Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Our democratic institutions face crisis of credibility?' that was published in Newsband

Our democratic institutions face crisis of credibility?

A debate has been provoked by the press conference held by four of the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court in New Delhi on 12 January 2018. No institution is beyond questioning or reform. The conference was held to discuss the case of Central Bureau of Investigation Judge B H Loya’s sudden death in December 2014. Some people have questioned the propriety of the senior Supreme Court judges going to the press. But there is indeed the need to inject transparency and accountability into the functioning of this Court

The central issue raised by the judges is that politically sensitive cases were being deliberately assigned to particular benches. They express concern over the roster management of the CJ. This creates doubt about the integrity of the institution. It is not just the credibility of the Supreme Court that we need to address, but also of all the institutions that uphold the democratic structure.

Take the legislature, for instance. The institution serves little purpose if representatives supported by taxpayers’ money do little more than graze the grounds of Parliament House with no application of mind to the important issues placed before them.

Apart from the judiciary and the legislature, the executive in a parliamentary democracy is supposed to be answerable to the legislature.

And then, there is the fourth estate. The media has assigned itself the role of the final arbiter of all imagined disputes.

One might add that the Election Commission of India has also seen an erosion of its credibility by its decision of agreeing to delay the elections to the Gujarat assembly.

Indian Democracy is hardly seven decades old. Indian Constitution is claimed to be a nice book for such 'democracy'. The main think tank of this country is still fighting to prepare a road map to guide this country to occupy an important position of 'respect and acceptability' in the minds of seven billion people of the World. Freedom of speech and thought are still debated in India