A profound contradiction lies at the heart of contemporary India’s political economy. On the one hand, it embraces economic liberalism. In ...
A profound contradiction lies at the heart of contemporary India’s political economy. On the one hand, it embraces economic liberalism. In September 2020, it legislated laws aimed at liberalising agriculture from state-guaranteed protections. The recent budget, passed in February, was high on promises of accelerating divestment of public sector undertakings. On the other hand, however, this enthusiasm for liberalism evaporates in the political domain.
On February 13, environmental activist Disha Ravi was arrested for sharing a document intended to help people interested in joining ongoing protests by India’s farmers against legislations passed in India’s parliament last September. Ravi’s arrest came in the wake of notable personalities such as Rihanna, Greta Thunberg and Mia Khalifa tweeting in favour of protesting farmers at the edge of the national capital last month. In response, India’s Ministry of External Affairs had tersely warned against “sensationalist social media hashtags and comments” and was compelled to introduce the hashtags #IndiaTogether and #IndiaAgainstPropaganda.
In a televised address to the Rajya Sabha Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decried what he called the “foreign destructive ideology” being imported into India. The divergence between the legislations deregulating agriculture and the state’s heavy-handed response to those protesting the legislations reflects a key feature of contemporary politics in India and beyond:...
