‘The People vs the Indian State’

The recent proliferation of protests and grassroots movements points to increased public discourse on politics and human rights.  The on-going farmers protest is one example of an energized population eager to invoke change in the country.

These protests also raise the question that will shape India’s democratic future in 2021 and beyond.

• Protests are back in the headlines across the world. In the world’s “oldest democracy”, supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol, demanding he be declared winner of elections as they were “fake and fixed”.
• In the “largest democracy”, farmers are camping on Delhi borders demanding the repeal of three recently adopted farm laws.
• In the last three months, the United States has reported more than 50 protests against the electoral verdict for Joe Biden.
• In India, there have been more than 100 by farmers, labour unions, health workers, even elected Panchayat members.
• The preoccupation with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns didn’t deter them much.
• In 2019, there were massive protests like the Global Climate Strike and the ones in Hong Kong. 
• In December 2020 and first week of 2021, some 56 countries (in the Americas, Africa and Asia) reported protests, mostly led by youths.
• It seems that, after a brief lull, people are back on the streets. “Everybody is protesting everything.” It feels so.

What are the core political rights of democracy?

• Democracies everywhere are founded on two core political rights.
• The first, the right of every citizen to freely elect their government and when dissatisfied with its performance, to vote it out of power in a legitimately held election (Article 326).
• This remains the only proper constitutional procedure to get rid of a government and rightly so. Indeed, peaceful transfer of power is one of the great strengths of democracies.
• But short of displacing it, and as long as it is done peacefully, any form of public action to challenge the government’s proposals or decisions is also constitutionally legitimate, forming the second core political right: to politically participate not only during but between elections.
• The right to protest, to publicly question and force the government to answer, is a fundamental political right of the people that flows directly from a democratic reading of Article 19. 
  
  

Are Protests legal?

• All protests are legal only if they are non-violent and carried out with appropriate permissions.
• Fundamental duties that are enshrined in the constitution require that the rule of law is followed and that public property is not destroyed.
• The right to protest peacefully is enshrined in the Indian Constitution under Article 19.

 What’s behind the protests?

• Fractured growth, discredited State: These protests draw their legitimacy from the lived experience of fractured growth driven by oligarchic capitalism and a discredited State.
• System failure and injustice: Conflict is expected and when judicial and state processes fail, people often take to the streets to administer some form of vigilante justice and retribution.
• Threat: This is also happening in a context where civil liberties are being eroded and dissenting views are under attack.

 How protests are ‘strong tools’ for change?

• Contagious: Of late, protest has emerged more contagious than any other political tool. The spread and degree of these protests are unbelievably massive and without identified leaders.
• Bringing core issues in light: In democracies, protests are for more about rights and also to question democratic institutions. In many non-democracies, protests are over economic hardship and for bringing in democracy.
• Grievance redressal:In the absence of other avenues, protests have become a means of grievance redressal, a way of legitimising the demands, a function of multi-cultural democracy and a form of freedom of speech and expression.
• Collective conscience: Protests can be seen as the articulation of the collective conscience of the nation. 
• Building community: Protests not only build communities of like-minded people, but they also increase civic engagement in general.
• Bring change:Protests create an important avenue to bring about the much desired change in the society. This also helps in improving the status of affairs in the country.
• Strengthening democracy: Protests are a means of ensuring that democracy thrives. It helps a people express their views without the interference of others who have a contrary opinion.

 What measures can change the current situation?

• Building trust: Bringing India on to a sustainable path of long-term growth and charting a new course for agrarian transitions will require a politics of trust, credibility, inclusion and consensus building.
• Neutral and committed role of institutions: The apparatus needed for a healthy democracy goes beyond political parties to unelected institutions. These institutions need to play their part by remaining politically neutral and committed to democratic ideals.
• Determined political architecture: Ideas, practices, and leadership matter. If the architecture of the polity is adequately imagined, put in place with resolve and determination, and practiced with nurturing care, things can take a positive turn.
• Recognition of needs of all sections: A true constitutional democracy recognises that laws and regulations must account for the needs of all sections of society. This must include the less powerful, who may not have access to or a voice in the democratic process to be noticed by those in power.
  
  

Conclusion

Protests and riots–uprisings could become the new normal. This can be a turning point in the world’s most audacious s political experiment of electoral democracy. It gave space to people to dissent, but if the satisfaction level is dipping, it also calls for an evaluation of the system itself. So, it is time for a democratic evaluation of the electoral democracy’s effectiveness in responding to people’s concerns and demands.