Chennai
Leading up to the eruption of violence and unrest on the occasion of India’s Republic Day celebrations, the protests have now caught the eye of the international media most unusually.
Pop diva Rihanna drew the world’s attention to the ongoing protest by Indian farmers, through a tweet, which had since found resonance in the reactions of individuals such as young climate activist Greta Thunberg as well as Hollywood stars like John Cusack.
But it seems that the Ministry of External Affairs would have none of it, and quickly swung into action, by issuing a statement, urging citizens to steer clear of the temptation of following sensationalist social media hashtags and comments by celebrities, that is not accurate or responsible. And to endorse this, an entire brigade of Bollywood biggies and cricket superstars who were until this time, mute spectators to the theatre of democracy playing out on the ramparts of the Red Fort, suddenly found a voice on social media and began rallying around the government, urging their countrymen to keep external forces at bay, and peacefully resolve the agitation within ourselves.
Even the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology was roped in to instruct Twitter to take down handles, hashtags that alluded to a supposed farmer genocide that was being planned in India.
It goes without saying the events of the past few days have split the nation right down the middle.
The Farm Bills protest has created an ‘Us Versus Them’ situation where a citizen or even a journalist and Member of Parliament can incur the wrath of the government for expressing a viewpoint that is contrarian to that of the ruling party. The aversion to criticism seems to be so deeply entrenched in the government’s psyche that even the 18-year-old Thunberg was deemed an agent provocateur by the Delhi Police that has filed an FIR against her.
It needs to be said, loud and clear that opposing a government move, or standing by the farmers of the nation, is by no means an anti-Indian or anti-national stand. To speak up and speak out is representative of the democratic ideals that this nation was built on. It may be recalled that in a fairly landmark judgment in the case of Prashant Bhushan, the bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, BR Gavai, and Krishna Murari ruled that though there is a freedom of speech, ‘freedom is never absolute because the makers of the Constitution have imposed certain restrictions upon it’.
They went on to add that a line must be drawn when this so-called freedom extends to “scandalising an institution as a whole and the persons who are part of the said institution and cannot defend themselves publicly, the same cannot be permitted in law”. In this context, does it appear that the Centre was either scandalised, abused, or unable to defend itself against the tweets of Thunberg and Rihanna? Most unlikely, if the tweetstorm that ensued is any indicator of the ruling party’s ability to leverage social media and ‘defend’ itself.
It is also not clear why the government continues to use strong-arm tactics to suppress the situation.
A Bill that is not time-bound, can be repealed and brought back to the table after due consensus.
However, what can never be repealed is the growing mistrust caused by spikes, barbed-wire fences and sedition cases that the government is cultivating, as a result of its tunnel vision of progress.
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