I am Radhika Barman. An 18 year old student and a fellow citizen of the Indian republic. A blogger, author of a book titled, “God, Religion and Indians” and a political analyst. But as I write this today, I only identify myself as a concerned Indian citizen. https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09YLWX9QY/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_awdb_imm_R9GSDD5WDYPSTG2MDCG5
Five years back the much awaited Indian General elections started on 11th April, 2024. Today is 3rd May, 2023, we have less than one year left before the 2024 general elections to begin. Given the fact that campaigning should stop one month ahead, we have exact 10 months left. Last election the BJP won 303 seats that is 229,076,879 which is 37.36%. 272 seats are required for a majority. The Indian National Congress got 119,495,214 votes that is 19.46%. Thus, it was short of 10 crore + voters.
I know what you will be probably thinking reading this, such a weak opposition etc; You are free to think. It’s a democracy. But just remember you are not free to speak. Every injustice that happens in this country is brushed off under the carpet as internal matter. Well, it’s easy giving idealistic irrelevant speeches in social media but not easy to vocally go against this government.
A sense of fear, tendency of being politically cautious is not a very familiar reality in India. In our national history we have had freedom fighters like Khudiram Bose, Bhagat Singh, Lala Lajpat Rai, who went against social conventions, violated laws, left their family and joined the freedom movement. In their lifetime, they didn’t succeed in the sense they were dead before India achieved independence. We have surely failed our ancestors, Khudiram Bose that 16 year old young boy, who smiled and accepted death penalty. The present sense of fear, tendency of giving sugarcoated political views, the need to be politically correct is not something that was present 10 years back, when the Indian National Congress was in power. I think the congress never received so much debacle of the general masses as much it did during the Anna Hazare movement post 2011.
Who were part of the Anna Hazare movement? Politicians? Yes, a few. Aap supporters, most definitely yes. But the rest were civilians. The general mass, bankers, lawyers, students, traders, peasants, homemakers, doctors even beuracrats were part of it. Fast forward 2022, NDTV most watched and well reputed news channel does a prime time debate on the topic , “Should an economist join a political rally?” This was on the onset of Raghuram Rajan an ex-RBI governor joining Bharat Jodo Yatra done by Shri Rahul Gandhi. Interesting question. You know what is more interesting? That once liberal champian also did another interesting debate 2 years back, “Secularism – Is it essential for a democracy?” Wonderful. Yes, obviously the framemakers of the Indian constitution must be drunk while they thought to insert religious freedoms in the constitution. They should have instead discussed it with the Hindu Mahasabha league including Bal Narendra’s parents. Alas! They thought secularism is a non-negotiatable issue.
We are a pretty interesting democracy actually, we are outraged by saffron bikini in television but not rapes in temples. We are offended by green colour in Indian flag but not by RSS’s refusal to hoist the national flag after independence. We want welfare but vote for temples. Voting out of FOMO isn’t a big deal, but Rahul Gandhi visiting his grandmother is a national issue.
I mean Rahul Gandhi is irrelevant isn’t he? Yet we are obsessed with his t-shirt and beard. Insignificant still disqualified. Lacks intelligence yet invited by Cambridge University. Has no oratory skill, yet has done 100+ press conferences in India and abroad. On the contrary, Mr.Modi has a fake degree, but educational qualification doesn’t matters. True, let’s stop sending our children to school. How does it matter? Let’s make them pakoda sellers. The Prime minister has suggested. Obey it! Else you are not a perfect slave! Anyway, it’s startup culture. Pretty well executed plan you know, pannapramukhs, IT Cell expansion and so much more has happened. Ironically, you will even find IIT pass outs in it, yes ofcourse from universities build during congress regime. No wonder, the only person whose job is secured in India is the photographer of Narendra Modi and the only sector that is expanding with supernormal profits is the BJP IT Cell.
Pretty interesting regime. A regime where a person’s consience is worth 5kg rice. A person’s political affiliation is shaped by YouTubers. Social media is the basis for political education and justifying Mr.Modi’s absence of degree is the only activity deemed progressive. We hail Rishi Sunak upon being the Prime Minister of UK, but give death threats to a widow woman who spend more years in India in her in-laws house than in her birthplace. We don’t have problem with corruption being legalized by electoral bonds but we have a problem with Congress wanting to ban communal parties.
To top it all, we have a neoliberal section comprising of naive neutrals, apoliticals classified into different regional parties. You know its good to play safe, but only at the cost of your survival not the country’s. One man’s ego is not worth losing the principal tenets of our democracy.
Neutrality is at times a graver sin than belligerence.
Louis D. Brandeis
We criticise Mr.Rahul Gandhi for apparently being too vocal about India’s political situation in his interactions abroad as an alumnae. Well, then what were we expecting him to do? Give wild lies like sab changa si? Sorry but no sorry, it suits the Prime Minister with monogrammed suit not the Gandhi family scion. Firstly, why have we reduced India to such a legacy where all Mr.Gandhi can do is say mere lies to portray everything is well in India? Why is everything not well in India at the first place? Why couldn’t Mr.Modi who boasts about his 56inch chest scare Rahul Gandhi to the core to give a balanced narrative. You know why because there’s nothing left to balance anymore. Its an open secret India is a recession. India is a kakistoracy and is undergoing an undeclared emergency.
Some people claim, “If not modi then who?” I hear, “If not Hitler then who?”. I wonder if these persons have read history. Who would have thought PV Narasimha Raos minority government would last 5 year successfully? He is even credited to be an economic reformer and Indian liberlisation. I studied about it in my economics textbook too. When I hear Congress, i remember MNREGA, RTE, RTI, Gandhian socialism, Food security act, POCSO, Prevention of Domestic Violence Act, Green revolution, IT revolution, etc; which I have studied in school textbooks. When I hear BJP, i remember communalism, Islamophobia, Gujarat riots, Muzaffarnagar violence, electoral bonds, demonitisation, GST, GDP fall etc which I have again studied in school books. (Yes I was fortunate to not have read the edited NCERT.)
Then when I hear someone saying, ‘If not Modi then who?’ Two questions come to my mind. Why Modi? Why not Rahul? Mr.Modi is the anti-thesis of Rahul Gandhi. That is Rahul Gandhi is everything Mr.Modi isn’t. Clean image, well educated, smart, compassionate, humble, loyal, has bold opinions, unafraid to speak the truth.There have been historical evidence, of government being thrown out from power by civil war and other civil society movements. Congress too lost the 2014 election due to the Anna Hazare movement. India is the only country where citizens want a perfect opposition but have no problem having a failed government.
The two pillars of political correctness are, willful ignorance and a steadfast refusal to face the truth. – George MacDonald Fraser
Those who blame congress for not being a strong opposition should look at themselves and ask what they have done for the country. Expression of dissent is the highest form of patriotism. There are more than 2000+ political parties registered in the country. 6 are national parties. Congress and Mr.Rahul Gandhi happen to be the only vocal voice against the BJP. It feels like people hate congress more than they hate bjp. If not modi then who? Well, if you were so concerned about the country, why did you elect a riot accused person to power at first place? The country doesn’t wait for anyone. Anyone from congress can be made the prime ministerial candidate. The country doesn’t waits for a leader, when a leader has to come, he or she will. The phrase goes the King is dead, long live the king. Perhaps, it’s a well calculated reverse psychological manipulation bjp uses to confuse the voters in their side. Ultimately who is benefitting by your expert analysis of Modi vs who? BJP and Mr.Modi. If you cannot convince them, confuse them.
It’s more like neoliberals want the opposition to be weak by repeatedly manifesting the weak opposition narrative. There isn’t anything that the congress party could do but hasn’t done as yet. More importantly, you cannot clap with one hand. The ultimate choice lies upon you and me as citizens. The general mass doesn’t comprise of politicians alone? Why haven’t we done any civil society movement like Janata Andolan? Why did any other Anna Hazare movement not happened? Why is congress alone exclusively responsible to throw this government? It isn’t the only voterbase in the country. Why have you voted for mr.modi? For development or temples? Ask yourself. If out of religious solidarity then what evidence do you have to support religious nationalism. Countries like Turkey, Pakistan etc have broken and are destroyed for supporting religious nationalism.
You cannot even say with full confidence you voted for Mr.modi for development he did in this decade. Inflation rate is high, gas cylinder is 1100, sensex is crashing, PhD holders are standing in peon queue for jobs, economic abuse has become a new reason for suicides in the country. The country is happy? Are you happy?
It does not matter whether you support congress or Rahul Gandhi or not.
What is happening is a collective bullying of an opposition leader, violation of democracy and supremacy.
We have to stand up to the sycophants of the regime and the regime. If you are not bitter, sad or angry about this country, you are part of the problem.
We have less than a year left for 2024, and given current conditions, Mr.Modi is going to probably stand alone, as Mr.Rahul Gandhi has been now disqualified as an MP, thus he cannot stand for elections. Do we realise? That we have reduced ourselves to China. One extremely strong significant political leader alone has monopoly over the political system. Opposition leader is forcefully removed from parliament, mic is turned off, not allowed to speak, defamation suits given, journalists are killed, people are lynched, students are arrested, yet we are the mother of democracy. Your dream for perfect politics has reduced India to a totalitarian regime. Still you require excuses to make mr.modi stay in power.
When David chose to fight with Goliath, people laughed. But their laughter didn’t lead them to stand for Goliath. During 2019 election, many voters voted for Mr.Modi because they didn’t find Rahul Gandhi as a strong alternative candidate. Here I have only two things to say, firstly, if your vote depends on winning probability then either you lack political education or you lack conscience. I find the latter more believable.
If you have settled for the if not Hitler then who argument, then some would say you are merely sitting in the fence. I don’t like mincing words so I won’t. Not everyone has the guts to be a BJP supporter openly thus, these are mere excuses.
Often people settle for regional parties. I have only one thing to say here, that is I am sure unless you are a new voter, you won’t be naive enough to not understand that a general election is fought between national parties for the Prime Minister. Regional parties are legally allowed to participate but their participation is as nominal as the President of India is. It works like a vote cutter, to uplift the votes of a party with winning probability. Same for NOTA.
You know what, I think you are very intelligent. Your ignorance can make you not waste your vote by making your patriotism vote out of FOMO. Interestingly, that too on regional parties. It’s a good idea actually. It’s better to be a sheep in wolves clothing than a mere sheep.
It is unlikely that a citizen will hate his country. No one really knows what patriotism means. You can’t expect a commoner to understand the difference between nationalism & patriotism.
The world is a mesh of perception, left to be picked & chosen. That’s the fascist advantage. The objective of the BJP is to reduce down India to a morality cafe, to objectify human beings as sinners. It was never about Hinduism vs Hindutva. The former is a spiritual ideology the latter a political. The RSS idea is to create a non-existent fight and keep people busy.
I can’t believe you know sometimes that India where a statesman like Abul Kalam Azad served as the first education minister, is now a country where the youth won’t study about its education minister. Why because he is a muslim? Dr. Abdul Kalam, where are you? The India of your dreams has been destroyed into pieces. Not long ago did we have an economist as the Prime Minister and a scientist as the President of India.
Keep going with this coward attitude, i am sure you can prove to be an excellent bjp voter too, so my advice to you, don’t do this unnecessary drama. Be a BJP supporter, and vocally support your fascist party. Stop pretending to be a liberal. Neither your apoliticism nor your cowardice fence sitting can remove the bjp. The only party which can is the Indian National Congress.
If you don’t wish to, it’s fine but just remember those who choose to be neutral in times of moral crisis have reserved places in hell. If an elephant has its foot on a mouse you can call yourself neutral and justify the stance saying, it won’t survive anyway, the elephant will win for sure, but the mouse won’t appreciate your neutrality. What’s next? The elephant will have you on table, as it’s dinner feast, to celebrate its victory over the mouse.
The term political correctness has always appalled me, reminding me of Orwell’s Thought Police and fascist regimes. – Helmut Newton
In India, political neutrality is the new morality. I don’t subscribe to this belief. My conscience says dissent is highest form of patriotism. It is not merely a mundane political battle but a modern day Kurukshetra war. I have taken the side of the truth and I shall stick to it unapologetically. I have never sat on the fence and never will. The attitude of silent tolerance of injustice and glorification of neutrality, has helped shaping majoritarianism.
Lest, the dream of perfect politics took the form of sinisterhood. For a nation drowned in hero-worship, if you now choose to give up oppression, it will last forever.
There is a term called political correctness, and I consider it to be a euphemism for political cowardice. – Milos Zeman
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Radhika Barman 
Must read for Indian’s
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Well summarised. Fair and balanced view of a responsible citizen who cares. God bless you. Keep it up. Looking forward for more from your pen.
Warm regards
V. P. Lobo
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