Two Sides Of The Same Coin
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-10-02 08:25:32
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
If proof was needed that almost all political parties in India are same, it was provided strongly on October 1. Even as one watched the shenanigans of the UP administration and police in first stopping, then arresting and finally filing an FIR against Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra for trying to visit Hathras to meet the family of the dead rape victim came the news that the Punjab government had done the same (except filing an FIR) to Sukhbir Singh Badal and Harsimrat Kaur when they were marching to meet the state governor to submit a memorandum against the farm bills. UP is ruled by Yogi Adityanath of the BJP while Capt. Amarinder Singh of Congress is the chief minister of Punjab.
When out of government, every political party becomes a champion of democratic rights and constitutional values. When ruling, all of them suppress these very rights and do not hold up the values. When in the opposition, they think that it is their right to raise their voice against government policy and whoever stops them is being undemocratic. But when they come to power, they think that their policy must be supported by everyone and use power and force to deny protests. This is a cat and mouse game which all political parties play in India and over the years, it has become so common that the common man has lost all hope.
People might point out that the UP police were more highhanded (Rahul claimed he was lathicharged but no visuals showed that). Rahul Gandhi even fell on the ground allegedly after being pushed by policemen when he tried to advance after being stopped. But If the UP incident was more serious, the visuals show that it was only because the crowd there was unruly. They had come prepared to take on the police. Having said that, that cannot be an excuse for police excesses as there are many ways to deal with the situation peacefully. The police could have stopped the crowd at one place and could have allowed Rahul Gandhi and three or four of his aides to advance 100 metres after which they could have been arrested peacefully. In contrast, the pictures from Punjab show that there was no rushing and pushing and the arrests were made quietly.
But the question is why were both the marches stopped? Why were the leaders not allowed to exercise their democratic right of protesting against injustice, police excesses or a government policy that they thought was not in the interests of farmers? Why did two state governments, ruled by two different political parties that are poles apart in terms of ideology, use the same undemocratic weapons to try and silence the opposition? It just goes on to prove that when in power, no political party gives a damn about democracy and values.
