By Sagarika Ghose.
Sagarika Ghose has been a journalist for over three decades, starting her career with The Times of India, subsequently moving … MORE
2020 was a bleak year for individual freedom. Governments across the world fought the Covid pandemic through liberty-quashing lockdowns. In March, India slammed down what has been described as one of the world’s harshest lockdowns. The economy collapsed. Millions of migrant workers took to the streets to walk thousands of miles home. As the year draws to a close, night curfew is back in Maharashtra and uncertainty persists over the spread of coronavirus. There is no uncertainty however on the fact that overwhelming state power is now intruding into and controlling our lives.
2020 was the year of the Big State. Today the state can constrain fundamental freedoms and personal liberty in unprecedented ways. Yes, a health pandemic demands intelligent well-focused state action, yet in India’s case state power tends to manifest in coercive, violent ways. Migrants toiling on highways, many dying enroute, became a symbol of how the state’s lack of compassion can push citizens to the brink. Additionally, India’s highly centralised lockdown with Union home ministry issuing guidelines and amendments for all of India meant local conditions were largely ignored and countless small enterprises forced to close by Delhi’s diktat.
A dominant image of the lockdown was the sight of lathi wielding police beating and threatening migrants and street vendors, forcing citizens to do squats or even hop along the road for being unaware of rules. In UP migrant workers were sprayed with disinfectant. A lasting legacy of the lockdown was the way citizens had to sacrifice basic dignity and self esteem.
Indiscriminate police power was used to scapegoat citizens when the Tablighi Jamaat event, held at Delhi’s Nizamuddin markaz in March, was appallingly targeted. Goaded on by jingoist sections of the media, communal labeling became widespread as Tablighis were painted as “super spreaders” and Jamaat participants were hounded and charged by police across states. Almost all police cases against foreigners who attended the Jamaat have now collapsed, courts lambasting police for failing to provide even “ an iota of evidence”.
During a health crisis, panic-stricken citizens can easily give up on their personal freedom. When citizens are vulnerable, if state power is used without remorse and restraint, it can destroy the very arsenal that is needed to fight the virus – namely a healthy, active society and a functioning economy.
In 2020, state power reigned supreme in other ways too. The anti terror UAPA law has been used against students and civil liberties campaigners in a manner that defies due process of law. Academics, writers and poets are languishing in jail without bail. While citizens’ private information is scrutinised, the state is receding into extreme opacity. The PM Cares Fund, set up to receive Covid donations, is a government entity yet placed outside the ambit of the RTI. Citizens are not allowed to know who the donors are or how much they have contributed.
UP’s Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2020 or “love jihad” law is taking a horrendous toll on citizens’ personal freedom. Consenting adults who have freely chosen to convert and marry are being treated as criminals. A Moradabad couple was persecuted by police even though they kept insisting there was no forced conversion. The woman was sent to a shelter home and miscarried, the man was jailed. In another recent case, a teenager was arrested for walking to a pizza parlour with a friend from a different religion. The state is snatching away the right to love.
Citizens’ right to personal food choices is also under threat from state policing. Maharashtra has already passed anti cow slaughter laws. Now Karnataka is seeking to pass a similar law – a drive which has resulted in halting of beef supplies to neighbouring Goa where the Catholic population consumes beef particularly at Christmas. India’s founders steered clear of using state power to dictate personal choices. Gandhi opposed cattle slaughter but because he also viewed state power with extreme suspicion, he never campaigned for cow protection to be enforceable by law. State governments misuse state power as much as the Centre: across India citizens can be jailed for social media posts criticising the ruling dispensation.
Use of state power can also be seen in the way farm bills of 2020 have been passed. Whatever the merits in the bills, the manner in which they were pushed through in a pandemic has created a trust deficit. A top down centralising approach tends to rob the reforms agenda of grassroots connect and create fears of even greater – not lesser – state control. An RTI query has revealed that the Centre has no records of any discussions or meetings with farm organisations before finalising the bills.
In a health emergency and economic downturn, democratic debate and free speech are vital for citizens to express their grievances and needs. The cancellation of Parliament’s winter session is another example of state power shutting down discussions. When the heavy hand of the Big State moves to crush people instead of negotiating, there is invariably a backlash.
2020 began with a citizens’ uprising in defence of the Constitution in Shaheen Bagh, the site now part of the lexicon of protests in India. As the year ends, another venue is set to enter the protest lexicon. Lakhs of citizens are braving the winter chill to protest at Delhi’s Singhu border. From Shaheen to Singhu, citizens are in uproar. 2020 saw the apogee of state power. This trend needs to be reversed in 2021: a robust democracy is about We the people, not us the bloated state.
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