क्या हमारा देश तानाशाही की ओर जा रहा है ? ध्रुव राठी के विचार ?

Is our country falling towards Dictatorship? many people were shocked. But for any true patriot who truly cares for the country this question is critical. Some people had doubts if it is really happening or not. But after seeing what has happened in our country over the last one month, you should definitely open your eyes now. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested without any money trail and without conviction. Two out of three election commissioners were appointed as per PM Modi’s wish. Electoral Bonds, the biggest scam in history, all news about it disappeared from TV channels and newspapers. The country’s biggest opposition party, Congress, is now saying that their bank accounts have been frozen. They are not able to campaign. In cases commenced years ago, right before the 2024 elections, the Income Tax department has imposed a fine of ₹17 billion. It is being reported that even the Communist Party has been fined ₹110 million. There is news from all over the country that as soon as the opposition candidates are declared, they are getting notices from the ED and IT. And Congress even says that they are not even allowed to have paid advertisements in the newspapers. What is happening to our country?

 Will elections be fought like this? What can we do to protect the democracy of our country? Let’s answers these questions in this video. And some people who still think that democracy is safe in our country, or who still think that Dictatorship will be good for our country, let’s answer their questions too. Let’s start with the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal. For the first time in the history of independent India, a sitting Chief Minister has been arrested. And that too when no crime has been proven in the court. Earlier, Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain was arrested, Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh was arrested and all of them are still in jail. Manish Sisodia has been in jail for more than a year and Satyendra Jain has been in jail since 2 years. The most surprising thing is that none of his crimes have been proven in the court. ED claims bribe of ₹1 billion was paid to AAP leaders in exchange for undue favors under Delhi’s excise policy. But party leader Atishi says that ED and CBI have been investigating this matter for the last 2 years. They have conducted over 500 raids, and brought in over 1,000 witnesses. But they could not find any evidence to prove that you or your ministers had done anything wrong. Manish Sisodia’s lawyer tried to tell the Delhi High Court that there is no money trail. In fact, this policy benefited the citizens. Because the policy increased government revenue, which could later be used to build schools and hospitals. So the question arises that if there is no evidence then why is the court not granting him bail? The reason behind this is PMLA. Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Notably, the 2018 amendments to the Act by the Modi government. In this amendment the government changed the conditions of bail. They made it even more difficult to get bail. Other laws state that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Taking bail is considered your right. But PMLA says, guilty until proven innocent. You will not get bail until you prove yourself innocent. In this amendment of 2018, more power was given to ED. Arvind Kejriwal told these things before his arrest. “Why are people not getting bail in ED cases? They have completely changed the law relating to ED. Now it is, you are guilty till proven innocent. In this law, they have written that you will be charged, an FIR will be filed against you, it doesn’t matter if the accusations are true or not, you will be arrested. And you will not get bail until your case is over and you are proven innocent.” But it’s not that simple, friends. There is an Electoral Bond scam connected to Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest. According to the hearing in the court, Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by ED, based on the statements of four people. One of them is Sarath Chandra Reddy The head of Aurobindo Pharma Company. On 9th November 2022, ED had summoned Reddy for questioning in this alleged liquor scam case. His statement that day was in favour of Kejriwal. But the next day, on 10th November, ED arrested him. Only 5 days after his arrest, his company Aurobindo Pharma donated ₹50 million to BJP through electoral bonds. We know this now after looking at the electoral bond data. *Do you understand the chronology? * He was in jail for about 6 months. Arvind Kejriwal told the court that he gave 9 different statements during this 6-month period. And all the statements were in Kejriwal’s favour. “He was arrested. After that, he gave 9 statements. In those 9 statements he didn’t say anything against me.

After that, 6 months after his arrest, he was released on 25th April.” But on 25th April, 2023, after being in jail for 6 months, his next statement was against Kejriwal. The next month, May 2023, ED grants him bail. And in June 2023, he becomes ED’s approver in this case. And after 6 months of getting the bail, his company makes another donation of ₹250 million to BJP. Now you can see, friends, the level of game being played. The Electoral Bond data tells us that his company bought bonds worth ₹520 million in total. Of which two-thirds, about ₹340 million went to BJP, ₹150 million to BRS and ₹25 million to TDP. This is why Atishi said that the money trail of this alleged liquor scam leads to BJP and not to the Aam Aadmi Party. “This is the money trail of Sarath Chandra Reddy’s companies’ money going to the BJP’s bank account.” The other 3 people whose statements led to Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest, have similar chronologies in their stories as well. Perhaps this is why Arvind Kejriwal ignored ED’s summons calling them all illegal. According to him, ED’s only aim was to arrest him for any reason so that the party could be smothered and the governments in Delhi and Punjab could be overthrown. There is an 8-minute-long audio recording in this case, where Arvind Kejriwal was defending himself in court. In case you want to hear it, its link is in the description. Reacting to Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest, Congress politician Rahul Gandhi said that “A scared dictator wants to lead a lifeless democracy.” “Politicians are threatened, they are given money to overthrow governments, politicians are thrown into jails, their actions clearly point towards match-fixing.” Taking control over all institutions including the media. Breaking up parties, extorting companies, freezing the accounts of the largest opposition party, and now, arresting CMs has become common. They are trying different tactics to end the Congress party. And they have been trying for months. Last year, in August, a strange defamation case was filed against Rahul Gandhi, which was used to disqualify him. I had talked about this case in detail in this video, in which Surat’s court sentenced Rahul Gandhi to 2 years. The Supreme Court stopped this from happening, otherwise, the leaders of the two biggest opposition parties in the country would have been in jail. But what are they doing now? Congress claims that their bank accounts have been frozen. And what’s the reason to do so? The Income Tax Department says that Congress did not file its returns timely before the deadline. Apart from this, a 31-year-old case against Congress is being opened. From 1993-1994. The Income Tax Department says that something unnatural happened back then, and now Congress supposed to pay penal charges for that. And on 29 March, the IT department gave a notice for ₹17 billion to the Congress Party. And on the same day, it was reported that the IT department imposed a penalty of ₹110 million on the Communist Party. Why? Because they used their old PAN card. Every opposition party is being targeted like this. Look at this tweet. A TMC party candidate, Saket Gokhale wrote that during the previous 72 hours, he received 11 notices from the income tax department. Some of them relate to 7 years ago. Is this how free and fair elections conducted in a country? Our current situation reminds me of this film. The Dictator is a comedy film that tells a satirical story of a fictional dictator. To win the race, this dictator is willing to go to any extent. Everything that is happening in our country today, its news is reaching the whole world. First, Germany issued a statement. Then America issued a statement and now the United Nations is saying that they hope that people in India will be able to vote freely and fairly. And everyone’s rights will be protected. Because of the government’s actions, India’s reputation has taken a nosedive globally. Some BJP politicians openly state that they want to win more than 400 seats so that they could change our country’s Constitution. Look at this news. On 27th March, Shiv Sena’s politician Amol Kirtikar was declared as a candidate. This was at 9AM. And one hour later, at 10 AM, he received a notice from the ED. “As soon as Amol Kirtikar’s candidacy was declared, he received ED’s summons. This is a tactic to suppress. They are trying to threaten us.” Do you remember NCP’s leader Praful Patel? He was accused of large-scale corruption by the BJP. 8 months ago, he dismantled his party, and joined BJP’s alliance. And as a result, look at news from 29th March. The case registered against him by the CBI has now been closed. Now the Modi government says that there was no corruption. There are many such cases, like the case of Naveen Jindal. A Congress candidate, he was accused of the Coalgate scam. But on 25th March, he joined BJP and suddenly he got a ticket from BJP. Even after seeing all this, some people are so shameless that they still say, if not him, then who? Are you seeing the condition our country is in? The truth is that any other option is better. The responsibility of conducting fair elections in the country is on the Election Commission. But that’s a different story. On 9th March 2024, Election Commissioner Arun Goel resigned from his post. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that he resigned because of health concerns. But as per The Hindu newspaper, people close to him claim that Arun Goel’s health was perfect. The reason behind this resignation is speculated to be disagreements between Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Arun Goel. Other than them, there was a vacant post of the third Election Commissioner. There needs to be three Election Commissioners in our country. After his resignation, two posts were vacant. How could two new Election Commissioners be appointed? And who should appoint them?

In March 2023, a 5 judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court ordered that the appointment of election commissioners should be by a committee of 3 people, the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition, and the Chief Justice of India. But 3.5 months ago, the Modi government, introduced a new law, and removed the CJI from the committee to appoint the election commissioners. Instead, it would include a Union Minister from the ruling government, the Prime Minister, and a Leader of Opposition. And accordingly, two new Election Commissioners were appointed. The committee of three people included Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and an Opposition politician, Adhir Ranjan Choudhary. But even during this appointment, the proper procedure was not followed. Adhir Ranjan Choudhary said that he was given a list of 212 names the night before. And just before the meeting, he was given the short list of 6 names. And he was not given time to judge who should be appointed, their backgrounds, their experience or their integrity. PM Modi and Amit Shah appointed these two election commissioners on their own. The Supreme Court did express concern that it was wrong to hide details. But apart from that, the court did not take any action. The court said that it would be very chaotic to stop these two appointments. So who were these two newly appointed election commissioners? First was Gyanesh Kumar, a retired IAS officer who actually worked under Amit Shah in the Home Ministry between 2016 to 2021. Second is Sukhbir Sandhu, a retired IAS officer, and between 2014 to 2023, first, he worked in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, then he was the chairperson of NHAI, and was also the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand. Can we expect these Election Commissioners to conduct the Lok Sabha elections fairly? Only time will tell. In our country, if an institution doesn’t work properly, then the responsibility falls on the judiciary. But the story in the courts of our country is not that different. On 8th March, we saw a very shocking case. Calcutta High Court Judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay resigned from his position and formally joined the BJP after a few days. He admitted that he approached BJP before his resignation. In a recent interview, he said that he finds it difficult to choose between Gandhi and Godse. If such judges are in contact with political parties, can our judiciary be called free?

In the judiciary system, a common phrase is often used. ‘Bail is the rule, jail is an exception.’ This means that people have the right to get bail. But today, the Chief Justice of India is saying that in district courts, jail is becoming the rule. Judges in lower courts are hesitant to grant bail. According to Advocate Dushyant Dave, judges are under pressure. It is a fearful environment. Judges are worried about their families. Now some people will say that if the situation in our country is really so bad, then how can I make this video? If our country is truly falling towards dictatorship, then how can I still criticise them openly? “If there is no democracy anymore, then such a thing cannot even happen.” The Print’s Shekhar Gupta used same argument after my last video. I have a question for all these people.

Cases were filed against the late Pawan Jaiswal, under four sections, just because he reported that in this school, for the midday meal, kids were given rotis with salt. This is a common logical fallacy known as False Dilemma. Forcing things to be black and white. A country is either a democracy or a dictatorship. Nothing in between. I never said that the country has already become a 100% dictatorship. I said that the country is leaning towards dictatorship and I am still saying the same.

Democracy and dictatorship are the ends of a spectrum, a large scale. There are different ways to measure democracy, grading it between 0 to 10. Different terms are used, if democracy is thriving in a country, then it is called a Fully Functional Liberal Democracy. It is followed by Working Democracy, If democracy is struggling it is a Flawed Democracy. Then comes Deficient Democracy, Electoral Autocracy, Hybrid Regime, and finally Authoritarian Regime which is actual Dictatorship. People are so worried about their cars that even if there’s a small scratch or dent, they get angry and start screaming. And here, on the car of democracy, there are such huge dents, it has been destroyed ruthlessly, that people are shocked to see the car still running. If you consider yourself to be a patriot, but do not speak up even though this is the situation the car is in, then are you truly a patriot? This month, the Democracy Report 2024 was released by Sweden’s V-Dem Institute. And do you know which category India has been put into? Electoral Autocracy. Two steps away from full dictatorship. This means that multi-party elections are held in the country, but there is no fair level playing field. People’s freedom is being crushed. In this report, It is written that the Modi government has used laws like sedition, defamation, and counter-terrorism to suppress the voices against it. And soon another law can be added to this list. Under the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill 2023, they are trying to bring in new IT rules. As per the Rules, there is a broad definition of broadcasting. People who have a YouTube channel, Facebook account, Instagram handle, or even a WhatsApp channel, they will all be categorised as broadcasters. Every broadcaster will have to register with the government and the government will have a Central Evaluation Committee that has been bestowed with a lot of powers. Broadcasters can send only the videos or messages that have been approved by this committee “except for specific programs exempted by the government.” Under this law, the government will have the power to seize any YouTuber’s equipment without any prior notice. One thing is certain, they are trying their best to suppress the voices even on social media. And when I will be finally prevented from speaking up, what will you say then? What will be your argument then? If there’s no one criticising it, you’d say that it means democracy is thriving. Do not delude yourself if you support the government, Being a Modi supporter does not protect you. Thinking that even if the country is turned into a dictatorship, everything will be well for you. Sonam Wangchuk did support the government. When Article 370 was abrogated. “I believe that this is good news for Ladakh, it finally got its right.” But when there was a problem in his area, and he tried to raise awareness about it, despite him being on a 21-days long hunger strike, the government did not speak up. In a dictatorship, a dictator only cares about his ego, his power, and his money only. He is not concerned about the public. Many farmers supported the government, but when they found out that they would not even be given the right to place their demands, the entire media would discredit them by calling them traitors, then they realised what a Dictatorship can mean. If you are a student, and there is a paper leak, keep quiet. If you want to raise your voice against rising inflation, your voice will be silenced. If you are enduring any kind of injustice in your daily life, you will have no option but to keep quiet and shut your mouth. We can see this already happening for issues like unemployment and inflation. In August 2023, the Minister of State Jitendra Singh told the Parliament that more than 960,000 central government jobs lie vacant. For private jobs, in February this year, hiring platform Indeed reported that since December 2021, fresher job postings have been declining. This Frontline report from March 2024 there’s a hiring decline even in the IT sector. The employment situation is so bad that the Haryana government had to advertise more than 10,000 contractual labour jobs in Israel. A nation that has become a war zone, the Haryanvi youth is being sent there by the government. This is the condition of jobs in the country. And what can one say about inflation? Petrol now costs ₹90 to ₹110.

This report from January 2024 shows that the United Nations’ Food Price Index puts global food inflation at -10.1% which means food prices are decreasing all over the world. But in India, what was the food price index inflation as on December 2023? 9.5%. The government distributes free food to more than 800 million people. Think about it, what was the need to give free food to 800 million people? This can only be because these people don’t even have the money to eat. Now after hearing all this, some people will still ask why am I talking about the Modi government only? “But what about Indira Gandhi’s dictatorship?” “She was also a dictator, why don’t you talk about her dictatorial nature?” Again, this is a useless argument. This is called a Red Herring Fallacy. Did I exist when Indira Gandhi declared the emergency? No. And in fact, I have made a video on Indira Gandhi’s emergency. Where I talk about how it was a black day for democracy. But merely counting the problems of the past, does not resolve present’s problems. What happened back then was wrong. And what is happening now is also wrong. Back then, democracy was saved due to the brave struggle of some people. But today, who will save the country? They have bought the media, every institution has been compromised, opposition leaders have been arrested. Who is left? We. We, the people of India, we are the last hope. Just like there were mass protests during the Emergency, and in the following elections, Indira Gandhi was defeated. With the same spirit, today Indian citizens need to raise their voices against this undeclared emergency. If you are chant Bharat Mata ki Jai, then prepare yourself to save Bharat Mata. If you respect Gandhi ji, Bhagat Singh, and Netaji Bose, then ignite the same passion in yourself as them. The freedom that he fought for with their blood, sweat, and tears, protecting that freedom, protecting Indian democracy is our duty.  Remember these four things. Raise your voice. Vote. Convince others to vote. Laugh and spread love. That’s all we need to do. We can protect our country. We will protect our country! Inqilab Zindabad! Long live the Revolution! Jai Hind!