A half government

In the undiluted chaos and out-and-out anarchy that has been unleashed on the nation by the “Tuglaki firman” of Narendra Modi a la demonetisation (I can claim copyright to this phrase as I coined it on Twitter to describe this whimsical diktat on November 8 at 9.07 pm) an important date went virtually unobserved, i.e. November 26. On that day the BJP-led NDA government completed 30 out of its 60-month term in office. It perhaps is a good occasion to take stock of the two-and-a-half years of this man and a half government.

The first casualty of the past 30 months are India’s liberal and creative spaces. The manner in which a binary view of nationalism has been used as bludgeon to browbeat alternative points of view and contra voices has, perhaps, only three parallels in modern history — the disastrous reign of the Nazi’s in Germany from 1933-1945, the Stalinist Purges in the erstwhile Soviet Union and the cultural revolution of Mao Zedong.

An insidious narrative is being attempted to be institutionalised that it is anti-national to question the BJP, seditious to query the government and traitorous to raise legitimate questions of the defence establishment. Artists, writers, academicians, film personalities and those engaged in creative arts have been compelled to install a censor in their heads out of fear of right reactionary policing.

The true test of a democracy is not only to hear the dominant majority, but also to give equal space to a creative minority even if its point of view is unpopular or unpalatable. The attempt to reposition the mainstream debate in the country to the right and establish that as the new normal is a toxic abomination that needs a robust push back.

The second casualty has been the nation’s harmony. From day one, attempts have been orchestrated to intimidate, terrorise and brutalise minorities using extremely crude tactics. The campaigns of “ghar wapsi”, “love jihad”, the insidious crusade against beef and other culinary choices coupled with lumpenism masquerading as vigilantism on cow protectionism are all designed to instil the spectre of inferiority among the minority — that while they may be equal citizens in theory they are less than equal in practice.

The lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq and the brutal gangrape and murder of an entire family in the Mewat region of Haryana by alleged gau rakshaks evidences Kristallnacht — the unending night of the broken glass that has been unleashed on the country.

The third casualty has been internal security. The most glaring example of that is the complete mishandling of the situation in the Kashmir Valley. It has been six months now and the Valley continues to simmer with anger. Rather than understanding and even appreciating that given the long-drawn conflict conditions in the state, a child born in 1990 who today would be 26 years old has only seen violence as a constant standard.

Curfew, cordon and search. Men in olive green or khaki carrying AK-47s breaking down doors followed by arbitrary detentions if not enforced disappearance are the staple that an entire generation has grown up on, notwithstanding the truth of it or otherwise. It has led to both a repressed pent up rage and a romanticisation of terror.

Coupled with this is the belief that Muslims globally are under attack. Else why would a Burhan Wani be the poster boy of young Kashmiris rather than an Athar Aamir ul Shafi Khan who stood second in the civil services exam?

The fact that the ISIS has not yet established a base in India and in the Kashmir Valley should only be a source of cold comfort for the Indian security establishment. In today’s day and age, self-radicalised youngsters making the leap of faith from the Internet keyboard to becoming suicide bombers are chilling realities of our times.

The fourth casualty is the economy. Given that I had devoted an entire piece on December 2 to the very illegality of this currency swap, or notebadli as it is colloquially known, it is not worth belabouring the point. The fact that an entire nation has been made to queue up like beggars trying to get their own money exchanged is perhaps the most breathtaking vignette of this absurdity.

Out of the Rs 14,17,000 crores that were demonetised, Rs 11,00,000 crores are already back in the system as of December 3 and there is still almost a month to go.

The economic cost of the loss of productivity as well as the hit that retail, real estate, services and myriad sectors of the non-formal economy would take is as yet in the realm of conjecture but not a single economist worth his salt has supported this irrationality. India could be heading into an era of serious social unrest.

The fifth casualty has been the mishandling of the relationship or lack of it with Pakistan. Since September 2014, there has been unprecedented escalation in cross-border firing from both sides.

The lurch from the sublime to the ridiculous in the approach to that country has emboldened the deep state in Pakistan to run circles around the mandarins in South Block.

The chest-thumping on the operations along the Line of Control conducted by senior ministers of the government coupled with the attempts to rewrite the no first-use nuclear doctrine in the public space by the defence minister all point to a very myopic and politically transactional view of vital national security issues. The blockade of Nepal and the estrangement with China has ensured that the neighbourhood-first policy lies in tatters.

The inability to skilfully handle the global power dynamic has even driven India’s all-weather ally, Russia, to explore a military relationship with Pakistan. Except for buying arms from the US and signing military foundational agreements there has not been a single big idea in the relationship in the past 30 months.

If one takes a long view of the past 30 months, internal chaos and external tension are the two overriding themes that manifest themselves. A nation on the edge can certainly not be the definition of achche din.