India is not a mobocracy that a crowd, however large, will decide how the country will be governed. This applies to both the Opposition parties that sit in Parliament and to the band of disruptors who are trying to create anarchy on the streets in the name of Gen Z. The Opposition needs to understand that anarchy is not the answer to the frustration of being out of power for 12 years, with at least three more years to go.
Rahul Gandhi is better off working at the grassroots to try and win the 2029 Lok Sabha elections than spreading the canard that elections are being stolen, the reason why his party is sinking across the nation. The system that he says has stolen elections in BJP-ruled states is the same system that has rewarded his party and his allies with governments in other states. Hence, this selective amnesia is not helping his cause with the voters, who are seeing through such tactics, the reason why there is zero resonance to Congress protests on the ground.
As for the Cockroach Janata Party, which is threatening to create chaos in Delhi on Saturday, it needs a reality check. To become a major political force, rather than remaining a proxy of the Aam Aadmi Party, it needs a genuine cause. The NEET protests stemmed from a genuine cause and concerned the youth of the country; the charges against the Chief Election Commissioner are fake.
They are politically motivated, as the letter from 42 former judges spelt it out on Thursday. In a strongly worded open letter to the citizens of the country, the esteemed former judges, who have made it clear that they do not have any political affiliations, called it a “campaign without evidence”—“a calculated campaign driven by vested political interests, with little regard for the potentially devastating consequences of destabilising the world’s largest democracy.” In perhaps the single biggest indictment of the collective Opposition and the CJP, they have torn to shreds every single charge made by these political interests against the Election Commission.
They have seen through the intention of these parties— to insert an element of doubt in the minds of voters. “Tell citizens often enough that their vote does not count, and they stop believing in the ballot.” When that happens, street unrest is the result, “with anarchic and fringe elements” occupying the vacuum, they write. Interestingly, they have given weightage to the suspicion that while a part of this anarchy is homegrown, other parts “take their cues from beyond our borders”. Given the trajectory of this so-called agitation, it is increasingly looking like a regime change operation that has already been tried and tested in Bangladesh and Nepal. But then India is neither Bangladesh nor Nepal. Hence, this anarchy will not be allowed to continue. Mobs will not be allowed to decide India’s future.