The use of the phrase ‘Dimaagi Naxal’ by the prime minister during his independence day speech generated some heat, sparked off a considerable amount of creativity by the younger generation in the form of memes, songs, and even a Dimaagi Naxal political party, but also gave rise to puzzlement. Why would a prime minister who has been elected to power by the political public/the citizens, attack India’s citizens from the ramparts of the Red Fort? The least we expect from an elected premier in a democracy, is that he is loyal to his people, that he protects and respects them, and that he establishes multiple bonds with us through his vocabulary and actions.A basic presupposition of parliamentary democracy is that the elected representative is as responsible to and for citizens who did not vote for him, as those who voted for him. If those who did not vote for either X or Y who comes into power, accept the new government as legitimate, because the process has been (presumably) fair and just, the elected representative should reciprocate by treating all sections of the national constituency with esteem that is due to every citizen of a democracy.Abusing citizens who raise their voicesBut from the beginning of his long tenure PM Modi and his speech writers have concentrated on slighting and even abusing citizens who raise their voices against specific policies or inaction – Khan Market Gang, Tukde Tukde Gang, anti-nationals and so on and so forth. Why this reaction? Civil disobedience is a part of democracy. We have elected a leader, we have a right to hold him to account. In return he has to cultivate a degree of tolerance, not attack perfectly law abiding citizens. Acceptance of civil disobedience as a legitimate right, Mr prime minister, comes with the job. Asking questions does not amount to a revolution, it is not even a minor revolt, it is a democratic right.In some democratic countries citizens have the right of recall. In India when our young people asked for the resignation of an irresponsible education minister they were set upon by masked goons. Armed with lathis studded with iron nails they beat our young people insensible. Young women were sexually harassed in the most brutal of ways. And you kept quiet! And we cannot ask the question – why did you keep quiet when your own people, our children were being thrashed! Did you not weep when you saw this on television? Did you not regret the manner in which your government punished young people? Our souls’ cringed. Why did you not share in our collective grief? Are you not one of us?But when we ask the question – who gave the power to the police and these goons to mercilessly attack our young people, we are called ‘Dimaagi Naxals’! It is our job to ask questions of an elected government, it is the job of the government to answer them.Since the ruling government does not seem to understand the basic principles of democracy, let me elucidate these for those who brandish their power the way an oligarch vulgarly brandished his son’s wedding. Let us go back to Socrates who was tried for being, well, a ‘Dimaagi Naxal’ or more specifically for impiety and for corrupting the morals of the young, by the wise men of Athens. He was sentenced to death in 399 BCE. The wise men ruled that he should be put to death by making him drink hemlock. Thus was the death of a man regarded till today as the veritable fountainhead of philosophical reflection and wisdom, scripted.On the eve of the execution, Crito and other friends of Socrates visited him in prison and urged him to escape. Socrates’s answer embodies an entire philosophy of political obligation. I lived throughout my life in Athens, said Socrates, I had no problem with the city, I hardly left my home for travels abroad I accepted the rules of the government, I had children here, and at the trial I could have chosen exile, I chose death because I cannot leave my beloved Athens.Many of us chose to stay in India which we love. We studied here, we worked here, we contributed to the intellectual life of the country, we paid taxes, we did not disobey laws, we tacitly accepted the government as legitimate. For the most part we obeyed the laws of the state we were born into without thinking about it too much. But there came times when we wondered why we should obey the laws of a government that has proved wanting – when it imprisons our students without even filing a case against them, when it order the Enforcement Directorate to harass members of another party, or dissidents, or when it orders that the young people who are the future of the country be lynched viciously.This is precisely the time to ask questionsWe wonder why we should pay taxes when massive amounts of our earned money line the pockets of our representatives? We wonder why we should obey a state that looks on complacently when our fellow citizens are humiliated and killed in the name of caste, gender and religion? Why should we obey a state when it watches while young people are frustrated because there are no jobs? And why should we obey laws when our Constitution is violated by an elected government?This is precisely the time to ask questions, and to demonstrate peacefully against a government that has betrayed the mandate we the people gave it. And for exercising this legitimate right, we are subjected to opprobrium on independence day, a day when the nation comes together, by the speech of the prime minister.Remember, Mr prime minister, each of us possesses the faculty of moral judgement which is higher than any law passed by Parliament or inaction by your government. That moral judgement gives us the right to civil disobedience. I end with this passage from the memorable play of Sophocles (495-406 BCE) Antigone.Antigone is brought before King Creon, her own uncle, for having disobeyed his law, that the body of her brother who had lost his life during the battle will not be buried with honour. Antigone is hauled up before a furious Creon: “thou didst indeed dare to transgress that law” he thunders.An unfazed Antigone replies “Yes, for it was not Zeus that had published me that edict; nor such are the laws set among me by the Justice who dwells with the gods below; nor deemed I that the decrees were of such force, that a mortal could override the unwritten and unfailing statues of heaven.”Her justification for disobeying the laws was simply thus; when laws offend the rules and norms laid down by justice, they are not worthy of being obeyed. Morality trumps man-made law every time. So please stop heaping insults upon your fellow citizens, Mr prime minister. We are not your subjects, we are independent citizens of a great country which we handed over to you for some time as a caretaker. So if we ask questions of you it is because your laws and your omissions are not just. Justice is our guide to civil disobedience. Justice is our guide to critiquing you and your government. So please no more labelling, enough is enough.Neera Chandhoke is a former professor of Political Science, University of Delhi.