Jubilee Post News & Views
News Desk
The Left and trade unions have called a nationwide strike on January 8 against the ‘anti-people’ policies of the Modi government at the centre. A number of central labour organization have stated that they shall protest against labour policies and ‘anti-people’ policies on January 8 via ‘Bharat Band’ and claimed this will have 21 crore (210 million) people participating in it.
The anger against the citizenship amendment law hasn’t settled as yet and demonstration continue from north east to the west in the country. The universities in the country are reeling under unrest. The fire from Jamia is spreading instead of getting doused. The protest demonstration by women in Delhi’s Shasheen Bagh area still continues.
On one side is discontent and on the other side is assertiveness of the government. Since long there have been no instance that the government has called the discontent lot or made any announcement to end the discontent.
The result is that on one side the government can be seen standing and in front of the government there are several peoples’ groups standing against the government on different issues and in this scenario India seems divided (in to pieces), ideologically. Ironically the pieces are not based upon issues but entangled due to government vs others fight.
This is not for the first time that that anti-government agitation is taking place in India neither it is for the last time. But this time the attitude of the government is different and so have the protestors taken a different face altogether. But the intellectual fight is reaching its peak.
Against the claim of tough administration the government looks more of a stubborn administrator that tends to show more aggressiveness instead of making efforts to talk and resolve issues. Moreover the government gives common tag to all its critics — ‘traitor.’ This tag comes irrespective of the person and even if they have won noble prize or the coveted Gyanpeeth award.
The current scenario is different even from the past tenure of Narendra Modi as the home minister in this government is aggressive Amit Shah and not a flexible Rajnath Singh. The different among previous and present home minister is evident.
BJP’s critics say this situation is also one of the strategies of the party itself. The situation arises with the organised strategy of attacking the targeted opposition immediately and in this situation the BJP is able to corner opposition and get public support for itself.
According to a report published in the BBC the political analyst Suhas Palshikar has says, ‘all protestors have been stated anti-national and an atmosphere is created in which unrestricted violence is done and law and order is broken. Today, an atmosphere of suspicion and hatred is being created in an organised manner.’
A few years before intellectuals had indicated towards this situation by saying, ‘intolerance is increasing in the country.’ A number of artists and writers had returned the awards given to them but then the BJP had given them a name ‘Award Wapasi Gang’ (gang of those who return their awards together) and had dared them. After this came the ‘urban naxal’ narrative and in the garb of this slogan there were attempts to snub the critics.
At present the scene is such that majority writers, artists, journalists, teachers and economists have been named urban naxals or members of award wapasi gang and the renowned academic institutions are being termed as ‘den of anti-nationals.’ And all this just because the criticism for the policies of the government is increasing and in the largest democracy in the world the ‘democratic space’ is shrinking.
The prime minister Narendra Modi is silent or is doing his ‘man ki baat’ that is loosing connect with the heart of the people.
Senior journalist Preeti Singh says the government is moving in a direction where it wants to implement its policies in a hurry and all this going against the tradition of having long debates in the parliament on issues. Laws are being made in a day. Decision such as demonetization came as a surprise that made a adverse impact upon not just on unorganized trade but also the economy.
Despite a strong majority in the Lok Sabha BJP is losing government in states and the ruling NDA is getting cracks deeper and deeper.
In this scenario raising a question will not be incorrect – is India vexed with its government?
