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An understanding of power dynamics, for some rulers, doesn’t originate from the Constitution or a conscience. Their mind is wired in a way that believes consolidating power is the sole objective of being in power. Their politics rests on the presumption that force is the only effective instrument to deal with any crisis. Ethics, or constitutional morality, doesn’t find space in their toolkit.

It doesn’t matter that this doctrine of force is antithetical to the democratic spirit, because they have already mastered the art of fitting the engine of autocracy in the chassis of democracy.

Any political observer who has studied the Narendra Modi regime over the last decade will not be surprised by the brutal eviction of Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders from outside the prime minister’s residence. Those who imagined that the prime minister will be submerged by remorse and sack education minister Dharmendra Pradhan before accepting a debate in parliament should re-examine Modi’s politics.

Except the farmers movement that involved an extraordinarily big mass of many lakhs, Modi has crushed every single protest. Even during the farmers’ movement, the element of violence was not missing. Concrete barricading to prevent entry into Delhi, nails planted on roads, highways dug up, barbed wire fencing, vilification campaigns – the government used every undemocratic trick to terrorise the protesters.

From the anti-CAA Shaheen Bagh movement to the wrestlers’ protest at Jantar Mantar, the government ultimately resorted to the doctrine of force. Students’ stirs in JNU, Jamia Millia and Aligarh University attracted savage........

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