There are wide spread public concern over lack of accountability of the RSS Pariwar union government since 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed power. Lack of public accountability has been a central theme in critiques of India’s democratic health. Without accountability, the rule of law-based system of constitutional democracy is reduced to election centric autocracy with nil responsiveness to the people, who are sovereign masters of the government. Reports from people of different strata, opposition parties, academic institutions and independent observers often point to a shift toward increased centralization of power in one man (herein PMO), a decline in institutional checks, and a reduction in transparency.
People view all round erosion, even collapse, of constitutional and statutory bodies, the Election Commission, the judiciary, and investigative agencies, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax Department have been weakened and coopted reducing their ability to act as independent checks on executive (government) power. Added to this, there has ben reduced transparency and parliamentary oversight so much so that the government has been accused of bypassing parliamentary debate on significant legislations, such as the farm laws, and delaying the population census for the first time since 1872. There is a noted decline in press conferences by high office bearers in the government. The Prime Minister (PM) did not address a single press conference during the last over eleven years to test the depths of water in which the government resides, as a deliberate resolve to escape public accountability.
The other aspects of evading accountability are the capture of mainstream electronic and print media, making them increasingly pliant. Such media are described as ‘Godi media’, reducing the media’s role to sing paean to the RSS Pariwar union government and ignoring pressing problems of people like unemployment, joblessness, social infarctions, through rhetorical headline and media management, as also diverting public attention on emotive (religious opium) and toxic communal/divisive, religious polarization issues. Further more, there are rising criminalization of dissent, and the use of draconian laws against activists and journalists, as part of avoiding accountability to the people. Some other areas of evading public accountability cover open electoral funding mechanisms, economic performance and employment, data fudging, handling of social issues, and unresolved controversies.
The implementation of electoral bonds, which allowed for anonymous corporate donations, was a major point of public criticism over the lack of transparency in political funding until declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of India. Besides, observers note that all policy-making decisions are concentrated within the PM undermining the collective responsibility of the council of ministers including individual ministers. Ministers are redundant and reduced to the sycophancy of the deified PM, thus avoiding responsiveness to the people. Other area of accountability failure has been economic performance and employment. Despite promises of job creation, data has indicated high unemployment rates and low manufacturing growth, with accusations that official statistics are doctored to present a more positive or rosy picture.
People point out a slow or negligent and partisan response in high profile crime cases, like Unnao, Hathras and a failure to protect minority rights with accusations that majoritarian politics are prioritized over legal accountability. Questions are also raised frequently about the lack of investigation into allegations of corruption or wrong doing involving high ranking officials including ministers and others in the ruling conglomerates, as avoidance to public accountability. The latest in the saga of evading public accountability is linkages of PM, Petroleum Minister and a corporate honcho, very close to the PM, to the globally and unprecedently the most high profile notorious sex trafficker powerbroker Epstein Files. Now that the scandal has surfaced so openly, the government specifically the PM must investigate and come clean on the matter as a hallmark of constitutional morality and accountability. On the contrary, the government is evasive and running away from responsibility. In this connection, it is clear that guilt by association is a serious crime in terms of a time tested well settled criminal jurisprudence, which the impugned persons should not escape.
Other most notable major avoidance of public accountability by the current RSS Pariwar union government were neglect of farmers during the yearlong massive farmers agitations against the three black farm laws resulting in the deaths of more than 750 farmers, massively inflicted hardships to migrant workers in 2020 following sudden lockdown during the corona virus pandemic, displacing lakhs of migrant workers from their livelihood with many dying on way back home neglect of health care for massive pandemic inflicted people dying for lack of oxygen and healthcare in hospitals or clinics in which lakhs of people died, as also for ill conceived demonetization putting the people to the utmost untold hardships, wherein more than 170 people died. A large number of people, who had fixed marriage of their wards, cancelled marriages having been rendered insolvent or pauper. And the government did not account for such massive miseries inflicted upon the people. The GST knocked down several lakhs of small and medium businesses following demonetization, with the government in the process inflicting massive miseries on the people. The most worrying was the apex court aligning with the government in evading its responsibility rather than standing with the people.
Other specific areas of public accountability failures relate to economic performance and employment, handling of social issues and some unresolved controversies. Despite promises of job creation, data has indicated high unemployment rates and low manufacturing growth with accusations that official statistics are fudged to present a more positive picture. Critics point to a slow response in high profile crime cases. Questions are frequently raised about the lack of investigation into allegations of corruptions and However, p
by its supporters as a proactive and decisive government. However, political opponents, analysts and majority of people simultaneously heavily criticize it for reducing institutional accountability and fostering a more authoritarian, centralized and non-transparent system of governance since 2014. Lack of public accountability sounds death knell to the democracy and emergence of fascism where everything is arbitrary with nil public accountability!
Md Yunus Siddiqui is a columnist. He has a great experience of Media Space.
