AN EGREGIOUS ENTANGLEMENT

Jagdish Rattanani

A stage has been reached where the government seems almost incapable of thinking through the challenges it faces and the manner in which it responds. The handling of the largely peaceful protests against the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over the extended Gandhi Jayanti weekend, when hundreds were detained at Jantar Mantar, is proof of this. The government appears unable to act even in its own narrow self-interest of protecting its reputation and political standing, if only in the short-term. What is gained politically by unleashing police force on those protesting against an already disgraced CEC, in what the protesters have billed as Jantar Mantar 2.0, while BJP functionaries rally to his defence? The defence only proves the charge: that the CEC and the party in power are one in the exercise of “vote chori.” It can be safely argued that the national anger against Gyanesh, for his role in the widespread disenfranchisement of ordinary citizens, runs deep. His own fellow Election Commissioners objected at least 14 times in 10 months to decisions taken without their knowledge, as reported. Given the depth of this anger, political survival dictates that the BJP maintain strategic silence on the issue if not distance itself entirely from the CEC’s actions. A formal dissociation would be a face-saving device for the party but therein lies the bind: it would also open up questions on the legitimacy of recent state elections held on his watch, notably Bihar, where the BJP-led NDA won, and West Bengal, where the BJP came to power. As matters stand, Gyanesh cannot continue in his role with any credibility for long. His continued defence, then, means spending political capital, or whatever is left of it, on a lost cause.

Each detention at Jantar Mantar only reinforces the image of the CEC being in the service of the BJP. There is little doubt that the Modi government is sinking deeper into a political quagmire. One line of thought is that it now has a limited life span. Even if it holds on, it will be a government with little political legitimacy. As developments have panned out, it will be very difficult to emerge from this crisis without extensive damage to its political standing. The question is even more urgent for the RSS, which, as the ideological root of the BJP, may face a big ger challenge. It runs the risk of being marked as a movement that enjoyed the spoils of power, built glamorous offices for itself and watched silently as Indian institutions and the democratic framework were torn apart by the party it birthed and supported. Any analysis along these lines is inescapable. It should make the BJP-RSS shudder at how it has conducted itself the first time it won a majority of its own, in a run now into its third term, and at the image it leaves of itself for posterity.

Historically, the RSS has been accused of not standing up to the British during the freedom struggle. It has been charged with propagating the communal hatred that led to the killing of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse, who had been associated with the RSS, a link the organisation has always denied. If that was history the RSS wanted to leave behind, here was a chance to build an agenda for growth and truly live the promise on which the BJP won its first full majority in the Lok Sabha: sab ka saath, sabka vikas. What it oversaw instead was more communal hatred, a divisive agenda, renewed attacks on Mahatma Gandhi, rising joblessness, a directionless foreign policy, growing inequality and a new phase of unabashed crony capitalism. The slogan of development was, observers will argue, a well-thought-through ruse to grab power and play with India’s crown jewels, the ECI being just one among the many that have been vandalised. India’s Preamble says the nation is constituted as a “sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.” Consider how each of those words has come under attack. The Indo-US trade deal, under which, by Washington’s account, India agreed to stop buying Russian oil in return for lower tariffs, undermines sovereign ty. The socialist ideal has been under attack for some time now. The latest examples are the Delhi government’s decision to let private schools self-certify in place of the essentiality certificate, and the rapid march of private equity into hospitals across the nation.

Unions have been marginalised and their leaders detained often. Secularism remains under attack internally, given the number of violations of minority rights. Democracy is threatened by the functioning of the ECI under Gyanesh Kumar. What is the immediate way out of this entanglement? The CEC cannot be sacked. He can be removed only the way a Supreme Court judge is, which in effect means impeachment by Parliament. For that to succeed, the BJP has to dump him and ask its MPs to vote for his removal, or its allies [JD(U) and TDP] have to turn. Given where the party stands today, this appears unlikely: dumping Gyanesh Kumar means conceding the charge, and with it questions over the man dates delivered on his watch. It would also be too radical a move for a party still living on the Kool-Aid of its IT-cell propaganda and cruder forms of communication. The other way is backroom talks in which the CEC is asked to put in his papers voluntarily. How and why would he oblige? What price would he extract, and what secrets might he hold? Those become the levers in play if this option is pursued. All of this only highlights the bind in which the government finds itself. The lasting lesson is that institutions must be left independent and due process respected. Playing with institutions is like playing with fire. The thrills of capture are short-term; the pain plays out in the longer run.

The writer is a journalist and faculty member at SPJIMR.