There is a famous scene in Sasha Baron Cohen's 2012 comedy “Dictator.” Dictator Aladeen participates in a 100-meter race that is part of the Olympic Games that he organized. He has the gun that announces the start of the race. He shoots it after starting to run. As he runs ahead of his competitors, he shoots anyone who approaches him. One by one, all the runners fall, either from a gunshot wound or from fear. When the dictator Aladeen becomes visibly out of breath, the people holding the ribbon that forms the finish line begin running towards him. He crosses that tape and wins the race. We are then told that he has won a total of 14 medals in the Olympic Games.
This scene has become quite popular on Indian social media since it was announced that elections for the 18th Lok Sabha will be held between April 19 and June 1 across the country. People are commenting that what was parodied in that scene from the movie Dictator is currently happening in India. And they have plenty of reasons to reach that conclusion.
Sure, India cannot be formally classified as a dictatorship, but it cannot currently be classified as a functional and healthy democracy either. Indeed, there are some undeniable similarities between the actions of fictional dictator Aladeen in the 2012 film and those of India's current rulers ahead of the 2024 elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, for example, launched its large-scale, state-funded election campaign long before the election date was announced and campaign budgets were allocated to all parties. Therefore, it had an advantage over opposition political parties.
Additionally, just before the announcement of the 2024 election dates, the government changed the rules for selecting members of the Electoral Commission that oversees the vote. Previously, the selection committee included the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, as well as the chief justice of India. This was to ensure some fairness in the selection. But this year, the government abruptly changed the rules. He removed the chief justice from the committee and replaced him with a government minister to be appointed by the prime minister. This means that now the opinion of the government will be paramount in the election of the electoral commission. It is as if the captain of only one of the several teams participating in a game appoints the referee. What then remains to be said about the impartiality of the Electoral Commission?
Just after the election was announced on March 21, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, leader of the opposition Aam Aadmi Party, was arrested by India's financial crimes agency, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which accused him of being the mastermind of a scam. regarding Delhi's new excise duty policy on liquor. At the time of Kejriwal's arrest, three more Aam Aadmi Party leaders, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, were already in jail. The Supreme Court recently granted bail to Singh, but it appears highly unlikely that the other opposition leaders will be released in time to take part in the elections. The Delhi High Court today extended Kejriwal's judicial custody at least until April 23.
These arrests will surely have an impact on the opposition's electoral campaign. And these are not the only opposition figures facing threats of imprisonment and legal warfare in the run-up to the election. Many opposition party leaders across the country have received notices and arrest warrants related to several current and historical cases in recent months.
On April 5, for example, an arrest warrant was issued against former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in a case related to alleged illegal purchase of arms and ammunition in 1995-97.
It is clear that government investigative agencies are trying to imprison, or simply embroil in legal trouble, prominent opposition figures so that they cannot devote all their attention and energy to their election campaigns.
The government also appears to be targeting opposition institutions to limit their ability to run an effective election campaign.
Over the past month, India's Income Tax Department has served the main opposition Congress Party with multiple tax notices worth hundreds of millions of dollars and recovered 1.35 billion rupees ($16.32 million) in fines from their bank accounts. It also sealed the party's bank accounts, leaving it with limited access to funds just weeks before the election. The Congress Party said it sees the Income Tax Department's actions as an attempt to damage the party's campaign efforts and therefore an attack on Indian democracy.
On April 1, the Income Tax Department told the Supreme Court that it would not seek a payment of 35 billion rupees ($420 million) from the Congress Party until after the conclusion of the general elections in June, giving the opposition a break. However, paying taxes is not the only tool used by the government against opposition institutions and actors.
Every day there is news that one or the other leader or prominent figure of some opposition party is joining the BJP. These opposition figures are widely believed to be leaving their parties and joining the ruling BJP as a result of intimidation and harassment by government investigative agencies.
In 2019, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Chavan gave an interview to Hindustan Times, alleging that “the BJP is using government agencies to threaten opposition leaders.”
“Our leaders were threatened with investigations,” he said. “Bodies such as the Directorate of Inspection and Income Tax were used to initiate actions against the institutions managed by them. They were then assured protection from action if they joined the ruling parties. Those who joined them were afraid to take action against them. Those who did not give in are still on the radar.”
Chavan himself has since been threatened by BJP leaders with prosecution and imprisonment. He left the Congress and joined the BJP in February 2024.
Earlier this month, the Indian Express published an investigation into opposition figures defecting to the BJP. Journalists examined the cases of 25 opposition leaders accused of corruption who left their parties and joined the BJP since 2014. They found that 23 of them were granted pardons: three cases were closed and 20 were stalled or put into “storage in cold”, that is, no measures have been taken against the accused.
India's opposition parties are being hollowed out by such tactics. Furthermore, these actions are causing the public to lose faith in the opposition and perceive opposition parties as institutions in disarray, full of people paralyzed by fear and incapable of governing.
The Indian media also plays an important role in giving the BJP an advantage in the elections.
In fact, most Indian media openly promote the BJP and Narendra Modi. Since the announcement of the elections, media platforms have been organizing events involving the prime minister and other ministers and BJP leaders, giving them every opportunity to promote themselves and their agenda. This courtesy has not been extended to opposition leaders. The media has also been pushing the narrative that the opposition is weak, the prime minister remains popular and there is no real alternative for him or the BJP.
Any independent media organization or new media platform that dares to move away from government narratives faces attacks and intimidation from the government. Many popular YouTube channels critical of the government have received strikes or have already been shut down.
The communal rhetoric used by the BJP and the prime minister in the run-up to the elections has also harmed the democratic process.
From the first day of the election campaign, BJP activists, including the prime minister, started using communal language. Prime Minister Modi attacked the Congress Party saying that every page of his election manifesto “bears the imprint of the Muslim League”. Apart from this, in all their speeches and statements, BJP leaders have been denouncing opposition parties calling them “anti-Ram” and asking the public to teach them a lesson. The government and its supporters have been openly flouting the electoral code of conduct from the beginning and show no intention of changing course in the coming weeks.
But who is going to monitor their actions and censure them for mocking Indian democracy? In reality, no one expects the Electoral Commission, appointed by the prime minister himself, to do anything.
The international community observes all this with concern. This is the first time in the history of independent India that the representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations has found it necessary to make a declaration that in India “the political and civil rights of the people” are “protected” and everyone can vote in a “free and fair” atmosphere. Given the way Indian state institutions currently operate, one can only hope that the UN declaration proves accurate when polls open later this month.
The upcoming elections are very important for the future of democracy in India. It is clear that all constitutional institutions in the country have now decided that they work for the BJP, not the people, and the media has taken on the role of propagandist for the current government. The opposition parties have their hands and feet tied. In such a situation, the only hope is that the Indian people, who have fought tirelessly for democracy since the country's inception and know its value very well, understand the gravity of the situation and use their most powerful weapons, their votes, to put an end to it. end India's rapid democratic retreat.
Otherwise, the next Indian elections will go down in history as a farce staged only to please, placate and provide renewed legitimacy to Modi and his party, not unlike dictator Aladeen's Olympics.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
