Amartya Sen in his book 'Democracy as Freedom' writes, "a free press and an active political opposition constitute the best early warning system a country threatened by famines can have...”. The thumb-rule for a pandemic is no different. A country that doesn't listen to criticisms and discredits opposition faces the severest consequences. The media that foreclose itself with the establishment and turns a blind eye towards the opposing voices that flag the issues time and again and works for hands in gloves with the ruling dispensation to mock them with the accusation of instilling fear in the public mind is certainly not the fourth pillar of democracy. Countries over the world must not forget the fact that this pandemic is the result of authoritarianism and stifling of dissent. Had there been an independent media and multi-party democracy in China we would not have been locked up in our houses. The scientist who had warned the authorities about a possible outbreak of an epidemic was hounded and later he succumbed to Covid-19.
Sen further writes-"Democratic governments have to win elections and face public criticism, and have strong incentive to undertake measures to avert famines and other catastrophes". This statement as per my opinion fails the test of time. We have seen a mixed response from democratic and non-democratic countries when it comes to handling this crisis. Democracies such as India and the USA failed miserably while China bounced back. The despotic monarchy UAE also fared quite well. Experts attribute this phenomenon to the fear of non-democratic leaders losing their authoritarianism. They gauged the public resentment and saved themselves from confronting a pro-democracy movement. Some functioning democracies, on the other hand, adopted undemocratic means to stifle democracy to save their face and keep their citizens in the delusion that everything is perfectly fine. Here is the story of some of the democracies-:
1. Hungary
Many democracies which already had some authoritarian tinge used the pandemic to subvert democracy. The foremost in this race is Hungary. Hungary is the first and only European Union country to be ranked as "partly free" by Freedom House, an American democracy watchdog, and the country ranks among the most corrupt European countries according to an index by Transparency International, an independent advocacy group based in Germany. In March 2020, the Hungarian Parliament passed an order that granted the government the power to rule by decree for an indefinite period without being bound to the current laws. The law granted Prime Minister Viktor Orban the power “to suspend the enforcement of certain laws, depart from statutory regulations and implement additional extraordinary measures by decree,” as per a draft translation on the academic blog Hungarian Spectrum. The law also sets prison terms of up to five years for those convicted of spreading false information about the pandemic and up to eight years for those interfering with efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, like a curfew or quarantine. The government took a firm stand against civil societies which criticized this order and ordered them to issue an immediate apology. Cited by many as the ‘coronavirus coup’, the law made Orban the temporary dictator of the country. The law was withdrawn on 18 June 2020 and ‘state of danger’ was replaced with ‘state of medical crisis’, under which the government is allowed to issue a wide range of decrees but cannot change laws on its own or restrict fundamental rights. The ‘state of medical crisis’ cannot be lifted by the Parliament, but a review is planned in three months.
Orban had started his mission to convert Hungary into an "illiberal democracy" back in 2010. After ten years of relentless pounding on the ideals of liberty, today, the media stands kowtowed before the government, and the judiciary is filled with the close cronies of Victor Orban.
2. Israel
Israel took the opportunity to authorize unprecedented electronic surveillance. Citizens are being tracked without their permission to contain the pandemic. It already has a history of using surveillance as a tool to kill journalists, human rights defenders, and civil society activists. Commentators over the world are skeptical of the question of whether it will forgo this power once the exigency pulls its leg back or will it continue to advertise it as necessary panoply against the pandemic.
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| Source- Unsplash By-Fred Moon |
3. India
In India, the suppression of voices was not explicit but it was surely discouraging. The scourge came from the Solicitor General of India that too in the Supreme Court, the highest court of justice. Citing a fake WhatsApp anecdote of a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist he equated journalists with "vultures" and "prophets of doom". The sudden announcement of nationwide lockdown had left lakhs of migrant workers trapped in big cities without wages and food. Foreseeing no helping hand coming they chose the "road not taken" and firmed their resolve to trudge back home, sometimes as far as 1800 km. Aggrieved by the pitiable condition of migrants who were dying midway due to starvation, fatigue, and accidents, a social activist filed a PIL in the Supreme Court. Responding to this, the Solicitor General of India argued in the court that journalists who are covering this migrant crisis are spreading negativity instead of helping them. Instead of taking quick cognizance of the reports by ground reporters, the government chose to target the messenger. The media popularized his statements and it found a place in the collective conscience of ordinary people because they are driven by emotions and not by reason. If the trend continues, every act of exposition of public maladies will be seen with the same spectacle and ultimately field-reporters will be left with no impetus to be the messenger of public grievances.
These trends remind me of Plato. He says- "Democracy ultimately leads to tyranny because the democratic winner becomes the champion of unlegislated desires, which makes him do awful things against the people". People become citizens and citizens become mere voters. In the name of democracy what remains is the electoral process. Until and unless people don't actively participate in policy making, democracy restricts itself to the function of transfer of power from one despot to the other. If people are active and aware of what is happening in the parliament no one can snatch democracy from them.
If we go back to history, we will find that epidemics have been inflection points in many regimes. The oldest democratic polity of Athens was destroyed due to a plague. Covid-19 will undoubtedly bring certain social, economic as well as political changes but I hope the spirit of modern democracies is not annihilated in the process of responding to these challenges.
References-:
https://www.politico.eu/article/hungary-replaces-rule-by-decree-controversial-state-of-medical-crisis/
https://m.timesofindia.com/world/europe/dismantling-democracy-virus-used-as-excuse-to-quell-dissent/amp_articleshow/74908587.cms
https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2020/04/pandemic-panopticon-israeli-surveillance-covid-19-200418090128636.html
https://caravanmagazine.in/media/journalist-vulture-migrant-crisis-tushar-mehta-solicitor-general-lockdown
WRITTEN BY HARSHIKA
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