Reflecting on the State of India

The Fall of the Indian National Congress

As a political party, and a leading light for the nation for many decades, the Indian National Congress has failed the country.

I do not speak of the rampant corruption which brought the Congress’ reign to an end. Or the fact that our economy could be bigger. Or even the fact that the congress facilitated cronyism in the country for their own gain.

The congress, since the time of Indira Gandhi has been a dynastically controlled entity. To this day, the party is in the thrall of the Gandhi family. India has paid for this in the form of the emergency- for which the party, Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi were duly punished by losing the subsequent election. The nation has also paid for the Gandhi family’s recalcitrance and unwillingness to change and cede power and direction of the INC to a newer generation of non-Gandhi politicians. This has led to the party becoming stale and rudderless- a fact which in no small way contributed to the last two elections, where the BJP has swept to power over the nation and most of its states in commanding and alarming fashion.

For decades, the congress was able to get by through the reverence of their name, their history of their family in the context of building India, and because the INC was integral to India’s right to self determination and indeed independence. The INC guided a diverse nation- the likes of which had seldom previously succeeded (let alone existed) due to its cultural diversity- differences in race, religion, language, creed and more. This was an unlikely and immense achievement- so much so that Winston Churchill and many other predicted that India would fail to survive even a decade of existence. There are many individuals to thank for this- most notably Nehru and Vallabhai Patel. Without whom, we wouldn’t likely have an Indian nation with all the states that we see today. I would argue that India is a unique example of nation building that was led by the Congress- without which we would quite possibly see the subcontinent the same way Europe is now- nations that are for the most part formed around ethnic groups and mostly homogenous cultures.

But that was all many decades ago. India has grown older- and conversely now has a younger population. One that isn’t familiar and connected emotionally to the founding of the nation and its fledgling years. The legacy of those iconic figures and their monumental achievements are mostly lost to the nation’s collective memory, and hardly discussed today.

Thus, the INC congress has lost its narrative- or rather it is no longer relevant enough to win elections in today’s context. The INC no longer has a powerful story or sense of purpose. Something to rally voters and politicians to the party. This has cost the Congress dearly. People simply do not connect with the party any longer.

Failure Leads to Opportunity

Whereas on the other hand- The BJP and the RSS has over time seized the initiative and created a compelling narrative. They have worked from a grass roots level- since the time after the Babri Masjid was demolished by rioters. They realised that it does not work on a national or global level to so publicly declare agendas of hatred and act upon it. Since then, the RSS has cultivated politicians, organised camps and even militias. They run schools, charities and orphanages. Places where they can influence the average man or woman from a young age to believe in their narrow vision for the country.

Thus today, we can see the INC’s greatest failure- allowing the BJP and the RSS to corrupt and rewrite the nature and history and most worryingly the future of our nation.

Today, and for the last few years. Liberals around the world have looked on in despair, aghast as right wing, nationalistic and often xenophobic parties and politics have taken over. There is a larger story and reason for this- one that is highly complex, and something that liberal parties and ideologies were taken surprise by. To this day liberals around the world are still struggling to come to terms with this public and governmental shift to the right. It is no different in India. Understanding this is no simple task and merits an entire essay or series of essays and study to understand.

To my understanding, and put simply, an older generation with wealth, power and control over states, economic systems, culture, religions and family units feel threatened by the left leaning nature of progress that we can see among the youth of today. There is a backlash harkening back to more dogmatic and bellicose ideas such as nationalism and calls for revivals towards a supposed glorious past. This has manifested in what we see today- incursions against the rights of individual liberty (sexuality, choice of life partner, right to dissent, etc), women’s right to their body and choice, freedom of religion, language and culture and a whole lot more.

Consequences for a Young Nation Still Learning

I would argue that this backlash in fact, is probably far worse in India than it is in western democracies. This is primarily because the West is for the most part closing their doors to what they perceive to be outsiders. There is little physical violence and threat going on. In India, there is very real danger to minorities of being physically set upon, lynched and oppressed by the state and the majoritarian populace (we recently saw this in full action in Delhi as a pogrom- with the government’s clear support). As the saffron wave swept the nation, we began to see the effect and reality of this. Muslims lynched for the mere suspicion of transporting beef. Kashmiris attacked in colleges and the streets simply for where they happened to be born. People from African nations being attacked and killed in malls. All of this is very real- and very dangerous for minorities in India.

The government and Modi ignored this or down played it for very long; Narendra Modi only came out against cow lynchings after there were nationwide protests in major urban centers. To this day Amit Shah refuses to acknowledge the lynching as related to radical Hinduism. In fact, the BJP refuses to acknowledge the existence of a radical Hindutva agenda as a whole. In addition to this, there has not been any convictions or trials of people murdering Muslims for handling or consuming beef. There have been arrests. But little more than that- one is inclined to think that that is because the government has no interest in prosecuting such crimes.

We- The people of India, and the INC has allowed this to happen. We fell asleep at the wheel, as the economy chugged along. Not bothering to look around us as the nation became more radical through subtle means. It is hard to see how the situation and the government will change in the short to mid term future.

The BJP in control of the government has spent little time making meaningful progress for the country. They have however spent plenty of time and money on securing their grip on the nation. The BJP has influenced or browbeaten into submission most of the independent institutions in the country. There are many clear example of this-

The Supreme Court of India- As seen with the Ayodhya case recently a court of law declared that a god was born in a specific city in a specific site over 9000 years ago. What possible evidence can there be for this? To make a legal ruling based on the faith of a culture group is ridiculous and indicates clear bias. Then there’s how the supreme court deferred to consider the abrogation of article 370 to a date after which the abrogation would be completed. Rendering the consideration pretty redundant. The clean chit for Modi and his ilk during the Godhra riots is another clear example of this. More recently the Supreme court also allowed the government 30 days to respond to hundreds of cases challenging the constitutional validity of their clearly unconstitutional CAA amendment. Rajan Gogoi, the previous Chief Justice of the Supreme Court seems to have been rewarded with a Rajya Sabha seat for his pliability.

Electoral Practice- The BJP has also bent the Election Commission if India to its will- which routinely allowed the BJP to break the code of model conduct for elections (handouts at train stations, allowing TV networks to be created without proper licensing for propaganda, news coverage at times of restriction during the election, and more). They routinely allowed BJP politicians to use hateful speech, and to use matters of national security and interest for propaganda purposes.

Statistics and Information- The BJP has supressed and changed data of violence, lynching, GDP, unemployment and more to suit their own purposes and allow the compliant media to build the story that suits them. This really is how fascism begins. The BJP is constructing its own reality- one that suits their narrative and purposes. Many institutions around the world, and even individuals in the country have called attention to the facetious and dis-ingenuine nature of statistics that come from the government of India (it is also important to note that you can only have bad policy when it is based on fictional or misleading statistics and data). Yet the media and the government pay no meaningful attention to this.

Speaking of the media- the BJP has what are effectively propaganda outlets. Not a surprise considering many of the networks are owned by ardent party supporters such as Mukesh Ambani. The media that has refused to submit to the BJP idea of the news and reality have been raided, censored and punished for their temerity to report the truth and a non-biased stance. The majority of the media has accordingly become more vitriolic and jingoistic- think of their reporting on the National Register of Citizens. Or most recently the reporting on the Ayodhya supreme court case. Even more recently the ridiculous notion of #CoronaJihad is being discussed on national television and news outlets. The bias and communalism is clear to see to anyone willing to not bury their head in the sand.

Donations and Campaign Finance- The BJP also very quietly and sneakily made changes to campaign finance laws- Through a provision snuck through the union budget in 2019, it is now possible to effectively donate unlimited amounts of money to political parties without declaring that you have done so. Previously anonymous donations were limited to 20,000 rupees. This has broken the transparency required for a democracy with a sensible campaign finance policy. Therefore, unsurprisingly the BJP received over 4 to 5 times more in contributions than the congress received.

Rewriting the Narrative

In addition to all of this the BJP has conducted many acts of shock and awe, or more kindly put clever PR stunts to distract the public.

Think of the timing of demonetisation- touted as an anti-corruption measure, it almost completely failed to capture black money or illicit gains. Instead it cost the nation several percentage points in GDP growth, severely impacted the livelihoods of those who depend on the informal economy and cash transactions (an economy which is said to be as big as India’s formal economy). When did all of this happen? Just a short while before vital elections in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most important state electorally. What happened in the election? An unprecedented sweep of the elections by the BJP.

Then there’s Balakot and the supposed air strike that killed several hundred terrorists. This has been disproven time and time again by international organisations and governments, but gleefully lapped up by the Indian media. When did this happen? Just prior to the general elections that saw the BJP win yet again. Elections that prior to Balakot were looking uncertain for the BJP as several state elections had been surprisingly won by the Congress.

Simultaneous to this the National Register of Citizens was revived. The NRC is a particularly worrying policy. It seeks to separate and expel infiltrators and illegal immigrants to the country. How does the NRC identify these people? Anyone in the state of Assam who does not possess paperwork proving that they or their ancestors moved to India prior to 1985, after the Bangladesh war for independence is considered an illegal immigrant. This in a country and a time where literacy was practically non-existent and accordingly many people did not have paper trails of identification. In addition to this the BJP government declared that it would welcome those of Brahminic inclination (Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists) to become a citizen of India. Is this not a clear case of xenophobia and racism? Not to the media, and not to people of India who wildly celebrated the NRC. There is little doubt it rallied the BJP’s Hindu heartland to its cause.

More recently we have seen the abrogation of article 370- or more simply put stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its rights and making it a union territory under the control of the central government. This is very possibly illegal according to the constitution, but of course the supreme court deferred to consider the case until after the resolution was implemented. When did this happen? Just as the media and the country began to notice that the economy was headed for a rough ride. (As an aside, the whole issue of splitting Jammu and Kashmir and giving control to the central government has very sinister racist and majoritarian tones. Perhaps in another post I will write about this).

Currently, with the Covid 19 epidemic that the world is facing, the Prime Minister of the country- Narendra Modi has offered little in actual relief, advice and acknowledgement of issues the country is facing- the lack of testing, lack of planning for a country wide lockdown (and the consideration for the impact on the millions of migrant labourers, daily wage earners, those already suffering food insecurity, etc), lack of protective gear for those fighting the disease first hand and a whole lot more. Instead the prime minister has made a few public addresses and made vague calls for unity and respect for people fighting the virus. His key ideas so far have been to bang thalis and light candles. Wonderful PR stunts, but no real action or solutions. In fact, just like with demonetisation (also a seemingly bold and flashy move) the public must figure out how to deal with the mess and fallout of the government’s disastrous policy decisions.

There is a clear pattern of distractions being used or even created by the government during pivotal times in the nation. These issues are often completely irrelevant to the well being of the nation, or even detrimental to it- in the case of demonetisation in particular. Yet the media willingly runs with it, overstates its importance and doesn’t show unbiased coverage of these issues. To get unbiased news in India that are reliant on facts, not wilful belief, you often have to look to foreign media sources. Of course, if one is to do that, it is easy to be accused of being anti-national (a nebulous and often aggressive term) or a sycophant of the biased western media.

Given all of this, and the cumulative effect that it has on the public, it is hard to see how the BJP will lose a national election any time in the near future.

Final Thoughts/Conclusion

A lot of this is down to India not having a strong or coherent opposition to fight the BJP and ensure that India remains a free and fair democracy. The message sent to the Congress over the last two elections is that India is tired of their nepotistic control of their party and the nation as a whole. The Congress has wilfully ignored this and is continuing with the Gandhi family. Meanwhile, politicians have been jumping a sinking ship and defecting to the BJP almost en masse.

What is the most worrying about all of this is that I cannot see it getting better anytime soon. In fact the opposite is almost certain to happen.

India for the last few decades has been touted as the next super power and economic heavy weight after China. Statisticians, futurologists and organisations have pointed to India’s growing young population as its single biggest strength.

Unfortunately, I think it is more like a ticking time bomb. The reasons for this is because while India does indeed have a growing young population, this key demographic boon has almost certainly been squandered. Why? Because the quality of education has not kept up with how the world has changed since almost colonial times. Students are taught to be meek, obedient unquestioning people who memorise textbooks and regurgitate what they remember in their exams. While these qualities were possibly suitable for an Industrial age population, it is not useful for the world we live in now. The country does not need worker drones, who unquestioningly work in an assembly line.

India needs its young citizens to be intelligent in terms of critical and analytical thinking. The reason for this is because technology will make most menial and even semi skilled jobs redundant or severely reduced. Think about how much room India has to mechanise agriculture? How farming for most in rural areas is unsustainable due to fracturing of land due to poor family planning. How things like driving will be automated- trucks, taxis, buses, private vehicles. How artificial intelligence and machine learning is becoming more adept at running call centers or how augmented and virtual reality will enable stores to not require sales people. There is technology being developed to fully mechanise the textile industry as well. In the next one or two decades, millions and millions of jobs will disappear- leading to “educated” people and even people will skills such as weaving, farming, etc, being unable to find jobs (something that is happening already).

We will see millions of unemployed people who have no place in the economy, and they will be angry and disillusioned. And angry and disillusioned people often turn to nationalism, xenophobia, scapegoating and hatred. Something that this BJP government has proven itself capable of instigating and harnessing. It is easy to see how the BJP will rally these people to target minorities- first Muslims, then Christians. I am very worried for the future of the nation. As a minority, and someone who believes in secularism and democracy. However, the majority of the country seems to be on board with what the BJP is doing, and that seems unlikely to change.

In India, democracy will truly be the tyranny of the many over the few. That is of course if it doesn’t allow itself to be guided into outright fascism first.