Watch Out for Mobs at the Gate Harish Khare https://thewire.in/rights/statecraft-colombo-new-delhi-mobs Our clever Chanakyas are deluding themselves by thinking they can control and calibrate the religious madness they have unleashed.
The central concern of all democratic forces and constitutional voices ought to be to avoid a Sri Lanka-style breakdown in our country; in other words, how do we prevent an ultra-aggressive executive from tipping over from the weight of its arrogance and megalomania?
The ruling coterie is entitled to think that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presumed charisma and manufactured popularity elevate him and his government above the constitutionally-mandated structure of restraints and constraints. Yet, the primary legitimacy any prime minister in India enjoys can only be located firmly within the four walls of the constitution, and what that constitution permits or does not permit can only be decided by the Supreme Court. And, it is hardly secret that in recent years the authority of the apex court has been qualitatively mauled – partly because our judicial leadership had allowed itself to become too overawed by the political momentum of the day. Can the lost judicial authority be retrieved?
Politically instigated, electorally driven grandstanding has become all too consuming in the age of social media. The Nupur Sharma virus has infected our body politic and extreme elements in all religious communities are pushing out saner and sober voices. Our clever Chanakyas may delude themselves that they can control and calibrate the religious madness they have unleashed. But when a political crowd starts feeling and acting as if it has all the country’s institutions lined up behind it, the only corrective is provided by the mobs of the kind that have taken over Colombo. That is why it is in everybody’s interest that the Supreme Court retrieve its lost judicial authority, and do so quickly.