New Delhi [India], August 2 (ANI): Senior Congress leader and Member of Parliament Abhishek Manu Singhvi launched a sharp critique of the ruling regime at the party’s annual Legal Conclave, accusing it of systematically undermining constitutional institutions and reducing democratic principles to political convenience.
Addressing the AICC Law, Human Rights and RTI Department’s Legal Conclave, titled ‘Constitutional Challenges – Perspectives & Pathways’, in the national capital, Singhvi said, “Governors today act as the glorified agents of the ruling part, not constitutional empires. Speakers suspend opposition or remain mute when the ruling party should be held to account.”.
He argued that the balance of power in the country has dangerously shifted and warned against what he described as “constitutional silences being exploited with constitutional impunity.”
Singhvi said, “The balance of power has tilted into an abyss and constitutional silences are being exploited with constitutional impunity. We must reflect how did we reach here and more importantly how do we reclaim our republic. First we must stop pretending that this is business as usual. What we are witnessing is not a mere aberration. It is a design, a calculated, organized design. This is not a temporary deviation. It is an ideological project. The project is simple, to convert democracy into dominance, pluralism into polarity, and the constitution into a convenience.”
Highlighting what he called the regime’s strategy of “constitutional mimicry,” Singhvi accused the government of using democratic symbols while hollowing out institutions.
“The ruling regime has perfected the art of constitutional mimicry, where they use the language of the constitution to undermine its very essence. They hold elections but erode institutions. They appoint judges but question judicial independence. They sing Vande Mataram but jail young voices. They lay claim to Ambedkar but bulldoze the very rights he stood for. They quote Ambedkar at dawn and crush his dream by dust,” he said.
Singhvi said, “This is not nationalism. It is a narrative warfare. Being a patriot doesn’t mean to love the government, patriotism does not mean that the dissent should be silenced, and the Constitution does not mean that it should become just a government-issued book.”
Singhvi said India’s republic is “on a ventilator” and warned that democracy is being threatened not just by overt authoritarianism, but also by subtle erosion of institutions.
“Democracy dies only when not only when tanks roll out, it also dies when institutions cave in. when constitutional functionaries become partisan puppets, when media becomes a megaphone and not a mirror, when courts begin to delay what they dare not deny, when dissent is sedition, protest is provocation and every question is anti-national, you know then that the republic is on a ventilator,” he said. (ANI)
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