Lahore,Punjab,Pakistan. Polling officers with army soldiers,deployed to polling stations. July 26, 2018. Rana Sajid Hussain/ Press Association. All rights reserved.
Democracy
is in the news in a Pakistan that has held controversial elections and an India
that is gripped by hectic preparations for the elections next year. True
democrats are wary of the role of Pakistan’s Army that has directly ruled the
country for half the period during 70 years of the nation’s history. And they are
also getting alarm signals from India, a well-established democracy.
India
has become an area of their concern because of the outbreak of
hyper-nationalism, mobocracy, sectarian hatred, religious violence, bigotry and
suppression of dissent. These are not natural disasters but man-made
election-linked events and hence critical for the health of democracy.
Multi-disciplinary experts will be needed to study the voting behaviour in new
India, the cultural war started by the Modi Government and religious conflict
unleashed by the ruling party’s associates.
The
polarisation of voters along sectarian lines and the use of religion for
political mobilisation have been incorporated into electoral battle plans.
Identity politics has come to play a more and more significant role in Indian
elections.
Degrading the political culture
India’s
democratically elected Government has created conditions in which democracy or
the lack of it has become the topic of a dismal discourse. Writer and
commentator Gopal Gandhi asks the question: “Is India being manipulated by the
religious bigot, the political bully and the techno-commercial behemoth?” The
answer is implied in the question.
India does not face any danger of a military
coup. However, democracy can be subverted by degrading the political culture
and manipulating the democratic process. Communication technologies facilitate
the manufacture of consent and dissent. Fake news and vicious propaganda can be
used to create mass upsurges.
This
new subversive capability has made ballot-rigging unnecessary. Booth-capturing
seems to be an outdated technique for ensuring favourable election outcomes.
However, reports of the recent village council elections in the state of West
Bengal suggest that it is still in use.
The
Modi Government is being blamed for subjecting the country to an “undeclared
Emergency”. Suppression of dissent by using informal actors has become a
standard technique. Freedom of expression gets curtailed not by the police but
by violent groups who feel empowered by the state. In political, judicial and
intellectual circles, daily references crop up to self-censorship and mobocracy
and to an “undeclared Emergency”.
Undeclared emergency
The
reference is to the state of emergency imposed constitutionally by Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. That was the time when she became politically
vulnerable and her opponents caused country-wide
chaos. A respected non-politician leading the protest called on the army and
the police to revolt! The Emergency, involving the arrest of the opposition
leaders and curtailment of civil liberties, brought the situation under control,
but the dark period continued for 22 months. It ended only when Indira Gandhi announced
fresh elections and her party got defeated.
Barring
that blemish, India’s record has been outstanding. Democracy was always taken
for granted. Not anymore. The words that sum up the present situation are
“undeclared emergency”.
This
government cannot declare an Emergency since that enabling law was repealed.
So, it depends on informal actors to restrain dissidence and punish dissenters.
Violent groups spreading sectarian hatred and killing defenceless people feel
empowered by the state. Muslims are politically marginalised and demonised.
Intellectuals get threatened openly by the ruling party functionaries. Journalists
critical of the Prime Minister are abused on social media. Women journalists
face threats.
Most media moguls have turned their journals
and TV channels into the Prime Minister’s PR outfits. Pratap
Bhanu Mehta, a noted academic, writes that “a shockingly large section of
the private media is now the ideological vanguard of the state, its rhetorical
stormtroopers in a politics of communalism, polarisation and distraction,
anti-intellectualism, mendacity and hate”.
Economic growth?
The
social democrats have always maintained that capitalism is essentially
anti-democratic. In a rational world, capitalism and communalism would not go
together. The establishment of the London Stock Exchange is known to have
dampened the religious violence in Great Britain. Sectarian strife is not in
the interests of business and industry.
Experts
with tunnel vision urge others to ignore the sectarian strife and applaud the
government for economic growth. Just like some economists want the people to
put up with growing inequalities. Some may even argue that growing corruption
is a manifestation of economic growth!
In
India an extraordinary nexus of capitalism and communalism has developed
because of the inducements and threats given by the government. Promoting crony
capitalism is one of the charges that the Prime Minister faces. Pratap Bhanu
Mehta points out that private capital has been enlisted in a project of
unprecedented alignment with state goals and policies. He can’t think of “any
liberal democracy where so much private capital has been enlisted in not just
supporting the government, but also its whole ideological agenda”.
Mass hysteria and adoration
Democracy
finds a favourable climate in some countries and faces adverse social and
cultural conditions in others. People’s behaviour impacts political culture. Those
given to mass hysteria tend to overlook rational choices. India has characteristics
that promote and sustain democracy, but one cultural factor is not conducive.
Indians generally revere charismatic leaders and many prostrate before such men
as they do before Gods. This tempts politicians to be populist and dictatorial.
A strong leader thus finds his going easy.
This
internal threat to democracy was understood by India’s first Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru. He saw the danger of mass adoration encouraging him to act
undemocratically. As a great democrat, Nehru adopted a pen name to write about
this danger and even directed criticism against himself. He never strayed from
the democratic path and respected his critics and the cartoonists lampooning
him.
A
strong leader tinkers with social engineering. The people may think they change
the government but at times it is the government that changes the people. Prime
Minister Modi’s project to “transform” India is producing a new breed of
people. Through a major social engineering project, the Prime Minister is trying
to limit the influence of secularism and make his version of Hinduism
respectable and more acceptable.
Many
academics see it as a conspiracy to demolish the very “idea of India” against
which a certain political force has been campaigning since the first national
elections. Historian-politician Sugata Bose says “the next election is not about
who will be the Prime Minister; it is about what kind of India we want.”
Some
leaders the world over tried social engineering. Margaret Thatcher, the iron
lady, made the people greedier, less compassionate and more self-centred. Tony
Blair of Labour sold the slogan “Cool Britannia” to make Britain a cultural
power house. (V S Naipaul criticised him for turning Britain into a nation of
philistines!) Harold Wilson wanted his countrymen to be friendlier to
technology.
Prime
Minister Nehru tried to lessen the hold of orthodoxy and superstitions. In mass
meetings, he talked about science and technology and of democracy. He called
mega projects new temples of India! He was applauded. Today a leader calling a
multi-purpose irrigation project a “temple” will hurt the religious feelings of
a community and will be punished politically.
Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi popularised computerisation in a bid to push India into
the 21st century. Prime Minister Narsimha ushered in economic
liberalisation that in turn led to social changes. Consumerism can be fuelled
or kept under check through official policies. The introduction of the modern
Suzuki car in an India that was still grinding out the old Morris parts led to
more aggressive behaviour by its new young owners.
A
charismatic leader can bring out the best in the people or encourage them to attack
the “others”. The latter kind fuel divisiveness. A decent democratic leader checks
ugly public behaviour by setting a noble example and preaching brotherhood. He provides
a just and fair administration that acts promptly to avert sectarian violence.
The leader’s statements send the right signals to the district administration.
The day Indira Gandhi was defeated, several Dalit homes in a Gujarat district
were burnt down, with the oppressors shouting: “We will show you, now that your
mother has gone!”
Sectarian conflict
While
an elected western leader set a world record in getting the minority people
killed, some dictators have kept sectarian conflict under control by
inculcating fear. Saddam Hussein ensured that in his Iraq, the Shias and Sunnis
lived in harmony. When the communist German Democratic Republic collapsed, the
African immigrants in East Berlin running shops on the footpaths were attacked.
In
some democracies, sectarian conflict is used for political mobilisation. Inter-religious
violence is perpetrated to win votes for the majority community. Subservient bureaucrats
let the law-and-order machinery collapse in deference to the ruling party. Most
of the people keep mum because of fear or due to indifference towards human
suffering. Many are brainwashed to justify mob violence caused by identity
politics or “hurt religious feelings”.
In
the Indian context, commentator Monobina Gupta raises a critical question. “Why
has this continuing bloodshed and mayhem not caused public outrage?” She then refers
to “deeper psychological disorders within a society”.
She
points out that the “every-day violence directed towards Muslims, Dalits or any
and everybody who doesn’t fit the mob’s notion of ‘mainstream’ has not suddenly
appeared. Rather, the Narendra Modi government has merely dipped into the
reservoir of prejudice waiting to come to the surface and take on a life of its
own. These clearly are not aberrant tendencies. What can be counted as an
aberration perhaps is the audacious official legitimacy offered from the very
top of the chain of political command”.
Reservoir of prejudice
This
a frightful scenario. The poison once injected into society cannot be sucked
out. The genie cannot be pushed back into the bottle. If polarisation becomes
part of the electoral strategy, sectarian strife becomes an essential element
of a grand victory plan.
A clever and cynical politician knows how to
tap the hidden reservoir of ill-feeling and prejudices. Only today’s America
could have produced Trump. So, it becomes clear that the democratic process
alone cannot ensure democracy. It can throw up as the leader a scoundrel, a
bigot, a stooge of the sponsoring business house, a nincompoop, a shallow
public entertainer or a wise public-spirited activist!
Democracy
dies when even sponsored violence fails to outrage the public. Of course,
newspaper articles are written and drawing room discussions take place. These
do not threaten the regime that remains assured of public support. It can
afford to ignore the voices of sanity and gets busy silencing these.
The
post-independent India has rarely seen a spontaneous mass upsurge. The huge political
rallies include hired participants transported free in buses provided to the
parties by businessmen. Public outrage is generated if economic interests are
hit and not due to humanitarian concerns or because of atrocities against an
unprivileged section.
A street-smart
politician conjures up a “mass upsurge” and “public outrage” with the help of
money, and muscle power. He can manufacture moral panic and raise a disruptive
force to serve his party’s political ends. All political parties are not all
that ‘competent’ to do so. Hence a small scandal causes a political earthquake while
a bigger scandal merely creates a ripple.
Even
a mature electorate can be trapped in a situation created by an unholy
coalition of a few capitalists, media moguls, serving or retired intelligence
officers, hired political consultants, ad agencies, co-opted goons and social
media. Such ventures can create an atmosphere hostile for the political enemy
and favourable for the operator.
Volumes
have been written on Facebook and WhatsApp targeting voters and an Indian
political party deploying an army of trollers. Cyber warfare will figure
prominently in the next Indian elections. The electorate will have to cope with
massive information and misinformation campaigns.
Democratic dystopia
As
this article is being written, a minor British political party is transmitting
a social media message that some malicious force has hijacked its website and
it may get the contact addresses of those subscribing to the newsletter!
The
democratic dystopia will gradually feature in poems, plays and novels by Indian
writers who along with intellectuals face an unprecedented threat to freedom of
expression and to their personal safety. But cartoonists, music bands and stand-up
comedians react promptly. One can hear on social media protest songs under the
label Aisi, Taisi Democracy, roughly
translated as Down with Democracy.
At
some stage all this will lead to total popular disenchantment with democracy. The
people’s indifference to voting reduces elections to a sham exercise. This is
not a healthy development.
In
the olden days, a party’s ideology and election manifesto mattered. All that
has become more or less irrelevant. The voters hand victory to one political
party but get ruled by a different coalition. Some critical editorials appear
on horse-trading of the elected legislators ready to switch loyalties for power
or money. The end of ideology has hit even the leftist parties in India. They also
lose their cadres and leaders to the rival party that comes to power.
Bihar’s
chief minister assumed office with the support of his electoral allies and
ditched them later to continue in power in coalition with the party of the
Indian Prime Minster whom he had condemned relentlessly during the election
campaign!
Electable
candidates are in great demand by all parties. They are imported and fielded by
a party that ignores their past hostile campaign and the claims for the ticket
by its own original members. Some candidates move to an electable party before
the polls. Some switch over to the ruling party after elections and that is how
a party defeated in the polls forms the government. That too may be called “stealing
the elections”.
Democratic
India is seething with anger and hatred. One does not need a sophisticated
sensor to measure the hate index. Enough is revealed daily by the newspaper
headlines. Incidents of lynching get reported quite regularly.
The
ruling party functionaries respond with preposterous, heartless and violent
statements. Those making inflammatory speeches go unpunished and unreprimanded by
the police and the party. One said that had he been the home minister, he would
have shot the intellectuals, seculars and liberals! Any one condemning such
statements gets attacked by the army of trollers.
Government
leaders resort to whataboutry and keep recalling the violent incidents of the
past when Narendra Modi was not Prime Minister! It may be interesting to study
the ongoing sectarian violence and the Gujarat killings of 2002 in the context
of the partition riots, even though in terms of the scale of violence the past
was a million times more horrendous. However, one may note Ayesha Jalal’s
analysis of the partition riots. She says the killings then were carried out
not by communities at large but only by bands of individuals. They had no
public support but were able to hold the public hostage with the help of
weapons they carried. Was it the same during the Ahmedabad riots and during the
recent mob violence?
Politics
starts out as a type of public service and as a forum for dialogue and the conciliation
of conflicting interests. It becomes a playing-field for opportunists,
careerists and those seeking quick money or protection from law. Logical
arguments in parliamentary debates are replaced by senseless noise and chaotic
confrontation.
Recent
events in some prominent democratic nations have highlighted the internal
threats that are hard to see and even harder to counter. A military dictator
can be identified. But an elected leader can assume the mantle of a dictator or
act like a stooge of the military that ensured his electoral success.
The
spirit of democracy is demolished by populist leaders with authoritarian
instincts making false promises and by the purveyors of fake news through
social media. Those commanding the media, money, muscle power, mobs,
intelligence and advertising resources are always ready to provide a helping
hand for a bargain. And then there is the domestic dark deep state ever ready
to run a “controlled democracy”.
The
proverbial foreign hand can export a democratic “spring” in an unfriendly
country. It now commands the remotely-controlled weapon of social media about
which extensive reporting has been done in relation to the US presidential
elections and the Brexit referendum.
Democracy
appears besieged by multiple challenges. In many cases, the form survives but
the spirit has vanished. The stench of democracy’s decay emanates from
different parts of the world. Reports of the impending death of democracy are
coming from America and some other countries. All of whom have held elections
and are now ruled by a dictator. Like America – Turkey, Hungary and Russia have
not set examples worthy of emulation.