Horrible shame!

Sunday was the twenty-first day (since 28 June) of the hunger strike, of noted environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk. Early that morning, the Delhi police forcibly ( and against his will) admitted him to a hospital, apparently due to his deteriorating health condition. Sonam with some other students were on a fast in support of the demands of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP). Since almost a month now, led by Abhijeet Dipke, hundreds of youth have been protestiing at the Jantar Mantar.They are demanding the resignation of Education Minister, after a key entrance exam for aspiring doctors - called the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) was cancelled in early May, following a paper leak. They say, he must take moral responsibility for the leak and resign immediately. Today the protestors were also demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister too. They plan to go on a protest march to Parliament on 20 July.Yet the Government refuses to relent and dialogue with the protesters. Horrible shame, indeed!

Education is in the doldrums! The regime should ask itself as to why hundreds of thousands of Indian youth are desperate to study in schools and universities abroad. First in this beeline are the children of Ministers and other Government officials . The National Education Policy (NEP) is exclusionary. It does not provide the much needed holistic, inclusive, objective and contextual education. In the recently published 'Academic Freedom Index', India stands tenth among countries, where academic freedom is being throttled and universities are not allowed to function independently. The Government is attempting to cut the grants of the well-known national think-tank, the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) which has contributed immensely to the intellectual fibre and calibre of the country. As Yogendra Yadav puts it, “Bulldozer justice reaches academia..No doubt, this is a demolition exercise”. Teachers in schools today are caught up in ‘Government duties’ like SIR or the census enumeration or election work. Horrible shame, indeed!

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR), an exercise undertaken by the Election Commission of India to verify and revise electoral rolls,continues like a juggernaut disenfranchsing thousands of legitimate citizens all over the country. Those who are deleted from the electoral rolls are the poor and the vulnerable, the minorities (mainly Muslims) and other marginalized sections of society. Those who toe the regime’s line, have nothing to fear. Their names will not be deleted. The ECI is guilty of a heinous crime against the citizens of India! Horrible shame, indeed!

Corruption is mainstreamed in the country. The regime in power is perhaps the most corrupt political dispensation in the world! They have amassed hoards of wealth through demonetisation, electoral bonds and PM-CARES Fund, besides the full-scale loot of temples like the Ram Mandir (UP), Badrinath Temple (Uttarakhand), Sabarimala Temple (Kerala), Kedarnath Temple (Uttarakhand) and Ambaji Temple (Gujarat). The sacrifices of genuine devotees are plundered, which will easily put the colonialists of yester-years to shame. Some of the regime's crony capitalist friends have a field day looting the country and profiteering. One has to take a look at the palatial RSS Centre in Delhi or the plush BJP offices all over the country to ask "whose money is being used?" There is a total lack of transparency and accountability at every level. Horrible shame, indeed!

Look at the roster of all the elected representatives/officials of political parties who left their own party and went to the BJP. Many of them have cases/FIRs/criminal proceedings against them. Once they go to the BJP everything is 'forgiven and conveniently forgotten'. Take for example, the BJP CM of West Bengal , there is no dearth of video evidence of the PM, lambasting him when he was in the TMC, as being one of the most corrupt persons of the country. However there is the BJP washing machime which can easily wash away all your crimes and even make you CM! Those politicians with apparently no crimes, are offered crores of rupees in black money, they are cajoled and even threatened with dire consequences if they do not succumb ! Horrible shame, indeed!

The Prime Minister is the laughing stock of the world. Nobody takes him seriously, despite his foreign jaunts at the expense of the Indian tax-payer (mainly the poor and the middle class). True they give him medals and awards; but these come at a huge cost. They are either not deserved or are ‘freebies’. The country has to make many concessions or trade-offs to ‘buy’ such recognition.  Any moron will tell you that Heads of States or Governments are normally not given such awards during their visits. Even his public speeches are a source of embarrassment, like the ‘2+6’ stuff in Indonesia or the ‘Melody’ chocolates in Italy . The local media there hardly covers his visits to their country. The so-called crowds who gather to hear him are mainly Indian diaspora. Australian media has lampooned this. He is unable to even answer a single question from a journalist. Horrible shame, indeed!

India was ranked 157 out of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index released recently. The country was placed in the ‘very serious’ category due to the criminalization of journalism, weaponisation of national security laws, and highly concentrated media ownership. On 16 July, a strongly-worded statement said, “The Editors Guild of India deplores attempts by a section of MEA officials to explain away Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unwillingness to address unscripted press conferences at home or abroad by stating that, as a successful politician, Prime Minister Modi prefers to communicate directly with his largely rural electorate. In response to why the PM chooses not to take questions from the media, the MEA official’s argument is deeply flawed. The PM has to routinely answer both his urban and rural people on urgent political and economic issues, especially at a time when the world is mired in an unprecedented energy crisis in the wake of the war in West Asia. The truth is that he has been reluctant to share his views on this gargantuan crisis with any kind of media.” What an embarrassment! Horrible shame, indeed!

Minoritities in the country continue to be on the receiving end! Thousands of Muslims have been disenfranchised, their homes have been demolished, their nationality and patriotism, questioned. On June 15, the Superintendent of Police in the Gujarat State Police Services (SPS), issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Gujarat’s new Anti Radicalisation Cell (ARC). The contents of the SOP clearly target the Muslims and are blatantly anti-Constitutional and communal. There is a demand from several quarters that this terrible circular be withdrawn and unconditionally. Christians are also ,systematically targeted. Bogeys of ‘forced conversion’ are consistently raised. There is documented evidence of hundreds of attacks on Christians. Recently, a Catholic School in Jabalpur was attacked by 'Hindutva' goons on the false pretext of conversions; in West Bengal a group of Sisters were threatened by a mob to stop the construction of a chapel and cemetery for which they have the necessary permissions. There are official threats to take over lands and property belonging to the Christians. The anti-conversion laws put in place in several BJP- ruled States are an attempt to deflect focus from other realities which the nation faces today. They are violative of Article 25 of the Indian Constitution which guarantees freedom of religion. Horrible shame, indeed!

'Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026' is likely to be taken up in the current session of Parliament. The Bill targets voluntary organisations and other civil society groups, who are doing exemplary work for the all-round progress and development of the country. If this bill is passed, it will be the poor who will suffer the most. Horrible shame, indeed!

There are several other raging issues, plaguing the nation today: India is zilch on the environmental index. The Great Nicobar project, the planned luxury hotel near Kaziranga National Park and the unmitigated use of fossil fuels are clear examples. India is way down on Global Indices done by impartial and credible international bodies. The poor in the country are becoming poorer. The rich become richer. Constitutional and other independent bodies have lost their credibility and have become blatantly one-sided. There is no room for dissent in India: Umar Khalid and several others are still languishing in jail. Late Fr Stan Swamy has not yet been given a clean chit. Constitutional bodies are used to victimise innocent citizens! Women are still denied their numbers in Parliament. The Government is more interested in delimitation and delisting! Horrible shame, indeed!

What is at stake today is the soul of India! The right of every single citizen to justice , liberty, equality and fraternity, all the freedom guaranteed in our sacred Constitution. That is missing. Until such time we restore reality to its original goodness, need to say Horrible shame, indeed! And we must do all we can ,to overcome it!

(Fr Cedric Prakash is a human rights, reconciliation and peace activist, trainer & writer. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com.  Views expressed here are personal and do not represent either this news portal nor any organization)