Modi as PM World View“ The Future of India as a democratic country is at risk”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
will visit Silicon Valley later this month. But over 137 US-based academics and
intellectuals have already filed a petition to the Silicon Valley Enterprises
expressing concern about Modi and his ‘Digital India’ campaign. It is not
surprising that Richard A. Falk is one of the petitioners. The professor
emeritus of law at Princeton University, a highly respected academic, has
always been an outspoken critic of governments and policies that violate human
rights and civil liberties.
I and others have questions
about Narendra Modi’s record on
religious tolerance, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression.
Digital India as an initiative has enormous potential to affect positive social
change, but it simultaneously poses dangers for abuse. The Modi administration
can make use of digitalization to target members of minority communities or
those who are critical of its policies.
The fact that a policy or
program is popular does not make it right or suggest the in appropriateness of
constructive criticism. We have witnessed this tension between what is popular
and what is right numerous times in recent history, perhaps most vividly with
respect to the implementation of US foreign policy. Modi’s support appears to
rest on several factors, but he and his administration have at times
disturbingly invoked Hindu nationalist rhetoric to gain the enthusiastic
backing of the Hindu majority, raising insecurities among minority, raising
insecurities among minorities.
I will not comment too much
on internal dynamics. I have come to believe that democratic institutions have
been weakened under Modi’s administration. It’s true that some of these
anti-democratic tendencies were evident in the behaviour of prior Indian governments,
but it is also the case that the last administration brought out the Right to
Information package of reforms that has greatly increased government
transparency. The background of his
record as Gujart CM and the experience of his first year as PM gives rise to a
legitimate concern that the future of India as a democratic country is at
sufficient risk. Yes, they are relevant even legally: there is currently an
undecided appeal in the Gujarat judicial system that raises serious questions
about whether Modi took adequate steps to control the Gujarat violence in 2002,
and whether he was actively implicated in its unfolding.
Silicon Valley Enterprises
has a great deal of influence and wealth, perhaps in some respect greater than
that possessed by any government. Outsourcing labour is very convenient for
many corporations, and not just for Silicon Valley Enterprises. So some
questions we have about the Digital India initiative involve anticipated
impacts on basic labour conditions in India that are presently poor and often
abusive. It is important that digital India evolves in tandem with the
protection and advancement of fundamental rights of all workers. On the one
side, given the current agenda of security threats, all governments engage in
espionage. On the other side, all states criminalize activities that target
state secrets. This creates ethical and political confusion, making it
difficult to distinguish heroes from villains. The US has the most extensive,
sophisticated, and intrusive systems of surveillance in all of history. One of
the reasons to be concerned about Digital India or digital America is that the
borderline between the pursuit of reasonable levels of state security has
become almost indistinguishable from the Orwellian nightmare state of permanent
war and total control over people.
An extract of an interview published in outlook Sept.2015
