Delivering a special message in August 1950 to the US Congress, then President Harry S. Truman said, “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”

The vitality of any democracy is dependent on the strength of its opposition. The massive mandate for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the rise of majoritarian politics largely silenced the opposition and steadily choked any voice of resistance. The ideology of the BJP has been steadily seeping deep into the religiously charged and politically intolerant psyche of the Indian populace, heralding a triumph for its Hindutva discourse. The liberal minority, hence, becomes all the more vulnerable from the chest-thumping antics of the Hindutva forces. The volatility of the situation is such that several intellectuals and rights activists like Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha and Shoma Sen have been arrested on ludicrous charges, violating their basic fundamental rights, while those involved in lynching or murders roam around freely. 

This indicates a palpable shift in the political culture of the country. The very environment of dialogue and discussion has evaporated amidst a top-down approach from the government. In fact, the practice of entertaining criticisms and encouraging feedback has been lacking under this regime, thereby, categorically destroying the democratic space in the country.

In recent times, we have witnessed the constitutional safeguards being rampantly violated in the country – key foundations like secularism being challenged to the extent that it resonates with the Hindu middle class and upper caste electorates. The rise of mindless communal killings and incidents of arson signaled the rise of unimaginable perils to this civilization and its very ethos. People subscribing to parochial nationalism have been relentlessly trying to morph Hinduism into a religion of bigoted outlook. The fuel to this plan is unabashedly provided by the social networking sites and WhatsApp groups that spew venom and unauthentic provocative communal narratives that trigger ideas like "Hindus must rise".

In order to fit into the jigsaw puzzle of Indian majoritarian political set up, institutions and individuals did compromise on their ideological stance, while some stood firm on their stand creating a wide divide within society. In fact, the huge mandate won by BJP in a way created an environment in Indian politics where defection became a common affair. There have been enough instances reflecting that political parties either compromised on their ideological point of view to riding the bandwagon or individuals from the opponent camp joined the bandwagon to serve their self-interest. 

Most institutions in India in the last five years have either lost their independence in administration or have been relegated to become a puppet in the hands of the government. On these lines, often the independence of the judiciary has been questioned owing to its decisions in cases like the Babri Masjid dispute or the Bhima Koregaon case. After the completion of six years of the Modi regime, the Supreme Court appears timid, fragmented, and indecisive. And the nomination of  former Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Ranjan Gogoi, to the Rajya Sabha casts doubts in people's minds on the integrity of the judiciary.

The position of the fourth pillar of democracy, by far, has been severely jeopardized under the ruling government. Most media houses and journalists have unofficially taken up the task of playing out divisive narratives on primetime shows, promoting or being the mouthpiece of the government, and ensuring intimidation or suppression of counter-narratives and voices on a national platform. The ruling Union government has drawn huge impunity with which they could take major decisions in the past, for e.g. demonetization (2016) or the sudden call for a countrywide lockdown for COVID-19 (2020). As a result, the people on the margins have often faced the brunt. In both instances, the poor and marginalized were badly affected, so much so that small business enterprises still feel the heat of demonetization.

Here, comes the crucial and timely role of the opposition. Viable checks and balance system is very important for the proper functioning of any government. The opposition in India has been limping so bad with low electoral representation in states and shrinking credibility amongst the voters that the ruling party, even if it has not necessarily ticked all its boxes, has been able to present itself as a political party of aspiration. Hence, it becomes all the more imperative for the opposition to put up a strong resistance to question the government’s actions, to argue the legitimacy of each decision undertaken. 

However, the opposition could not consolidate its feet on the ground to challenge the actions of the government, whether it was the floor test over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or the Citizenship Amendment Act. In the times of an unprecedented health emergency facing the world, it is only India that has been facing a humanitarian crisis as well of humongous proportions. The miserable condition of our migrant workers questions the regime’s celebrated slogan of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (for all, development for all), which was mandated to take care of every citizen of the country irrespective of their economic, social and religious stipulations. However, the opposition parties have been, by and large, unable to rise to the occasion fo help the migrants, other than stray instances.

It is crucial that the opposition sharpens and strengthens its political programme in order to combat the BJP. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has exposed sizeable missed opportunities of the Modi regime, but the question remains if the opposition can make use of those opportunities.

Modi’s style of belligerent nationalism and Hindutva politics stapled with attractive socialist rhetoric like the Jan Dhan Yojana (a financial inclusion program)  has its own loopholes. The opposition needs to channelize a political paradigm that articulates concrete policies to every strata of the society addressing daily issues of gender, culture, and religion and most importantly challenging the Hindutva politics. To challenge the socialism rhetoric, it is of utmost importance that opposition parties must strike a chord with the common people at the grassroots level, rather than social media engagements. 

In a country as diverse as India it is mandatory that the values of plurality, tolerance, and acceptance are preserved. Besides, it is crucial that different communities are encouraged to intermingle with each other. By merely paying lip service to the values of cultural syncretism and allowing the cleavage to deepen at the societal level could have disastrous consequences for the very social fabric of India. 

Any democracy exists between a constant pull of centrifugal forces from within and centripetal forces from without. The reason why democracy is preferable over other political systems is that it offers a synthesis of the highest possible liberty with the highest possible equality. In this context, deepening socio-economic inequalities may jeopardize the future of a democratic state, and it is necessary that the commitment to social justice, in these times of inequity, be reaffirmed. And last but not the least, the strength of institutions has a direct bearing on the democratic health of a country. Institutions are often set up by the state, but they tend to develop an autonomous sphere of activity, specifically oriented to prevent the excesses of the state.

Under the current regime, institutions are being systematically disempowered. This could ultimately lead to a system of maximum government and minimum governance, an inversion of one of Modi's electoral promises. Under these circumstances, individuals will have no recourse to take to, when subjected to the brutalities of a state and the vagaries of the market. Hence, it is essential that appropriate social protest and mobilization is undertaken by the opposition in order to maintain the strength of institutions.

(Anuja Saha is a doctoral student at the Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She can be contacted at anujasaha.ju@gmail.com. Subhranil Ghosh is a final year postgraduate student at the Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University. He can be contacted at ghoshsubhranil00@gmail.com)