‘India is witnessing the fastest dismantling of its democracy. Emergency was nothing in comparison’ – By P. Sainath

COVID has presented us with a complete, total, thorough, unsparing autopsy of our development in the last 30 years. We could look away after #Demonetisation. Now the fire is at our door step. We are watching the fastest dismantling of parliamentary democracy in our history and the Emergency was nothing in comparison.

If COVID gave us an autopsy of Indian society, it also gave us a brain scan of elite thinking, and a brain scan of media thinking. A prominent editor on his own online TV thing says “never waste a good crisis”. That this is the time to ram through labour reforms. What does it say about the Indian elite and their cruelty and absolute rapaciousness and ruthlessness toward the less privileged sections of society?

The newspapers that have woken up to COVID are the ones which are shedding journalists like confetti. The biggest media owner in the country is also the richest Indian in the world. We are the only country in the world which has TV channels which cover the neighbouring country more than their own. When the solicitor-general took off the media, I was wondering which media was he talking about? 95% of the media are with him.”