In the world of Post-Truth and rising
intolerance the shrinking space for dissidence is a topic where nobody gets the
privilege of having the last word. The debate can go on for ages without a semblance
of consensus. Is the intolerance triggered by a right wing Government mentored
by RSS hardliners? Is the government of the day hell bent on creating a
Congress mukt Bharat? Has the line between being against the policies of the
Government and being an anti-national blurred? Does the Hindu majority actually
feels short-changed by minority appeasement? Is the Congress, Trinamaool and
the Left, facing the specter of irrelevance, getting desperate and shriller by
the day and hence seeking refuge behind a false narrative? There are questions
galore but definitive answers will always elude us.
For starters we should consign to dustbin
the argument that since we have a democratically elected government it should
be allowed to function for five years without major dissidence. Democracy
without dissidence is a recipe for disaster and a precursor to dictatorship. This
once in a five year voting participation with a long interregnum of public
hibernation is not what democracy is about. The ruling political class must
learn to listen to the voice of public and of activists, even if they feel it
is that perennially cynical segment which has not voted for it in the first
place. Re-calibration of policies, to be in sync with the people’s aspiration,
is an absolute must.
There are two major planks on which on
which the edifice of the so called shrinking space for dissidence is built.
Rising intolerance by the RSS mentored right wing Government and secondly, use
of Government machinery to put opposition leaders in jail or hound them with
false and fabricated cases to instill a sense of fear.
If one scans the media, both during and
after the elections, one hardly comes across the fear factor at play that
dampened and toned down the voice of dissidence. The toxic and personalized comments against Narendra Modi is a case in point. Phrases
like “maut ka saudagar’, ‘chaiwala’, ‘neech’ have been used with gay abandon.
In fact, the entire 2019 election campaign hinged around the slogan ‘chowkidar
chor hey’. West Bengal too is a case in point. The belligerence and toxicity
of Mamata Banerjee shows no signs
of dilution in the wake of rising
intolerance or fear being unleashed by the Central Government. Political killings
continue unabated as does the decibel level of dissident shrillness in every
public discourse be it within the confines of a university, prime time debates
or public jamborees. If intimidation tactics was at work then at some stage
these toxic comments would have ceased. On the contrary it continues to
flourish.
The biggest take away from the 2019 General
elections was the fact that the two biggest dynasts in Congress – Rahul and
Sindhia actually lost in their respective bastions. The less said about the so
called game changer Priyanka Vadhra the better. The message here is not the
shrinking space for dissidence but the shrinking space for dynasts in this
country – especially when they fail to live up to the job at hand.
More
than the so-called shrinking space of dissidence it is the shrinking
intellectual base of the opposition arguments and reasoning that is a matter of
concern. While we all realize that a shrinking economy resulting in
unemployment along with farmer distress should be on top of the agenda just sample
the cavalier and lighthearted manner in which the opposition goes about this.
When the Indian diaspora in Huston was busy putting up the ‘Howdy Modi’ event,
Rahul tweets - ’ Howdy economy’ and then disappears in one of his meditation
seeking foreign jaunts. Chidambram goes one up in trivializing this economic
crisis India faces when en-route to
Tihar Jail he flashes the victory sign and shouts “five percent” in an obvious
reference to the last quarter economic performance. The Congress that made
corruption in Rafael deal as its major
election plank is now actually reduced to criticizing the Government for
‘shashtra puja’ and ridiculing the two lemons place under the tyres. This is
not dissidence but juvenile jibes which just does not resonate with the
masses.
The Kashmir example illustrates the sorry
state of dissidence and opposition disunity. Abrogation of Article 370 failed
to get a national traction. The opposition was not effective because it was shivering
with fear of repercussion at the hands of the Government but because they were
a divided house. The fact of the matter is that it had the support of large
sections of the Congress leadership as indeed many other opposition parties.
One needs to face the truth that the
opposition is not able to speak with a common voice. Sadly, even the jailed
opposition of Kashmir does not find a common ground to come together. The less
said about the leaderless and rudderless Congress the better. They are clearly
imploding. Just last week, their top leaders were caught in camera wondering
‘party kahan gayee’. By their own admission they are leaderless and hence
bereft of any long term strategy or line of action. Both in Haryana and
Maharashtra the Congress is conspicuous by its absence and to compound it
further plagued by revolt, dissension and defections. They have virtually
thrown in the towel even before the campaigning had started.
In such a scenario to postulate the theory
of rising intolerance is to ignore the facts on ground and the sorry state of
opposition which is bereft of ideas to take on the Modi juggernaut. Instead of
blaming it on rising intolerance the opposition would do well to keep its flock
together and face the right wing with will and determination. While mature
debating skills and gravitas would be asking for too much at least a unified and coherent attack on the
Government economic policies is the least one can ask for.
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