A travesty of democracy

Did we vote for the police crackdown at Ramlila Maidan?

neha-singla

Neha Singla | June 28, 2011



Of the people, by the people, for the people – is a popular line that many in India hold to be a sort of credo for the country’s democracy.

Of course, ‘people’ here refers to all the people of the country and not just a privileged class or section, one would assume.

But often enough, events occur that challenge our notions of our government, and by extrapolation, of ourselves being democratic. There’s no need to look far back for evidence. The June 4 crackdown on the protest at Ramlila Maidan is one such incident.

Thousands of protestors were beaten, tear-gassed in the police action and mauled in the stampede that resulted. They were there, staging a democratic protest, demanding that a government elected by them to serve them do whatever is necessary to check corruption.

In the aftermath, the outrage against the police brutality was muted, with condemning notes rising and quickly ebbing mostly in news studios. The government version of the midnight crackdown was designed to raise questions, damaging, if not damning ones, on Ramdev. What was interest in the issue? Why did he run? Why did he stage a protest at the Maidan even though permission was only granted for yoga?

But equally uncomfortable questions can be asked of the government itself. Where was the government when Ramdev’s fast was going on during the day? Did the government feel so threatened by a yoga camp that union ministers rushed to meet the yoga entrepreneur at the Claridges? Why did the government brutalise and vilify the same man it received at the airport? If the UPA is keen to talk to Pakistan, despite its marked insincerity, why does it shy from talking to Indians, to citizens? And was the midnight action really necessary? After all, the protestors were sleeping.

If the government knew better than to hide under flimsy reasons, it would have known that the Asthanna yoga includes fasting and meditation. MCD had granted permission for yoga, with no specification on the form.

The government did know of the protest – there were posters lining walls in Delhi – and it did try to quell it at first. And then when it failed, it tried to crush it. With the crackdown, it also crushed democracy - the people’s right to hold a government that they elected accountable, to protest its corrupt ways.

So, it has come to such a pass in our country that a rapist may go free because of lack of evidence, but unarmed people demanding clean governance will be thrashed black and blue.

Democracy remains meaningful as long as the people are the focus. The independence struggle was democratic. But is independent India of 2011 so?

Abraham Lincoln once said, “No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent.”

When India got independence, the population was less than 60 crore. Today, it stands at 120 crore. Even if this government is favoured by one crore people, in whose interests corruption is, there are a hundred times more against graft. They do not stand with the government on this issue.
 

Comments

 

Other News

Bihar to vote on Nov 6, Nov 11

The much-awaited Bihar elections will take place in two phases, on November 6 and November 11, and the results will be announced on November 14, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Monday. Meanwhile, bye-elections to eight assembly constituencies in J&K, Rajasthan, Jharkh

Master novelist explores fleeting nature of truth

Ian McEwan’s latest novel, What We Can Know, is a profound meditation on memory, environmental culpability, and the limits of historical inquiry, wrapped in the guise of a literary detective story. Set against the bleak backdrop of a post-‘Derangement’ twenty-second century, the

Philanthropy: From cheque-writing to systems change

There was a time when philanthropy in India meant two things: generosity and immediacy. You saw a problem, wrote a cheque, and a life was eased. That impulse is pure and indispensable. But increasingly, many of us who have been gifted the capacity to give are asking a different question: how can my giving

How the world observes Gandhi Jayanti as Day of Non-Violence

October 2 is celebrated as Gandhi Jayanti and globally as the International Day of Non-Violence, as declared by the United Nations – a dual tribute that reflects both national pride and global respect for the Mahatma. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in June 2007 affirming

Deadline extended for exercising option under UPS to Nov 30

The Ministry of Finance has announced an extension of the deadline for eligible individuals to opt into the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS). The revised deadline is now November 30, 2025. The Unified Pension Scheme, implemented on April 1, 2025, allows eligible existing employees, past retirees

Inside the platform economy

OTP Please: Online Buyers, Sellers and Gig Workers in South Asia  By Vandana Vasudevan Penguin, 384 pages, Rs 499

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now





Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter