A Democracy Fretting to be a Dictatorship
There is this difference between Donald Trump and Narendra Modi: during his electioneering for the United States’ presidency, Trump had forthrightly declared, "I will be a dictator from day one."
Endowed with Asiatic genius, Narendra Modi continues to make flashy avowals of his alleged commitment to constitutional rule. However, his everyday governance suggests a penchant for reducing the separation of powers – the “basic structure” – to a formal construct, vestigial on the ground.
The new home minister in Bihar, Samrat Chaudhary from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not lost a minute in importing the cruel and illegal bulldozer raj from Uttar Pradesh to Bihar’s cannily selected areas, besides some in Patna, Darbhanga, Begusarai, Muzaffarpur and Chhapra, all of which are in the grip of bulldozer atrocities as we speak.
The predominant social and economic profile of these districts tells its own tale.
That this shift in the style of enforcing executive will in Bihar could not be effected without sanction from the Union government may be safely assumed.
Also read: Backstory: A Bulldozer Election Machine Being Given the Run of Electoral Field Amidst Media Inertia
Thus, the ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Shri Gavai, who counted his castigation of bulldozer raj as one of the high points of his tenure, may well be wondering whether his exertions have left any lasting residue on the state of law and order in the country.
Alas, those resisting the mechanised coercion in Bihar now, including droves of affected women, can be heard to rue casting their vote for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the just-concluded state assembly election – yet another instance of how the populace may first be inveigled and then left holding the sack.
It had best be recognised how Shri Modi, with support from a plethora of right-wing organisations, has achieved this capacity to draw allegiance and dump the promise.
Over his tenure as chief executive, it has been his signal achievement to transform citizens into devotees – a consequence brought about by providing overt and covert state patronage to religious festivals and unending yatras throughout any calendar year.
Although the devotion is ostensibly directed at gods and goddesses, this state-supported cult of devotion could not but transfer to Shri Modi himself. He stands almost as an oracle, whose nod comes to signify good governance and the rule of law.
We may recall how the chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution Dr B.R. Ambedkar had cautioned the republic that “bhakti” (devotion) in politics is a sure road to dictatorship.
It has been a uniquely impressive sleight of hand to convert unceasing immersion in denominational devotion, especially in the Hindi belt, into political devotion without often asking for it. Phrases like “Modi ki guarantee”, deployed periodically, have gone a long way in securing the conflation of religious devotion and political allegiance. In this way, avatars have come to be fused without the constitution noticing the wonder.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, February 2020. Photo: PTI/File
And then, the Sanchar Saathi app.
The Modi government issued secret directions to manufacturers of smartphones to mandatorily “pre-install” the government-sponsored Sanchar Sathi app on all phones at the point of manufacture, and in all existing phones by upgrading their software. The app was not amenable to “restriction” or “disabling”, i.e., the consumer would have no control over its existence and had to remain subject to its behaviour.
The Indian Express (December 3), is to be lauded for having quickly caught on and demanding, editorially, that the government “rescind” the new direction “before it goes to court”. When news got out, the honourable minister spoke to the press to claim that the app was voluntary, and you may keep it or not depending on your desire. Wretchedly, however, the notice to the manufacturers in Section 7(b), spoke to the mandatory status of the app.
There was, resultantly, an uproar and the government withdrew the mandatory requirement for pre-installation of the app.
Had it been Donald Trump, he might have straightforwardly said that the app was meant to pry into the nefarious nitty-gritties of citizens’ lives – their messages, call records, videos, picture galleries, what have you, all in all.
But not so the Modi government. You see, we were to understand that the app is a benign one, thoughtfully constructed and graciously pre-installed only to protect the consumer from fraud of all kinds. And, if in the process Big Brother became privy to the citizen’s innards, where is the harm?
“Privacy” may have been designated a “fundamental right” by the Supreme Court, but devotees surely ought to rise above mere legalisms and trust the transcendent truthfulness of the secular god.
Recall the episode when Pegasus software, imported from Israel, was clandestinely introduced into selected Indian smartphones. The matter reached the highest court, which noted that the government had not fully cooperated in providing all relevant details and materials. The new Sanchar Saathi app may have been conceived as a less expensive, indigenous version of Pegasus – now, fortunately, reduced to a voluntary option for citizens.
As for the corporates: even as they strive every minute of every day to convert the citizen into a mere brainless consumer, they thought twice before granting compliance to the government’s app directive. After all, as the Indian Express underlines, even the corporates’ phones would need to be pre-installed with the spy app, making their goings-on available to the powers-that-be, too, and what could be a greater calamity?
You may well ask, where are “we the people” in all this? Well, mostly in yatras, procuring salvation.
Badri Raina taught at Delhi University.
This article went live on December eleventh, two thousand twenty five, at seventeen minutes past eight in the morning.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
