Things Start Falling Apart When Soldiers Moan, Farmers March And True Patriots Meet And Mingle

Raman Swamy

When does a government begin to lose conviction?  When do things start falling apart?  When does the passionate intensity of the loyalists evaporate?   When does the language of the common citizen change from trusting innocence to doubt and distrust? 

There is always a tipping point.  Sometimes it comes suddenly, almost without warning.  More often in the history of misrule and tyranny, foreboding creeps in silently and murmurs of discontent grow into an audible muttering and then into a deafening roar.

 What are the early warning signs?  When can one begin to start connecting the dots and getting the contours of the bif picture?

The answer -    
 When the Indian Army tells a Parliamentary committee on Defence: “The Budget of 2018-19 has dashed our hopes.  The allocation is not enough.  It is a setback for most of what we have achieved”;

When 30,000 distressed farmers and tribals have to march 200 kilometers from Nashik to Mumbai just to get a fair hearing;

When Supreme Court Judges order the government to indefinitely postpone Aadhaar linkage and also clearly indicate that it makes no sense to impose compulsory bio-metric verification for everything and anything other than welfare schemes for the poor;

When long-standing Coalition partners like Telegu Desam, Anna DMK and Shiv Sena disrupt Parliament on a daily basis and loudly protest against betrayal and broken promises on a range of major issues;

When a tiny ally like Jitan Ram Manjhi feels humiliated enough to walk out of the ruling alliance and another, Upendra Kushwaha, keeps airing his frustration over the arrogance of the big brother;

When a Chief Minister in a sensitive State like J&K sacks her own Finance Minister because of suspicions that he was acting at the behest of alliance partner BJP;

When the economy continues to be in the doldrums despite elaborate window-dressing of growth statistics and false optimism about good days rounds the corner;

When mind-numbing financial scandals shatter the myth of zero tolerance towards corruption;

When the entire banking system groans under the weight of gross mismanagement and colossal debts;

When investigating agencies like the CBI, ED and IT department are brazenly misused to hound and harass political opponents and multiple raids and arrests are made on unconvincing pretexts, whereas as other obvious fraudsters are allowed to escape scot-free;

When genuine fears and misgivings arise of journalists and judges being murdered to silence their voices and prevent them from passing unbiased judgments;

When governments are impudently installed in far-flung States with the help of pliant Governors and defectors despite the lack of a popular mandate;

When clouds of suspicion about EVM rigging continue to cast a shadow over the credibility of amazing and almost incredible landslide victories in heartland States;

When Parliament sessions are cut short weeks before schedule on the pretext of Opposition non-cooperation ignoring the reality that unruly alliance partners are the ones trooping into the Well of the House waving posters and placards.

When hitherto dispirited and disparate Opposition parties suddenly regain their fighting spirit and explore new alliances by holding dinner get-togethers and back-channel negotiations.

Mar 15, 2018