India is yet to come out of the dark shadows of Covid-19. The whole world is under the ill effects of the virus. India is suffering more because of the shoddily imposed thoughtless lockdown. The pride and the prejudices of the ruling dispensation have further complicated the situation.
The ruling party is dragging the country towards one party rule. Having secured a massive mandate from the citizens, the government should have trodden very cautiously, by taking in confidence every section of society. But unfortunately, it acted very irresponsibly and chose to trample on the rights of the people.
The autocratic tendency can be clearly seen in declaration of the Home Minister that NRC would be imposed on the entire country. This was announced despite its failure in Assam. The BJP wanted to use it as a stick to beat Muslims with. But it backfired when the final count revealed that only six lakh Muslims did not have the documents to prove their citizenship while 13 lakh Hindus failed in this test. Then the Government got the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed. This assured the Non-Muslims grant of citizenship but threw the Muslims in the grip of statelessness and second-class citizenship. On the floor of the Parliament and at several places the chronology of the implementation of NRC and CAA was announced with fanfare. This is the height of the divisive policy and a clever ploy to polarise the electorate. Nobody knows how far the divide and rule policy, which destroys national integration and communal amity, would be pursued.
Intoxicated with electoral victory, the government in one go abolished Article 370 which was a bridge between Jammu & Kashmir and the rest of India. The degrading of the State into two Union Territories, it appears, has completed the alienation of our northern most state. Political analysts are of the opinion that it was the unkindest cut of all which humiliated the people of the State.
Now in West Bengal the BJP is threatening the electorate of an All India NRC. It will have very disastrous results. On similar lines, in last June, through ordinance, arbitrary Agri laws were imposed, which were passed by the two Houses in an undemocratic way. This has resulted in the crores of farmers gheraoing the Capital. The communal, divisive and anti-people police inspired by Hindutva are undoing democracy and causing irreparable damage to the country. The sooner the ruling regime realises, the better it is for the country. The civil society must rise to the occasion to save the country.