Republican India presents a gloomy picture of the collapse of the rule of law based constitutional democratic system of governance on the 77th Republic Day on January 26, 2026. On this day in January 1950, the Constitution of India postulating Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity for all people equally and alike was promulgated, which stand almost decimated today. Only trappings of democracy are there. Since 2014, when the BJP led union government came to power, various international democracy watchdogs, political analysts and observers have recorded significant decline in India’s democracy, with some describing it as a shift from a free democracy or flawed democracy to an electoral autocracy. All the democratic roads now lead to the rise of fascism with entire power concentrated in the deified Prime Minister whose style of functioning is patterned on Mussolini and Hitler.
Major signs of the collapse of democracy include exclusion of political/social consultation and consensus, free speech (press freedom) with further curbs on the Supreme Court’s recent pushes for stricter online content rules, above the ongoing hardened fetters on media freedom, weaponisation of dissents, revenge rhetoric from the National Security Adviser (NSA) when India needs progress besides harmony in diversity, political raids against adversaries using CBI, ED, and Income Tax, alignment of judiciary with the majoritarian ruling RSS Pariwar government, communalization of education with emphasis on reliance on mythological past taking students and academia away from critical thinking, reasonableness, rational outlook and scientific temper, use of communalism, religious polarizing, partisan governance , turning India into the quasi-official state of apartheid that maintains ‘othering’ of minorities to render them as second class citizens, manipulation, centralization of power in one man, redundancy of collective responsibility of council of ministers as recipe for death of democracy.
Manipulated elections and electoral frauds by the ECI (Election Commission of India), Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, secret of BJP victory after victory since massive rigging of Bihar Assembly Elections under the SIR in November 2025 being not an aura, ECI playing partisan, its failure as a neutral umpire to ensure free and fair elections ensuring level playing fields for all contesting political parties, not accountable to the people, behaving as a law unto itself, the Supreme Court of India seemingly being aligned to the government in prolonging hearing on election commissioners’ appointment, immunity and SIR, as pointers to the death of democracy, SIR being route to massive exclusions and inclusions of voters roll as a design to the constitutional crisis of mass disenfranchisement. SIR disproportionately excluding migrants, OBCs, Muslims, Dalits, tribals and women from electoral rolls to help BJP (Sangh Pariwar) win elections, break-down of checks and balances by the institutions, Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur continuing on boil, latest being targeting of media persons in Kashmir Valley, sound death knell to democracy in India.
Key areas of decline of democracy are erosions of institutional checks. People point to the weakening of independent public institutions like the judiciary, ECI, media seen increasingly aligned with the executive’s (government) interests. Drastic curbs on civil liberty and dissent are being witnessed. There has been an increased use of the dreaded laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) to charge activists, journalists, and political opponents, with prolonged detention periods without trial and little conviction rates. Civil liberties in general have declined. Media freedom ranking has fallen significantly (ranked 161st out of 180 countries in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index) with reports of harassments/detentions of journalists and the government blocking news outlets. Besides, the rise of Hindutva or Hindu nationalism is associated with increased social hostility and violence against religious minorities and other marginalized sections of people with discriminatory policies.
Some other instances of breakdown of democracy have been weakening of Parliament. The number of parliamentary sittings has decreased significantly. Stakeholders pass bills without scrutiny, without discussions thus making Parliament redundant. Experts view it as an erosion of Parliament’s role as a key pillar of democracy and an oversight institution. Opposition is targeted with impunity. CBI and ED are being used disproportionately to open cases against opposition leaders as a tactics to demoralize, silence the dissents and fracture the opposition. People live in fear, insecurity and uncertainty. That is how democracy in India is dead for now.
International assessments of country’s democracy are very disappointing. Several global indices reflect the drastic decline of Indian democracy. The U.S. based Freedom House downgraded India from “Free” to “Partly Free” in its 2021 report, noting a decline in civil liberties. V-Dem Institute of Sweden has classified India as an “electoral autocracy” since 2017, placing it among “one of the worst autocratisers lately”. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Democracy Index categorises India as a “flawed democracy” and notes its decline in global rankings due to “democratic backsliding” and “crackdowns” on civil liberties. Some analysts point to the resilience of civil society that India continues to hold elections with the help of new social movements and strong regional parties despite democratic downtrends. However, the Government of India has dismissed these reports, accusing them of Western bias and calling the backsliding “misleading, incorrect and misplaced”.
On the world stage, India’s strategic autonomy is visibly in tatters, regionally it finds itself further besieged and internally, with a spectrum of renewed fault lines among its own people. The year 2026 has begun with a harsh light on India’s regime. In global positioning, regional security and internal cohesion, the three concentric circles that any country should draw its strength, alarm bell is ringing loudly for India. With exclusionary internal policy on home front and inclusionary foreign policy involving the PM’s personal projections as “Viswa Guru” (World Teacher) and India as Mother of Democracy have spelt death of country’s democracy.
A dark politics underlines threats to India globally and internally. Unless we are able to call it out and force its practitioners to back off and give up trying to disfigure India into a country for people of one faith, one diet, one belief, one language, one politics, one elections and region, India can expect and go further downhill in its credibility, authority and positioning. We got in the present situation in the last over eleven years of the RSS Pariwar union government. It is time the current disturbing situation offered a moment to reset India!
Md Yunus Siddiqui is a columnist. He has a great experience of Media Space.