Before the run up to the general elections 2019 the opposition parties along with the like minded media and intelligentsia succeeded in creating and reinforcing a fear psychosis among general public drawing parallel to that of emergency. The ruling NDA led by BJP and the opposition parties’ permutations and combinations also started their warming up in all respects towards the general elections. Though the opposition parties are ill organized or fragmented they are united in terms of attacking the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The style of Modi-centered functioning of the NDA, and the commensurate campaign by the opposition parties, and a group of media- propelled intelligentsia could successfully create an impression that the government , ruling front everything get circumambulated around the single icon, Modi. While the ruling BJP is solely depended on the charisma of Narendra Modi, particularly during the times of elections, the opposition too endorses and reinforces the same by mainly focusing their attack toward Modi. This has brought the run up to the 2019 election into a straight fight between Narendra Modi and the rest.
The focus of the opposition attack is similar to the Emergency declaraion period of Indira Gandhi. The Congress party is also in the forefront in the campaign though they are silent on emergency. On the occasion of the 43rd anniversary of the emergency the tweet of the finance minister Arun Jaitley was also brilliantly encashed by the opposition leaders. Jaitley tweeted,“ The lesson from the emergency is that if you curb free speech and allow only propaganda, you become the first victim of propaganda because you start believing that your own propaganda is the truth and full truth”. The anti- Modi camp were alert enough to concoct the tweet of Jaitley in such a way that Jaitley was giving an indirect admonition to the Prime Minister and the party about the impending danger lurk in the 2019 election if the party and the Prime Minister do not change the style of functioning considering the realities the government and the party are faced with.
No matter whether the government prowl over the media and general public on account of freedom of expression, a fear psychosis has crept into the media world, and among the general public. From the perspective of election prospects the strategy being effectively campaigned by the opposition and the like minded centers may bear fruit. But metastasizing fear through Goebbelsian strategy would percolate into all walks of life in the society. It would provide ample opportunity for the dark forces in the society to exploit and terrorize the public. The only difference would be that if the terror unleashed during emergency was by the official hands, this time it may be by that of the dark forces in the society. Some may claim the patronage of the dispensation at the center with the local support. If at all any kind of unofficial censorship or similar type of prowl imposed by the government is there it is the responsibility of the opposition parties and media to instill courage among the ordinary citizens to stand up against such atrocities instead of stupefying them by instilling fear. Because the very life breath of democracy itself is courage. Whenever democracy is invaded by fear that social system is reduced to a fertile ground for sowing and reaping of any kind of ulterior motives. The single leader centric parties in India may also want such a situation to ensure their significance, and thereby existence.