All governments hope that they can stay in power indefinitely.
Instead of autocratic power, democratic governments have to continuously convince voters to reelect them. Over time, however, their popularity inevitably wanes. Is this happening to the Bharatiya Janata Party?
The opposition alliance known as INDIA certainly hopes so, but protests in the streets of major and minor cities across the country cannot claim to speak for the majority of India, where the population is still largely rural.
That being said, there does seem to be era-changing discontent in the air.
Monday’s so-called March for Democracy was the latest in a string of demonstrations, which has resulted in thousands of security forces personnel being deployed and roads barricaded in the capital.
That the central government responded by detaining thousands of protesters over the weekend demonstrates that it does not quite know how to deal with these unprecedented protests.
The rallies and sit-ins and confrontations with police over the demand for the resignation of then Education Minister Dhamendra Pradhan could not be stopped and, in the end, he had to resign.
Authorities have resorted to the same heavy-handed response to demonstrators this time – dragging men and women into police buses, assaulting protestors, detaining journalists, cutting off mobile internet and closing down train stations. Thankfully, there have been no reports of shooting protestors with pellet guns, which took place over the Pradhan protests.
Far from appeasing the youthful Cockroach Janta Party, Pradhan’s scalp has only fired the protestors up now that the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has attracted their ire over the way that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has been carried out in the country.
Here in Meghalaya we may not understand what the fuss is about the SIR as seen in other parts of the country. As of now, only a little more than a thousand names have been removed from the rolls in this state but the figures are very different elsewhere, with some 13 crore around the country, enough to swing elections in a few states, such as Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal – or so the opposition says.
It seems unthinkable that a country as big as ours, and supposedly much better off, could face such turmoil as has plagued our neighbours over the last few years. But Bangladesh and Nepal underwent revolutions and Pakistan has been paralysed by strife. Much of that came about because their governments did not heed the voices of protest. The BJP casts the demonstrators as a minority but is it sure of that? If it cannot restore trust and order, it may lose the mandate of the people at the next election.
