By Sushil Kutty
India and the United States are both democracies with ‘Rule of Law’ the bedrock. But how true is this under Modi and under Trump? The difference between the Modi government and the Trump administration is that President Donald Trump, when he lays down a law, however, dictatorial and unjust, there is no escaping the consequences if the law is not followed to the ‘t’. The Modi government’s orders, on the other hand, are lax, lax, lax …and lax!
The Modi government’s writ doesn’t run to the full. This impression never escapes scrutiny. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Council of Ministers is short of ministers with conviction. Orders are issued but the minute the back is turned on a directive, the directive goes for a toss. Nobody takes the minister seriously nor his order. The Modi government is more often than not considered permanently lame-duck.
Take President Trump’s continuing crackdown against universities sympathetic to the Palestine cause. Columbia University and Harvard University. Compare Trump’s crackdown to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s excuse of a crackdown against Pakistani You-tubers. Trump hounded Columbia to the ground and “students” fled to airports and home countries for fear of the consequences of breaking “Rule of Law”.
Can the same be said about the Modi government’s order banning/blocking Pakistani You-tube channels with millions upon millions of Indian subscribers? Those channels got around the government ban with a name-change and even greater support from Indian subscribers with Indian You-tubers leading from the front!
The contempt for the Indian government’s crackdown is glaring. Worst of all, Indians in horrendously large numbers continue to subscribe to these banned Pakistani You-tube channels. In times of both war & peace, Pakistanis are terribly more patriotic than Indians flocking to watch the anti-India fare dished out by these Pakistani You-tube channels.
President Trump on May 22 barred Harvard University from enrolling international students, stating that there was an ongoing Department of Home Security investigation against Harvard. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was herself leading the “strike” against Harvard and the Rule of Law prevailed.
The Modi government, on the other hand, has come out as a babe in the woods, unable to even tie its shoe-laces, failing miserably to enforce the ban on certain Pakistani You-tube channels and select Pakistani media outlets. There is a serious lack of purpose in the inaction displayed by the ministries of ‘Home’ and ‘Information & Broadcasting’.
Both President Trump and Prime Minister Modi are strong leaders, respected by the secretaries and ministers answering to them. President Trump’s MAGA is the bedrock for the Trump-folk and Prime Minister Modi’s ministers wouldn’t stir forth without a Modi monogrammed handkerchief in the coat-front pocket.
But whereas Trump’s order isn’t flouted, Modi’s orders get the short-shrift. “This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, anti-semitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,” said a Trump official about its Harvard order. “It’s a privilege, not a right to be able to enrol foreign students at the university…the higher tuition fees from foreign students helps pad their multibillion-dollar endowments.”
The Modi government bans/blocks 16 Pakistani you-tube channels and the websites of several Pakistani media outlets channels, including those of Geo and Samma TV and the very next day, the “block is gone”.
Among them the You-tube channel of “ISI agent Arzoo Kazmi”, the enduring favourite of India’s private TV channels’, which give her the respectability reserved for bonafide journalists though there’s no thread to show that Kazmi was ever a journalist.
President Trump’s order against Harvard created a rumpus in the United States but Trump’s order wouldn’t be flouted until the Supreme Court of the United States asks him to ease off. The same, however, cannot be said about Modi’s “orders”. No sooner does the Modi government turn its back on an order, it is flouted with impunity.
The Modi government’s order blocking Pakistani You-tubers was destined for the shredder. On the other hand, the Trump administration’s Harvard order came with the condition-attached that if “Harvard wants to regain Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification before the upcoming academic school year back, it should provide the information required within 72 hours.”
There is no such ease of following the Rule of Law in the case of Pakistani You-tubers which are in the crosshairs of the Modi government’s war-time diktat. The Modi government’s action against these Pakistani You-tubers isn’t even unlawful. Trump’s order can be called “retaliatory action”.
The same cannot be said about the Modi government’s action against Pakistani You-tubers. It was up to Indian You-tubers and Indian subscribers of these Pakistani You-tube channels to adhere to the Government of India order. But there is a serious lacunae of Rule of Law in a developing country like India when compared to the leading light of the developed world, the United States of America.
In the United States, nobody gets special treatment, not even George Washington, who is just one of the founding fathers, but in India “hero worship” tints every shade of political opinion and discourse and the Rule of Law doesn’t run outside of the courtrooms of the Supreme Court of India.
Indian You-tubers as well as Indians who have subscribed to the You-tube channels of Pakistanis continue to cock a snook at the government order banning Pakistani you-tube channels which are part of Pakistan’s misinformation and disinformation campaign against India, especially at this time of war with Pakistan.
In effect, Indian You-tubers and the Indian subscribers of Pakistani You-Tube channels have no fear of the consequences. Rule of Law is a casualty and, frankly speaking, who cares?
Harvard will see to it that the Trump administration order is obeyed even if existing students are forced to transfer to other schools or come to lose their legal status. Rule of law in the United States is taken seriously. Umpteen times the law will be broken but the retaliation is immediate.
Lawbreakers in the United States are followed to the ends of the earth. But who cares about Rule of Law in India if PM Modi himself promises “unimaginable punishment to terrorists and their backers” but the very next day lets the “backers” go scot- free?
Modi’s minions have taken a leaf from the Modi playbook. The Modi government order blocking certain Pakistani You-tube channels never got off the ground. Their Indian counterparts and the millions of Indian subscribers of these Pakistani You-tube channels, have gotten around the blocks put in place by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Indians are notoriously lawless and the Government of India is notoriously toothless – it always and always miserably fails in enforcing its orders. Perhaps, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is overburdened with two-too-many portfolios. Not only is he Railway Minister, Vaishnaw is also Minister for Information and Broadcasting besides being the “2nd Minister for Electronics and Information Technology.” No wonder Pakistani You-tubers are on a ball having a ball! (IPA Service)
There Is National Consensus On Battle Against Terrorism Backed By Pakistan 