A Common Bihari’s Words Capture India’s Struggle to Save Democracy

Ponder over the irresistibly powerful ideas of the following passage:

“Ever since the Modi government came to power, we have been fighting to save one thing or the other. The 2015 Bihar assembly election was the first after Modi took office. [RSS chief] Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks on reviewing reservations figured prominently then, and the election became a battle to save reservations.

“By the final phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Bihar, the ‘Save the Constitution’ issue [after BJP leaders said they needed a huge majority to amend it] had grown so intense that the NDA was wiped out in southwest Bihar. The INDIA alliance swept almost all the seats fought in that last phase.

“So sometimes it is ‘Save Reservations’, sometimes it is ‘Save the Constitution’, and now it is ‘Save the Right to Vote’. To save the right to be a voter, the right to be a citizen. Since Modi came to power, we have had to struggle to save one thing or another, forget receiving Rs 15 lakh.”

These are not the words of some opposition leader, but of an anonymous man from an ‘Extremely Backward Class’ in Bihar. Journalist Abhishek Kumar cited him in a discussion on the satyahindi.com YouTube channel during the ongoing Voter Adhikar Yatra spearheaded by Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi Yadav and Dipankar Bhattacharya. Hundreds of thousands in Bihar have walked in this yatra, but it is this ordinary man who summed up their fears and hopes.

His anguish reflects the clarity of an intensely conscious citizen with no political affiliation. He sees, with devastating simplicity, how the Modi regime has repeatedly assaulted the architecture of governance anchored in the constitution, in affirmative action, and above all in the principle of “one person, one vote.” His words deserve a salute, for they distill the predicament of Indian democracy under Modi, where citizens must constantly launch movements just to defend their basic rights.

Gandhi and Ambedkar as the Anchor

What this ordinary Bihari said resonates deeply with the visions of Gandhi and Ambedkar. Gandhi wrote in Young India in January 1925:

“Real Swaraj will come, not by the acquisition of authority by a few, but by the acquisition of the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused. In other words, Swaraj is to be attained by educating the masses to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control authority.”

Ambedkar’s call to “Educate, Organise and Agitate” in the 1940s was a revolutionary summons to collective struggle, remarkably close to Gandhi’s insistence that Swaraj required mass resistance. And in July 1931, Gandhi underlined that adult suffrage itself was a form of direct action: “People without political power could directly act upon the powers that be… One form of direct action is adult suffrage.”

Thus, the anonymous Bihari citizen is aligned with Gandhi’s formulation of the vote as a weapon of resistance and Ambedkar’s call for organised agitation.

The Vote Adhikar Rally in Bihar is part of this long continuum of popular struggles. It seeks to protect the right to vote from what Rahul Gandhi has alleged is systematic theft that benefitted the BJP. In this sense, it stands alongside the great non-violent mass movements of the last decade:

• The anti-CAA movement, where lakhs mobilised to defend the secular basis of Indian citizenship enshrined in the constitution.
• The farmers’ movement of 2020-21, which forced Modi to repeal the farm laws passed without consultation.

Each was mocked by the prime minister, who derided protesters as “Andolanjivees”, or agitationists. Yet, each represented the same instinct – the resolve of ordinary people to resist arbitrary power.

The Vote Adhikar Rally is unprecedented in Indian history. Even under British rule, neither Gandhi nor the Congress launched a satyagraha specifically to demand adult suffrage. There were resolutions, speeches and demands, but never a mass movement. That such a movement is now necessary in independent India, to secure the integrity of the voter list and ensure the franchise is not stolen, is a measure of the democratic backsliding of the Modi years.

Former President K.R. Narayanan reminded the nation in his Republic Day address of 2001 that universal suffrage meant governance would not rest with an elite but with the people as a whole. It guaranteed that their voice would be heard in the affairs of the state and their representatives elected directly. He stressed that universal franchise facilitated a democratic consensus in the midst of India’s vast diversities.

It is precisely this consensus that is endangered today. Allegations of vote theft, and the Election Commission’s reluctance to investigate them, strike at the core of Narayanan’s vision. That is why the Vote Adhikar Rally has assumed such significance: it is a defence of the principle that the mandate cannot be snatched.

The Bihari citizen’s lament – that people have been forced to fight endlessly to “save something or the other” since Modi took power – captures the reality of Indian democracy in the past 11 years. First it was reservations, then the constitution, now the right to vote. These are life-and-death struggles for ordinary people, while the government sneers at them from above.

In the voice of this anonymous man, we hear the echo of Gandhi’s Swaraj and Ambedkar’s agitation. He spoke for millions: ordinary citizens who know that democracy can survive only if they defend it themselves.

S.N. Sahu served as officer on special duty to President of India K R Narayanan.

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