There is a famous scene in Sasha Baron Cohen’s 2012 comedy “Dictator”. Dictator Aladeen participates in a 100-metre race that’s a part of the Olympic Games that he himself organised. He has the pistol that asserts the beginning of the race. He fires it after he begins working. As he runs forward of his opponents, he shoots anybody who comes near him. One by one, all of the runners fall down – both with a bullet wound or out of concern. When Dictator Aladeen turns into visibly out of breath, the folks holding the ribbon that makes up the end line begin working in direction of him. He crosses that ribbon and wins the race. We are then informed that he has received a complete of 14 medals within the Olympic Games.

This scene has turn out to be fairly common on Indian social media because it was introduced that elections for the 18th Lok Sabha shall be held between April 19 and June 1 throughout the nation. People are commenting that what was parodied in that scene within the film Dictator is definitely occurring in India as we speak. And they’ve ample purpose to achieve that conclusion.

Sure, India can not formally be categorized as a dictatorship, however it at the moment can’t be categorized as a functioning, wholesome democracy both. There are, in reality, some simple similarities between the actions of fictional Dictator Aladeen within the 2012 film and people of India’s present rulers on the eve of the 2024 election.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, for instance, launched its large-scale, state-funded election marketing campaign lengthy earlier than the date for the election was introduced and campaigning budgets for all events had been allotted. Thus, it had a head begin over the opposition political events.

Furthermore, simply earlier than the announcement of the dates for the 2024 elections, the federal government amended the principles for choosing members of the Election Commission overseeing the vote. Earlier, the choice committee included the prime minister and the chief of the opposition in addition to the chief justice of India. This was to make sure some impartiality within the choice. But this 12 months, the federal government abruptly modified the principles. It eliminated the chief justice from the committee and changed him with a authorities minister to be appointed by the PM. This implies that now the federal government’s opinion shall be paramount within the collection of the Election Commission. It is as if the captain of solely one of many a number of groups taking part in a sport appoints the umpire. What is then left to say concerning the impartiality of the Election Commission?

Just after the announcement of elections, on March 21, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the chief of the opposition Aam Aadmi Party, was arrested by India’s monetary crime company, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which alleged that he was the mastermind of a rip-off referring to Delhi’s new liquor excise coverage. At the time of Kejriwal’s arrest, three extra Aam Aadmi Party leaders, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, had been already in jail. The Supreme Court just lately granted bail to Singh, however it’s trying extremely unlikely that the opposite opposition leaders shall be freed in time to take part within the election. The Delhi High Court prolonged Kejriwal’s judicial custody till at the very least April 23 earlier as we speak.

These arrests are certain to have an effect on the opposition’s election marketing campaign. And these are usually not the one opposition figures dealing with threats of incarceration and authorized warfare within the run-up to the election. Many opposition occasion leaders throughout the nation have acquired notices and arrest warrants relating to varied present and historic circumstances prior to now few months.

On April 5, for instance, an arrest warrant was issued towards former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in a case associated to the alleged unlawful buy of arms and ammunition in 1995-97.

It is obvious that investigating businesses of the federal government try to imprison, or merely entangle in authorized troubles, main opposition figures in order that they aren’t in a position to dedicate full consideration and power to their election campaigns.

The authorities seems additionally to be concentrating on opposition establishments to restrict their skill to run an efficient election marketing campaign.

Over the previous month, India’s Income Tax Department served the primary opposition Congress Party a number of tax notices price a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} and recovered 1.35 billion rupees ($16.32m) in penalties from its financial institution accounts. It additionally sealed the occasion’s financial institution accounts, leaving it with restricted entry to funds simply weeks previous to the elections. The Congress Party stated they view the actions of the Income Tax Department as an effort to wreck the occasion’s campaigning efforts, and thus as an assault on Indian democracy.

On April 1, the Income Tax Department informed the Supreme Court that it might not pursue a 35-billion rupee ($420 million) fee from the Congress Party till after the completion of normal elections in June, giving the opposition some respiratory area. Yet the tax funds are usually not the one instruments utilised by the federal government towards opposition establishments and actors.

Every day, there may be information of 1 or the opposite chief or outstanding determine of some opposition occasion becoming a member of the BJP. It is extensively believed that these opposition figures are leaving their events and becoming a member of the governing BJP on account of intimidation and harassment from the federal government’s investigative businesses.

In 2019, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Congress chief Ashok Chavan gave an interview to the Hindustan Times, alleging “BJP is using government agencies to threaten leaders in opposition”.

“Our leaders were threatened with inquiries,” he stated. “Agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax were used to initiate action against institutions run by them. Then they were assured protection from action if they joined the ruling parties. Those who joined them were scared of action against them. The ones who did not budge are still on the radar.”

Since then, Chavan himself has been threatened by BJP leaders with prosecution and incarceration. He left Congress and joined BJP in February 2024.

Earlier this month, the Indian Express printed an investigation into opposition figures who crossed over to the BJP. The journalists examined the circumstances of 25 opposition leaders dealing with corruption costs who left their events and joined the BJP since 2014. They discovered that 23 of them obtained reprieves – three circumstances had been closed and 20 had been stalled, or put in “cold storage”, that means no motion is being taken towards the accused.

India’s opposition events are being hollowed out with such techniques. Further, such actions are inflicting the general public to lose religion within the opposition and understand opposition events as establishments which might be in disarray, stuffed with folks crippled with concern and unfit to control.

Indian media additionally performs an necessary position in giving the BJP a bonus within the election.

Indeed, many of the Indian media is overtly selling BJP and Narendra Modi. Since the announcement of elections, media platforms have been organising occasions that includes the prime minister and different ministers and BJP leaders, giving them each alternative to advertise themselves and their agenda. This courtesy has not been prolonged to opposition leaders. Media has additionally been pushing the narrative that the opposition is weak, the PM stays common and there’s no actual various to him or the BJP.

Any unbiased media organisation or new media platform that dares to maneuver away from the federal government narratives is dealing with assaults and intimidation from the federal government. Many common YouTube channels important of the federal government have been given notices or already shut down.

The communal rhetoric utilized by the BJP and the prime minister within the run-up to the election has additionally harmed the democratic course of.

From the very first day of the election marketing campaign, BJP campaigners together with the prime minister have began utilizing communal language. PM Modi attacked the Congress Party by saying that each web page of its election manifesto “bears the imprint of the Muslim League”. Apart from this, in all their speeches and statements, BJP leaders have been denouncing opposition events by calling them “anti-Ram” and asking the general public to show them a lesson. The authorities and its supporters have been overtly flouting the election code of conduct because the very starting and present no intention to alter course within the coming weeks.

But who’s to police their actions and censure them for making a mockery of Indian democracy? No one actually expects the Election Commission, appointed by the prime minister himself, to do something.

The worldwide neighborhood is watching all this with concern. This is the primary time within the historical past of unbiased India that the consultant of the secretary-general of the United Nations has thought of it essential to make an announcement that in India “people’s political and civil rights” are “protected” and everybody can vote in a “free and fair” environment. Given the best way Indian state establishments are at the moment functioning, one can solely hope the UN assertion proves correct when the polls open later this month.

The upcoming election is essential for the way forward for democracy in India. It is obvious that every one the constitutional establishments within the nation have now determined that they’re working for the BJP, not the folks, and the media has taken up the position of the present authorities’s propagandist. The arms and toes of the opposition events are tied. In such a scenario, the one hope is that the Indian folks, who fought relentlessly for democracy because the nation’s inception and know its price very nicely, will perceive the seriousness of the scenario, and use their strongest weapons, their votes, to place an finish to India’s fast democratic backsliding.

If not, the upcoming Indian elections will go down in historical past as a farcical play placed on solely to please, placate and supply renewed legitimacy to Modi and his occasion, not a lot completely different from Dictator Aladeen’s Olympic Games.

The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.