From the time the ultra-right-wing Hindu communalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in India in May 2014, the country’s pretensions of being the largest democracy in the world have been fast falling apart. Recently, the BJP mounted an all-out vicious attack on left-oriented activists, writers, and intellectuals in the country, reminiscent of McCarthyism in the United States during the 1940s. For the last four years, the party in power has been unscrupulously pursuing its communal agenda to pave the way for transforming India into a Hindu “rashtra” (nation).

The current onslaught by the state is the most daring one yet, targeting well-known activists, trade unionists, and intellectuals who have an impeccable record of public service and as defenders of peoples’ democratic rights. The strategy is to curb the voices of dissent that have gained force in the wake of the economic ruination wrought by the BJP government and its utter failure to deliver on any of its promises.

Notwithstanding that the Indian constitution is projected as one of the most liberal and egalitarian constitutions, the traditional caste system, with all its viciousness, still survives. The Untouchables, or Dalits, are discriminated against by the Hindu majority in all walks of life even today. The BJP, which wants India to revert to its “glorious” past, upholds the caste division of society, an objective that appeals to the “nationalistic” instincts of the Hindu majority; discrimination against Dalits, invariably manifesting as gory violence, has only spiraled.