By Nilotpal Basu
Faced with growing protests over the large-scale electoral malpractices initiated by the supposedly neutral umpire, the Election Commission of India, which clearly favours the BJP, the government and the ruling party have gone berserk. Like a drowning man clutching at straws, the ruling party and its army of social media foot soldiers are pulling out the charge of regime change. Obviously, the desperation betrays the efforts to distract from the substance which has galvanised the protests. In a democracy governed by constitutional processes, exposing and isolating the fault lines of governance provide the backdrop of a ‘regime change’. Conforming to constitutional parameters, such regime changes are customary. In the current situation, the protests have been fired by verifiable instances of wrongdoing and breach of statutory provisions for making the election process partisan. This act in itself creates provocations for the protest breaching peaceful forms. However, thankfully the protesters, be it the almost totality of the opposition parties and GenZ groups, have remained largely peaceful.
If there is any instance of breach of peace, it is largely a consequence of the unprecedented violence the security forces have unleashed. It would not be an overstatement to point out that the security forces have acted more like goons with charges of even sexual violence directed at young women protesters and journalists sticking. In fact, there are enquiries pending for such charges. It cannot go unmentioned that along with the security forces, goons belonging to various groups of Hindutva forces who have chipped in with their share of unseemly acts. In this age of social media explosion, video evidence of such obnoxious acts are pretty much on record.
The ‘regime change’ charge has not been accompanied with any substantive defence in the face of hard evidence on the explicit wrongdoing in the illegal disenfranchisement of a massive number of legitimate voters. The subtle insinuation that those deleted from the electoral rolls are non-citizens have also not been substantiated with any factual evidence. It is in the midst of such a battle which assumes dimensions of that for salvaging democracy, that a structured response from the government and the ruling party is missing. Further, clear evidence of fissures within the ECI have also surfaced. Therefore, to try and dub legitimate, peaceful and democratic protests which are very much within the framework of fundamental rights as provided in Article 19of the Indian Constitution as violent expressions for ‘regime change’ is counter-intuitive. Actually, actions of the security forces at the diktats of the government are faced with the charge of grossly violating the constitutional need to allow peaceful protests. Clearly the ‘regime change’ charge cannot stand any objective scrutiny. However, that the regime change insinuation is simply a diversion, is clear from the nature of protests that have taken place elsewhere in the recent past or happening right now across different parts of the world. The situation in the context of Bangladesh, Nepal, and in various European countries are as varied as chalk and cheese.
In fact, protests have led to legitimate changes as is now evident from what happened in Serbia. At the culmination of a two year long sustained protest, student groups clubbed under the omnibus ‘Student Chapter’ scored a stunning electoral victory over the Serbian strongman Aleksander Vucic, who was ousted in a seismic election. The Guardian newspaper of UK reported that, “Vucic had repeatedly sought to undermine the students of accusing them of being stooges of foreign powers, a charge that the students have dismissed”. The Serbian electoral outcome squarely establishes that the student protest and revolt resulted from deep seated discontent against the Vucic regime’s dubious record of governance and monumental corruption.
Therefore, as much as Vucic’s defence revolved around the invoking of the ‘regime change’ charge, in other parts of Europe, be it France, Spain, Greece, Albania and Iceland, the protests are assuming ever bigger magnitude and intensity driven by grounds of domestic dissent. In fact, the French President Macron himself rebutted some right wing inspired charges that what is happening in France is a result of immigrant Islamist violence and conceded that the dissent was powered by internal factors influenced by the US-Iran war and the resultant rise in oil prices.
The contrast with the Indian situation is obvious. The BJP itself through its appointee and stooge, Gyanesh Kumar, is trying to manipulate the election outcome by disenfranchising legitimate voters. The limited judicial intervention in West Bengal has actually shown that the deletion effort which encountered judicial scrutiny was fictitious. Therefore, the struggle for democracy and having fair and inclusive electoral rolls, is for ensuring compliance with the Constitution and statutes. Gyanesh Kumar and his ilk are obstructing that process through their actions and denying the traditional process that has inspired regime changes in the past.
The unfounded bogey of ‘regime change’ is premised on the hypocrisy and the double talk that the Hindutva camp is accustomed to indulge in. The ideological fountain head of the Hindutva forces, the RSS, has now been forced to betray this duplicity. In October, delivering his annual Dussehra speech from Nagpur, Mohan Bhagwat spoke darkly of a “western storm and sinister global conspiracy” aiming to destabilise regimes. The innuendo was that India appears to be a similar target. The Dussehra speech is a distinct counter point Bhagwat’s own narrative which was spun out during his first visit to the United States of America. He spoke of India’s ‘destiny’, ‘duty’ and ‘diversity’. Obviously, he was nuancing the RSS world view to an international audience. In fact, his entire US speech is a demonstration of paying lip service to the existing constitutional spirit of India, while the complete contrary is experienced by the present practices of the government and the Hindutva forces on the ground.
The regime change charge has been sought to be further spiced up by alleging that the protesters are receiving foreign funds. It is unbelievable! The union government has emerged red-faced for using the IT Dept., ED and all other agencies under it indiscriminately to target the opposition and has faced severe criticism by the courts themselves for the partisan conduct. Therefore, if money has indeed come in, the responsibility is squarely on the government and its agencies. It is however pertinent that there is growing evidence about RSS affiliated organisations receiving funds from different US based trusts (we have published a piece on this recently in People’s Democracy).
To sum up, regime change and foreign funding are figment of the ruling dispensation’s imagination. The unsubstantiated narrative finds no resonance either with what is happening inside the country or across the world. Such desperate attempts should be met with more resolute efforts to expose their shenanigans before the people. (IPA Service)
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