We the People do matter. It is time for us the people of India, the electorate, to stand up and ask the ruling dispensation some hard questions. We have to do so because the urgency of the time demands it. We have to do so because it is in our name, the people of this nation, the sacred constitution of the nation was framed.   The constitution has to be salvaged from those who deface and denounce it. We need to protect our hard-won democracy and preserve its integrity.  

We cannot afford to see cracks appearing on the pillars of our democracy. Nor can we afford to sit around with just foot tapping in mere annoyance while moral, ethical and constitutional principles are torn to shreds by an agenda-based government.   

We need to pluck up courage and ask: why are you hiding in the capital under barbed wire fence and eight fold barricades and not wanting the citizens of this nation to meet you? Have our so-called tall leaders withdrawn into rat holes and rabbit holes for fear of men and women who express dissenting opinions or ask questions? Does not fear lurk in your hearts giving you sleepless nights even as you are cordoned off by the militia?

Why did you plant spikes and nails on the chest of the nation and make it impossible for people to find a little breathing space? Isn’t it a national shame that those who express a dissenting opinion or speak up in favour of the exploited and the oppressed are silenced by putting them behind bars? Even when national and international personalities and, all the more, the United Nations have called for the release of those held under the draconian UAPA law, your stony silence and spiked fist speak of an authoritarian regime. The nation wants to know if it isn’t a criminal offence to destroy public property like the national highways with trenches, spikes and nails, making it impossible for even ordinary citizens to conduct their normal affairs in life. 

How stupid is the act of the Delhi police, bordering on dull-witted comedy, by filing FIR against Greta Thunberg, internationally acclaimed Swedish environmental activist, for supporting the cause of the Indian farmers?  Do you think the iron claws of CPC &Cr. P C will work wonders beyond Indian borders? What a mockery it was to unleash the troll army of rightwing Bollywood stars and cricket heroes, as if ‘to kill a mocking bird’ by going after an international celebrity who expressed solidarity with the striking farmers?  

Have we conveniently forgotten Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 when several students protesting against repressive Chinese regime and calling for democracy were massacred, many hounded, tortured and jailed? Did not men and women of conscience in India condemn it? Were not several sheets of petitions pasted on the gates of Chinese embassy in Delhi by Delhi University students to condemn the incident?  That was a show of India’s humanitarian fellowship across the borders. But, when such humanitarian fellowship is expressed by citizens of other countries  for agitating farmers’ cause in India, how come our chicken-hearted authorities and their troll army get into a fighting outfit and shower uncivilised abuses on them? Does it not mean that Prime Minister Modi’s call for a ‘Global Community’ was mere ‘jumla’ type rhetoric?  We praised the reputed America singer Mary Milliben for singing our national anthem on our Independence Day 2020. But, we trolled, abused and threatened Meena Harris, lawyer and niece of American Vice President Kamala Harris, for uttering a word of solidarity with the Indian farmers. Is it not our double standard doused with arrogance?

These and more! Where is that tin drum-beating bandwagon of your ministers and demonstrators who raised hell and cried foul when petrol and gas prices under UPA were below one third of the current rates which are now ever ballooning? Cooking gas and vehicle oil are essential commodities for people. The balloon should burst!

Do you think that we the people should remain silent when the nation’s precious assets and resources are sold to private agencies and turn this socialist democracy into a capitalist oligarchy? 

Do you think that the budget proposal of handing over Sainik schools to NGOs is not agenda based? The RSS has openly taken credit for preparing its own nationalist right wing army that can take a commanding position in just three days. So, are the Sainik Schools going to be handed over to this NGO to prepare our young students to swell the RSS army in near future? Sinister clouds are meandering over the nation. 

You have wanted a Congress–mukt Bharat. That is happening not because of your wit and wisdom, but sadly because of the foolhardiness of congressmen whose fawning allegiance could not see beyond the courtyard of the Nehru family. You seem to be taking credit for it while trying to fish in troubled waters. Now, your agenda for an opposition-mukt regime is taking shape because manipulating middlemen and voracious sales agents are cleverly using their tik-tok tricks to sow discontent among members of opposition parties.

The Bombay high court’s recent observation about the threat to our democracy has been widely reported. It stated that if agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the judiciary, do not act independently, there is a threat to democracy in the country. From this we the citizens are to understand that the court is giving timely warning that these segments of our democracy need to pull up their socks.  

Supreme Court senior advocate Dushyant Dave had a very pointed message to the court when he did not mince words: ‘You get Rajyasabha seat and z plus security for Rafale judgement, Ayodhya judgement and CBI judgement. What impression does it give? You give these judgements and you have benefits. These are all serious issues that strike at the core of the Judiciary.’ Dave spoke this while arguing for Prashant Bhushan contempt case. Has the situation come to such a pass that the courts are being considered suspect in executing their duty with integrity? 

Speaking at a webinar on Keys to Governance & Independence of the Judiciary, organised by India international Centre and D S Borker Memorial Foundation, Justice Madan B. Lokur said: As long as the judge has integrity, it does not matter what political alignment he has. This ties up with post retirement benefits also. If a judge has no integrity or little integrity, he will be swayed by political consideration. 

Sadly, this nation is being taken to a precipitous cliff from where people with skewed nationalist proclivities want to hurtle it down to bottomless pit and celebrate in total abandon.  

That is where ‘We the People’ should take stock of things and protect our democracy and this nation from any hounding predator whose megalomaniac authoritarianism seeks to deface and destroy them. The messianic figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Lok Nayak Jayaprakash need to have second avatar for a Gandhian style movement, upholding ahimsa as a noble principle, along with tools like Satyagraha and peaceful democratic resistance.  

Even as we are faced with a crawling media and fawning news bytes, happily there are men and women of integrity and right conscience who stand for truth and express so. They are people of calibre like intellectuals, ex- judges, professors, writers, ex-bureaucrats, social scientists, principle-based politicians and such others. It is time they join hands on a common platform to marshal ideas and thrash out plans to save our democracy from the danger of its being derailed by narrow agenda-based nationalist hawks.