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FOR a regime long used to controlling the national narrative, tom-tomming its achievements, real or mythical, while rubbishing the record of all previous dispensations, developments over the past few months must have come as a nightmare. Never before, with the possible exception of the months before Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency, have we witnessed a regime so rapidly, and comprehensively, losing its sheen and the trust and confidence of the people, as different segments of the populace, disappointed and angered by the actions and inactions of the government have risen in protest, no longer willing to buy into the eagerly awaited, promised achche din.

Start with the farmers who, upset with the non-implementation of the Swaminathan Committee report on remunerative prices for their produce, cancellation of their burgeoning debt burden forcing many into committing suicide, or the ideologically driven and ill-advised restriction on cattle trade, have taken to the streets, culminating in the historic march on the Maharashtra assembly. So too the Dalits, facing a dramatic increase in harassment and worse symptomized by the Una incident now confronting the double whammy of the proposed changes in the reservation regime which they fear will further reduce their already shrinking constitutionally guaranteed jobs and the ‘reading down’ of the SC & ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, making it even more difficult for them to legally confront alleged acts of harassment and prejudice.

Alongside are large sections of the business community, in particular small traders and manufacturers, still recovering from the twin shocks of a whimsical demonetization and the promulgation of a poorly designed and worse implemented GST regime, now facing the prospect of a credit crunch occasioned by the ballooning burden of non-performing assets afflicting our banking system. Add to this the growing disenchantment of the aspirational youth still waiting for the promised up tick in employment, often translating into a growing clamour for identity based reservations, as also an alarming growth in petty crime.

Equally worrying, though so far not resulting in dramatic protests, is the growing intolerance and breakdown in social cohesion, directed mainly at religious minorities, Dalits, tribals and women. The increased incidence of targeted violence and intimidation of an already marginalized and ghettoized people, often if not exclusively by groups affiliated to the ruling dispensation emboldened by the overt and covert support by key leaders wedded to a majoritarian ethic, if permitted to continue unchecked, is likely to further weaken our frail commitment to a secular, plural and tolerant society. Fearing no redress from a hostile administration and an indifferent and overburdened judicial system, this might well push larger numbers of the disaffected towards seeking more radical, even violent, solutions.

One could add to the list of concerns – the growing clash with the judiciary; the effort to defang institutions of accountability; questionable appointments in key positions like governors, to list but a few. Increasingly, the feeling is that this government has become dysfunctional. Unnerved by the growing dissatisfaction and protest to which the government seems to have no coherent response, the fallback option appears to be an increasing curb on expression and the media through use of fiscal, coercive and legislative measures, a favoured strategy of most regimes when cornered. Fortunately, sensing the hesitation and weakness marking the government, larger sections of the media now seem to have rediscovered their mandate – speak truth to power and hold governments to account, a tendency far more pronounced in smaller, independent web-based publications and in individual blogs and social posts.

As witness, we need to look no further than the flurry of opinion pieces on the (mis)handling by the government, be it in states or the Centre, and the shameful remarks by members, including leaders, of the ruling party to the horrific incidents of mass rape and murder of a girl child in Kathua, Jammu, or the rape of a young woman in Unnao, UP, followed by the torture and custodial death of her father by the local police when he tried to lodge a complaint against the alleged perpetrator, a powerful MLA of the ruling party.

One might well argue that all these, and others, are old and continuing challenges and that crediting the current regime for these ills would be unfair. Possibly. But what is difficult to deny is the dramatic coarsening of our public behaviour and discourse, an increase in intemperate and hate speech and the denunciation of all critical voices, people and organizations as anti-national, directly contributing to escalated violence against all those seen as non-conforming. Little surprise that many, including those who had welcomed the change in 2014, now wish an end to this dispensation.

Harsh Sethi