One term that Indian citizens have been bombarded with in last few years since 2014, among others, is ‘Fascism’. The ‘Khan Market gang’ and ‘left liberal gang’ have worked overtime to push this theory to portray Narendra Modi and his govt. in bad light.
The dictionary definition of ‘Fascism’ is “a political system based on a very powerful leader, state control, and being extremely proud of country and race, and in which political opposition is not allowed”.
There is no denying the fact that Narendra Modi is perhaps the strongest leader India has seen ever in its independent history. He is extremely proud of his Hindu roots and does not shy away from taking difficult decisions. But has he suppressed political opposition in any way? Has he used violence as an instrument against opposition political parties? In fact, the amount of opposition and mud-slinging he has faced is unparalleled. His opponents; whether in politics, academics, media, civil society; abused him on a daily basis, wished for his death, gave shameful labels, with complete impunity.
This has been the story of ‘fascism’ theory being floated against the Prime Minister!
However, if we look at the how the elections have progressed in India in these last two and a half months, another story of ‘fascism’ emerges. The election campaign in Bengal, violence in pockets of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Odhisha, and some others, gives us a first-hand example of what Fascism actually is.
What is after all happening in Bengal? Violent forces have been unleashed in the whole state to remove opposition leaders, voters are not being allowed to cast their vote, rigging is going on a rampant scale, intimidation of common people, political activists and journalists going unchecked.
Bengal is being lead by a very strong and popular leader – Mamata Banerjee. She has a firm control over all the state institutions not limited to Police, State Election Commission, Bureaucracy. A political activist gets jailed for sharing an innocent meme. College students get called ‘Maoists’ by the state leader herself. Rape victims are blamed by seniors ruling leaders including the chief minister herself. People are hanged in full public view for everyone to see and no action is taken to bring the perpetrators to justice.
If this is not Fascism then we need to change the definition of Fascism.
