Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and his predecessor Rahul Gandhi have been warning citizens against the dangers India’s democracy is faced with. Kharge has said at several public meetings that India will become like Russia and China if Narendra Modi is not ousted this time. He said Modi was working on the Vladimir Putin model and the 2024 parliamentary election is the last opportunity for the people of India to salvage democracy. This doesn’t seem to be an exaggerated election-time rhetoric. This fear is deeply embedded in the Congress psyche.
Large sections of intelligentsia have also articulated similar concerns. Congress veteran P. Chidambaram, who didn’t only hold important portfolios like finance and home in various central governments, but is also the party’s key strategist, expressed the apprehension of India becoming an “electoral autocracy” if corrective measures are not taken in this election.
In an interview with The Wire, Chidambaram, in his typical restrained and subtle manner, also questioned the role of the Election Commission in conducting free and fair elections and the atmosphere of fear in the country.
Reproduced below are the excerpts of the interview.
Sanjay K. Jha: The opposition parties say this election is a battle to save democracy. Does that mean the fears of undemocratic and unfair means being deployed to win the election are real?
P. Chidambaram: This election, so far, is reasonably democratic but there are shades of undemocratic actions. Several opposition leaders are in prison and have been denied bail. By the time the Hon’ble Supreme Court intervenes, the election will be over. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax [department] are overactive in constituencies where the opposition candidates are strong.
Complaints against electoral excesses by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates are ignored or buried. If democracy is not saved in this election, I fear that the next election will have the appearance of a free and fair election but, in reality, it will be an undemocratic election.
Like some other countries, India will become an electoral autocracy. I hope I will be proved wrong.
The prime minister is clearly using religious metaphors and symbols for mobilising support. Wasn’t Bal Thackeray punished by the Election Commission for a lesser crime? Why didn’t the Congress approach the Supreme Court for better enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct after seeing laxity on the part of the EC for so many years?
The Election Commission is not the institution that it was under T.N. Seshan. We can petition the EC, we are petitioning the EC to intervene. The EC is using its ‘autonomous’ status to deflect our complaints. We cannot take the EC to the Supreme Court every day. We are fighting an election, not a legal case.
Also read: T. N. Seshan, the Unyielding Force That Cleansed India’s Elections
Congress manifesto deals with substantive issues and offers a new vision for justice and empowerment. But the debate is on Muslim League imprints. Did you apprehend such a twist?
The Congress manifesto was released on April 5. The BJP could not say anything about the substantive issues dealt with in the manifesto. Prime Minister Narendra Modi suddenly discovered a Muslim League imprint! Can we say that the BJP’s manifesto (that has not seen the light of the day yet) carries the imprint of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha? These are meaningless assertions. I would say that the Congress manifesto carries the Dalit imprint, the farmers’ imprint, the Adivasis’ imprint, the women’s imprint, the youth imprint and so on.
The prime minister was clearly desperate to find a Muslim angle. Is politics operating under such abnormal pressure that even discussing equality and secularism has become difficult? Has the RSS-BJP developed an atmosphere in which the Congress, which drafted the constitution, doesn’t feel free to speak its mind?
Everyone lives in fear. Freedom and fear cannot go together. This climate of fear was created by the BJP. Congress is fighting the BJP. Courageous individuals are also fighting the BJP. I would urge hundreds and thousands of people to speak against the authoritarianism of the BJP.
Also read: Before 2014, No One Feared Being Arrested for Critical Posts on Even the PM. What Changed?
Modi has obviously created an artificial hype of 400-plus seats to present before the nation an impression of his invincibility. Is the opposition ill-equipped for this modern-day psychological warfare?
You have said that the claim of 400 seats is an artificial hype. There is nothing more for me to say. I am glad that large sections of the media, after initially echoing the claim, have considerably toned down the re-broadcast of this claim. The fact is that nobody believes such claims.
Finally, how do you assess Modi’s decade-long tenure and should he be in a position to dominate India’s polity on the basis of his performance?
Mr. Narendra Modi’s 10-year tenure has left the country in a vulnerable position. What is the legacy of the BJP-NDA?
In my view, the legacy is price rise and unemployment. The findings of the CSDS-Lokniti survey confirm that the people also are of the same view. The BJP and Mr. Modi have ruled the country for 10 years. That is long enough to pass a final verdict on the government. It is time for a change.
