Modi calls India 'mother of democracy' amid curbs, crackdown on anti-SIR protesters

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday reiterated India’s claim to being the “mother of democracy” where “people openly debate different issues”, even as his government has turned the national capital into a garrison state to keep protesters away and cracked down on defiance.

Elsewhere, the BJP panned the protests and described them as anarchic while targeting Lok Sabha Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi in particular, likening him to a “bad omen”.

Where the Prime Minister sought to turn the narrative around the protests with an eye on the international audience — Bloomberg Economic Forum that he addressed in New Delhi draws global leaders from politics, business and policy-making — the BJP had its domestic constituency in mind.

“India is the mother of democracy. India has more than 100 languages, nearly 80,000 registered newspapers and publications, and more than 1,000 satellite television channels. And not only that, in this age of social media, India has more than 500 million YouTube users and more than 500 million Instagram users. In our country, people openly debate different issues, and citizens discuss diverse viewpoints. In the present era, one factor that has played a major role in enabling this is digital power,” Modi said.

Later in the day, the BJP fielded Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Rajiv Ranjan Singh to question the protest and accuse the Congress in particular of trying to spread anarchy.

Accusing the Congress of being delusional, Goyal claimed people acknowledge that “Rahul Gandhi is the biggest red flag” because of which the party is repeatedly getting defeated. “Many young colleagues refer to bad omen as the biggest red flag. Rahul Gandhi is the biggest red flag for the Congress,” he said.

Goyal dwelt at length on how the Congress had treated election commissioners when in government — flagging instances like giving a Rajya Sabha seat to former chief election commissioner M.S. Gill and subsequently making him a minister — while claiming that the Modi government had given the Election Commission of India complete autonomy.

Singh of the JDU said: “The people of the country will never forgive the kind of theatrics and drama that has been going on for the past several days in an attempt to spread anarchy in the country, to defame the country’s constitutional institutions.

“In the country, the Constitution is supreme, not the family…. You (Rahul) are protesting in front of the Supreme Court. Has there ever been such a thing in the history of the country that any political party has protested in front of the Supreme Court?... The sole intent of their efforts is to put pressure on the country’s constitutional institutions, but this is Modiji’s regime, and pressure tactics do not work here.”