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)

Democracies do not just thrive by ensuring elections at regular intervals. It is about the institutional processes that ensure equal right to participate in an electoral contestation. It is equally important how choices are being influenced by power and money and the negotiation between voters and their representatives. If the model is to use cash for votes and then elected representatives also shamelessly betray a political party for cash — it is essentially a process that undermines the essence of democracy.