A widely respected intellectual in Kerala who in 2019 wrote a book eulogising Prime Minister Narendra Modi has alleged that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to the throttling of democratic vales in India. “Political leadership of the country has lost its sense of imagination and democratic values have been violated all over India,” writes R Balashankar, author of the widely acclaimed book Narendra Modi-Creative Disruptor.
Balashankar, who was heading the intellectual cell of the BJP does not mince words while describing the present scenario in India. “The word which we hear regularly is that of social distancing. The strict enforcement of social distancing has led to the creation of more than 130 crore jail cells, each cell inhabited by each Indian. “The official declaration that coming
together of individuals and close contacts between persons are not desirable has done lot of irreparable damage to our culture,” Balashankar wrote in the recent issue of “Kalakaumudi”, a Malayalam weekly known for its Left-of-the-Centre stance.
Balashankar, the former chief editor of RSS mouthpiece Organiser reminds the readers that Amit Shah during his tenure as party president had diligently followed the Mass Contact Campaigns all over India to enlist maximum number of persons in the BJP and also Maha Sadasyatha Abhiyan , through which he held personal interaction with grassroot level workers of the party.
“But everything has gone awry and the BJP has become an inaccessible entity. The first lesson taught in the war against Covid-19 was the necessity to observe social distancing even between close family relations. This is unheard of,” Balashankar wrote.
He reminds readers that before the announcement of total lockdown in the last week of March, there were just 2000 patients and a causality of 200 in the country. Now after the series of lockdowns, which hurt all sections of the society, India has more than 6.5 million Covid-19 cases and more than 1.1 lakh fatalities. “What we see is the sight of gate keepers, policemen, bureaucrats and officials spread across housing colonies to banks to government offices turning themselves into dictators,” writes Balashankar.
It is a known fact that there are four pillars of democracy. “Ours is a society which has always held creative expression and freedom of expression as sacred. But now it has become a cardinal sin to speak anything against the war on Covid-19. All those in power speak the language of war. What kind of war is this? Whom are you waging war against? Those who speak the language of war should understand that in all wars there would be winners.
But this war would not have winners or losers. Humanity itself is the loser,” signs of the author.
Balashankar reminds the powers that be about the beauty of Gita Govinda, a poetic work by the 12th century poet Jyadeva in which he delineates the love of Lord Krishna for Radha. Gita Govinda is a work exhorting love as a celebration and that too boundless love and celebration. The melodious lyrics gave rise to a series of choreographic works in many classical dance forms in the sub continent.