Election results were out this Thursday and I was surprised. Not by the victory of NDA, it was quite evident already, but the magnitude of it. If this article was to be titled by a Modi supporter in response, it’d be “bolne de bechare ko, bohot dukh hua hai usko(let the man speak, he’s quite hurt)“.
If we compare the term of NDA to the last term of UPA, we won’t find much difference. If the last line seems wrong to you? Let me elaborate. The major defilement of the country, for which we hold Congress accountable is because of its corruption. BJP just replaced that major attack on democracy by the violation of basic fundamental rights by religious extremism; they normalized the communal mindset. In the rest of the fields, the performance has been comparable with that of Congress’ or worse only. But earlier people at least voiced their opinion against the government, now they just find it soothing to live in the – bliss of ignorance. I am more perturbed by the violation of fundamental rights because you can fight corruption with democracy, but what would you do when the survival of democracy itself comes under a threat?
The perfect example of this ignorance is every Modi supporter’s response to his criticism, which usually starts with “But even Congress… ” or “Pappu said…“. Yeah, kid, Congress was at fault, so we threw them out of power. For how long do you plan to live in the past? They themselves derive the conclusion that the other person supports Congress. Why would one support Congress? The party has proved to be the most incompetent opposition in the history of India. A kid aversed to milk offers more opposition to his mother than what Congress has offered to BJP. Even if we consider the allegations of Congress about Rafael, what else were they offering? Nothing.
The second example is of how Modi supporters view media. According to them, whole international media and Indian media which is asking questions to Modi is threading a conspiracy and the ones praising Modi are true journalists. They are just ignorant of the fact that the prime minister is giving scripted interviews, not doing any press conferences and not answering questions. The group of people whose job is to be the gatekeepers of facts and information are singing praises instead of asking questions. Even if we assume the critical journalists to be biased, at least it keeps the government in check but pandering surely doesn’t.
The blatant normalization of communal hate is the third example. Whenever you raise your voice over the mob lynchings against Muslims and dalits, the response usually received is “But it also used to happen in past“. Yeah sure it did but it was not state-sponsored, was not ratified by the silence of the leaders and workers of the ruling party didn’t go at lengths to support the accused. Another response usually observed is them responding with another heinous incident in which the accused belongs to the minority. What does that even mean? That is also a grave crime, we aren’t here to compete with it. The protest against both crimes is the same. However, If the latter one’s lesser media coverage upsets you, then it is so because there aren’t people screaming around supporting the accused.
The last example is ignorance of the Constitution itself. This election most of the people voted as if India has Presidential democracy instead of Parliamentary democracy. They believed they are voting for Modi. Under this assumption, people even voted candidates like Pragya Thakur to power.
My hypothesis suggested it was due to lack of education. According to NSSO, only 10% of India’s population can afford higher education. The major portion of the centrist and left-leaning population comes from an elite class and possesses higher degrees. They are critical of the government because they are aware of the history, politics and the sociology of the world. They are able to identify the similarities and trends that usually a crowd falls prey to. But this analysis of mine falls flat when I see big companies firing high salaried employees because of their hateful views on social media. It also happens on a personal level when people you know or used to know closely show such ignorance.
The reason of this ignorance is still unknown to me. My prediction is, maybe we still haven’t gotten over the habit of appeasing the “powerful” ingrained in us by the British because of which we still have to “beg to differ“.