Was the Government’s Crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his Followers Justified?

The incident in question is that of June 5, 2011 at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi. This was the period of intense turmoil in the country. The nation had had enough of the corrupt and their manipulation of the economy. People simply wanted to bring an end to the heyday of the pilferers of the country. 

Anna Hazare, the frontrunner of this campaign, had been fasting and pressurizing the Manmohan Singh government to check the increasing scams and act against his colleagues who had been accused of the same. The government had been slow to act and nobody could see any drastic measures being enforced by the government.

The campaign and the people’s struggle, however, did not lose steam. It kept continuing in different parts of the country, led by different people. One among the many supporters of Anna Hazare was Baba Ramdev.

 It so happened that after consistently supporting and following closely Anna Hazare’s method of struggle- satyagraha- Ramdev decided to follow in his footsteps. This meant another fast led by this venerated and popular yoga guru. Throngs came out to support him.

Ramdev and his followers had taken the necessary consent from the authorities to hold a day’s fast to make the government understand its folly and that was the beginning of this tragedy. The first day of the fast went smoothly but nothing fruitful seemed to have come of it. So the protesters decided to stay at the Maidan for one more day. 

This is when the police became agitated. It repeatedly asked the people to disperse and Ramdev was asked over and over to vacate the premises, but in vain. When things finally got out of hand, the police came and a macabre set of events proceeded. When Ramdev got a hint of the movement of the police forces in the direction of the grounds, he and a few of his followers quietly left the stage, but the people left standing there were caught unawares.

Then it is all hearsay, because the followers claim that the police dragged women away and beat people who showed even a slight disobedience to their orders. People were beaten mercilessly and a lot of the protesters came out hurt. 30 people were injured when the police opened tear gas to disperse the throng of supporters.

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Condemnation and support

Although Ramdev escaped unhurt and was stowed away to Dehradun safely, he vowed to continue his struggle unperturbed. The action of the government, he implied, showed the people how much their leaders care for them.

The opposition leaders including Arun Jaitley, condemned this act stating “It was a barbaric act by the police against citizens who were protesting peacefully against corruption”. Anna Hazare, too, vehemently condemned this act of barbarity and called the people to support the non-violent protest against corruption. 

He, along with many leaders around the country, was aghast at the treatment that had been meted out by the police against the women. Nobody could understand why such an inhuman scene played out before their eyes when they were claiming to have been living in a civilized world.

The government defended itself and Kapil Sibal came to the fore criticizing Baba Ramdev’s hunger strike for its breach of the law. He had only been granted a single day’s permit to hold his strike, while he decided to supersede it. This had to curbed in time and in a manner that set a precedent for other offenders in future. There was an air of conflict in the nation.

Was it justified?

The facts are before us to see and interpret as we will. Governments have never actually been open to criticism. Anna Hazare started a huge campaign against corruption, but it wasn’t targeted solely at the government. All powerful criminals bore the brunt of his ire. 

This particular strike was targeted against the people who found refuge with the ruling party despite clear evidence of their being in the wrong. This might have instigated the government to use its authority to curb the mass protest.

Accepting their fault, if any, would also have meant a loss of their credibility before the people. So, this was a whole incident waiting to happen. With the question of the Citizenship Amendment Bill (2019) hanging like a sword over the people’s necks, the situation hits closer home. 

It proves this point. Almost any ruling party would resort to the same tactics in order to suppress opposition of its policies. This is a strong reminder that too much power in the hands of a certain few individuals can also be dangerous, no matter how good their intentions may be.

All governments, time and again, have tried to set a physical precedent of their power and stop the people from resorting to any sort of pressure-building tactics before the leaders.

But does it justify this move? Absolutely not! This country is a democracy and we cannot, for any reason, quash its existence as one. People have a right to express their disapproval and when there is no vandalism or violence involved, it is completely uncalled for for the government to try to stifle it. 

This is how a democracy cannot function. It is not just at the interval of five years that the people get to express their opinion. They have a say in all that the government does or doesn’t do. Opposition in the parliament is also present for the same purpose- to check the arbitrary and self-serving legislations prepared and passed by the government.

That said, however, every person is equal before and subject to, the law. Ramdev decided to hold an agitation against the government, he took prior permission and that was fine. But when he overstayed his permitted time limit, the authorities had to do their duty. The crowd had to be removed and order restored in the city.

Conclusion:

Having viewed the situation from all aspects, it appears that both the government and the people protesting were in the wrong. The whole protest could have been carried out in peace had Ramdev adhered to the warnings issued by the authorities despite his breach of the time limit. The protesters still had a chance to escape. The government and the authorities, on the other hand, should have refrained from their brutality.

 The incident harks us back to the British-era authoritarianism. People had to suffer physical torture of the most bestial sort when they did not listen to the tyrannical government. This sort of dragging, use of force and tear gas was completely unjustified.

Gandhi, the Father of our Nation, has categorically stated- “The ends cannot justify the means”. Even if what the government was trying to achieve was law and order, it cannot impose barbarity upon the people it serves. Same goes for Ramdev’s faction. Trying to protest something illegal by indulging in an act that itself transgresses the legal sanctions , completely overshadows the right in their actions.

This incident cannot be viewed as a solitary one. It has an underlying foreshadowing of the future tyranny of the governments. Power in the hands of a cohesive few shall lead to such misuse that cannot be stopped until someone equally powerful does not come up to oppose them.

While it may be great to assume that such power can only be given in the hands of those few who care for the people’s needs and benefit them, we cannot deny that such a concentration of power in the hands of a few will be a dangerous lure for them to indulge their whims as well. It is a double-edged sword.

This is clearly evinced in the 2019 CAB incident where dissent has to be curbed to restore order but that might sometimes lead to unnecessary restrictions on the freedom of expression. This, nonetheless, is how a democracy operates. The people can and will express their disapproval at the government’s policies, but might not always be successful, while the government is supposed to listen to the people’s voices and likewise amend their policies keeping those needs in mind. 

The stifling or suppression of disagreements and debates can be extremely fatal to the functioning of the country and the governments, whichever party they might emerge from have to be loyal to the nation, before they succumb to party pressure.

Thus, the lesson that we can take home from this incident is that despite everything, the contemporary government had brutally crushed the people’s voice at that point. Though, the people had erred on the side of irresponsibility while staging a protest and organising a hunger strike, the error could have been rectified civilly by the government. 

This suppression resulted in much bad blood among the people and their leaders and solved no purpose. Also, the anti-corruption drive lost steam. Baba Ramdev, himself escaped unscathed, but the simple folk bore the brunt of all the physical assaults. The people, therefore, learned that mere protestation is the simplest method in the book, which ultimately results in no substantial gains. 

On the other hand, a constructive solution is the key to improving the nation. Also, no government, in reality, appreciates backlash and criticism. Power has to be divided, else it will someday result in tyranny. This is not something new. It is a trend that can be seen since time immemorial. Napoleon got power, he decided to impose policies that may or may not have been appreciated by the people. 

Similarly, Hitler did what He believed was best for the people. Once in power, governments assume they know what is best for the country and mostly never ask for advice. This, then, is the truth- power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Baba Ramdev did what he could but could not be successful and the government, although successful could not be justified.