• Shyam Singh Rawat

We are well-versed that in order to keep the democratic system intact in the country, the fabric of the federal system has been woven by giving full power to the legislature, executive and judiciary in its Constitution. Of these, the legislature is directly and the executive is indirectly occupied by political leaders.

All the constitutional institutions formed to strengthen the Indian democracy are protected by the central authority, even though they are autonomous, but they have to use their powers to strengthen democracy. For this reason, today India is about to complete 73 years of democratic system, which is an example of the strength of Indian democracy in the world.

But in the last eight years, the situation has deteriorated so much that in order to save these constitutional institutions from the pressure of power, an appeal has to be made in the third pillar of democracy i.e. Judiciary i.e. the Supreme Court, which holds multiple deeper meanings.

If observed closely, one would see a deep cloud of crisis hovering over the country because today abolishing democracy, autocratic governance is being run in the country. If seen only superficially without going into more depth, then countless institutions including Election Commission, Comptroller and Auditor General, Reserve Bank, Central Vigilance Commission, Central Investigation Agency, Enforcement Directorate, Central Grant Commission, Income Tax Directorate, CBDT, SEBI etc. are all being controlled by the government by encroaching on their autonomy. Whereas for the strengthening of the democratic system, it is essential that their functioning should be independent.

While hearing the petition related to the appointment of Election Commissioners, the Supreme Court in a scathing comment told the Central Government, ‘In today’s era, there is a need for a commissioner like T.N. Seshan and there is a need for a Chief Election Commissioner who can take action even against the Prime Minister when complaints are received’ has to be taken as a serious allegation in the context of government interference in the work of the Election Commission. Not only this, the Supreme Court asking the Election Commission to present the file related to the appointment of its Commissioner Arun Goyal makes the role of the government questionable.

The average tenure of an Election Commissioner is 6 years, which means that any Election Commissioner must see the tenure of at least two governments. But this is not happening in recent years. Just notice, in the last eight years, eight Election Commissioners were changed. Most of them, except Dr. Naseem Ahmad Zaidi, could not complete even one year’s term. Of these, Sarvashri H.S. Brahma-92 days, Achal Kumar Jyoti-200, Om Prakash Rawat-312, Sunil Arora-31, Sushil Chandra-194 days and recently Rajeev Kumar, who became the subject of controversy, has been working since May 15, 2022.

This leads to the conclusion that the government has been keeping or removing the Election Commissioners at will for meeting its own interests.

In the Constitution, a system of autonomous institution Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has been given to monitor the financial work of the government. The audit reports of the CAG are submitted to the Public Accounts Committee at the Centre and in the States. The audit reports on the Appropriation Accounts, Finance Accounts and Public Sector Undertakings are examined by the Public Accounts Committee. At the central level, these reports are presented to the President by the CAG, which are laid on the table of both the Houses of Parliament.

People will not forget Vinod Rai, the 11th Comptroller and Auditor General of India, who prepared the false audit report of the coal allocation scam and 2G spectrum scam, and on the basis of which the present ruling class spread the nationwide rumours of lies and deceit to mislead the people of the country; For that Vinod Rai had to apologize profusely in the court.

The irony here is - in the Supreme Court hearing on both the alleged scams, not a single evidence of the scam could be found against anyone. As a result, no one was punished.

After making a lot of hue-and-cry about corruption on that fake report of CAG and creating political upheaval across the country and ousting the then government from power to assume power on its own, neither the government gives any account of the expenditure, nor does the CAG give any report on how much is spent on which item! Now whatever Modi says is deemed correct.

Shashikant Sharma, who was appointed as Comptroller and Auditor General in 2013, was removed in 2017. Rajiv Mehrishi, who was appointed after that, was removed in 2020. Girish Chandra Murmu has been working in this office since August 2020, but no one knows what he does as CAG.

For the first time in the Reserve Bank’s 84-year history, interfering with its autonomy, the central government took Rs 1.76 lakh crores from the bank’s surplus reserves despite RBI’s refusal. Earlier, both Governor Urjit Patel and Deputy Governor Viral Acharya had resigned in protest against the government’s demand for this amount.

This was not just one case of interference in the functioning of the Reserve Bank. The new Rs. 500 and Rs. 2,000 notes issued during demonetisation on November 8, 2016, were signed by Urjit Patel almost 19 months before he was appointed as the new Governor of the Reserve Bank on October 5, 2016 were printed between April 2015 and 2016. That means that Urjit Patel had not even taken over as the Governor of the Reserve Bank when new notes were printed with his signature. It is as if India is not a democratic country but an empire of an emperor and he can get the desired work done by giving arbitrary orders.

Take the case of the Central Vigilance Commission, in which Rajeev Kumar was appointed as director in February 2014, but was removed on June 9, 2015. After that, K.V. Chaudhary who was appointed had the longest tenure i.e. of about 4 years and 20 days. While Sharad Kumar remained on the post of Vigilance Commissioner for 319 days and Sanjay Kothari for one year and 75 days only.

K.V. Chaudhary has been at the centre of countless controversies. Choudhary was inducted into the board of directors of Reliance Industries soon after his retirement as the head of the Central Vigilance Commission.

Now look at the condition of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Its director is an IPS officer of the rank of Director General of Police or Commissioner of Police of a state who is selected on the basis of the procedure laid down by the CVC Act 2003. Its tenure is on an average of two years i.e. four in eight years. But here too, seven directors have been shown the way out in this time. Here, just remember the unprecedented and historic development of October 2018, in which the Central Government had issued an order at midnight to send CBI Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana on leave, relieving them of all responsibilities. Nageswara Rao, the number four official in the agency, was made the interim director with immediate effect in place of Verma and Rao took over the responsibility of the post at around 1.30 am. After this, at around 2 pm, Verma and Asthana were informed about this decision at their residence. Looking at this unexpected development, it seemed that the office of the country’s top investigative agency like CBI had been turned into a children’s playground or a dramatic scene of a movie was being shot there.

Perhaps this article would not be complete without mentioning the Enforcement Directorate. The average tenure of an Enforcement Director (ED) is of two years, but for the first time in independent India, Sanjay Mishra, who had a two-year tenure, has got three extensions. Mishra was appointed in 2018 and his term should have ended in 2020, but he has been given additional extension first in 2020, second in 2021 and now for the third time on November 17, 2022. Perhaps he is being given so many extensions to keep the National Herald case going.

Judiciary, a strong pillar regulating the third and constitutional system of democracy and an autonomous institution providing justice to the public and the centre of hope of the people, has so far been spared from the direct interference of the rulers, but unfortunately the government is keeping a close watch on it too.

Even here, the government ensures that if you are not loyal to the government, then you are made a victim of any scandal or are blackmailed while you are entitled to a reward for supporting the government. An example of this is former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who was rewarded with a berth in the Rajya Sabha for passing orders beneficial to the government in the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir dispute and Article 370. You might remember the sexual harassment scandal of female workers and the Pegasus espionage case made earlier against him.

The government has completely made the media, which is defined as the watchman and fourth pillar of democracy, its bugle. That’s why the media does not hear the response and echo of public concerns arising out of inter-relationships of various small and big organizations related to power and it. The current media not only glorifies the government, but also eases its difficulties by being its ally in adverse situations.

The overall situation is that the present government is imposing its will and getting arbitrary works done in every sphere. This makes it difficult for various constitutional institutions and the media to function impartially. The government is increasing its power by going beyond its limits and reducing the constitutionally provided power of all the constitutional institutions. It will generate a direct impact - the end of democracy in the country and the beginning of a new slavery.