Guwahati: Are you among those who can utter the words "government..." without shuddering a bit? It seems a little tricky, especially when you have chosen a government that oversees rights and cares more about withdrawing laws just before the polls. Can you still consider living in the largest democracy in the world? Of course, not.
Lately, the Modi government has ordered officials to block around 9,849 social media accounts because the designated nodal officer requested it. This year, Twitter has blocked 250 accounts at the government's request. How true does it sound to believe that the halt on continuing these accounts had something reasonable or something that was 'anti-national' for so-called political leaders who are happy with their photos on the newspaper front pages?
In the name of having laws, India still stands as the largest democracy in the world. In reality, the picture has already taken a climax, and you are still waiting for the twist. You have to watch it right from the beginning of the show to see why protests started, why laws that should protect human rights instead carried people behind bars, and why we still claim to live in a democracy?
It has been termed that the social media accounts were blocked at the request of the nodal officer and people of this land are not hopeless nerd to accept that everything in India now works under the power of unaccountable saffron chairs.
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In response to a query, Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the government was mindful that the "misuse" of social media is a source of "risk and danger." However, the rate of crimes and atrocities has increased in the last few years. Where is the democracy leading when people over their account cannot have the right to draw their opinions because opinions by those who are in power matter the most.
It is valid for any democracy to safeguard the rights of every citizen who faces risk and danger. In this regard, blocking accounts are appropriate for the safety and protection of individuals who have faced cyber repulsiveness. However, the government blowing out all those who raise concern over the wickedness of any form of governance is a threat to human rights.
Right to speech and expression seems to be violated when you see the pictures of dead bodies of protestors when you cannot switch on your television because every time you do, you might feel the blood dropping on your floor, and you have to find a whiter paper to clean it off. The horrors and plights of every ordinary person again risk democracy.
Very often, we consider a nation and a government to be identical. However, there is a vast difference between being anti-national and anti-government. A feeling of nationalism is inevitable. A government comes in power for some time, that too, with the will of the people of a nation. The constitution of democracy provides citizens with the most superior power to bring a government in power and draw it back when it threatens human rights. Therefore, it's certainly wrong for anyone in power to claim citizens stating against a government as 'anti-national.'
When citizens face threats due to the government that the very citizens of the nation have chosen, a democracy fails.
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