Recent trends show that defiance of the Supreme Court is building into an effort to break the.
There is clearly certain unease, even a discernible subterranean anxiety, in the polity. No doubt, India is in transition. But many citizens are worried if the country is hurtling into an uncertain and unknown future – some fear it to be perilous and even irreversible for a long time to come. There are many reasons – quite a few are real, while some exaggerated or even imagined. There is confusion about reading the changes – are they exceptions, one off events, or, are they indicative of a clear and emerging trend Are they in the fringes, or have they already occupied the centre stage One such worrying change is in the ongoing tussle between the judiciary on the one hand and the other two branches of the government, namely executive and legislative.
Recently, the Congress-ruled government in Karnataka played a cat and mouse game with the Supreme Court on the sharing of Cauvery water with the neighbouring Tamil Nadu. On the face of it, the State Government pleaded “helplessness” in failing to carry out the apex court’s directions, but underneath it there was a palpable defiance in which the executive and the legislature were in conflict with the judiciary in a game of brinkmanship. It was by no means a healthy and therefore welcome tension between the different estates of government which would strengthen federalism, democracy and the rule of law.
The undermining of the power of judiciary was evident in the case of Board of Control for Cricket in India, which for long has been operating in a nebulous unregulated space. The cash-rich Board became a hub of private and political vested interests and people began to suspect that something was rotten in the state of Indian cricket. The legislative and the executive failed to rein in the Board administration. The government turned a blind eye, while there even suspicions of acquiescence, if not outright brazen complicity and collusion.
The putrid smell caused by unethical practices on and off field became so oppressive that the Supreme Court had to step in to fix the problem. The Board then displayed a brazen impunity for law. That the Board could have mustered the courage from the signals emanating from the government is in the realm of speculation. The NDA government, which is on a collision course with a judiciary in the wake of controversy over mode of appointment of judges, wittingly or unwittingly created an atmosphere where defiance of law and subversion of administration of justice was possible.
Is the doctrine of separation of powers under threat Will it derail time-tested constitutional arrangements Is democracy and democratic governance doomed The developments are no doubt alarming, even if the situation has not reached the point of no return. The alarm bells are, however, ringing loud and clear. To understand how the country has come to this pass and to find solutions to fix the problems it is important to analyse two paradigm-shifting changes that have taken place in the past two decades and a half: The 1991 economic reforms and the mandate to Modi-led NDA coalition in 2014.
When economic reforms were ushered in in 1991, India hardly had a choice. The reforms were willy-nilly thrust on the country. The political establishment, especially one without a “strong and decisive” leader, fell in line and went through the motions. There were doubts about the consequences, but eventually the majority have come to believe that it was good for the nation. The UPA should rightly be given the credit for cushioning the shocks of economic reforms by giving it a “human face” through a welfare oriented development model.
Freeing the private sector from the clutches of legislature and the executive have not yielded the desired results as political highhandedness and bureaucratic red tape were replaced by “crony capitalism”, the unholy nexus between unscrupulous private sector, the narrow political vested interests and the corrupt and pliant bureaucracy. This has resulted in myriad scams and corruption scandals (though, some were grossly exaggerated).
The greater danger is in the unjust and corruption-tainted allocation of natural resources and the irreparable damage it causing to fragile environment. It was the independent judiciary (the SC) and autonomous constitutional bodies (the CAG) which pro-actively tried to stem the rot. The BJP, then in the opposition, derived political benefit from it which led to its sweeping victory in 2014.
When people voted the UPA government out, they perhaps knew why. One of the reasons was the frustration against corruption which found expression in the movement spearheaded by India Against Corruption. But such clarity was not evident in their choice of BJP-led NDA coalition to rule the country. No doubt, people wanted change — the apolitical voter bought into the development agenda effectively propagated by Narendra Modi, while the supporters of BJP’s right-wing ideology and Hindutva politics had other ideas.
The government is straddling both horses and hoping they would hurtle forward in tandem. In both the spheres — economic development and social transformation — the government perceives the supervisory institutions such as judiciary, the CAG, and the CBI as hurdles. The general perception is that the government has succeeded in taming and co-opting the CAG, RBI, CBI and NHRC.
The less said the better about leading players in the mainstream media who are ready to crawl even before they are asked to bend. Therefore, the critics of government allege that efforts are being made to “fix” the judiciary by changing the composition of the benches. Other institutional, quasi-institutional and private players are picking the wink-wink, nudge-nudge signals emanating from the government and are pushing the boundaries and testing the limits.
It is a low intensity war of attrition which will have long-term consequences. When other institutions failed, it was the judiciary that rose to the occasion. In trying times, the judiciary, with all its faultlines, has been the last citadel of rule of law and democratic governance. Subversion of judiciary would only strengthen and benefit the rich and the mighty and further disempower and weaken the poor and disadvantaged sections of the society leading to gradual erosion of democracy and social justice as envisioned by the founders of the Constitution.
(The writer teaches journalism in a Chennai college)
