IN the first part of this analysis, we traced the trajectory of hollowing of India's constitutional institutions including the Election Commission, the anti-defection law, the judiciary's countervailing role, the conventions of federalism. Each instrument of democratic accountability has been bent, bypassed, or broken. That, however, was only the scaffolding. In this second part we try to highlight what is being constructed on that scaffolding.

ONE important feature of neo-liberal capitalism in a third world country like India is the chasm it introduces between the working people and the intelligentsia. In the colonial period in India several members of the intelligentsia took it upon themselves to highlight the misery to which the Indian people had been subjected by colonialism; and of course many joined the active resistance against colonialism, suffering incarceration and deprivation in the process.

On June 28, 2026, twenty-three opposition parties sent a joint letter to the Chief Justice of India highlighting the grave danger to democracy in the country and seeking the judiciary’s intervention. The following is the text of the letter:

Esteemed Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, 

We would not have, under normal circumstances, written to you. Given the fact that our democracy is in jeopardy, we have chosen this unusual path. 

Until a decade ago, access to government services was universal, and citizenship was never an issue. Today, however, Indians are being excluded from voting rights, welfare benefits and even domicile rights in an arbitrary manner.

“The history of personal liberty is largely the history of insistence upon a procedure and adherence to safeguards.” — Justice H R Khanna, ADM Jabalpur v. Shivkant Shukla (1976)