Is Democracy Dying During The Darkness Of The Virus? Dictatorship Is Coming Forward!

Time and again we have mentioned in our articles that COVID-19 is being used as an excuse to commit other crimes. From police brutality in India to ill-treatment of the poor to even passing away the laws, it is all happening right now. When the whole country is in shock and people cannot digest the fact that something like this is happening, various leaders all across the world are taking full advantage of the situation and creating the most disastrous future for the people.

Earlier we talked about ignoring other diseases because of COVID-19. Researchers have pointed out that tuberculosis and polio may return to India because the children are not given vaccinations for that. The entire world is focusing on one infection and is not looking at the additions that are coming with it. Let us look at the political aspect that is being ignored in full force. 

It is essential to know that the biggest crimes happen when people are not even expecting them to come. Let us look at a few facts that will blow your mind and make you introspect about what is happening in the world.

In Hungary, the government announced to revoke the rule by decree, and the state of emergency law was declared. This looks like a positive step but one should also think beyond a certain limit. The new rule allows the government to rule by decree for an undefined period of time. This gives the government the power to order any and all measures it feels unnecessary without any approval from the Parliament. The government has kind of become autonomous and is the king of the state. The European lawmakers and rights groups have criticized the government a lot that they are ruling by decree during the state of an emergency. The government of hungry also has extensive powers over the media. The government has asked American news outlets to apologize for baseless critical coverage of their country. This is a case of abuse of power and people are not even knowing about what is happening. Democracy is dead!

Similarly, in Hong Kong, a similar nightmare is looming over everyone’s head. It was a British colony for more than 150 years. China leased to the rest of Hong Kong to the British for 99 years. Hongkong became a very busy trading great and it became a manufacturing hub. Now the Chinese government wanted it back after the lease. Various activists have accused China of meddling in Hong Kong’s law with regards to legal rulings. People have also said that academic freedom, press freedom has been deteriorating in Hong Kong because of the Chinese. China has effectively expelled various journalists from the United States of America and has prohibited them from working in Hong Kong. In 2014, the Chinese government said that they would allow voters to choose their leaders from a list approved by a Beijing committee. The people in the country have started calling democracy a joke and it is essential to know that they don’t see themselves as Chinese. Young people are less likely to be called Chinese. People are protesting for a very long time to end this supremacy. Now the protest between the people and the police took an ugly turn and the bill was halted and later withdrawn. Under the wake of the pandemic, in April the Hong Kong police arrested 15 of the city’s most popular activities. Now China is proposing to introduce a new law in Hong Kong which could be similar to abolish and of democracy to safeguard national security in Hong Kong. This will indirectly allow Beijing to create laws for Hong Kong. We want to say that all this is happening when the world is worrying about the virus and dying because of it. This incident shows us that power-hungry people will never stop will take advantage of this situation.

Let us talk about a more horrific example where are the countries have banned newspapers so that people do not get the information about what is happening in the outer world. Jordan, Oman, Morocco, Yemen, and more than 50 other places have banned and suspended the newspaper printing and distribution because of the pandemic. They have suspended both independent and state-owned media outlets. There has been no conclusive evidence about paper transmitting the virus. The government is just trying to make the people less aware of what is happening all over the world and their own shortfalls.

Emergency laws have been passed in more than 84 nations where the head of the country gets the power to make decisions and decide the future of the country. This astonishing part is that most of these countries were not affected by the virus at a very high level when these laws were implemented. This is downright misuse of power and authority for a future where the people of the country will be treated as slaves and not thought processing people.  

If all these countries can implement emergency powers during the time when COVID-19 was not at full speed of moving ahead the situation in India is much worse with the cases rising every day and India is not just dealing with the virus, it is dealing with much more than that. Cyclones, earthquakes, storms, dying people are all an example of what India is dealing with right now.

When we all are scooped up in our houses, people are being jailed who were earlier protesting about the citizenship act. Just like the Chinese government arrested the opposition party people in Hong Kong, the Indian government is arresting all the student activists that were against the laws of the government. We can clearly see a series of mishaps that are happening in our country. Police brutality is at an all-time high but no one is talking about it.  

Just like George Floyd, another case popped up in Gujarat where are the police were killing the people and abusing their power. This incident did not gather much attention because all we are focusing on right now is the pandemic. The Police said that the constables reacted back when they were attacked by the man. 

Every action has a reaction they say. But what about the things that are happening and the people are not questioning anyone. 

Business and human rights resource center has said that it has been observed that with other emergencies, some governments have used the crisis to curtail civic freedoms and maintain restrictions. These states are harassing the activists for sharing information on the virus. Repressive laws have been deployed to arrest those spreading untruths about the virus. It is essential to know that the people are not fools and they are educated enough to know what is going right and what is going wrong.

If the countries of the European Union can implement emergency laws it is very important for us to rationalize this thought process and understand that this can happen in our country too. But during that time we must come together and question the government. At the moment, various people are put behind the bars and a lot of communal violence is taking place. Just because people cannot go out on the streets and protest like before, the government is taking full advantage of the situation and is doing what it is best at.

In India, rule by decree is the route taken. On the 24th of March, the central government invoked the national disaster management act. This was enacted in the wake of a natural disaster. This act if the central government powers to centralize the sphere of operations. This law also allows the state governments to pass any laws that they might feel are necessary. This also allows the senior police officers to pass orders for the people. This is the major reason why police brutality is at an all-time high right now.

The operation of the courts has not formally been suspended but they are operating at a very reduced capacity so in case someone is facing issues, they cannot even go to the court. The number of petitions that have been filed in the Supreme Court with respect to a violation of rights of the people during the nationwide lockdown has gone considerably up. Safoora Zargar for example is behind the bars for the second time even when she was granted bail. People are arrested, the court grants them bail but they are arrested again because silencing the people during the times of a pandemic is easier than saying them protest when the pandemic is not in action.

The state of the rule in India and all over the globe is chaos and if 84 countries can declare an emergency and turn dictators, so can India if the situation is worse than what it is right now. That will be the worst day for our country because what we are witnessing right now is a nightmare and if an excessive authority is given to the government, it will lead to doomsday.