Historic (and Tragic) Day for India! 141 Opposition MPs were suspended arbitrarily today (19 Dec 2023) by the Speaker/Chairman of both houses of the Indian Parliament. This on a day that several important Bills were supposed to be passed into Law. This has happened before with the Mad King, but never on this scale and never this brazenly! This is a serious escalation on the unravelling of Indian Democracy.
Why this now? Well, The Indian Constitution has a safety provision that requires a ⅔ majority to pass any Constitutional Amendment – any Law that would fundamentally alter the Constitution itself. This is crucial because it ensures that the fundamental Secular, Democratic Structure of the Indian Constitution can never be altered because given the diverse nature of India with 30 official languages and 6 major religions, no political party can ever manage to get a ⅔ majority. The only time this has come close to happening was with Rajiv Gandhi who won a brute majority on the sympathy wave following his mother Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
Enter our Mad King who has devised a clever workaround to the problem! Suspending Opposition Party MLAs/MPs on spurious grounds to push through Bills into Law has been an old tactic for the Mad King – going back to the days when he was still the Chief Minister of the State of Gujarat. Once the Opposition has been suspended, the required number of votes comes down proportionally allowing him to pass contentious bills into Law! Someday, this strategy of the Mad King is going to be taught to Political Science students across the World! “How to run a Fascist Dictatorship within the facade of a Democratic Structure”! The Mad King has done it before with the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill and Transgender Rights Bill – Both of these along with other Contentious bills were pushed through parliament in similar circumstances on 26 Nov 2019 without debate by suspending the dissenting Opposition MPs!
We stand now at the point where there are several even more contentious bills waiting to be bought into Law.
Indian Evidence Act, further Amendments to strengthen the controversial UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) which is the main tool for the Mad King to crack down on dissenting voices.
There are 2 bills which are certain to be passed tomorrow which would let it have COMPLETE CONTROL over all forms of communication.
Broadcast Bill:
– Allows the government to control & punish everyone who is communicating on the internet (termed “broadcasters”).
– Bringing literally everyone (including Youtubers and people posting on Twitter/X) under their regulatory control, the Mad King will now be able to take action on people with independent youtube channels or even twitter journalists who post videos on Twitter.
– it gives powers to ‘authorized officers’ to raid and seize equipment from broadcast networks or broadcasting services as well. The definition of ‘authorized officers’ has been left deliberately vague.
Telecommunication Bill:
– allows centre to take control of any telecommunication services or network
– allows centre to direct any message from any person can be intercepted or detained.
– allows centre to force any person to disclose these messages in intelligible format to the concerned officer
The Mad King is clearly on an overdrive to control all sorts of information before the 2024 elections – IF they happen at all!
All of these Bills are waiting to be passed into Law and these Opposition MPs have been suspended just before they are scheduled to be discussed! Given what happened in Nov 2019, one can be sure what the game plan is here – to push through controversial Bills into Law without any debate and further reduce the Freedoms of the Citizenry!
What are the other laws that could potentially be introduced? The fascist RSS, which provides the ideological foundation to the Ruling Party, has always had a problem with the Secularism word. The so-called “Hindu Rashtra” – a theological Hindu state based on the laws of Manu – has always been on their agenda from 1930!
The biggest worry is that the Mad King will unilaterally declare “Hindu Rashtra” and later bring in the laws to put them in practice. These kind of “Sudden Death” moves are another favorite tactic of his – he has done this with Demonetization where in a sudden TV announcement at 9pm he revoked all currency notes of a certain denominations leaving the citizens scrambling to exchange notes.
He could also suspend the Parliament and Constitution or extend its term beyond Aug 2024 when Elections are due and rule by decree afterwards. With 90% of Opposition MPs suspended, he can push through these into law without debate or opposition!
We can’t be sure of what nasty surprise the Mad King has planned for India, but suspensions of Opposition MPs on this scale mean it is something Bigger and Nastier than what we have seen before. The inauguration of the dream RSS project, the Rama Temple in Ayodhya, is scheduled for Jan 22/24. The educated guess therefore is that declaration of “Hindu Rashtra” and suspension of Elections for an indefinite period on the excuse of creating a new “Hindu” Constitution is on the cards. That would complete their 4 main action items on the RSS agenda!
People warned us about this happening! Subramaniam Swamy, a despicable character but one who certainly knows a thing or two about the RSS given that he was a member and ally himself, wrote about this in the year 2000 itself! This has been a long time coming!
All the warning signs were ignored and we allowed this hateful fascist ideology of Hindutva to take over our country! So here we find ourselves! The RSS seeks to create a Theocratic Hindu State much like the Taliban did in Afghanistan. How did that whole process go for Afghanistan? If we stay silent now, India as we know it will be gone forever! The India that the RSS seeks to create is one that will be unlivable for not just Religious minorities, but Women, Gender Minorities and the depressed Castes. We CANNOT let that happen! We simply cannot afford to stay silent!
Edit: Latest updated figure of suspended Opposition MPs is 146. More suspensions are expected tomorrow (20 Dec 2023).
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