Bharat needs a strong 'India'

Free Thinker *

In a democracy if the Opposition is weak it is the bounden duty of the Government and citizens to strengthen it. When the Ruling is mighty the enjoyment of democracy remains lukewarm.

If the Government machinery is too strong you can’t piss on the roadside, you can’t shout against the Minister, you can’t drink and fall-flat on the road, you can’t quarrel with the traffic police, you can’t kick the gate of an officer who parks his car in front of your entrance, you can’t take out rallies on your chosen path, you can’t block the road, you can’t call bandhs, you can’t organize pen-down strikes, etc. But the gun-down strike was an exception and that was appreciated worldwide – very effective too.

An energetic and vibrant Opposition can only counter the moves and motives of the Ruling side. There may be some slow progress in the development – so what! You are enjoying more liberty. We the people of Bharat have solemnly resolved to constitute Bharat into a ‘Sovereign Democratic Republic’ and to secure to all its citizens justice, liberty, equality, fraterni- ty etc – we need to strife together for all these.

However, it is well accepted by intellectuals, philosophers, jurists and thinkers that – liberty is more important than anything else. Your prosperity and well-being is meaningless if your liberty is compromised.

A drunkard giving ‘galis’ to the US president in front of White House was not arrested–he was simply pushed away by the Presidential guards. Do you think such a thing can happen in the world’s biggest democracy ‘China’. I don’t think so; if a person is found shouting foul against the Chairman or Premier he will be untraceable in no time.

If we want to become more democratic like Russia or China – the democratic pleasure we are getting today will be diluted. We are told that in the recently concluded Russian election Putin Saab got more than 70 percent of the vote. That is an incredible performance. And the Chinese Communist Party has never lost an election since 1949 (since inception). Okay, China is one party democracy – but Russia is a multiparty democracy like ours.

Are we getting closer to Russia – the possibility of becoming more politically stable. My earnest request to the Bharat voters is that 400 out of 543 is on the higher side. Last time the score was 303. Since their performance was satisfactory despite Covid and global slow-down the score must go beyond 303, say 304. However the remaining 239 must remain gutsy and united.

Prof wants to strengthen the Opposition so he has taken risk ; he should have continued like Socrates – now, he is trying to become Caesar; this will confuse the people. Anyways we need to strengthen the scream of the Opposition – inside and outside. Without a strong Oppo- sition democracy does not look like a democracy.

There may be some socio-politico-economic instability and unrest – so be it – those are part and parcel of a vibrant democracy. If everything moves smoothly, and there is no bandh, no strikes, no rallies, no demonstrations, no criticism and no resistance – we are moving towards a form of democracy that exists in the ‘dragon’ land.

Manipur is such a fertile place where you can experiment with anything - drugs, AIDs, defection-culture, and now gun culture. For instance, the American gun culture–we have just adopted here. In America almost everyone has a gun legitimately. Here also we have followed the practice – but we are yet to legalize it. One positive aspect of gun culture is that – it has a useful logic like the nuclear deterrence principle.

The nuclear deterrence doctrine works on ‘MAD’ – ie., mutually assured destruction. A similar logic is ingrained in gun culture too. In the last 11 months or so the culture is almost established. If he has a gun and I too have a gun – peace prevails - between him and I. The State is limping back to normalcy on the premise of gun-culture– what an Idea Sirji ! What about the resettlement of displaced people?

Let us not divert the issue–we want to strengthen the Opposition. Dr Nimai recently propounded a theory of beating those who try to buy voters and kick-away those who try to lure the voters by feasting and dining.

The Idea is powerful but who will implement ? Some brave ladies have started the initiative in Nambol. Can we make it State-wide? If the experiment is successful this time – many poor patriots may join politics for good.

Citizens, please let the same Opposition continue in office – they are doing pretty well. In their presence the ruling party was unable to do any corruption worth mentioning or organized any scam in the last ten years.

‘Bond’ was an innocuous aberration – but benefitted by all the parties; the frozen money may be released in the name of democracy. And at the same time all looters, scamsters, murderers, gurus may also be given parole till June 4. Festival time, Milord.

Democracy needs a strong Opposition–otherwise there is no ‘maza’ in democracy.