Praneet Pathak: Modi in a Traffic Jam, and the Decaying of Our Democracy

By Dilip -

Today the nation feels threatened, our collective security and democracy compromised – or so the media would have you believe, with the prime minister’s cavalcade having to turn back due to protests and the allegations of ‘poor security management’ it has given rise to. But in reality, this incident reveals to us the many facets of a decaying Indian democracy. Consider the following five elements.

1. Delegitimisation of protest, disagreement and dissent

The shock and furore regarding the protest being able to affect the prime minister’s route exposes our diminishing democratic sensibilities. In a democracy, our leaders are supposed to be responsible and accountable to us – and in most other democracies, that includes the leader at the helm, be it the prime minister or president.

However, there has been a normalisation of our prime minister’s inaccessibility. His reaction to being affected very slightly by as mass scale a movement as the farmers’ protest is reflection of how the prime minister, with all his pomp and paraphernalia, has become insulated from the man on the street and has no genuine interest and faith in his critics’ point of view. He sees no need to include them in the political discourse….




Manoj Joshi: India will come apart if secular contract is torn / Harish Khare: The Real Import of Satya Pal Malik's Warning About Narendra Modi


Bharat Bhushan - Incitement to violence: When will Supreme Court take note?


काशी विश्वनाथ मंदिर के महंत ने मोदी, योगी पर लगाया बड़ा आरोप, सुनकर रह जाएंगे हैरान!


Hannah Ellis-Petersen: Statue smashed in spate of attacks on India’s Christian community / Sunita Viswanath: How do we break the cycle of religious violence in South Asia? / Mukul Kesavan - Magic and mayhem: The death cult at Haridwar


Mrinal Pande: A land where no one speaks truth to power


Siddhartha Deb: The unravelling of a conspiracy: were the 16 charged with plotting to kill India’s prime minister framed?


The Judiciary is the Defence of the Innocent. Or so we thought...


Father Stan Swamy: I’d rather suffer, possibly die if things go on as it is


Pinjra Tod activist Natasha Narwal's father dies of Covid day before her bail hearing // That Monday will not come, Judge Sahib


A Grateful Nation


Javed Anand: On RSS reassurances to Muslim, deeds matter more than words


Gujarati Poet Parul Khakkar Blames 'Naked King' for Corpses Floating in the Ganga


Avay Shukla: LEST WE FORGET




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