by RAMACHANDRA GUHA
Why would the Indian state arrest a 21-year-old woman activist who seeks a cleaner and safer planet? Should not the country want young people to look beyond their narrow personal interests to the interests of society at large? Why did our government lock up a young citizen seeking to build a better future for herself and her compatriots? And why in such a draconian manner, with a police party flown down from Delhi to whisk her away from her home in Bengaluru to the capital? How could a non-violent campaign to spread awareness about global warming, and tweets in support for farmers’ protests, constitute a seditious threat to the mighty, professedly self-reliant, Indian state?
These questions were asked of me by a friend when the news of Disha Ravi’s arrest came in. They were surely asked in many other homes across India as well. At first glance, the arbitrary arrest and sentencing to police custody of this young lady from Bengaluru flew in the face of logic, reason, and common sense. No state governed by the rule of law and a democratic constitution should act like this. But the Indian state did. Why?
Based on what we know of the Modi-Shah regime, of how it functioned in Gujarat between 2001 and 2014, and how it has functioned at the Centre thereafter, I’d like to outline six possible reasons why this young, idealistic, female resident of Bengaluru was picked up without notice by the police from the house where she lived with her mother, put on a plane, and taken away for five days of intense interrogation in Delhi.
The first reason is that the Modi-Shah regime fears independent thinking in general. Indians must be obedient, conformist, loyal to the state and the ruling regime, and worshipful towards the Great and Visionary Leader. Ideally, the Indian state would like no critical, objective, detailed, scrutiny of its policies and actions to be permitted at all. However, while democratic freedoms have been greatly attenuated since May 2014, they have not been fully extinguished. There still exists (bare) elements of a free press, some (rapidly shrinking spaces) in civil society, and a few major states which are not ruled by the BJP.
The Modi-Shah regime is dominant across India, in politics as well as in civil society. But it is not content with dominance – it wants total hegemony. In pursuit of this ambition, it curtails discussions in parliament, erodes the rights of states, and suppresses media freedoms. By not having a single press conference in six-and-a-half years, and by assiduously cultivating and promoting a ‘Godi Media’, the Prime Minister has succeeded in reducing journalistic scrutiny of his government’s work. But he has not completely eliminated it – as yet. Hence the attacks on independent sites like Newsclick, and on independent-minded journalists as well (for more details, see this.)
The second reason that Disha Ravi was arrested is that while the Modi-Shah regime fears independent thinking in general, they particularly fear it when expressed by young people. Indians in their 20s and 30s, who are animated by ideals of religious pluralism, caste and gender justice, democratic transparency, and environmental sustainability – that is, by ideals different from and often opposed to those of the Sangh Parivar – have more energy and more time on this earth to fulfil their own hopes for our land. Therefore, they must be sent off to prison, through the abuse of state power and of the legal process if necessary. The arrest of Disha Ravi is in keeping with the arrest of an ever-growing list of young, idealistic, selfless young Indians seeking a better future for our country.
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