My family has been Congress for decades. I was highly sympathetic to Rahul - I can’t imagine the trauma of having your beloved father blown to bits. I was glad to see the success of the Jodo Yatra. However, I was immensely put off by his calls for foreign intervention in India - to do what? To restore a dynasty? His dynasty? Be careful what you wish for - calls to undemocratically topple a government can only lead to a military coup. Fight at the ballot box, for heavens sake.
Every time Rahul Gandhi tore up a bill passed by Parliament and called it nonsense, he lost loyalty of supporters who stand for liberal values and respect India's democratic institutions despite it's flaws. Every time Rahul Gandhi uttered "Chowkidar chor hai", he lost a huge chunk of votes. Every time Rahul Gandhi went abroad to lecture about India's democracy, he gave away a loyalty of Congress supporters.
Now that his disqualification is set in stone, no one is coming to support him.
Your post misses the point. Has any Congress MP or MLA spoken against criminal defamation or reforms of defamation laws? No.
Has the Congress Cadre organized nationwide protests or galvanized (new and old) supporters? No.
And that is the issue right there. Voters and Congress' cadre ever shrinking cadre are extremely apathetic with the Congress' dynastic leadership. The Cadres has been left to fend for themselves and are constantly ignored by the leadership. Voters have suffered from calcification of state capacity and institutions (that Congress Govts have consistently ignored). Now those same state and institutions are hammering Congress with the same instruments Congress maintained post independence. There's very little sympathy amongst Indians and Congress' cadre for the Gandhis.
The Gandhis are their own liability and they are dragging the entire Opposition down along with them.
So, weak state capacity drives over-criminalisation of the basic economic and political actions. And over-criminalisation worsens the pendency problem in the judiciary.
The reasoning behind over-criminalisation seems to be that it will become a deterrent for undesired actions. Instead, it hurts the general public as they become susceptible to the discretion of the executive and get entangled in the never ending judicial process.
The problem here is not with the intentions of the State, but with its ability. The simple solution would have been to increase the State capacity. Instead, the State opted for virtue-signalling by making its intentions ‘purer.’
An undesirable effect of such overregulation is that it allows the State to curb the political opposition effectively. That’s what we see happening in India today.
>>>All of this is moot because the court clarified that the complaint was not a public one, but filed due to the “personal, physical, mental and social trauma suffered by the complainant [Purnesh Modi]” because of the defamatory words used by Gandhi. Because of his words “people with the Modi surname were defamed and looked down upon in society.”
I found this rather funny in a morbid way. So in India one can go to prison for committing a microaggression.
Ms Shruti. What proof do u have to say NaMo did it to have that headline? Oops sorry u don't say NaMo, u only said Modi. So now u can be punished for defamation too. But again, u r being brave from outside Bharat, hiding behind Uncle Sam. Just curious, have u written anything pro-NaMo? Or no bcos it doesn't five u paycheck!!
Did Modi kill India's democracy by expelling Rahul Gandhi; Oppn leader of India?
I dont think so. This is not India of Indira Gandhis era(70's) or even world to that matter.
First of all Rahul Gandhi is perceived as an immature leader by masses; whatever may be the reasons Social Media used to create an image like that, his own time to time gaffes and so on.
Not many Indians are really concerned about Rahul and his political future; way Religion-Caste is used in day to day life in India is surely creating more fragmented verdicts at regional party levels; for party in Power things are not very different; Modi in his pursuit of becoming Only Tallest leader has somehow sidelined other good leaders even though they are part of his cabinet; every thing is centered around Modi and 24/7 efforts to create and push down to masses Modi is India Modi is only PM of India who has shown-delivered some Development or Growth.
Modi is BJPs winning formula at moment; but with ballooning inflation-unemployment-natural resources scarcity-Geo-political issues and so on what happens when Voters despite all the 24/7 publicity machinery turn their back on Modi?
That is where Indian democracy will go back to period of 4 Governments in less than 3 years late 80's period; as other than BJP at moment no other party is even in range of winning 50-70 seats. Which means 10-20 parties will form Govt and keep playing Musical Chair of PM post and formations of Govt.
As far as Democracy is concerned; Not only INDIA all over the WORLD majority of people do not give any damn about it; SOCIAL MEDIA influenced campaigns are major VOTE gaining TACTICs and they are delivering even in US elections BLM was key Social Media campaign used to win this time. You dont know what will be in next election. India is no different.
Indias problem more than how sound/strong Democracy is are Population-Unemployment-Inflation-Pollution-Healthcare-Not a single friendly Neighboring nation despite all the hype.
For Rahul Gandhi; he made an gravest mistake of calling himself 2014 PM candidate of Congress than letting then PM ManmohanSingh be the face of election campaign.
Thats where masses turned their back to Congress and it has been going on since then; nothing much has changed.
In my opinion, the BJP is currently facing a significant crisis. While Modi will likely be the face of the party in the 2024 election, it remains unclear who will take over in the 2029 election. While some suggest that Yogi Adityanath or Amit Shah could step in, it's uncertain whether they can capture the public's attention in the same way that Modi has. This potential leadership vacuum could create an opportunity for opposition parties to gain traction and potentially threaten the BJP's dominance. However, Rahul's disqualification is just a start to consolidate their power and eliminate any significant opposition, leading to a one-party state.
I think the BJP will be fine. They have groomed a lot of Second Gen leaders who can succeed Modi. That's not the case with any of the Opposition party.
I agree with your last sentence, India needs a better opposition.
My family has been Congress for decades. I was highly sympathetic to Rahul - I can’t imagine the trauma of having your beloved father blown to bits. I was glad to see the success of the Jodo Yatra. However, I was immensely put off by his calls for foreign intervention in India - to do what? To restore a dynasty? His dynasty? Be careful what you wish for - calls to undemocratically topple a government can only lead to a military coup. Fight at the ballot box, for heavens sake.
Every time Rahul Gandhi tore up a bill passed by Parliament and called it nonsense, he lost loyalty of supporters who stand for liberal values and respect India's democratic institutions despite it's flaws. Every time Rahul Gandhi uttered "Chowkidar chor hai", he lost a huge chunk of votes. Every time Rahul Gandhi went abroad to lecture about India's democracy, he gave away a loyalty of Congress supporters.
Now that his disqualification is set in stone, no one is coming to support him.
Your post misses the point. Has any Congress MP or MLA spoken against criminal defamation or reforms of defamation laws? No.
Has the Congress Cadre organized nationwide protests or galvanized (new and old) supporters? No.
And that is the issue right there. Voters and Congress' cadre ever shrinking cadre are extremely apathetic with the Congress' dynastic leadership. The Cadres has been left to fend for themselves and are constantly ignored by the leadership. Voters have suffered from calcification of state capacity and institutions (that Congress Govts have consistently ignored). Now those same state and institutions are hammering Congress with the same instruments Congress maintained post independence. There's very little sympathy amongst Indians and Congress' cadre for the Gandhis.
The Gandhis are their own liability and they are dragging the entire Opposition down along with them.
So, weak state capacity drives over-criminalisation of the basic economic and political actions. And over-criminalisation worsens the pendency problem in the judiciary.
The reasoning behind over-criminalisation seems to be that it will become a deterrent for undesired actions. Instead, it hurts the general public as they become susceptible to the discretion of the executive and get entangled in the never ending judicial process.
The problem here is not with the intentions of the State, but with its ability. The simple solution would have been to increase the State capacity. Instead, the State opted for virtue-signalling by making its intentions ‘purer.’
An undesirable effect of such overregulation is that it allows the State to curb the political opposition effectively. That’s what we see happening in India today.
>>>All of this is moot because the court clarified that the complaint was not a public one, but filed due to the “personal, physical, mental and social trauma suffered by the complainant [Purnesh Modi]” because of the defamatory words used by Gandhi. Because of his words “people with the Modi surname were defamed and looked down upon in society.”
I found this rather funny in a morbid way. So in India one can go to prison for committing a microaggression.
Ms Shruti. What proof do u have to say NaMo did it to have that headline? Oops sorry u don't say NaMo, u only said Modi. So now u can be punished for defamation too. But again, u r being brave from outside Bharat, hiding behind Uncle Sam. Just curious, have u written anything pro-NaMo? Or no bcos it doesn't five u paycheck!!
Clearly you don't get the difference between a question and a statement (or assertion).
Did Modi kill India's democracy by expelling Rahul Gandhi; Oppn leader of India?
I dont think so. This is not India of Indira Gandhis era(70's) or even world to that matter.
First of all Rahul Gandhi is perceived as an immature leader by masses; whatever may be the reasons Social Media used to create an image like that, his own time to time gaffes and so on.
Not many Indians are really concerned about Rahul and his political future; way Religion-Caste is used in day to day life in India is surely creating more fragmented verdicts at regional party levels; for party in Power things are not very different; Modi in his pursuit of becoming Only Tallest leader has somehow sidelined other good leaders even though they are part of his cabinet; every thing is centered around Modi and 24/7 efforts to create and push down to masses Modi is India Modi is only PM of India who has shown-delivered some Development or Growth.
Modi is BJPs winning formula at moment; but with ballooning inflation-unemployment-natural resources scarcity-Geo-political issues and so on what happens when Voters despite all the 24/7 publicity machinery turn their back on Modi?
That is where Indian democracy will go back to period of 4 Governments in less than 3 years late 80's period; as other than BJP at moment no other party is even in range of winning 50-70 seats. Which means 10-20 parties will form Govt and keep playing Musical Chair of PM post and formations of Govt.
As far as Democracy is concerned; Not only INDIA all over the WORLD majority of people do not give any damn about it; SOCIAL MEDIA influenced campaigns are major VOTE gaining TACTICs and they are delivering even in US elections BLM was key Social Media campaign used to win this time. You dont know what will be in next election. India is no different.
Indias problem more than how sound/strong Democracy is are Population-Unemployment-Inflation-Pollution-Healthcare-Not a single friendly Neighboring nation despite all the hype.
For Rahul Gandhi; he made an gravest mistake of calling himself 2014 PM candidate of Congress than letting then PM ManmohanSingh be the face of election campaign.
Thats where masses turned their back to Congress and it has been going on since then; nothing much has changed.
In my opinion, the BJP is currently facing a significant crisis. While Modi will likely be the face of the party in the 2024 election, it remains unclear who will take over in the 2029 election. While some suggest that Yogi Adityanath or Amit Shah could step in, it's uncertain whether they can capture the public's attention in the same way that Modi has. This potential leadership vacuum could create an opportunity for opposition parties to gain traction and potentially threaten the BJP's dominance. However, Rahul's disqualification is just a start to consolidate their power and eliminate any significant opposition, leading to a one-party state.
I think the BJP will be fine. They have groomed a lot of Second Gen leaders who can succeed Modi. That's not the case with any of the Opposition party.
I agree with your last sentence, India needs a better opposition.