Between the Lines with Sanjay Jha

Under Narendra Modi’s decade-long tenure as Prime Minister of India, the country has made worldwide headlines for putting in place a majoritarian infrastructure that has seen a crackdown on press freedom, a ruthless evisceration of civil liberties, religious polarization, caste bigotry, institutional debilitation and demagoguery-and an overall democratic downslide. The world’s largest democracy, it would seem, is hurtling towards disarray and chaos. Is the political legitimacy accorded to authoritarian populists because of, ironically enough, their popular mandates, the biggest threat to democracy itself?

In 2024, former Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha argues that India is in a state of free fall. With the country set to go to the polls once again, he raises urgent issues-from the othering of Muslim minorities and the bulldozing of citizens’ rights and even homes, to the surreptitious dismantling of the judiciary and the unfettered growth of crony capitalism and plutocracy that has aggravated income inequality. Compelling and important, this is a must-read for anyone concerned about the nation’s future and their own.

With his characteristic wit and wisdom, Sanjay Jha talks to Kartik Chauhan about the electoral bonds scam, the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal and the state of Indian—and global—politics in this incredibly relevant exchange.

Q. At the core of the book, there is urgent an appeal to the individual citizens to take account of the plummeting standards of Indian politics. You have also talked about how the book was inspired by a few personal incidents in your life. How do you perceive the old adage that ‘personal is political’?

Sanjay Jha: We are a product of our history, our circumstances, our experiences. It is a complex amalgamation. As I write in the book, my father would gift us books on most occasions. Among them, one that I remember seeing while in school was Nehru’s Discovery of India, and Gandhi’s My Experiments with Truth. My inner convictions were greatly shaped by that ideological exposure. These books are historical truisms, and deeply philosophical. So yes, personal is political. And political is conversely, personal.

Q. As the book covers the second term of the ruling party in India, it often reveals the many institutional lapses and manipulations that have been administered to favour certain people and groups, and exploit others. How do you think this institutional collapse has been maneuvered for political gains? And what consequences does it have for us as a “democratic” nation?

SJ: To be honest, India is not a democracy. We are a democratically elected dictatorship, headed on course towards the Putin universe. The arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi Chief Minister, is a flagrant exhibition of a Big Brother in an insecure, irascible mental state. That spells danger. Kejriwal’s entire cabinet is in jail; it is preposterous. There is a vulgar superciliousness evident; we don’t care. India’s institutions are practically dead; the Supreme Court’s recent judgements notwithstanding. However, its verdict on Electoral Bonds which has exposed the dark underbelly of a criminal mafia-style governance of the government has exposed the carefully crafted narrative that bamboozled a lot over the last ten years. It could be the election season’s gamechanger. But the truth is that our democratic downslide is alarming, as it can only get progressively worse if the regime were to return to power.

Q. In your recent interactions as well as the book, you deconstruct the image that the current Prime Minister has fashioned for himself, despite being silent on key issues like the wrestlers’ protests and the violence in Manipur. What do you think about this mass hypnosis or blind spot that we seem to be under as a country?

SJ: Modi is a flashy fashionable creation of the Big Media; period. If India had an independent media that repeatedly questioned the government instead of lambasting the opposition, Modi would have been defeated in 2019 itself. We must remember that the average common Indian consumes his information from TV channels and social media. The former is largely government-controlled now in terms of influence, while the latter is deluged by fake news and WhatsApp university forwards. Just one example will suffice; no PM would have survived not going to Manipur for 9 months despite the ethnic violence where hundreds were killed and thousands were rendered homeless. It is absurd. Modi also got way despite the disastrous second Covid wave. It is a long list that exposes the stunning kowtowing of mainstream media to the ruling party.

Q. Hate has been the most successful campaign in global politics in recent years. From genocides to wars, we are witnessing an age of distressing violence and dehumanisation. As an observer of global conflicts and turns in politics, what are your thoughts on this easy currency of hate that is being peddled for political gains?

SJ: Polarization is the new political football league in town. It is, of course, a global phenomenon, now activated on a generous dose of steroids. Donald Trump and Narendra Modi are following the same playbook. They have serenaded the corporate elite, dog-whistled on Islamophobia, augmented populist nationalism, and ruthlessly ridiculed and derided political opponents. The Putin Model, after all he just won another sham election, is the new construct for authoritarian bullies. Unlike the USA, India is worse off with the absence of a level-playing field.

Q. Recently, with the discourse on electoral bonds, we have been reminded yet again of the nexus between capitalism and political power. What effects do you think the recent as well as anticipated developments in the electoral bonds scam have on the public perception of the ruling party—and do these revelations also have an influence on national politics in the future?

SJ: The Electoral Bonds is the biggest scam since 1947: it shows a deliberate intent to deceive the public by introducing a non-transparent scheme of fund raising, a criminal intent and practice of state-sponsored extortion of corporates, and open favoritism for crony capitalists in giving government contracts. In any other democracy, the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister would have faced immediate investigation, if not a formal resignation itself. The BJP has been damaged, irreparably. It also gives credence to the allegations on Rafale, demonetization and the Adani group’s alleged financial skullduggery. If Modi survives this Himalayan Ponzi scam, it will not be a commentary on his Teflon image, but on our compromised conscience and ambivalent morality. India deserves better.

Q. The book often also uncovers how the politics of majoritarianism and hate has also seeped into popular culture. How do you think public morality has been remodelled in the last decade in India, especially vis-a-vis our consumption of popular culture? 

SJ: The BJP has unabashedly adhered to an autocrat’s script: besides dominating Big Media and flooding social media with misinformation and disinformation, it has used Instagram influencers, Bollywood cinema (The Kashmir Files, Kerala Story, Article 370, Savarkar etc), pop music (Kunal Purohit’s book H-Pop is revelatory of its devilish ramifications), publishing (the election season is seeing an avalanche of pro-establishment verbiage) and celebrity endorsements of political projects. It has been sad to see well-respected heroes of India being turned into willing cheerleaders of BJP propaganda. Naturally, an unsuspecting nation has been swayed by the overt amplification of the government’s sales pitch. Popular culture is now influenced by the prevalent national mood as determined by New Delhi. Contrarian voices have been silenced.

Q. What role do you think art plays in directing the course of history and politics?

SJ: Art, culture, books, films, theatre, sports, are all creative endeavors. They need an unhindered, unbridled freedom to be; most importantly to express themselves fearlessly. Unfortunately, India has been shoehorned into self-censorship, hamstrung by the miasma of retribution, a knock at the door. And yet, art and poetry, are mediums of expression that channelize a society’s sentiment, with extraordinary pithy. They say a million words in a few lines or a paintbrush’s extravagant flourish.  “Hum Dekhenge,” for instance, echoed through India during the CAA protests.

Q. How do you see yourself in your role as not only a witness but also an arbiter and recorder of this alarming phase in Indian politics?

SJ: I feel privileged that I have at least an Economy Class seat in the political theater of India; I can at least influence public opinion, separate the wheat from the chaff and share the truth with a wide audience being subjected to a disinformation campaign, give feedback to top leadership (whether they accept it or not), and hopefully soon, contest an election.  Politics is hard; it is not everyone’s cup of tea, particularly in India, where it remains the monopoly of both powerful dynasties and traditional patriarchal structures dominated by vote-bank fealty that do not tolerate free speech and lateral entrants. I am hoping that in being the only politician in India who has never switched sides, I am able to inspire people to be true to their ideological fidelity, and not become an ATM transactional coupon. 

Q. As we head into the General Elections this year, what message would you give to the voters: first-time as well as returning?

SJ: Democracy is a shared enterprise. Everyone, both the new and the veteran voter, is a stakeholder, a custodian of India’s future.  I think in India, politicians are put on a pedestal, instead of being out in the town hall and subjected to a rigorous grilling. How are we so indifferent to the fact that the Prime Minister has not held a single press conference in the last ten years??? I think that makes a mockery of our claims to being a democracy, which in any case, is a ludicrous exaggeration. Voters need to ask themselves a few questions: Are my candidates or political leadership credible; or are they snake-oil salesmen? Criminality, corruption, hate-speeches, misogyny, should lead to an automatic rejection by the voters. We have become highly tolerant of serious misdemeanors by our politicians. Leaders who polarize and divide society for electoral windfalls must be completely shunned by our people. Look for good candidates, instead of blindly falling for the rhetoric of teleprompter-inspired speeches which frankly gets us nowhere, except a momentary thrill at a frivolous barb.