Adityanath’s UP is a text-book study of how democracy can be killed by the tyranny of the majority – By Sudhir Panwar
The tyranny of the majority is a product of the democratic process that could end up killing democracy itself. It stifles dissent, criticism and all shades of the opinion except that of the brute majority…. The last four-and-a-half years of Bharatiya Janata Party rule in Uttar Pradesh are a good example of this.
During this time, two characteristics of the subversion of the rule of law have become apparent: the concentration of authority in a person instead of in a position, and the abandonment of rationality in decision-making and in policy…. For instance, the entire management of the Covid-19 pandemic, affecting the state’s 23.5 crore people, has been put in the hands of the team of nine bureaucrats led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath….
Another example of the subversion of rule of law in Uttar Pradesh is the large number of extra-judicial killings under BJP rule…. The Private Property Ordinance, 2020, is a perfect example of irrational decision-making by the government…. The government even put up posters of people who had been accused of participating in violence during the protests in the state against the Citizenship Amendment Act…. Similar nonchalance is evident in the government’s decision to move the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020….
