The Daily Fix: It isn't flag doormats that should worry India but the trampling of the Constitution

Everything you need to know for the day (and a little more).

Rohan Venkataramakrishnan

The Indian Republic turns 68 at a time of turmoil. Uncertainty has spread in the West, thanks to the election of the volatile US President Donald J Trump and a refugee crisis that is threatening to divide Europe. That uncertainty is contagious, and has seemingly put wind in the sails of parties as diverse as Russian President Vladimir Putin, India’s adversarial northern neighbour China and even the Islamic State. At home, a massive government-mandated currency swap scheme with no clear aims has called into the question the state of the Indian economy. Unrest continues to bubble in parts of the nation, from Kashmir to Tamil Nadu. The anniversary of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s death last week reminds us of how much we still have to achieve as a society.

As it passes over the halfway mark, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has shown that it is responsive to public concerns about the state of the republic – or at least its image. When social media users complained that Amazon Canada was selling a doormat bearing the design of the Indian flag, the Minister of External Affairs took to Twitter to threaten the e-commerce giant that its executive would not be given visas unless it was corrected. After yet another attack by Pakistani militants, the government took subtle efforts to ensure Pakistani artists would not be able to work in India. Foreign-funded NGOs have been turned into enemies. When the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad complained about student slogans on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus, the Centre sent in the bumbling Delhi Police and even managed to dig-up a seemingly non-existent Pakistani connection. A recent order from the Home Ministry insists even disabled people have to work as hard as possible to be standing and still for the national anthem.

As it enters the second half of its tenure, the Modi administration will hopefully realise it has been going after the (wrong) symptoms and not the disease. Doormats with the Indian flag aren’t as much of a threat to the republic as police officers who stomp all over the rights enshrined in the Constitution. Sloganeering students are far less threatening than the impunity on display from politicians who are actively seeking to divide society. Rather than worrying about the disabled respecting the anthem, the government ought to be concerned at those who fail to understand the spirit of the song. If Pakistani artists and NGOs pose a danger, what of the billions of rupees that pore into questionable businesses and the coffers of India’s political parties?

It is, of course, possible that the government’s focus on the images rather than substance is not an oversight. Some believe it’s all sleight of hand, aimed at creating the impression that the authorities are staunch guardians of all that it means to be Indian, while the actual problems – poverty, misogyny, casteism and climate change – continue unchecked.

Whatever the motivation, distractions like these will not last for long. Not if the economy has been shoved in a ditch, not if India’s massive youth population do not end up with jobs, or if food does not make its way to people. Even if the administration’s preference for style over substance is intentional, the facade will not hold up for much longer. 

Republic Day celebrates the adoption of a remarkable document, one that is directly responsible for the success of the Indian experiment. As the Constitution turns 68, hopefully the government will recognise that its job is to improve lives, not guard symbols that become meaningless without citizens’ belief in them

https://scroll.in/article/827710/the-daily-fix-it-isnt-flag-doormats-that-should-worry-india-but-the-trampling-of-the-constitution