On March 23, the anniversary of the day the Emergency was lifted, Anuradha Bhasin, the Executive Editor of Kashmir Times delivered the 40th JP Memorial Lecture. The event was organized by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), an organisation under the aegis of Jaya Prakash Narayan himself.
It is noteworthy that Bhasin has been hounded by the ruling regime, only because she has been a vociferous advocate of press freedom and has been demanding basic human rights for the people of Kashmir in wake of the abrogation of Article 370. Bhasin had moved Supreme Court with a plea seeking restoration of the internet, following a virtual communications blackout in the region. Her petition argued the internet is essential for the modern press, and that by shutting it down, the authorities forced the print media to come to “a grinding halt.” The court, in its judgment, reiterated that freedom of expression guaranteed under Article 19 of India’s Constitution extended to the internet. This was a significant victory, but it also firmly placed Bhasin in the regime’s crosshairs. In October 2020, her Wazarat Road home was ransacked.
Bhasin’s lecture was aptly titled Media, Democracy & Democratic Institutions: Challenges of Our Times.
Tracing the history of independent India, Bhasin said, “Armed with a liberal Constitution, India embarked on the journey of democracy soon after independence. It was neither an easy journey, nor one that indicates a linear graph. There were disruptions, slowdowns and even reversals but negotiating the many inherent problems of India’s social, political and economic landscape and challenges posed by many phases during this journey, India by and large stayed on course; and the world looked up to India. Despite its many shortcomings and imperfections, it stood out as a beacon of light for the many aspiring democracies of the third-world.”
She also spoke about the Emergency period saying, “The full-frontal attack on democracy, however, came during Indira Gandhi’s reign known for its autocracy and the dark days of Emergency. But a reversal of the amendments after her electoral rout two years later revived life back into India’s constitutional democracy.”
After this Bhasin went on to describe India’s descent into majoritarianism. “From 2014, we have witnessed a gradual, unannounced but continuous and systemic process of dismantling of the mechanisms put in place by Indian constitution that held its executive accountable to the people. The three strands of accountability that operate vertically through adult franchise and parliament, horizontally through institutions and ombudsman like the judiciary and diagonally through media, academia and civil society are under severe stress today,” said Bhasin.
Bhasin minced no words in calling out the regime for disempowering institutions like the Election Commission. She said, “Elections continue to be held giving the semblance of the basic fundamental of any democracy – adult franchise – but the rules of the game have been changed by politicizing the institution of the Election Commission, forbidding campaign finance transparency through election bonds and concerns have also been raised about the fairness of the Electronic Voting Machines, not to forget the use of data stolen by social media sites and sold to several political parties primarily the BJP, as indicated by the Cambridge Analytica scam. The lack of transparency and accountability promoting uneven funding punctures the promise of “free and fair elections” which is the basic minimum expected of any democracy.”
She also called out the BJP for its “constant diatribe against universities, student unions, academia, intelligentsia and the media through a consistent and systemic vilification campaign, amplified by propagandist machinery.”
Drawing a distinction between the 1975 Emergency and the current state of the nation, Bhasin said, “Unlike Indira Gandhi’s imposition of Emergency in 1975, BJP’s mode of operation since 2014 is subtle but systemic. The groundwork was prepared during the first tenure of this government from 2014 by keeping structures on which constitutional democracy functions alive but undermined and compromised. This ensured institutional decay that resulted in disappearance of all levels and hierarchies of accountability.”
The entire text of the lecture may be read here:
Related:
Kashmir Times editor Anuradha Bhasin’s home ransacked
Why are govt authorities targeting Kashmir Times editor Anuradha Bhasin?
Stop harassment of Anuradha Bhasin and other independent voices in Kashmir: NWMI
Srinagar: NIA raids human rights defenders, NGOs, media house in terror funding probe