahead during the Ram Mandir, their importance will diminish. Former Governor Satya Pal Malik is doing a spate of interviews and publicly revealing one secret after another. But they are afraid of saying anything to Satya Pal Malik. Subramaniam Swamy, another troublemaker, attacked both of them in a sensational interview, but they are afraid of confronting him.

In Maharashtra, elections for local bodies have not been held for the past two years. Even though they have power in the state, when they split the Shiv Sena and the NCP, they had to bring Ashok Chavan too. All this is happening due to the fear that in Maharashtra they will not get seats as expected.

Moreover, they also fear that the Congress will not repeat the kind of laxity that they showed in 2002 with regard to Narendra Modi. If the opposition parties come to power, they will avoid the imprisonment of the former Prime Minister of India so that the country does not face any embarrassment internationally, but they will not spare the opportunity to completely discredit him. So, it is possible that they are afraid of witnessing such dishonour.

Who can say confidently that Modi and Shah do not experience this kind of fear? And then comes the question: are they the most fearless or the most feared in India today?

(Originally published in Marathi as an Editorial of Weekly Sadhana : Feb 24, 2024, Translated by Rahee Dahake)

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