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A combination of anxiety and paranoia seems to have overcome liberals and a vast section of democratic-minded citizens who are always looking for some silver lining in the otherwise omnipresent dark clouds over Indian polity today.

Oddly, such anxiety and paranoia is producing a psychology among liberal thought leaders, which makes them even more resigned to accepting the misrule of the current regime at the Centre. The paranoia and frustration caused by the authoritarian misrule is ironically leading to democratic dissenters turning their ire on each other. Human tendency is always to look for someone to blame during adversity. Therefore when the entity causing them deep stress and anxiety seems invincible, they start looking for others to blame for the situation. This is partly what has been happening with the opposition parties. The general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), M.A. Baby, has formally written to the Congress party asking it to explain Rahul Gandhi’s statements during the election campaign in Kerala where he called CPI(M) a “B team of the BJP.” This is causing a strain in the India alliance. It is another matter that in the heat of the elections, both Congress and CPI(M) were accusing each other of having some truck with the BJP which is an also ran in Kerala.

The larger point here is that national opposition instead of finding common ground to protest the Enforcement Directorate raids on an aging CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan or to raise the issue of violence being perpetrated on the TMC leaders, the INDIA alliance is allowing the familiar playbook of the BJP to further weaken its foundations.

Similarly, even among the dissenting members and leaders of civil society there is this reflex reaction seeking to blame someone for what seems like an insurmountable task of arresting the rapid democratic back sliding in the country. One........

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