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Comment by vsskanth | Hacker News Reader

The right wing party in India came to power in 2014 in a perfect storm of a very popular leader and a pretty weak opposition. Opposition was further weakened electorally with demonetization right before elections in the most populous state of India (UP).

They were able to successfully capture most institutions (RBI, supreme courts, investigative agencies) in addition to capturing the media through corporate ownership.

Social media strategy and a massive disinformation campaign on Whatsapp proved extremely successful in the 2019 elections and the right wing party now has an even bigger majority with the opposition decimated.

Barring a turn in public approval (probably from a recession), they will continue to perform well unless opposition steps up their game.

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There's more to democracy than opposition. I must remind you that the opposition was at the center of many a scams when it was in power. They're no good. There aren't very many better alternatives.

The citizens taking up to protests is the right way forward. The fascist ideals of the current incumbent is plain to see in these times of mass dissent. That's the point of worry here. Not opposition, not the ruling party, not the right-wing politics, per se; but the unsatiable thirst of a pro-violent party fronting a terrorist organisation to consolidate power with facist undertones.

By opposition, I didn't specifically mean Congress. I meant a political alternative that's better than what we have, hopefully citizen driven. Protests are temporary. Ultimately you need to vote for someone in elections to change the system.

What about BJP ticking/checking out election manifesto one by one and delivering. While Congress is just whining about everything with their ClownPrince pappu on the helm.

People must vote for progress.

An economy which went from dreams of 10% growth, to under 5%, that too with a doctored GDP calculation is not progress.

Nor are the various reports on the economy which the government is sitting on or has surpressed over the last few years because it harms their image.

Say what you want about the previous government, but it seems their mistake was to actually follow procedure - the government regularly released their reports on economic performance, and they didn't resort to juicing the numbers like this govt is.

Very few statistics of this govt are surviving scrutiny, while they do thrive on viral headlines. (Toilet creation vs toilet use and actual sanitation outcomes. GST vs actual tax improvements and economic growth.)

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