PANOUTI

Who better than GERMANY to alert the people of India on the state of affairs now previlling in India and getting worse as the election dates are fast approaching,

Germany has recent memories of a very dark period in their country with the rise of fascism under the leadership of Hitler who almost came out of no where.

Suffice it to say that Hitler had almost won the second world war and apart from the war murdered seven million Jews and many other innocent people along the way. As events turned out the tide turned after US joined with the allied forces and the allies won the war. Hitler committed suicide with his close henchmen in a bunker in Berlin just before Germany surrendered and the war ended, was it in 1945?

GERMAN public did wake up and have worked steadfastly and successfully to ensure that HITLER does not happen again or ever in Germany or for that matter, anywhere.

India appears to have damaged its democratic instituions, free Press, seculrism and respect for the Constitution, Rule of Law etc. in the recent BJP years and it appears that the BJP seeks to wrench a mandate from the electorate such that it can work as a de facto distatorship and eventually become a de jure dictatorship.

Recent happenstances, such as:

Personal vendeta mounted against the leader of opposition in the Parliament using a compiance State and its legal machinery. The pernicious process ended when the Supreme Court of India put a stop to it.

The Electoral Bonds scheme which came unravelled only recently by the SCI.

THE preplanned suspension of around 140 opposition Members of Parliament en masse and while they were so suspended enactment of legislation with unanimous vote. The legislation purports to amend The Indian Penal Code, a colonial Statute, in a manner which targets dissent and free speach.

Then, of course, the arrest of Kejriwal.

The use of state institutions and law enforcement agencies by the ruling party in India is a sure way to get rid of the opposition.

So is freezing of the opposition party’s bank account.

Back to Germany and the recent diplomatic storm in a teacup is it a surprise that Germany is very sensitive to threats against democracy, be it their or their neighbours and friends. The people of India if not the BJP need to express their gratitude for sounding the alarm.