The credibility of all the institutions is at stake and the government is not doing anything to ameliorate its image.
The nation, which in recent past known to be the biggest functional democracy of the world is now just supposed to be the biggest democracy or even called the parody account of democracy. The credibility or trustworthiness of this institution is continuously declining with time and slipped 10 places to 51st position among 165 countries in the 2019 Democracy Index‘s globally ranking, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit, which cited the ‘erosion of civil liberties’ in the country as the primary cause for a downtrend.
This index was primarily based on electoral and pluralism; the functioning of government; political participation; political culture and civil liberties. The index classifies countries into four categories namely full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes.
India figured in the flawed category list. The allegiance of the citizens of India on four pillars of democracy namely legislature, executive, judiciary, and media has flanked and monstrously influenced the opinions of the public.
Is Legislature Using The Executive To Do Its Dirty Work?
Executive and legislature are two different pillars but they mostly overlap each other in their functioning. The success of one depends directly on the other. The legislature, which is primarily elected directly or indirectly in any state by the people for the welfare and legislation for all classes, has confined itself only to the crony capitalist and middle class, and the lower class is suffering miserably at the cost of opulent.
The concept of government of the people, by the people and for the people is now only confined to the by the people while electing the government at the time of elections. All the policies and the laws of the current ruling government are either for the felicitous to the monied people or focussed on harassing/disturbing the peace of minorities especially of Muslims, whether it was Triple Talaq, UAPA or CAA/NRC.
When the whole world is fighting to endemic, the Indian government is busy silencing the voices of the opposition and again especially against the Muslims. The draconian law against Safoora Zargar for her involvement in the anti-CAA protest was inhumane and a violation of fundamental rights. The chief of the government is identifying people by their dress. The government is doing all this by using the executive in Union Territories and BJP ruled states in implicating the poor and bourgeois in bogus charges.
Is Judiciary Still Independent?
Article 50 of the Constitution, which is a Directive Principle of State Policy, separates the judiciary from the executive. The independence of the judiciary, the supremacy of the constitution are the basic structure of the Constitution. The Supreme Court, the highest court of the land, is the guardian of the Constitution to ensure the enforcement of fundamental rights.
The current functioning of the Court arises the question in the minds of people. Not only justice be done, but it also must be seen to be done. Nothing is to be done which creates even a suspicion that there has been an improper inference with the course of justice.
The recent judgments of Supreme Court like Justice Loya Case, Ayodhya Judgement, Medical College Graft case, the introduction of seal cover documents, regarding human right violation in J&K, sexual harassment case against Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Delhi violence and the list goes on with the recent hearing of Arnab Goswami case, are some of few which are the matter of concerns for the independence of the judiciary. People have lost their faith and in most cases, the judgments are very predictable which is not a good sign in this arena.
Media, The Fourth Pillar Of Democracy, Is Merging With The Second: Executive
Media is considered the fourth pillar of Democracy. Unbiased media coverage is vital for the health of democracy. It should not acceptable to the society to favour one political party and especially the ruling party, targeting one community and spreading fake propaganda among the people. India ranks 142nd on global press freedom out of 180 countries by Reporters Without Borders.
RSF’s latest report attributes India’s rank to the Narendra Modi government ‘tightening’ its grip on the media, and pressuring it to ‘toe the Hindu nationalist government’s line’. The media acts as opposition and exposes and criticize the government for its policies, but the scenario in India is different. The media is playing in the hands of government and promoting their communal agenda by targeting the Muslims and creating their image as an anti-nationalist in the minds of other communities and especially among Hindus.
The media is presenting their image in a way that there are dangerous to their ethos, values, and culture. The prime time anchors are trying their best to divide the society in the name of religion except for a few good media houses. All the religious incidents, lynchings, oppression of depressed classes are the results of journalism practised by this Godi Media. Every day, the media is breaking its records for brazenness and is busy in licking the ass of the government. The ‘Bikau Journalists’ are questioning the opposition instead of the ruling government.
When the three freelancer-Kashmiri based photojournalists were awarded the Pulitzer Prize, they were targeted by the Primetime anchors for their reward and get chilly for their reward. They started questioning the award and called these photojournalists as anti-India. The credibility of all the constitutional and independent institutions like Election Commission, CBI, RBI, etc. is at stake. If the Indian government wants to improve its images across the globe, it must act to restore the lost credibility of Legislature, Executive, Judiciary, Media, and all constitutional and independent institutions.