Democracy in recession

Parliament has been summoned for the budget session and it will be union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s sixth record consecutive budget(five full and one interim). Also the tenure of the present 17th Lok Sabha will come to an end by June 2024 and before which, elections are to be held. India’s parliament has reflected the low of Indian democracy. It is also a matter of deep regret that free debates and discussions are no longer part of the discourse. Last year, 146 MPs were suspended from parliament for insisting on a debate on security breach on December 13 when parliament was in session have been reinstated. The accused were given visitors permit through the recommendation of BJP Lok Sabha member Pratap Simha. Nothing happened to the BJP MP but instead, 146 opposition MPs were suspended because they protested when their demand that the home minister make a statement on the floor of the house, was rejected. Earlier, during the July parliament session, the opposition demanded discussion on the Manipur issue and the prime minister to speak to parliament on the issue . As the government refused, the opposition tabled a No Confidence Motion on July 26 2023 in order to compel the leader of the house to be present to reply to the motion. The government allotted only two hours and when the prime minister was speaking for over an hour, opposition MPs began to protest that he had not yet mentioned the ethnic violence in Manipur ruled by the BJP. Modi ignored the protests and continued his attack on the opposition, particularly the Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi. On January 24, 2023, US-based short seller Hindenburg Research released a report, accusing the Adani Group of stock manipulation and accounting fraud. The opposition then asked for a JPC probe but it was rejected and neither was the government keen on discussion on the plea that SEBI was looking into the matter. A JPC probe is a natural corollary as it will ensure that facts are unearthed. The government’s response to the Mahua Moitra alleged cash-for-query scam displayed its unfairness. A storm broke after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey accused the TMC MP of accepting bribes from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to pose questions on Adani in Parliament. The Ethics Committee immediately initiated a probe after Dubey wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, alleging bribery and impropriety against Moitra. Interestingly, advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai who made allegations against Moitra and picked up by Nishikant Dubey that Darshan Hiranandani who admitted his role, were not even summoned by the panel. The result- Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha. These exemplify India’s global democratic recession. India’s recent downgrade to a hybrid regime does solidify the syndrome of autocratization as seen in Russia, Turkey, China etc. The modality of India’s democratic decline exposes how democracies die today when it moves through the fully legal harassment of the opposition, intimidation of media, and centralization of executive power. By equating government criticism with disloyalty to the nation, this only diminishes the very idea that opposition is legitimate and that India today is losing its reputation as the world’s largest democracy.