Fascist turn of Democratic State
Dr. Hiren Gohain
As far as I understand it, fascism is a methodical caricature
of socialism in order to serve the interests of a shadowy ruling class that
bides its time to come out into the open.It mimics the socialist programme
only to disarm it.Meanwhile it systematically takes up critical demands of
social democracy to provide solutions that turn them on their heads.There
is discontent among the farmers with the creeping desertification of their
life.It expresses sympathetic noises and goes on to introduce the menace
of farm acts.Ludicrously it gravely upholds the right of troll armies as
exercise of the sacred freedom of speech.
And now it is responding to anxious concern about poisoned messages and
trolling on social media that trigger ill-will and violence with elaborate
rules on social media posts and intermediaries that aims to throttle
them.Ominously it has also targeted free newsportals to gag them.
There is little room for doubt that the looming presence
today is fascism in democratic make-up.And Fascism is bent on destroying
the birthright of the people:freedom.
Enemies of freedom fear the free play of the mind too and
hasten to strangle it with the watchwords of 'responsibility' and
'control'.And the question is 'responsible to whom and for what'.And they
conjure the vision of a high moral good that is allegedly upheld by a band
of incorruptible rulers who who can control the danger posed by the
spreading venom in the social media.And go on to undermine freedom of
expression.
Law and Communication minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has
said,according to PTI reports has :"We welcome criticism and
dissent......but it is important that users of social media are given a
proper forum for resolution of their grievances in a time-bound manner".
The clever turn in phrasing has transferred the burden from
the state to 'the people'.Actually it is the government that is scared and
feels threatened by the explosion of anger and discontentment among the
people turning into a public indictment.The venomed posts are by the troll
army on its payroll (informally) and these cause them no discomfort,but the
genuine expression of anger and bitterness by a disillusioned people and by
responsible journalists and public intellectuals upset it.Hence the haste
in which it has put up a three-tier structure that allows it to put the
primary onus on the public but come in as the final arbiter.
Who are 'the public' in this case that air 'grievances'? The
familiar breed that rushes complaints about alleged offences against the
nation,the cow and religious sentiments of a community and are placated by
a complicit police with FIRs,arrests and chargesheets.
If someone complains that a certain high authority is speaking or
acting in a manner contrary to our constitution he or she is likely to see
his complaint taken up by a compliant officer of the intermediary
platform,and given the commercial constraints of the platform, dither on a
decision,or deliver a toothless verdict.If the latter takes a sharper and
gritty decision he is certain to be pulled up short by the officer in the
government.On the other hand if the grievance is against a Hindutvadi
fanatic,his opinion or message may well be judged as innocuous or even
positive and given thumbs up 'in a time-bound manner' or in no time at all.
When the state itself shirks its constitutional obligations
and indeed goes on to subvert it, free speech becomes a serious liability
for it.Free speech promotes public discussions of government policies and
decisions so that power overreach or arbitrariness is corrected and public
welfare ensues.That results in constant renewal of the
Constitution.Sometimes intemperance of language in that cause may upset
people in authority.But it only jolts them into a keen sense of their
actual constitutional responsibility. Freedom of the citizens is the
imperative condition for the health of democracy.And it enhances the
citizen's self-esteem and creativity to the general good of all.The
opposite is explicit or implicit slavery,demeaning the citizen to a robot
without any sense of honour and ultimately leading a country to destruction.
Freedom in concrete terms means democratic rights enforceable in
courts,laws passed by parliaments in accordance with the constitution and
media and platforms where public criticism and dissent from a course
adopted by the government in power may be voiced.As big corporate houses in
cahoots with the ruling party take over the media and public platforms
become subject to a 'permission raj' administered by the police,social
media and crowd-funded newsportals become the last and perhaps only refuge
of the lovers of freedom and democracy.
For all its abuses,including instigation of communal passion and
incitement of violence by vested interests ,which can hardly be controlled
by the new rules if used by the agents of a vile political power,social
media becomes the last bastion of the forces of freedom now besieged on all
sides.
To put it more bluntly the government may use the new rules to
silence and devalue any legitimate criticism and dissent and encourage real
anti-nationals and anti-socials to go on a rampage to circulate false news
and toxic views.This is a prelude to full-blown fascist reign of terror.
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