The Deeper Question
Is Democracy Truly Alive in Our Country?: Greetings, pals! Is our nation’s democracy dead? This is a really important query. For many of you, the answer to this question is obvious: No. Any political party is up for election. It is evident that democracy still prevails in our nation since the politician with the most votes wins the majority. But that is only the surface of this subject. The facts I’m going to reveal to you in this video today will shock you greatly. You will be compelled to consider the correct response to this query after seeing this video.
Different Perspectives
On the other hand, if you believe that Prime Minister Modi is a deity, then “He is our god.” We honor him.” “To us, Prime Minister Modi is the embodiment of God. He is not your typical person.” The Prime Minister of this nation is Lord Vishnu in human form.
It could be hard for you to open your eyes and see the reality in these situations. For the remaining viewers, however, this video is essential to watch if you genuinely care about the nation.
Is Democracy Truly Alive in Our Country?: Signs of Erosion
It concerns not just one instance but a number of these that have occurred consecutively over the last few months and years. All of those occurrences indicate that One Nation, One Party is becoming more and more of a reality in our nation. eliminating the opposition’s voice in the media, scheming MLAs, and removing the elected governments’ authority through the enactment of new laws. investigation agencies being used as weapons.
It concerns several of these incidents that have happened one after the other over the past few months and years, not just one. All those incidents suggest that One Nation, One Party is increasingly taking shape in our country. silencing the opposition’s media voice, manipulating MLAs, and taking away the power of elected governments by passing new laws. detective agencies being armed with information.
I would like to tell PM Modi, “Have some decency!” Before talking about democracy, friends, it is important to know what democracy is. It is a basic concept but most people have a major misunderstanding of this concept. Some people think that if there are regular elections in the country and you can go to vote, then it means that the country is a democratic country. But you know what? Elections are held in North Korea too. I am not kidding. There are regular elections in North Korea. You can also see 100% voter turnout in those elections.
But the only difference is that if you do not vote for the official candidate elected by the government, you are considered anti-national. Your job can be snatched away, your house can be snatched away. And if it’s just about the word democracy, then the official name of North Korea, the word democracy is included in it. North Korea is called the DPRK by their government. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. But what is the truth? This country is a dictatorship.
Similarly, Russia is also considered a dictatorship. But elections are held there too. The only difference is that any candidate who competes against Putin is sometimes disqualified for some reason, or sometimes killed mysteriously.
So, one thing should be clear from this merely having elections does not mean that the country is a democracy. Elections need to be free and fair. Free means that the people have the freedom to vote for whom they want to and fair means that different candidates and different political parties have a fair chance of winning. It shouldn’t be that one party has a lot of advantages.
Election Fraud and Manipulation
Recently, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation held its Mayor elections. For this election, Congress and the AAP had allied and had a total of 20 votes out of 35. It was clear by the party votes that this alliance would win the elections. But when the elections took place, what did the presiding officer do? This is not a secret. You can see the CCTV footage of what he did. He declared 8 Congress and AAP votes as invalid. And this election fraud that took place here was captured on the CCTV camera.
He was caught looking at the camera too. Look at his face. The way he is looking at the camera, it looks like he was caught stealing. And what was the result of the election? BJP claimed to have won this election. Such an open election fraud has probably never happened in the country before. The Chief Justice of India said that this is a murder of democracy.
Although in a historic decision, the Supreme Court had to save this election, the question is, if there were no CCTV cameras here or ballot papers, would this fraud have been caught? This is just one example, friends. Before that, look at this news from 2021. An EVM machine was found in a BJP candidate’s car in Assam.
After this, the Election Commission had to order a repoll in this place. But no need to talk about old news. Look at this month’s news. February 2024. Three unknown people went to the Saswad Tehsil office in Pune to steal the control unit of the electronic voting machine. Is this a joke? Are our elections being conducted in a free and fair manner?
The Election Commission is an organization that is expected to conduct free and fair elections across the country. However, the Election Commission has been accused of being partial and biased. This accusation is very old. Initially, BJP politician Narendra Modi had made this accusation. You heard it right. Before the May 2014 election, Narendra Modi accused the Election Commission.
Although he won later elections. But in the last 10 years, the Election Commission has been accused so much that Prashant Kishore said that the Election Commission is an extension of BJP. He says that he has never seen such a partial and biased Election Commission. This Commission has always tried to bend the rules. And tried to make the schedule of elections in such a way that BJP always benefits.
The Election Commission has given very clear directions that the Indian Army cannot be mentioned during political campaigns. But before the 2019 elections, PM Modi shamelessly asked for votes using the martyrs and airstrikes. “I want to ask my first-time voters can your vote be dedicated to the brave martyrs in Pulwama?” Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath, went on to call the Indian Army as Modi’s Army. “And Modi’s army sh**ts the terrorists.”
When a complaint was filed with the Election Commission regarding this, no action was taken for 21 days. And after 21 days, the Election Commission gave its clean chit. The rules are written, they are being openly violated but still, a clean chit. It’s not the only clean chit, PM Modi has got such clean chits in at least 4 different cases.
Amit Shah compared Rahul Gandhi’s constituency with Pakistan. This is also against the rules. But the Election Commission has given clean chits in this too. In total, there are 7 such cases in which Modi and Shah have received clean chits. NDTV also reported that one out of three election commissioners had a dissenting opinion in 5 out of the 7 cases. It means that there was an election commissioner who believed that they should not be given clean chits.
Later, it was found that the name of this election commissioner was Ashok Lavasa. Do you know what happened to him later? His wife, son, daughter, and sister all got notices from the government agencies. The Citizen Commission on Elections in their report stated that Ashok Lavasa was silently removed from the election commission. Just think, this is an election commissioner, is this a democracy or a dictatorship?
Interference and Suppression
In a democracy, separation of powers, and independence of institutions, are something you must have read about in school. Our Supreme Court had given an order to strengthen the independence of the election commission. To have the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners be appointed by a three-member committee.
One of whom will be the Prime Minister, the other will be the opposition leader, and the third will be the Chief Justice of India. By doing this, it could be ensured that the Election Commissioner who is being appointed will be truly independent. There will be no bias towards any entity. But a few months ago, the government brought in a new law in which the government said that the Chief Justice of India would be removed from this committee. Instead, they added their minister to the committee. So, in the three-member committee, two of them will be from the government to appoint the Election Commissioner.
If BJP’s intentions were clear, then why was such a law passed? Why does the government want to control the appointment of the Election Commissioner? This was later challenged in the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court did not take any action here, saying that this falls under the separation of powers. If the government is making a law, then the Supreme Court does not want to strike it.
Even today, the Election Commission has set a limit on how much money can be spent on an MLA election and an MP election. In an MP election, the limit is ₹9.5 million. BJP contested the election on 437 seats. So, the total spending of the party should not have been more than ₹4.15 billion. But how much did they spend? It is written on the website of the Election Commission, ₹12.64 billion.
How did the Election Commission allow this? The Center for Media Studies also estimated that the BJP had spent ₹270 billion in the previous elections. Which was 45% of the total expenditure. If you look at the data of today, electoral bonds worth ₹160 billion have been sold. Out of these ₹160 billion, more than ₹100 billion went to BJP, ₹15 billion to Congress, and ₹8 billion to TMC. All these amounts surpass the spending limit of the election.
BJP leader Uma Bharti once said, “Elections are a choice between bad and worse.” Which is true. But think about it. If a social worker has dedicated his life to serving people, how will he be able to bring ₹9 million to contest an election? How will he be able to promote himself? Especially when on the other side, the party has billions of rupees.
Manipulation and Oppression
The problem isn’t limited to elections. Even if an opposition party forms the government, the government is then broken apart. Here, countless allegations have been levied against the BJP for horse-trading. People have repeatedly accused the BJP of taking MLAs to some resorts and buying them with an unimaginable amount of money. Are these allegations of horse trading true? I cannot tell you because I have never been to that resort. But you can imagine, all those MLAs in the resort won’t be merely playing Ludo.
Conclusion: Navigating the Democratic Dilemma
In summary, the topic of democracy’s viability goes beyond flimsy explanations. Prevent the eroding and exploitation of democratic ideals, necessitates reflection and proactive action. We need to preserve the integrity of democracy and hold our leaders responsible as responsible citizens.
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