'Dissent is the safety valve of democracy...'

BJP's India under Narendra Modi is vastly different from Congress' under Dr Manmohan Singh; it is even significantly different from BJP of late Atal Behari Vajpayee's. Today, the BJP government in New Delhi is pursuing a policy in relation to marginalized sections of Indian society in a manner that according to its critics is not much different from those of Mussolini's and Hitler's of Italy and Germany, respectively, in the first half of 20th century. But India's Supreme Court - as an institution - happens to be the only ray of hope for all those who are suffering at the hands of a political party which is unabashedly pursuing and promoting far-right or extreme right Hindutva ideology in an overtly violent manner under the premiership of Modi since his election in 2014. In other words, it has put its anti-minorities and pro-majority plans in top gear with a view to winning the scheduled 2019 general elections; its "majority is priority" narrative is being promoted at the cost of India's hard-won democratic credentials. Moreover, unlike Hitler and Mussolini, Modi has been taking full advantage of those broadcast and telecom tools which were not available to mankind before. Police, for example, has been raiding and arresting human rights activists under full media glare with a view to instilling fear among those who are opposed to the BJP rule. In one case in New Delhi, the arrest of a noted activist was delayed until a team of far-right TV channel, The Republic, arrived there to film the event. The Supreme Court of India, however, seems to have acted in accordance with constitutional stipulations through its order that it issued on Wednesday in response to a petition by noted historian Prof Romila Thapar and others who had urged the court to order an independent probe into the Bhima Koregaon violence earlier this year. Ordering that the five prominent activists arrested by the police should be placed under house arrest till September and not sent to jail, the apex court observed: "Dissent is the safety valve of democracy...the pressure cooker will burst if you don't allow the safety valves." The court has therefore questioned the arrest of five activists nearly nine months after the violence. On Tuesday, Pune police raided the residences of prominent lawyers and activists across five states and arrested five people for alleged Maoist links - a move that was condemned by opposition leaders and other public figures as an attack on civil rights. Lawyer and trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj, poet P Varavara Rao, activist Gautam Navlakha, and lawyers Arun Pereira and Vernon Gonsalves were arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy, creating fear and enmity between various groups, and under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Be that as it may, the BJP government is in a state of panic ever since investigations into the murder of noted journalist-turned-activist Gauri Linkesh from Bangalore, Karnataka, showed the involvement of the Sangh Parivar of which BJP happens to be the principal part in the crime. Writer Arundhati Roy of global fame has therefore illustrated the situation in a highly impressive manner: "The simultaneous arrests are a dangerous sign of a government that fears it is losing its mandate and is falling into panic. That lawyers, poets, writers, Dalit rights activists and intellectuals are being arrested on ludicrous charges while [those who] make up lynch mobs and threaten and murder people in broad daylight roam free, tells us very clearly where India is headed. Murderers are being honoured and protected."