Prashant Bhushan says poll results are unpleasant surprise for many of us

Prashant Bhushan says poll results are an “unpleasant surprise for many of us”. Poll strategist PK says the battle for India not decided in states.

Prashant Bhushan and Democratic India’s Fears

After BJP won four out of five states in India yesterday, March 10. 2022, Prashant Bhushan, a top public interest lawyer in the Supreme Court of India, member of the faction of the India Against Corruption movement tweeted today, “Assembly results in 2022 are an unpleasant surprise for many of us who see the damage that BJP govts have done to Institutions, democracy& civility. Money power& propaganda have triumphed over issues of Employment, development, health etc.   Need to work harder to Reclaim our Republic.”

His comment hit hearts because many are disturbed by the election results questioning if India voted for “hate,” which comes after the lynching of Muslims, genocidal speeches, mowing down of farmers and suppression, crushed economy, the Hathras tragedy, bodies floating in the Ganga River during the COVID calamity,  oxygen and medicine crises, journalists covering COVID muffled,  amongst other horrendous issues.

Assembly results 2022 are an unpleasant surprise for many of us who see the damage that BJP govts have done to Institutions, democracy& civility. Money power& propaganda have triumphed over issues of Employment, development, health etc.
Need to work harder to Reclaim our Republic

— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) March 11, 2022

Prashant Kishor’s Healing Balm to Wounds

Adding healing balm to the wounds of yesterday where smoke is still rising from the smarting rubble of losing an election, Prashant Kishor, poll strategist and tactician declared that losing four states to BJP did not indicate the Opposition losing to BJP in 2024.

He said, “Battle for India will be fought and decided in 2024 & not in any state #elections

Saheb knows this! Hence this clever attempt to create a frenzy around the state results to establish a decisive psychological advantage over the opposition.

Don’t fall or be part of this false narrative.”

Battle for India will be fought and decided in 2024 & not in any state #elections

Saheb knows this! Hence this clever attempt to create frenzy around state results to establish a decisive psychological advantage over opposition.

Don’t fall or be part of this false narrative.

— Prashant Kishor (@PrashantKishor) March 11, 2022

This was also in criticism to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comment where he said yesterday said the state election results “give a glimpse” of the outcome of the general elections of 2024.

The PM said at a victory gathering at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.”Many people had said that the fate of the 2019 general election was decided when the 2017 Uttar Pradesh election result was declared. All I can say is that the same thought applies now too… the 2024 general election result can be seen in the result of the 2022 UP election,”

Notably, the BJP accomplished an outstanding victory and a second term in UP and won in Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur

The World Largest Democracy is Turning into an “Electoral Autocracy”

Prashant Bhushan is worried about Indian democracy, as many Indians and people in the international community are, all simultaneously concerned about the fall in India’s democracy.

A Swedish Institute, the V Dem Institute’s report wrote, “India Is No Longer a Democracy but an ‘Electoral Autocracy’ due to marked decline in democratic freedoms that occurred after the BJP and Narendra Modi’s victory in 2014.

In last year’s report, it had observed that India was on the verge of losing its status as a democracy.

This year’s report – based on data from 2020 – has confirmed that suspicion, with V Dem retrospectively classifying India as an ‘electoral autocracy’ from 2019. It said that the classification of India was ‘highly uncertain’ last year because the underlying data was not clear. “But with more and better data this year, India is classified with a higher degree of certainty as an electoral autocracy from 2019,” it said.

With this slide, India has moved from the top 50% of the 180 countries analyzed by V Dem to the bottom 50%. In last year’s report, India was last among the 90 countries in the top 50%. This year, it is ranked 97th, falling into the bottom 50%.

Recently, the US government’s Religious Freedom Monitor suggested that the country’s state department should include India in the list of “countries of special concern”, in the company of China, Pakistan, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. It noted that while religious freedom had improved globally but singled out India for seeing a “sharp downward turn”.

There is a concern about the harassment of journalists when they cover certain issues.  There is concern that the space for ideas and dialogue in India is being throttled, and dissent punished, endangering scholars and students whose views are disfavoured by the ruling government and India’s media’s freedom is being downgraded further.

The report has also condemned the government’s use of sedition, defamation, and counter-terrorism laws such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. “For example, over 7,000 people have been charged with sedition after the BJP assumed power and most of the accused are critics of the ruling party,” it said.

V Dem rebuked India’s crackdown on the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), saying the Act itself “arguably” violates the constitution’s prohibition of discrimination by religion. The report also notes that civil society organizations are being “muzzled” in the autocratisation process, specifically through the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act, which was amended in September 2020 to “constrain foreign contributions to NGOs within India”.

“These developments are among the instances contributing to the descent into electoral authoritarianism in what used to be the world’s largest democracy,” the chapter on India concludes.

Last year in April, India was ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in RSF’s Press Freedom Index, sliding two ranks down. It criticized the ‘longest electronic curfew’ in history in Kashmir and highlighted that ‘state troll armies’ in the country use the ‘weapon of disinformation on social media.

The country also fell 26 places to rank 105th among 162 countries and territories on a global economic freedom index released by the Fraser Institute in Canada in September 2020.

In December 2020, India was ranked 111th out of 162 countries in the Cato Institute’s Human Freedom Index 2020. The institute gave India a score of 6.43, which is lower than the index’s average human freedom rating of 6.93. Between the 2019 and 2020 indices, the country descended 17 spots.

Looking to the Future

This is especially concerning as India is considered the world’s largest democracy. If as Prashant Kishor expresses that the win of BJP in four states does not signify a 2024 victory as the prime minister of India is suggesting, then democratic Indians can breathe a sigh of relief; for this appears to be more of a BJP psychological warfare strategy rather than a reality.

However, the Opposition parties need to work more on the ground, do their outreaching rounds, work around the clock, establish fine networking, unite, fight for paper ballets and quit personal ambition if they want to save the Indian Constitution.

Ashok Swain, academic and professor of peace and conflict research from Sweden said, “Those journalists and pundits blaming Rahul Gandhi and Congress, can they explain why BJP won UP again despite Lakshmipur Kheri, Hathras, and thousand dead bodies floating in the Ganges?” Did they in four states vote for hate above peace and development?

Those journalists and pundits blaming Rahul Gandhi and Congress, can they explain why BJP won UP again despite Lakshmipur Kheri, Hathras, and thousand dead bodies floating in the Ganges?

— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) March 10, 2022