Bleeding Democracy through thousand cuts.

India was a unique experiment in Democracy launched on 26^th January 1950. All other countries that gained independence post WW2 and tried to install Democracy as their operating system crashed in little time. Ghana, Venezuela, Egypt, and Pakistan are glaring examples of their OS lasting only a decade.

Sustaining Democracy is a constant tug-of-war between the State and the citizens. If the citizens slept at their desks, they gradually metamorphose into subjects, and the State shall become autocratic. India being a UNION OF STATES, the tug-of-war takes several dimensions. In any federal government, the right to govern needs to be closely calibrated. The relationship between states and the union and the ren individual autonomy and state authority needs constant surveillance. Transgression by any of the party a PUSH BACK to ensure that anarchy does not creep in.

To usurp power, the State tried to whittle down individuals' autonomy.  

Bleed India through Thousand Cuts was a doctrine made famous by Bhutto and pursued actively by his successor, Zia-Ul-Haq. To further his doctrine of thousand cuts, Pakistan launched a low-intensity war on India by stoking militancy and pushing terror modules inside India.

Today, our Democracy is being bled by thousand cuts.

India, till recently, had been able to withstand the shenanigans of its rulers starting immediately after the "D" day.  The first attempt was by the Father of our Democracy, i.e., Nehru himself, vide the first Amendment passed in 1951, barely within 16 months of the declaration of the republic. Then, Indira Gandhi all but destroyed our Democracy by declaring an emergency in 1975. The 42^nd Amendment of the Indian constitution was an ugly attempt at weakening our Democracy and curtailing our Judiciary's powers. Thankfully, it was undone immediately after Mrs Gandhi lost the elections, vide 43^rd Amendment.

The judiciary that had surrendered to the might of Indira Gandhi's powerful authority immediately got back its demeanour once the emergency was withdrawn.

The most critical part of Democracy is DEMOS. People never felt enamoured with Indira and or Sanjay during the emergency. On the contrary, they discarded the yoke of Indira by ensuring her defeat in the election following the emergency.

While earlier attacks on Democracy were overt, akin to frontal attacks, today, it is a low-intensity war. Emergency was declared by Indira mischievously by taking advantage of specific legal provisions. It is being executed covertly as a daily exercise of small and deliberate cuts and snicks. Consequently, seeing lacerating wounds has become the new normal and does not jar our sensibilities. The mass media, expected to cast light on such a criminal assault on Democracy, has chosen to keep its eyes wide shut. Fake news fed through propaganda machines, aka Godi media and Social media, has held the leader’s popularity high.

 The primary reason for winning the election in 2014 was the polarization of majoritarian votes. This polarisation was engineered by creating a siege mentality among Hindus. A phoenix of Hindu Good and Muslim bad was created to ensure block voting by Hindus. As a result, muscular Hinduism became the month’s flavour, and the BJP won the election on the back of this aggressive Hinduism.

After that slow downslide of Indian Democracy began, nearly all the institutions surrendered to the might of the State, i.e., Modi. The media started singing a laudatory tune for apparent reasons, and the Judiciary, for not-so-obvious reasons, began towing the Government's arguments.

In the post-2019 elections, the Government has dropped all pretensions of Democracy. So now, there was no need for velvet on the steel knuckleduster.

The juggernaut of the electoral majority became the summum bonum of governance. Steamrolling became the single-pointed agenda of this Juggernaut, aka Government. The policy instrument of achieving this subjugation was the most primitive and blunt instrument, the Police Danda or the State's muscle power. The 5^th August 2019 scrapping of Article 370 and the overpowering of the JK government was achieved by deputing a massive contingent of armed forces, clamping a curfew, and locking up the entire citizenry, i.e., 7.5 million people in their homes. The Amendment of UAPA made it evident that the State desired a rampant use of Raw Power. It exhibited little concern for Democracy and total commitment to an undisguised totalitarian rule.

CAA+NRC, the Elgar Parishad case, Riots in North East Delhi, labelling Farmers' agitation as a Khalistani movement, and booking someone under NSA for a FB post are all the same Jigsaw puzzle. The Pegasus project is only the most recent piece that has been revealed. The picture that emerges as our Jigsaw puzzle takes shape is of DOMINATION—surveillance and control over the masses. Pegasus is a panopticon, a system where the Guard can keep an eye on you without your knowledge. Individual privacy was accepted as a fundamental right by the Apex Court with a 9-0 majority. The State cares two hoots about such niceties expressed by SC. The electoral majority has seemingly granted the State all rights to exorcise Democracy from the nation's spirit.   

 Individual autonomy is the substratum of Democracy, yet it has been rendered insignificant. It was severely compromised when Amulya Leone was arrested for raising a slogan. When Munawwar Faruqi was arrested for jokes, he would likely crack a hundred such instances.

These cuts to Democracy are reflected in several international indices, calibrating democracies worldwide.

Jigsaw's picture is rapidly taking shape. Control through surveillance is the predominant colour in this picture without any stain of Democracy.