The courts in India are increasingly taking on the responsibility, and therefore the role, of the executive. This can be hugely dangerous, with the Supreme Court using its final point of call to force issues, undemocratically, without the majority of parliament, on the whim of a bench, at the cost of a liberal and plural society. Equally frightening is the abdication, by all governments, of the norms of functioning within the strict parameters of laws, with integrity and probity. When one of the four pillars of a democracy plays the role of two, there is a potential problem. Democratic processes, liberal positions, political, cultural and societal tolerance, inter-faith respect and all the attributes of civilized living stand threatened. As a mere citizen watching the shifting sands of this polity, one feels a trifle insecure about the political future of this young nation state.

There was a small item in the newspapers the other day that said something about the Supreme Court considering a ruling to enforce alcohol prohibition in India. Absurd, but scary: because there is no point of call thereafter, no stay-order possibility, only a two-thirds vote against the court order by parliament that could overrule such an unacceptable intervention. There are shades of neo-nationalism veiled in such regressive ?intrusions?, a la some of the conservative Islamic countries. With our parliament in disarray, where oppositions constantly stall functioning on irrelevant issues and where elected representatives in legislative assemblies are chucking furniture at each other, behaving like hoodlums, the reality we are facing is serious and needs immediate attention.

Hope on the horizon

India is being sabotaged. Her people and their tryst with destiny are being betrayed. Just think of the following scenario: the Supreme Court issues fatwas compelling a uniform dress and colour code, forcing vegetarianism and the use of a single language, banning varied worship and declaring one religion, ordering anything that the ?bench? may choose to. Unfortunately, political parties determine the placement of judges. Parties often lose their mandate midterm, new dispensations come to power, old affiliates continue to operate the courts, governments do not deliver, courts take over the job of the executive, they gradually become ?politicized?, and all hell breaks loose. The foundations of democracy begin to shake. The earthquake opens up new avenues for defying the system, and Indians find ingenious ways of ?working? it. Such potential anarchy could lead to a disintegration of this nation state and its federal polity, leading India into a desperately negative and possibly bloody phase.

Armed resistance is a reality. Sadly, the government seems to deal with it as a ?law and order? problem when it is the direct result of bad governance, of the non-delivery of goods and services, of infrastructure, of roti, kapda, makaan aur kaam for millions. Those men, women and children, 59 years down the road of ?freedom?, are bound to fight for the basics that a civilized government should have provided. We are beginning, as a nation, to pay the price for political and administrative greed at the cost of a billion plus human beings who waited patiently and are now asserting themselves. The elastic has snapped. It is not a law and order problem at all. It is the direct result of the abdication of sane governance.

The only possible saviour is the new generation. If this approximately 80 per cent of the populace can press the brakes and take charge to cleanse, rapidly, this descent into a quagmire, we have a semblance of hope. Will they, will they not? It is anybody?s guess. Will some collective give that young brigade a hearing, some respect, a platform, some credence? Or will the fossils at the helm aggravate the fissures only to keep themselves in power, whatever that ?power? may mean?