The MVA government’s biggest failure was in protecting free speech

In 2019, the people of Maharashtra resoundingly voted in favour of a BJP-Shiv Sena alliance with Devendra Fadnavis at the helm. However, in a shocking turn of events, the MVA was born and formed the government.

Unsurprisingly, the people of Maharashtra did not take kindly to the ideological compromise entered into by the three political parties. With the edifice of good governance missing in the state, there was discontent against the MVA from day one itself. Several individuals took to exercising their views on the sign of the times in Maharashtra and with the MVA being averse to any form of criticism, the most lethal assault of the erstwhile government was on free speech.

The past two years saw a clampdown on free speech like none other and the MVA conveniently ignored the fact that public criticism is essential to the working of public institutions. This clampdown began with the imposition of a Section 144 CrPC order in Mumbai, which prohibited persons “from disseminating information on social media platforms which was found to be incorrect and inciting mistrust against government functionaries” amid the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Not only was this executive order arbitrary but it also suffered from the vice of vagueness and prohibited bona fide criticism and advocacy against the actions of the government. Any person who dared to speak out against the MVA or any of its leaders was met with an iron hand and the state machinery was misused to harass them. Cases in point are the demolition of the office-cum-house of an actress and the arrest of a journalist who dared to criticise Uddhav Thackeray, the then chief minister of Maharashtra.

This crackdown on free speech also extended to social media. Individuals such as Sameet Thakkar, Sunaina Holey, Nikhil Bhamre, Ketaki Chitale and Paresh Borse paid the price for exercising their right to free speech in the state. All these individuals were arrested for tweeting against the MVA government. While one might have disagreed with the tone of such statements, one thing that was certain was these arrests ran contrary to all established legal norms and were reflective of gross abuse of the police machinery.

Matters went further downhill as in some incidents when the police chose not to get involved, party workers of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena decided to take matters into their own hands. In one such horrific incident, these party workers thrashed a veteran navy officer named Madan Sharma as he shared a satirical cartoon about the erstwhile chief minister. In another instance, Shiv Sena workers tonsured a man for his comments on social media.

While the tenure of the MVA government could be remembered for many things ranging from Covid mismanagement to unbridled corruption, the starkest feature was their abuse of power and oppression of people for exercising their right to free speech. For people who criticised the government, jail had become the norm and bail an exception.

It is ironic that while all these efforts and abuse of state machinery were done in order to silence people to preserve illegitimately acquired power, the government was unseated by its own partymen. The party legislators who revolted are on record that the actions of the government made it difficult for them to face the people. This once again shows that such intimidatory tactics aimed at silencing people do not work.

With such concrete efforts to curb free speech, the MVA government missed out on what constitutes a real democracy. Pluralism and the right to dissent are essential facets of democracy. Moreover, the dissenter must be at ease and shall not need to look over her shoulder at all times due to the political opinion she holds. In the past two years, the Maharashtra government turned this meaning of democracy on its head.

The writer is Vice President, BJP Mumbai Pradesh